Contract Management in Contract City: The Case of Weston, Florida
Source: by Jonas Prager and John Flint, ICMA Public Management, October 2007 (subscription req.)
City and county managers often manage contracts, but managers rarely devote most of their waking hours (and occasionally sleepless nights) to contract management. But the job of the city manager of Weston, Florida, a city with only three municipal employees and about 400 contract employees, is to be the contract manager of Weston for service delivery and finance.
In Weston in 2007 the three employees who are on the city payroll are the city manager, the assistant city manager/chief financial officer (ACM/CFO), and the city clerk. The 400 others are employed by contractors who perform the services that are typical of a community of more than 60,000 residents. This article describes the nature of contracting in Weston, the functions of the manager, and some of the challenges and solutions that have characterized local government management in Weston.