Section on Intergovernmental Administration and Management

The ASPA Section on Intergovernmental Administration & Management (SIAM) is soliciting nominations for the section’s annual Donald C. Stone Practitioner Award.  Since 1981, SIAM has recognized outstanding practitioners for their contributions to intergovernmental management.  The award will be presented to one practitioner at the 2019 annual ASPA meeting in Washington, DC.  The principle criteria for both the Practitioner and the Scholar awards:

• Significant contributions to the practice and/or study of intergovernmental relations over a substantial period of time.
• Contributions that have made an impact on the practice and/or study of intergovernmental management as a whole rather than only on a specific organization, institution, or function.

Donald C. Stone (1903-1995) was a major and beloved figure in twentieth-century public administration. He was the founder of the American Public Works Association (APWA), served as the first Director of the Public Administration Service, and was a principal architect of the Executive Office of the President (EOP) in 1939 based on the 1937 recommendations of the Brownlow Commission. He was the first Director of the Division of Administrative Management of the Bureau of the Budget within the EOP, worked as Director of Administration of the Marshall Plan in 1948, helped found the National Academy of Public Administration in 1967, and served as Dean of the School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh.

Nominations for the SIAM Stone Practitioner Award are now being accepted.  Nominations should include the name and institutional affiliation of the nominee and of the nominator, a short statement explaining the nominee’s contributions to intergovernmental management commensurate with the criteria for the award, and contact information for both the nominee and the nominator.  Nominees and nominators need not be members of SIAM.
Please submit your nominations electronically to award committee chair David Swindell at david.swindell@asu.edu. Any questions may also be directed to Dr. Swindell.  For the nomination to be considered by the committee, please submit your nomination before 5:00 pm, February 8, 2019.

The Section on Intergovernmental Administration and Management (SIAM) invites members of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) to attend the 6^th annual Deil S. Wright Symposium. The symposium honors the career and contributions of Professor Deil S. Wright, who was a charter member of SIAM and remained active until his passing in 2009. The Wright Symposium will be held on March 8, 2019 at ASPA’s national conference in Washington, DC.

The theme of the all-day symposium is “Exploring the Federal in Federalism.” As the federal regulatory environment is rapidly shifting in the US and abroad, important questions will be addressed about: 1) state and local government responses to these shifts and 2) the subsequent consequences of both/either the responses and/or the shifts?

With these broad questions in mind, the symposium will include research on environmental federalism, intergovernmental collaboration, the role of local governments in regional systems, and a roundtable discussion on the implications of Trump and the mid-term elections on intergovernmental relationships. The 2019 Wright Symposium will provide a rich and lively forum for scholars and practitioners interested in intergovernmental issues. Following is a preliminary agenda (from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm).

Morning Sessions

Welcome

Panel 1:

The Role of Local Governments in U.S. and European Regional Governance

(with moderated discussion and Q&A)

Break

Panel 2:

Environmental Federalism

(with moderated discussion and Q&A)

Lunch Break

Afternoon Sessions

Panel 3:

Intergovernmental Collaboration

(with moderated discussion and Q&A)

Break

Roundtable Discussion:

The implications of Trump and the mid-term elections on intergovernmental relationships

Wrap-Up 

The SIAM Nominations Committee, chaired by Eric Zeemering and committee members John Kincaid and Jayce Farmer, is seeking 3 candidates for the SIAM Executive Committee and one nominee to continue an uncompleted term.  The full-term positions are for a three-year term, 2019-2022, and the uncompleted term ends in 2020.  Please see our SIAM blog for the full list of Executive Committee members as well as the bylaws governing elections.  David Swindell of Arizona State University has been appointed by the Chair to fill the empty seat until the upcoming regular election.

Executive committee members are actively engaged in the governance and work of the section, often contributing service to the Section’s committees and events.  Together with the Chair, Chair-Elect, Secretary and Treasurer, Executive Committee members help guide SIAM’s ongoing contributions to the fields of intergovernmental administration and management.

Please submit your nominations for the four Executive Committee Member positions to Eric Zeemering (eric.zeemering@uga.edu) on or before December 15, 2018.

The Nominations Committee will share a slate of nominees for the four positions with the SIAM membership by January 1, 2019.  After this, the Nominating Committee will receive additional nominations through membership petition between January 1 and January 31, 2019.  Additional nominations during the petition period must be signed by 25 members of SIAM and accompanied by a statement from the nominee expressing interest and willingness to serve the Section.  Election ballots will be distributed to the membership at least one (1) month prior to the annual Section meeting.

The Section on Intergovernmental Administration and Management (SIAM) invites scholars and practitioners to submit proposals for papers to be presented at the 6^th annual Deil S. Wright Symposium. The symposium honors the career and contributions of Professor Deil S. Wright, who was a charter member of the Section and remained active until his passing in 2009. The Wright Symposium will be held on March 8^th, 2019 at the national conference of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) in Washington, DC.

The theme of the all-day symposium is “Exploring the Federal in Federalism.” As the Federal regulatory environment is rapidly shifting in the US and abroad, important questions need to be addressed about: 1) state and local government responses to these shifts, and 2) the subsequent consequences to both/either the responses and/or the shifts?  It is unclear how extant theories of federalism can guide practitioners in navigating the current shifts in the political landscape.  Scholars of federalism, intergovernmental relations, intergovernmental management, and collaborative management can help improve federal systems by providing meta-analyses and synthesizing evidence in the field to inform practice. The 2018 Wright Symposium provides an excellent forum for doing so.

Proposed paper topics are invited that would help scholars and government professionals better understand what we have learned from the cumulative research on intergovernmental relations and management.  Papers are welcome to advance new research propositions, identify research gaps, or provide empirical evidence. The goal is to emphasize responses to Federal regulations or programs in the US or from a comparative perspective.  Topics might include, but are not limited to the:

Primary Themes:

Value of intergovernmental institutions, such as the U.S. Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, or the White House Office on Intergovernmental Affairs;

State and local strategies utilized as response to executive orders and regulatory changes that are perceived as contrary to state and local interests

Development of collaborative intergovernmental competencies or skills by federal, regional, state, and local public managers;

Impact of federal executive orders or presidential decrees on intergovernmental relations;

Major Related Themes:

• Design, accountability, and evaluation of intergovernmental grants and programs, including revenue sharing and fiscal equalization;
• Effectiveness of elected executives in managing intergovernmental relations in presidential and parliamentary federal systems;
• Effectiveness of intergovernmental, interjurisdictional, and inter-sectoral management networks;
• Impacts of federal mandates and conditions attached to federal grants-in-aid;
• Effectiveness of regulatory waivers;
• Impacts of court orders, consent decrees, and other judicial interventions into intergovernmental relations.

Proposals for the symposium should be submitted by email to Benoy Jacob (Benoy.jacob@unlv.edu) before October 1, 2018. Proposals should be well developed and clearly demonstrate the ability to deliver a finished paper. The Wright Symposium planning committee – John Kinkaid, Steve Percy, Benoy Jacob — will review proposals and make decisions by October 22.  Questions can be directed to committee members.  Please circulate this call for papers among interested colleagues.

The Center for the Study of Federalism USA (CSF) has launched its website–federalism.org — the first American website exclusively devoted to federalism. Winner of the prestigious Graphis gold award for its logo design and Gold Award from Educational Digital Marketing, federalism.org is the official CSF site and a clearinghouse for a wide range of federalism resources and information.

Visit us at www.federalism.org  to see . . .

• Applications and guidelines for research grants, teacher awards, and scholar awards.
• Full text of the updated encyclopedia, Federalism in America, previously published by Greenwood.
• Information and resources for students, such as a federalism timeline.
• Full text and commentaries of many U.S. founding documents, including state constitutions.
• All entries in our “State and Local Government Firsts that Changed America” project.
• CSF Archives, including its history, mission, biographies of CSF fellows and associates, and complete listings of its past activities and publications.
• Publius: The Journal of Federalism, its history, tables of contents, and a biography of its namesake.

Also . . .

• Announcements, regularly updated, on federalism scholarship and scholarly events worldwide.
• News on political and constitutional events affecting federalism worldwide.
• Succinct analyses of federalism developments.

Get involved . . .

• Tell us how we can improve and further develop the website.
• Send us announcements on new books, articles, and conferences on federalism.
• Send us links to news events on federalism in the U.S. and elsewhere.
• Send us brief analyses of federalism developments anywhere in the world.
• Help us expand the reach of the website beyond U.S. federalism to federalism worldwide.

Contact us at csf@federalism.org.

CSF President, John Kincaid; Vice President, Stephen L. Schechter; Treasurer, Donald S. Lutz; Secretary, Joseph R. Marbach; Web Master, J. Wesley Leckrone; Encyclopedia Editor, Troy E. Smith; and Lance Cooper, News Editor.

Scholar Award Recipient Karen Mossberger (Arizona State University School of Public Affairs) with past chair Eric Zeemering

Practitioner Award Recipient Peter Harkness

Best Student Paper Award Recipient Sam Gallaher

The Nominations Committee has advanced one name for the position of chair-elect and four names for three available positions on the SIAM Executive Committee for a term from 2018 to 2021.  In addition to the names advanced by the nominating committee, our bylaws state that a member may seek a position through a petition signed by at least 25 section members.  If you seek to add your name to the ballot, please send the name and accompanying endorsements of 25 members to both current section chair Eric Zeemering (zeem@niu.edu) and nominations committee chair Kim Nelson (knelson@sog.unc.edu) on or before February 9, 2018.

The election for SIAM offices will be open from February 10, 2018 until March 8, 2018.  On February 10, members will receive a ballot that can be completed online.  We value your participation in the selection of officers for the future leadership of our section.  If you have any questions about the election process, please do not hesitate to contact section Chair Eric Zeemering, Nominations Committee Chair Kim Nelson, or SIAM Secretary Jayce Farmer (jayce.farmer@unlv.edu).

Nominee for Chair-Elect (2018-2020) (Elect 1)

Christine Palus, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor at Villanova University.  She is currently serving as Dean of Graduate Studies in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. Christine’s work is published in such outlets as the American Review of Public Administration, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Public Administration Review, State and Local Government Review, State Politics and Policy Quarterly, and Urban Affairs Review.  She recently co-edited (with Richardson Dilworth) the Guide to Urban Politics and Policy in the United States.  Christine and her co-author Susan Yackee (University of Wisconsin-Madison) received the 2016 Beryl Radin Award for the Best Article in JPART.

Nominees for Executive Committee (2018-2021) (Elect 3)

Christopher V. Hawkins is associate professor of public administration at the University of Central Florida where he also serves as the director of the graduate program in urban planning. His research on urban politics, regional governance, and local economic development and sustainability policy has been published in Public Administration Review, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, State and Local Government Review, Urban Affairs Review, Journal of Urban Affairs, Urban Studies and other journals. He received his Ph.D. in urban and regional planning from the Florida State University.

Kimberly Nelson is the Albert and Gladys Hall Coates Distinguished Term Associate Professor at the School of Government at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.  Her research and teaching interests focus on local government management, local government form and structure, and innovation in local government.  Her research has been published in leading journals including Public Administration Review, The American Review of Public Administration, Urban Affairs Review, and State and Local Government Review. She recently co-authored a book with Carl Stenberg titled, “Managing Local Government: An Essential Guide for Municipal and County Managers.”

Stephen Percy is the Dean of the College of Urban and Public Affairs and Professor of Political Science at Portland State University, having arrived at PSU in 2014.  While at PSU he has chaired the Strategic Planning Development Team as part of campus strategic planning efforts and the Implementation Advisory Committee for Campus Public Safety. He has held previous positions at the University of Baltimore (Dean of the College of Public Affairs and Professor of Public Affairs) and at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (Director of the Center for Urban Initiatives and Research, Professor of Political Science, and Interim Dean of the Zilber School of Public Health). In all leadership positions he has actively pursued initiatives to promote university-community engagement.  His work in community engagement in Milwaukee is outlined in two co-authored books:  A Time for Boldness: A Story of Institutional Change and Creating a New Kind of University: Institutionalizing Community-University Engagement. His research interests include public policy and policy implementation, intergovernmental relationships, urban politics, disability rights policy, and university-community engagement.

Dr. Anne R. Williamson is the Victor and Caroline Schutte/Missouri Professor of Urban Affairs in the Department of Public Affairs of the Henry W. Bloch School of Management at the University of Missouri-Kansas City.  She also serves as the Director of the L. P. Cookingham Institute for Urban Affairs at UMKC. Prior to her academic career, Dr. Williamson served in leadership roles at the Georgia Department of Community Affairs and in the private sector. An expert in housing policy, community development, citizen participation, and public budgeting, she seeks to bridge scholarship and practice in her teaching, research, and service.