POLITICS AND COMMUNITY PLANNING Thesis for the Degree of Ph. D. MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY JOHN HOWARD BIGELOW 1969 Jam. .‘L ‘.. o 4: LWMRY I I I RA 1 ulfil.'*,"f’"11 ‘ U ’ ‘4) '.{...V\ya\x 'u". 1' ,“3' ““1 This is to certify that the thesis entitled Politics and Community Planning presented by John Howard Bigelow has been accepted towards fulfillment of the requirements for Ph.D. degree in Social Science Major professor Date f/fflg / 0—169 M-- '. g:- 3-3 5.“ JV ABSTRACT POLITICS AND COMMUNITY PLANNING BY John Howard Bigelow The research has to do with the effects of city plan- ning on community politics and the effect of political behavior upon planning activities. The study design called for focusing the research Upon the city planning director, whose role necessarily places him at the juncture of plan- ning and political activities. The study deals with two important aspects of the phenomena, the authority relation- ships of the planner, and the outcomes of community political decisions as represented by planning activities which are or are not supported. In the first instance, we are concerned with the question of over whom does the planner exercise authority, with whom does he share it, and to whom is he sub- servient. In the second, we are interested in what gets done in planning and plan implementation activities, what is effectively vetoed, and who loses or gains as a result of these outputs of the community political system. The research methodology was comprised of a survey of the full—time planning directors employed in cities in a John Howard Bigelow midwestern state, and four and one-half years of participant observation by the author, working in the state's largest planning staff. The interviews were conducted in the fall of 1964, and the findings are therefore dated. Additional back— ground data on the cities were obtained from census and other secondary sources. The study is designed as an exploratory descriptive effort, and, as such, no specific prOpositions or hypotheses are deve10ped or tested. The investigation is organized around concepts from the literature of occupational sociology and the sociology of the professions, and upon behaviorally oriented studies of urban political behavior. Based upon accomplishments and current activities, the planners are classified as Innovative, Pre-innovative, or Adaptive. The innovative planners, less than one-third of the sample, have a good record of accomplishment, and are managing to get a significant number of plans and programs supported and acted upon in their communities. The Pre— innovative planners are trying hard, but do not seem to be meeting with any large degree of success in their efforts, although they may achieve results in the near future. The Adaptive planners are not accomplishing much, and have adapted to the status quo as a survival mechanism. Successfully innovative planning activities are not re- lated to size of community, but are occurring in all size classes of the cities studied, as is true of pre-innovative John Howard Bigelow and adaptive type programs. The innovative planners are not different in significant ways from their pre-innovative or adaptive brethren. Measures of career deve10pment, pro- fessional training or outlook, patterns of cooperation or lack of it with other actors within and without the community do not serve to explain or predict the successful innovators. Planning activities which are accomplished are in the interests of the economic dominants in the community, the major investors and retailers, well—organized middle- and upper-class home owners, and users of automobiles. The needs of the lower- and working—classes are met only rarely and partially. The planner as change agent is captive to the social system of which he is a part, and can at best make only marginal changes in the physical environment which are per- ceived as favorable by those others who already command economic and social resources sufficient to achieve their ends. POLITICS AND COMMUNITY PLANNING BY John Howard Bigelow A THESIS Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY College of Social Science 1969 {57.270 73-47 This is for Helen ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I have learned much from many men these years past, and cannot do them all justice here. Professor William Form provided great and useful advice throughout the task of the dissertation, and I am grateful for his help. The busy planning directors who Spent time willingly and informatively with me have provided an essential service, and have to a man c00perated in making the survey possible. I can but hOpe my work in some measure recom- penses them for their contributions. My wife has been patient and helpful. iii CHAPTER I. II. III. IV. V. TABLE OF CONTENTS AN OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY. . . . . . . . . . . Some Relevant Literature . . . . . . . . A Perspective on Politics and Planning . . Research Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . CITY PLANNING DIRECTOR: AN OCCUPATIONAL PROFILE. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . The Growth of the Occupational Group . . . A Typology of Planning Directors . . . . . The Social Origins and Characteristics of the Planning Director . . . . . . . . . The Recruitment and Education of Planning Directors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Career Patterns of Planning Directors. . . Career Contingencies in City Planning. . . Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . THE PRESENT OCCUPATIONAL SITUATION. . . . . . Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Internal Office Situation. . . . . . . . . External Office Relationships. . . . . . . Key Administrative Relationships . . . . . Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . POLITICAL ASPECTS OF THE PLANNERS' SITUATION. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Survey Findings. . . . . . . . . . . . . THE PLANNERS' PERCEPTIONS OF COMMUNITY POLITICS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Introduction . . . . . . . . . ‘.’.' The Planners' Perceptions of Political Activities‘Within City Government . . . iv Page 15 20 26 26 29 52 41 49 57 66 67 67 69 85 97 106 107 107 116 156 156 157 TABLE OF CONTENTS - Continued CHAPTER page Planning Directors' Perceptions of Politi- cal Relationships External to Govern— mental Functionaries. . . . . . . . . . 149 Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 VI. SUMMARY AND DIRECTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH . 155 Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155 Directions for Further Research. . . . . . 157 BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172 . 178 APPENDIX . . . . . . TABLE 1. 2. 5. 15. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. LIST OF TABLES Page Reported Age of Planning Directors. . . . . . . 55 State or Region of Origin of Planning Directors 54 Size of City or Town of Birth and of Bringing Up a o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o a o o o o o o 35 Social Class Backgrounds of Planning Directors (Self Description). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56 Party Affiliation by Type of Director . . . . . 58 Religious Affiliation by Type of Director . . . 39 Educational Level by Type of Director . . . . . 45 Further Educational Aspirations of Planning Directors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48 Number of Jobs Held by Each Planning Director . 50 Length of Time in Each Job Worked by Planners . 51 Age by Number of Jobs Held. . . . . . . . . . . 52 . Length of Working Career, Excluding Military and Education . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53 Age of Directors by Size of City. . . . . . . . 53 Job Preceding First Planning Director Job . . . 55 Minimum and Maximum Job Length. . . . . . . . . 58 Length of Minimum Job Stay, Where Specified . . 59 Size of Staff by Type of Planner. . . . . . . . 70 Size of Office Staff by Size of City. . . . . . 70 vi LIST OF TABLES - Continued TABLE 19. Office Staff—-Number of Professional Level Employees (Excluding Planning Directors). . . 20. Size of Planning Office Budgets . . . . . . . 21. Adequacy of Office Budget by Size of City . . 22. Adequacy of Funds by Type of Planner. . . . . Page 72 . 75 . 75 . 76 25. Establishing Work Priorities by Type of Planner 81 24. Problem—Interrelationships: City Departments and Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86 25. Informal Staff Meetings by Size of City . . . . 26. Factions Among Department Heads . . . . . . . 27. Relationship With Other Local and Regional Government Units. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28. Relationships With State and Federal Agencies . 29. Plan Commission Work Load . . . . . . . . . . . 50. Community Contacts of Planning Directors. . 51. Planning Accomplishments of Twenty-Six Cities . 52. Areas of Planning Activities Unsuccessfully Attempted . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55. Planners' Perceptions of Authority Granted Them by Planning Commissions . . . . . . . . . . . . 54. Attendance of Planners at City Council Meetings 55. Informal Contacts with Councilmen . . . . . . . 56. Planners' Perceptions of "Community" Climate. . vii 88 90 92 96 101 104 122 126 158 141 141 151 CHAPTER I AN OVERVIEW OF THE STUDY The research reported here attempts to understand some elements of politics and community planning by focusing the research upon the planner himself. We have selected a key man in the matrix of human behavioral activities whose role places him at the juncture of planning and political activi- ties. We shall describe and analyze his work, and his day to day concerns and activities, in a manner which allows us to arrive at a better understanding of those elements of his activities which are political in nature or politically relevant. In any research task of this nature, it is essential to adOpt some provisional, Operationalized definitions. We made the following initial assumptions with regard to our main focus of interest: Politics has to do with two things: (a) The authority relationships which obtain between human beings, both as individuals and acting together in grouPs, and (b) the results of these authority relationships as measured by a scale of rewards and penalties meaningful to the actors involved. We are concerned with the authority relationships of the planner. Over whom does the planner exercise authority, with whom does he share it, and to whom is he subservient. Furthermore we are concerned with what happens as a result of these authority relationships. Community is defined as the mapped, legally defined political entity existing pursuant to the laws of the state in which we carried out our research. This has focused attention on the political community and forced us to adopt the existing socio-legal definition of community with the resulting artificial limitations on its boundaries. Of all the planning activities carried on within a (political) community, we shall be concerned only with that which claims to be most comprehensive. It is comprehensive in two ways: (a) it includes most (if not all, more than anybody elses) plans for the physical elements of the com- munity (and sometimes related financial and institutional arrangements necessary to implement the physical plans), and (b) it is institutionally and organizationally located in such a manner as to speak to and for the legally defined government of the community. The t0p planning official is defined as that person who, in an administrative capacity, is concerned with this most comprehensive planning function and who represents for and to the city government its chief exponent regarding planning matters. The research orientation is based primarily on OCCUpa- tional sociology and the sociology of the professions.1 This has led us to focus on a number of substantive areas which in turn are the basis for collecting data and for organizing and reporting our findings. We have collected materials which allow us to distill an occupational profile2 of planning as a profession or near profession.3 Building upon this occupational profile of the city planner, we present information on the present OCCUpational lEdward Gross, Work and Society (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1958); see also, Theodore Caplow and Reece J. McGee, The Academic Marketplace (New York: Basic Books, 1958); Daedalus, "The Professions," Journal of the American Agademyyof Arts and Science, Vol. 92, No. 4—TFall, 1965, en- tire issueI; George K. Floro, The City Manager in the State of Michigan: A Case Study of an Itinerant Professional, Ph.D. dissertation, University of Chicago, Department of Sociology), 1954; Erving Goffman, The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life (Garden City: Doubleday& Co.), 1959; Everett C. Hughes, Men and Their Work (Glencoe: The Free Press, 1958k Sigmund Nosow and William H. Form, eds., Man, Work and Society (New York: Basic Books, Inc., 1962); Logan Wilson, The Academic Man (London: Oxford University Press, 1942); Peter L. Berger §t_§l,, The Human Shape of Work: Studies in the Sociology of Occupations (New York: Macmillan Co., 1964); and Howard M. Vollmer and Donald L. Mills, eds., Professional— ization (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice—Hall, 1966). 2Nbsow and Form, op, cit., Chapter XIV, "Profiles," pp. 476-515. 3E. C. Hughes, pp, gi£,, Chapter X, "Professions in Transition," pp. 151-158, and Chapter XI, "Psychology, Science and/or Profession," pp. 159-144 in particular; see also, Nosow and Form, 92: cit., Chapter VII, "Professions," pp. 197- 255: the study of Haffy'Gold, "The Professionalization of Urban Planning" (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University Of Michigan, 1965); and Harold L. Wilensky, "The Professionali- fgtipn of Everyone?" American Journal of Sociology_(September 64 . situation.4 Having thus described the social matrix within which the planner plays his occupational role, we are in a position to examine the political aspects of the planners' role. Our analysis here is twofold. First we describe, on the basis of our own analysis of the political dimensions and dynamics of his position, the nature of his political role playing, and secondly, we present some material on the planners' self perceptions of the political system and their role in it. The work then closes with a final section sum- marizing our conclusions and proposals for further research. With this overview in mind, let us direct our attention to the details of the components of the study. The OCCUpational profile presents data on individual careers of planners, and on the rise or fall of the occupa— tional group. Here we describe the history of planning activities in the United States, their recent growth and development, and the sc0pe of job opportunities available to the professional planner. We present a typology of planning directors based on their role as innovators. The occupa- tional profile also includes descriptive materials on (1) entry into the occupation, how peOple are recruited, and how they became socialized within an occupation: and (2) what kind of peOple they are, as indicated by such char- acteristics as age, sex, educational background, ethnic 4Gross, pp, cit.; see also, Hughes, pp, cit. background, religious affiliation, current marital status, class background, father's occupation, site and size of birth place and place of maturation. The information on the present occupational situation is developed in such a manner as to provide a suitable basis for the more pointed consideration of the political dimen- sions of the planners' role. The description of the present occupational situation of the planner involves taking a broad view of all his relationships with other individuals, groups and organizations within, or impinging upon, the com- munity. We deal first with relationships within the planning office, the internal organizational relationships. Our data on this aSpect of the occupational situation is comprised of information on size and adequacy of staff, work load, size and adequacy of budget, and related data. The planning office itself is but one of many adminis- trative functions supported within city government. In large bureaucratic organizations, it is normally necessary to draw upon other administrative agencies for various support services and to secure their compliance in order to promote one's own program of activities. As a beginning point on the relationships external to the planning office, we investi- gate administrative relationships with other city departments. Then we turn to a consideration of the relationships of thé planning director with the key executive, the city manager and/or the mayor. This information serves to delineate the relationships and interaction of the city planner with the administrative and executive segments of government of the community in which he is employed. Next we describe the relationships which the planner has with the legislative branch of city government. Some- where in a limbo between executive, legislative, and judicial functions, lies the package of functions given to the plan— ning commission. .The relationships of the planner with the commission are described, together with some materials on the interrelationships of the plan commission with the other segments of city government and the community. Turning to the judicial function, we look at the role of the planner in relationship to the courts of jurisdiction and the quasi-judicial board of zoning appeals or its equi— valent. Following the data on the relationships of the planner with the executive, legislative, and judicial func- tions within the local community, we proceed to describe the relationships of the planner with the governmental institu- tions of neighboring local governments, such as townships, counties, and regional planning organizations, if any. We then discuss the pattern of interaction with governmental jurisdictions of a higher order, the state and Federal agen— cies which impinge on the activities of the city planner. The planner and the planning office are related not only to other functional units of government, but to other organi- zations, individuals, and groups in the community. We de- lineate some of the relationships of the planning office with various individuals and groups within the community. This includes such groups as real estate organizations, central business district associations, and the mass media——radio, television, and the press. Interviewing was pointed toward discovering which of these grOUps were important in terms of offering support or opposition to specific proposals, the nature and relative incidence of the planners' interaction with these groups, and the planners' evaluation of these groups' effects on planning activities in the community. The first two chapters, comprising a profile of the occu- pation and a delineation of the current occupational situa— tion, set the stage for our consideration of the political dimensions of the planners' role and the political aspects of planning activities in the local community. (We then turn our attention to that portion of planning activity which is cru— cial to our concern with politics, that is, the authority 5 A prime concern of the dimension of the planner‘s role. research is to improve our understanding of the circumstances in which the planner's authority is dominant, where it is shared, and where he is subservient to the authority of others. Our observations are concerned not only with the other actors involved, but with the substantive content of action, such as zoning, urban renewal, or other types of planning activities. After presenting our own analysis of 5Talcott Parsons, The Social System (Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1951), pp. 156-157. and elsewhere in his writing, as well as Chapter IV in this thesis. the political dimensions of the planners‘ role behaviors, we turn to a consideration of the self—perceptions of the planner regarding the political system and his place, activities, problems, and potentialities within it. The final chapter summarizes our findings and devotes some atten- tion to the crucial problem of further research needed in the areas we have dealt with in this exploratory study. Some Relevant Literature Planning and politics have been treated in varying fash- 8 ion by a number of scholars and practitioners. We have selected certain portions of the contributions of others working with this problem. Perhaps the most interesting ob- servations on the current state of politics and community planning are contained in the work of Professor Norton Long.7 Politics is still a dirty word despite attempts to clean it up. Its association with planning presents the same image of incongruity and bad taste as the ward boss arm in arm with the city manager. Like civil service, plan- ning has reflected a civic virtue of weak constitution, requiring special protection from the rude hands of the unenlightened and selfish. Like civil service, it has depended for its limited efficacy on a special brand of politics, the politics of a do-gooding elite, of middle- class respectability, of neWSpaper support, and of a wide spread acceptance that planners have a special 8Council of Planning Librarians, Exchan e Biblio ra h on Politics and Planning (Eugene, Oregon: 1958-1966--ear1y 60'8); see also, the bibliography of this dissertation; and Alan A. Altshuler, The City Planning gtpcess: A Political Analysis (Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1965), PP. 454-461. 7Norton E. Long, The Polity (Chicago: Rand McNally & Co., 1962). wisdom akin to that of Platonic philOSOpher kings. The politics of planning has consisted in the develOp- ment of a civic New Years resolution, the master plan, and a campaign by the press and civic elite for its adOption. This work of art, the master plan, once adOpted be- comes holy writ to be defended by an amateur lay board of hopefully high civic prestige, spurred on and kept to the mark by a professional staff of planners. The battle is fought along the lines of piecemeal engagements as the facts of power, the pressures of economics, and the taste of the populace force a patchwork desecration of the architect's pretty rendering of green and white lines and dots.8 Other writers in recent years have focused their attention on the complex problems and activities entailed in politics and community planning.9 "The city planner as a politician and the politics of city planning are ideas which have gained recognition only in recent years."10 As an indicator of the type of concern referred to above by Jennings, although it postdated him, consider the following: Innovative plannets become engaged but not involved in the_political process. Their engagement is necessary because they are seeking to actualize ideas and because, in marshalling support, they have to be persuasive. They do not, however, become deeply involved in the political process itself, for this would put their status and recognition as experts in danger. As I expressed it 81bid., p. 192. 9Robert C. Wood, "Urban Regions: The Challenges and Achievements in Public Administration," Planning 1962, Ameri— can Society of Planning Officials (1962). PP. 5-10; see also, Lloyd Rodwin, "The Roles of the Planner in the Community," ed. Charles R. Adrian, Social Science and Community Action (East Lansing. Michigan: Institute for Community Deve10pment and Services, 1961), pp. 45-55. . 1OM. Kent Jennings, "Planning and Community Elites in Two Cities," Journal of the American Institute of Planners, Vol. 31 (February, 1965), p. 62. 10 elsewhere, the planner as innovator walks a precarious line between politics and traditional bureaucracy. The concern with politics and planning has penetrated the inner citadels of professional wisdom. The recently released bible of professional practice, Principles and Practice of Urban Planning,12 which supersedes the three editions entitled 13 Local Planning Administration, contains the following undocu— mented language from Professor Long's eloquent efforts. The depression experience provided a powerful im- petus toward a redefinition of local planning. When it was seen that the Unseen Hand did not necessarily assure continued high levels of economic activity, the nation's attention became focused on creating new institutional structures and coordinating their activities with old ones. Planning could not escape these questions of ad- ministration and organization. Many of its leaders saw that if planning were to be more than the civic New Years resolution, it had to become anchored in the ongoing political process.14 The literature which focuses on the confluence of plan- ning and political activities falls into two basic categories. The first while varying in content is normative in intent; the second is the output of interested social scientists 11John Friedman, "Planning as Innovation: The Chilean Case," Journal of the American Institute of Planners, Vol. 52, No. 4 (July, 1966), p. 200. 12William I. Goodman, ed., Eric C. Freund, associate ed., published for Training and Municipal International City Mana- gers Association, Washington, D. C. (1968). 13Mary McLean, ed., 5rd edition (1959), Howard K. Men- hiniCk. ed., 2nd edition (1948), Ladislas Segoe, ed., lst edition (1941). walter H. Blucher assisted in the first and second editions, all these published by International City Managers Association, Chicago, Illinois. M”William I. Goodman, ed., Eric C. Freund, associate ed., 923 ElEno p. 25, underlining added. working within their disciplines. It is what social scien- tists qua scientists have contributed. There is a wide range of normative statements, presenting the conventional wisdom about appr0priate organizational relationships, the democratic dogmas of our political heritage, and the concerns of various working planners with the relative lack of attention or the converse, to design, social concerns, economic concerns, or the general role which they believe the profession should be playing.15 In contrast to this body of literature, with its norma- tive orientation, is an increasing volume of work reporting empirical studies in the various aspects of planning as out- lined above. Little empirical work has been produced which concerns itself with the study of master plans as an instru- ment of the authoritative allocation of values. Most of the authors who have touched Upon this have contented themselves with the observation that planners and planning activities tend to be the repository of middle class aspirations. This, in my judgment, is a critique which is not SUpported by detailed examination of the politics and prOposals of working planners, although it may be correct. In contradictinction 15Herbert Simon, "The Proverbs of Administration," Public Administration Review, Vol. 6 (Winter 1946), pp. 53— 57: see also, Paul Davidoff, "Advocacy and Pluralism in Plan~ ning," Journal of the American Institute of Planners, Vol. 51 (November 1965I7 pp. 551-557; and John Dakin, "An Evalua- tion of the 'Choice‘ Theory of Planning," Journal of the igegican Institute of Planners, Vol. 29 (February, 1965), pp. - 6. 12 to the accusation of middle class bias is an interesting study by Raymond Vernon.16 Vernon maintains that the primary problems which planners are attempting to deal with are prob— lems defined by the community elite, rather than by the broad spectrum of middle class persons in the population. As a function of the concern with the sunk investment in downtown real estate, the attempt to revive the CBD*is, in Vernon's argument, an Upper class problem. This is a result of their economic status as primary investors. Furthermore, the re— vitalization of the CBD is an upper class problem because of the social patterns built around the existing form of the city. As Vernon points out,17 large numbers of the middle classes not only live out of the center city area or in sub— urbia, but work there in outlying shOpping centers, or in newly located factories taking advantage of lower land costs and more functional sites. These middle class persons have carried with them their own range of social institutions, clubs and recreation facilities, and so on. The upper classes, however, can support only one downtown park club, athletic club, or its equivalent, only one set of cultural institutions as represented by an auditorium for the enjoyment of sym- phonic works, an art center, a major library. These cultural 16Raymond Vernon, The Myth and Reality_of Our Urban Prob- l£m§_(Joint Center for Urban Studies of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., 1962). 17Ibid., p. 21. * Central Business District. 15 fixtures are almost always located in the historic center of the city. The Upper classes, rather than the middle classes, have a stake in buttressing the existing geographical pattern of facilities, services, and land values and economic returns. Yet there is, withal, very little empirical research on master plans and the implicit allocation of values entailed therein. In contrast to the lack of material on the aforementioned problem, more work has been done with regard to the various planning effectuation programs, particularly with regard to the politics of urban renewal.18 The efforts devoted to understanding the process of guiding public investment have been carried out by social scientists who Operate under either the rubrics of welfare economics, or of the management sciences, which, results in approaches such as cost benefit analysis, Operations research, and other similar sophisticated "efficiency and economy" type thinking. With the exception of a few hard nosed political thinkers, such as Norton Long and Charles Adrian, few have faced up to the fact that, although there is no Democratic way to pave a street or Republican manner by which to lay a sewer (the normal efficiency and economy pitch), there is still a good deal of political interaction involved in the local arena working to conserve, or expand, or erode existing value positions. 18Scott Greer, Urban Renewal and American Cities (New Yerk: Bobbs-Merrill Co., 19653: see also, Martin Anderson, The Federal Bulldozer: A Critical Anatysis of Urban Renewal, 1949-1962 (Cambridge, Mass.: The M.I.T. Press, 1964), and—— Peter Rossi and Robert Dentler, The Politics of Urban Renewal (New York: The Free Press of Glencoe, 1961). 14 One of the more interesting recent approaches to under- standing these processes is contained in the work of Profes- sor Richard Duke, who has employed gaming and other simulation devices19 in attempting to better understand the social pro- cesses whereby plans and planners and communities and people function. A number of writers who have concerned themselves with community or urban or city politics, or community power struc— tures, have dealt with planning issues. This has tended to be a function of the issues currently being agitated in the community at the time of research rather than a function of any direct concern with planning activities and their place in the community political system.20 In summary, although there is a growing body of solidly based empirical work on planning and politics in the local 19Richard Duke, Gaming Simulation in Urban Research (East Lansing, Michigan: Institute for Community Develop- ment and Services, 1964). 20Robert A. Dahl, Who Governs? Democracy and Power in an American City (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1961); see also, George M. Belknap and Ralph H. Smuckler, Leadership and Participation in Urban Affairs (East Lansing, Michigan: Government Research Bureau, Michigan State University, 1956); Robert O. Schulze, "The Role of Eco- nomic Dominants in Community Power Structure," American Soci- gtogy Review, Vol. 25 (February, 1958), pp. 5-9; Robert J. Mowity and Deil 8. Wright, Profile of a Metropolis: A Case Book (Detroit, Michigan: Wayne State University Press, 1962); Roscoe C. Martin gt a;,, Decisions in Syracuse (Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University Press, 1961)? and Morris Janowitz, ed., Community Political Systems (Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1961). 15 political arena, much remains to be learned about this com— plex subject, We hOpe our research endeavor will help to confirm some of the existing findings and stimulate further study. A Perspective on Politics and Planning The professional wisdom21 differentiates between planning itself, i.e., making a plan as an activity, and plan implemen- tation. This dichotomy is muddied by the recent emphasis in the professional literature on planning as a process with the introduction of communication concepts such as feedback, adaptation to ongoing change, and flexibility. The only way to generate certain types of feedback on a plan is to start implementing it. Then, as the real world changes and the implementation of the plan becomes clearly inapprOpriate, it 21We are indebted to John Kenneth Galbraith for intro— ducing us to the concept "conventional wisdom" in his Th2 Atfluent Society (Boston, Mass.: Houghton Mifflin Co., 1958), pp. 7—20. Trained as we are in the develOpment of continua such as Gemeinschaft, Gesellschaft (plus Bernard Wallace Klein's addition of Putpleschaft for a hyperexploitative SOCiety), Folk-Urban Society, etc., it is easy to start with folk wisdom, move to conventional wisdom, and come out on the slightly more s0phisticated plane of professional wisdom. This, like conventional wisdom, Operates in a social milieu, has the character of Operating with a lag of diffusion through- out the professional structure so that, like conventional wisdom, is outdated. It can perhaps be best characterized as being SOphisticated conventional wisdom, in that the lead times involved in diffusion are shorter, and because of the smaller network of individuals involved in the evaluation with reSpect to the credibility of the wisdom, there is a slightly lesser chance statistically for the introduction of error. Profes- sional wisdom, then, is neither crude as folk wisdom nor as outdated as conventional wisdom. 16 becomes necessary to revise the plan. Then the next round of implementation activities is more apprOpriate to the real world, as is, hopefully, the revised plan. Be that as it may, it is characteristic to think of planning activities as falling either into the category of plan-making, or the cate— gory Of plan—effectuation. ~We will follow this convention. Plan-making, then, is the technical-professional activity which involves such tasks as setting or defining goals, and deriving various development standards from these goals or from functional requisites, such as the numbers of parking spaces necessary for specific types of land uses. Plan-making also involves such derivative tasks as mak- ing maps, coloring them in, drawing lines, and generally attempting to represent graphically and in simplified policy statements the overall plan and develOpment standards22 for the complexities of the real world as envisioned in the future. This technical occupational behavior is usually con- ducted at least one remove from the larger social world of decisions and actions, the world of effectuation and imple- mentation. »Plan—making represents, at one and the same time, an interesting ritual manipulation of symbolic elements, and concurrently and as a result, some sort of impact on the on— going social system by means of the process of setting forth 22American Public Health Association, Committee on the Hygiene of Housing, glanning the Netghborhood (Chicago, 1111- nOls: Public Administration Service, 1960). 17 star-like goals impossible of attainment, but nonetheless attractive visions of the future toward which to aim. The plans may represent a positive motivating force much in the nature of a carrot suspended from a stick anterior to the mule.23 Because some of the material recorded and presented as a result of plan making activities does influence human decisions, it is an important arena in terms of its potential impact on the political system. Contained in the plan as a 24 hypothetical program for human behavior are some assertions with respect to the existing and potential stock of items valued by human beings. If, in a Lasswellian25 sense, poli- tics is concerned with who gets what, when, where, and how, the master plan speaks to this. Basically, the master plan is concerned with conservation or change in the allocation of certain valued items in the urban environment such as land and the right to its use and occupancy, access by circu- lation, public facilities, and community amenities. In addition to allocating existing valued items, and often overlooked by writers in the area, is the fact that planning is not only concerned with either the conservation 23Thomas A. Reiner, The Place of the Ideal Community in Urban Planning (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1965). p- 241- 24Herbert A. Simon, Donald W. Smithburg and Victor A. Thompson, gpblic Administration (New'York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1950), pp. 425-427. 25Harold D. Lasswell, Politics: Who Gets WhatL_When, EOW (Cleveland and New York: Meridian Books Publishing Co., 1958 and 1951). k) :1: 18 of the existing distribution of value or certain alterations in it, but can result, like other human activities, in the creation of values. Following this line of reasoning, we may consider that a plan which points the way to a new civic or cultural center, or some new physical investment in the community, and which helps guide human behavior towards this develOpment can create wealth (or valued experiences) which did not exist prior to this programmed eXpenditure of human energy. Making the plan, then, will have some effect on the allocation and redistribution of values and, given the plan- guided output of a viable economic system, the creation of additional values. We next can consider the effectuation devices employed to further guide human behaviors in the hOpe of accomplishing the end state envisioned in a plan once created. These de- vices are normally considered under (a) zoning and subdivi- sion regulation, (b) a broad spectrum of statute and code enforcement activities in such areas as housing, health, sanitation, and traffic control, (c) the more wide sweeping public programs undertaken as urban renewal programs, and (d) guiding public investments in physical facilities. Each of these implementation activities takes place in a social arena which is subject to the manipulation of power, author— ity and influence. Each is therefore politicized, and is subject to analysis in terms of the politics of zoning, the politics of urban renewal, and so forth. In addition to 19 these broad reaching effectuation schemes involving regulation of the private sector, or coordination with it, as in a, b, and c above, there is the more direct impact of planners and the planning function as it guides public investment (d above). This is both a direct impact on decisions about investment for production of goods and services in the public sector, and an indirect impact on people, since such investment affects the consumption of such goods and services and thereby the satisfaction of individual consumer/utility functions. By participating in decisions with regard to the circulation system, i.e., streets, highways, expressways, rail, air, and water transit, the develOpment of parks and Open land, the development of civic centers and of cultural centers, the location and construction of schools, police and fire facili- ties, and the concern with placement of such industrial type uses as dumps, incinerators, storage and work yards and other land uses with a potentially negative impact on consumer preferences, the planning function serves once again to affect the authoritative allocation of values within the community social system. In addition to these functions there is some sort of psychic income which results directly from the performance of the planning ritual itself,26 regardless of the output or 28Professor Charles R. Adrian, lecture comment. For an excellent treatment of the expressive functions of political behavior, see Murry Edelman, The Symbolic Uses of Politics (University of Illinois Press, 1964). ‘_I 20 outcomes of this ritual or the changes, intended or other- wise, which may be a consequent result of it. Some peOple, particularly Chamber of Commerce types, economic development boosters, and some home owners, are simply happier these days knowing that there is a planner, a planning function, and a plan. The cleansing ritual of preparing a neat and orderly plan may ease the burden of living in the chaotic shambles of contemporary metrOpolitan America.27 Research Methodology The research reported here was conducted in a mid—western, unimetropolitan state in the Fall of 1964.28 Specifically, the interviews were conducted in October and early November of that year. In order to preserve to the fullest extent the anonymity guaranteed the respondents, we shall not identify the state or communities.29 The interview schedule used in the survey was pre-tested in September of that year, utiliz- ing city planners in various roles which would not contaminate 27Christopher Tunnard and Boris Pushkarev, Man-Made America: Chaos or Control? (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1965). PP- 45’52. especially p- 50- 28The reader should be alerted to the significant time gaps in the research process. Our basic thinking and research design work took place in the late 1950's and early 1960's. Over four years have elapsed since the field work was con- ducted. In this time there have been significant changes in the communities, in the planning profession, and in the cur- rent state Of knowledge about these things. 29In the researcher's possession are complete data speci— fying the state, the cities, and the respondents. Except in unusual circumstances and with the permission of the respond— ents concerned, this information will not be released. 21 the research universe. Specifically, the pre-test involved a university employed planner, a director from a city out- side the state, and staff planners employed below the level of planning director in two planning agencies within the state. After making modifications based on suggestions of the pretest respondents, the interview schedule was used throughout the survey. A copy of the interview is contained in Appendix I. Based upon our definitions of the community and planning director, we defined as a universe thirty full-time, munici- pally employed planning directors. In order to control for tso institutional variables in the planning environmen it was decided not to interview the directors of township, county, regional or state planning agencies. Prior to completion of the interviewing, one planning director resigned to take a staff position elsewhere, and the vacancy created by his resignation was not filled until a considerable time after the completion of the interviewing. Interviews were secured with all the remaining twenty-nine planning directors. It is significant that these men are interested enough in their work, and willing to share time from their crowded 30Charles A. Adrian and Oliver P. Williams, Four Cities; A Stud in Com arative Polic Makin (Philadelphia: UnivéF: sity of Pennsylvania Press, 1965 . They point out how a minor variation, in this case nomination by ward, although at large elections were held, significantly affect local govern— ment. 22 schedules to such an extent that, without exception, they c00perated in giving of their time and thought to assist in the completion of the survey.31 In the interview situation, battery operated recorders were utilized in hopes of gaining complete records on all responses. Unfortunately, it was discovered that portions of three interviews were not transcribable from the tapes due to loss of battery power. This resulted in some loss of data for these three interviews, although not a significant portion as both interviewers recorded as much as possible on the interview schedule during the interview. There are a few other omissions in the data due to the exigencies of the interviewing situation and the aforemen- tioned technical difficulties. Therefore, in some of the data presented below, our number is less than the full twenty- nine cases. Wherever this occurs, careful notation is made to this effect. The interviews lasted from one hour and fifteen minutes for the shortest, which was brief, concise, and to the point, to over four hours, which was an interesting and delightful chat broken by a trip from the office to the home for supper and a continuation of the interview in order to complete, 31The interviews were conducted by the author with the assistance of a paid assistant, at that time a graduate stu- dent at another university. The author trained him in the interview process through role playing. then by taking him along as an Observer of an interview, and finally by letting him conduct an interview with the author as monitor. 25 in great detail, the schedule. Average interview length fell in a range from two hours to two hours and fifteen minutes. The cover sheets on the interview schedule indicate that with but one exception, rapport with all respondents was excellent. In cross checking work, the author and his assistant corroborated each others experience that, bar the one exception, in every case rapport was not only excellent but, at some stage of the interview, the respondent Openly identified with the interviewing process, showed empathy with the interviewer, became very interested in helping us by describing certain portions of his experience which we were concerned to elucidate in the interview situation, and generally became highly involved in the interviewing inter- action. In brief, we tapped some positive motivation. Despite the technical problems which marred the data record- ing, the interviewing methodology proved to be most satis- factory as judged by the one hundred percent completion of all scheduled interviews, and the rapport established with the respondents. Classification, coding, and tabulation of all data was carried out by the writer.32 In addition to the survey methodology, which is the major tool of this study, the project also benefits from the fact that the author worked, in a participant observer capa— city. on the staff of a major city planning commission for a 32Completeinterview schedules and data are on file in the possession of the author. 24 period of four and a half years prior to the conduct of the research reported here. The interpretation of the data is considerably informed by this extended experience as a working staff planner and the resulting social relationships, both formal and informal, within and without the agency and professional associations. Additional observations on planning and planners are based on this participant observation reported from time to time below. Comparative statistics on the cities have been collected from a variety of secondary sources. These are cited in the text below as the data are introduced. The limitations of survey research methods are well understood, as are the limi— tations on the validity and reliability of participant Ob- 33 This research benefits, however. from the server studies. multiple case data available through the survey method, as well as from the more penetrating but limited knowledge gained by in-depth participation in a single social situation.34 The combination of in—depth eXperience in one city planning work situation, together with the comparative vieWpoint as realized through the survey method and secondary data sources, 33Matilda White Riley, Sociological Research. A Case Approach, Vol. 1 (New York and Burlingame: Harcourt Brace and World, Inc., 1965), particularly pp. 71-74. 34In all instances, the author records where data or interpretation are based on the participant observation ex- perience as Opposed to the survey data. 25 makes for a viable research methodology. Let us turn to the findings of our study. CHAPTER II CITY PLANNING DIRECTOR: AN OCCUPATIONAL PROFILE The Growth of the Occupational Gropp City planning, both as an activity, and, concomitantly as an occupation, has been increasing in this country since the turn of the century. The city planning movement in the United States may be said to have been launched in 1895 after the Chicago World's Fair. In the ensuing twenty years, city plans-~many of them the work of architects and landscape architects--were prepared for a number of communities in this country. tion. The emphasis was on city beautifica- During these two decades almost all the planning activities were carried on by improvement associ- ations, and civic associations, and chambers of commerce. The first official city planning commission was created in 1907. 1 Since World War II the number of jobs in planning has increased considerably. The influx of Federal funds provided to cities and other agencies for the support of planning activities has materially aided in increasing the amount of planning activity carried on at the local level, as well as assisting regional and state planning efforts. The number of 1Robert A. Walker, The Planning Function in Urban Govern— ment (2nd ed., Chicago, Illinois: 'University of Chicago Press, 1950), p. ix. 26 27 cities suPporting some type of planning activity is difficult to determine exactly.2 The city planning data reported in the 1965 Municipal Year Book shows a continuing strong growth in planning activities. . 1,261 cities reported an official planning agency-— an increase of more than 60 per cent since 1957.3 The growth shown in the 1965 Year Book data represents the continuation of a trend which has existed since the end of WOrld War II.4 The increase in planning activities has been reflected in job openings in the field of planning. The ASPO Jobs in Planning Bulletin, which regularly reports job openings in planning, contains figures on a recent annual increase in the number of planning jobs available. Final figures for the 1966 ASPO Conference Job Market show an increase of about 65 per cent in the total number of jobs offered and an increase of 71 per cent in the number of agencies recruiting.5 2The 1965 Municipal Year Book figures cited here were collected in late 1964 and early 1965, and are only good for the cities, over 10,000 in pOpulation, which cooperated in providing the requested information. The reporting cities represent 85.5% of the cities reported in existence in the 1962 Census of Government (U. S. Dept. of Commerce, Bureau of the Census; Census of Government: 1962, Vol. 1, Government Organization, cited in Statistical Abstract of the United States, 1965, Edwin D. Goldfield, 86th Annual Edition, pp. 418-419, tables No. 564 and 565). 31965 Municipal Year Book, p. 515. 4ngal Planning Administration, International City Manag- ers‘ Association, Chicago, Illinois, 5rd ed., 1959, "Organiza- tion and Administration of Local Planning Agencies," p. 63. . 5ASPO Jobs in Planning Bulletin, American Society of Plan- ning Officials, Chicago, Illinois, June, 1966—-Part I, p. 10, 28 The increase in employment Opportunities and the in— crease in the number of planners is also reflected in the growth in the American Institute of Planners, the sole pro— fessional organization devoted exclusively to planning.8 What the future may hold as far as increases in AIP membership is concerned is suggested by the following: The profession is growing rapidly. This is re— flected in AIP membership figures which jumped from 800 to 1, 500 in the 1950-1960 decade, and grew by 50% 1n the past five years. If present trends continue, the institution will have about 5,000 members by 1970.7 The future of the occupational group seems assured. A continued expenditure of Federal funds for various types of state, regional and local planning activities is enough to insure a strong demand for professional planners. Even with- out additional Federal monies the establishment over the years of the planning function in city government is enough, probably, to insure that most planners can find good jobs for some time to come. Planning departments in larger cities 6American Institute of Planners membership standards, definition, and eligibility requirements which were Operative at the time the research was conducted are contained on pp. 609 of the 1965(64 Membership Roster, American Institute of Planners, washington, D.C., 1965. These standards have since been changed, and are currently subject to much discussion within the Institute. For a more general discussion of the role of the AIP, see Harry Gold, "The Professionalization of Urban Planningf'unpublished Ph. D. dissertation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, 1965. 7Richard May, Jr., American Institute of Planners, The Planner in Emerging Urban Society, Proceedings of the 48th Annual Conference, St. Louis, Missouri, October, 1965, "As a Profession We Must Share Common Principles," p. 47. 29 have been established for as long as forty years, and in other cities where the function of planning is of much more recent adOption, the planners seem to gain sufficient support to insure their continuance on the payroll. Occasionally a given city may lessen its support for planning, but rarely totally withdraw it. The aggregate effective demand for planners supported by cities continues to increase. Corrobo- ration of this prognosis is provided by the United States Department of Labor.8 In summary, city planning is a growing OCCUpation as indicated by increases in the number of jobs and planners, and a rising occupation as indicated by increases in salaries paid to incumbents of planning positions. A Typology of Planning Directors The remainder of this chapter presents data on social indicators which serve to describe a number of salient characteristics of the pOpulation of planning directors whom we interviewed in the course of this study. In order to 81966-67 Occupational Outlook Handbook, Bulletin No. 1450-87, Employment Outlook for Urban Planners, United States Department of Labor, W; Wirtz, Secretary, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Arthur M. Ross, Commissioner, Occupational Out- look Report Series, pp. 5—4. The demand for city planners is expected to continue to rise over the long long. . . . The important role of planners in the large—scale develOpment of land and physical facilities for both public and private use has also been recognized by other governmental and private organizations. 50 organize these descriptive data in a manner which would assist in understanding community political processes as they affect and are affected by planning activities, we devised a typology of planning directors pointed toward this problem. Based on data collected throughout the interview, we have classified the planners into three groups: Innovative, Pre-innovative, and Adaptive. The innovative planners, to put it in the simplest terms possible, are those who are getting something done. They have major programs currently underway, and have a record of accomplishment for the year or two preceding the survey which indicates that, within this limited time frame, they have been able to make changes, to get things done in the community where they are at work. The pre-innovative planners are those who do not have such a clear record of accomplishment, but who are actively trying to get things going, and in our judgment of the data available to us, seem to be working toward the develOpment of an active program. The adaptive planners do not seem to be accomplishing much at the present time. Put baldly, their adaptation consists largely of avoiding activities which would result in major changes. They appear to be trying to live within severe limitations on their programs, and are inactive in most substantive areas of planning effort or accomplishment. They have adapted to a do-nothing status quo. This is not to say that they have not tried to do otherwise. But they have not been successful to any remarkable extent in such efforts. 51 The data we gathered on recent and current accomplish— ments and work in progress forms the basic information on which the classification of the directors into the three categories was done. In working out the typology we dis— carded a fourth category, that of post-innovative planning director. In two of the cities, there is a clear record of prior planning accomplishments which precedes by a few years the time period which we utilized in gathering the data. Our final decision was based on the fact that in both cases the current director had not held that position while the planning activities were going on at a higher rate of activity. In all of the cities in which we have classified the director as innovative, there is a clear record of accomplish- ment not only in planning activities, narrowly defined, but in the implementation of effectuation of these plans in the community. Not only have some plans been made, but aspects of them are actively being carried out. We have classified eight of the planning directors as innovative, eleven as pre-innovative, and ten as adaptive. We now turn to a consideration of the social origins and characteristics of these men as indicated by a number of variables, including age, sex, class of origin, marital status, education and training. 52 The_§pcial Origins and Charactertptics of the Planning Director All of the planning directors contacted in our survey were male. There are a number of females employed as profes- sionals in Offices throughout the country and the author knows of at least two cases where a woman is the director of a plan- ning Office, or the immediate past director. However, despite these exceptions and despite the indications that more women may be selecting the profession, it is still very predominant- ly a male occupation. The age distribution of our survey group indicated that not only is it a male occupation, but it is a relatively youth- ful occupation as indicated by the ages of planning directors. Seven of the directors are still in their twenties. The median age of the directors is thirty—five years, and the average age is 55.05. All but four of the directors are forty years of age or younger. All but one of the directors is under fifty. The "Dean of Planning" in the state at the time of interviewing was but fifty-two, and it should be borne in mind that at the time of interviewing he had been Director of Planning in the largest city of the state for a period of eleven years, having assumed the position at the age of forty- one. Over one—half of the Planning Directors are in their thirties. Seven in the group from thirty to thirty-four in- clusive and nine, age thirty—five to thirty-nine inclusive. 55 TABLE 1 Reported Age of Planning Directors Number of Innova- Pre—Innova— Planning Age tive tive Adaptive Directors 25—29 0 5 4 7 50-54 4 5 O 7 55-59 1 4 4 9 40-44 2 O 2 4 45—52 1 1 O 2 Total 8 11 10 29 Although none of the innovative planners is under thirty years old, the age data show no significant effects of age on the capacity to innovate. Relatively young and middle-aged men are found in all categories. Most of the planning directors are married; twenty-six out of the twenty—nine interviewed. The average number of children per family is 2.4. The distribution here ranges from a high of six to two directors who report no children. Ten have two children and nine have three. As indicated by the marital status and family situation, there is nothing out of the ordinary about this group of American men with regard to these variables. A majority of the planning directors in the survey group were from the midwest. Over one—half were born from the state in which they are now employed, four from a neighboring state and one each from other mid-western states. Almost 54 four-fifthe of the men are from the region of which the state they are working in is a part. Three are from the Eastern United States, two from the South and one from the W881: . TABLE 2 State or Region of Origin of Planning Directors Number of Innova- Pre—Inno- Planning Region of Origin tive vative Adaptive Directors State where em- ployed 4 6 7 16 Other MidSWest 2 5 2 7 Eastern United States 1 1 0 5 South 0 1 1 2 West 1 O 0 1 Total 8 11 10 29 Again, there is no useful differentiation by place of origin among the innovative, pre-innovative, and adaptive directors. ~When the place of birth of the men is analyzed by size, an interesting pattern emerges. Most of the men are from large cities or small communities with relatively few from medium sized cities. This same pattern holds with but three Changes, for the size of their place, or places, as the case may be, Of growing up. 55 TABLE 5 Size of City or Town of Birth and of Bringing Up Number of PlanningtDirectors Size of City of Town Born Brought Up Employed In One million or more 6 5 1 500,000-999,999 5 2 0 100,000-249,999 1 1 5 50,000-99,999 5 2 9 25,000-49,999 5 5 12 10,000-24,999 5 6 4 Under 10,000 7 7 0 Total 29 29 29 Source: U. S. Census of population 1950, 1940, 1960, and Interview Data. But again, there are no distinctions in this pattern based on the typology of innovation. Six of the planning directors are currently employed in their home town and another four in a nearby or adjacent com- munity. If one wishes to consider a given metrOpolitan area the individual's ”home", then fully one-third of the planning directors interviewed are practicing in their home area. The five men who were brought up in a major central city are no longer employed there, although most are to be found in the metropolitan area. The director of the largest city is one of the seven men who were raised in communities of under 10,000 population, none of whom are employed in such places. 56 Seven of the men moved while they were growing up. Investigation of the data indicates that they moved either to communities of a similar size or to a smaller suburb of the community in which they had been born, not removing them— selves from the urban complex which was their place of birth. »Eighteen of the planners reported middle-class back- grounds, ten reported working-class backgrounds, and one an upper—class background. TABLE 4 Social Class Backgrounds of Planning Directors (Self Description) Number of Social Class Innova- Pre-Inno- Planning Background tive vative Adaptive Directors Working-class 1 5 4 10 Middle-class 7 6 5 18 Upper-class 0 O l 1 __ Total 8 11 10 29 A number of the planners who were sensitive to the various criteria normally used to indicate social class such as ethnicity, education, occupation, and income gave some indication of conflict but generally ended up by classifying themselves according to these criteria in the broad range of the middle classes, in some cases suggesting lower—middle, or 57 upper-middle. Only one nominated himself as from the upper classed (his father is an M.D. in a small town). The table shows the first real division in the data with respect to the differentiation in innovative behavior. All but one of the eight innovators were from middle-class backgrounds. While this may prove to be a (relatively) necessary condition, it is obviously not a sufficient cause, as shown by the eleven of middle-class origin who are not yet successful innovators. It is, however, the first tend- ency in the data we have been able to Observe. Their father's occupation, as reported in the inter- views, range from working-class occupations such as elec— trician, pipe fitter, oil burner service man, factory worker, railroad brakeman, coal miner, up through the professions including an M.D., lawyer, accountant, a career navy officer, an engineer, etc.9 These coincide approximately with the self designation as to class. For most of the men, city planning represents a job as good as, or better than, their fathers. It is significant that a third of the survey group, at least, are upwardly mobile via education and entrance into the middle-class occupation which city planning certainly is. We next compared innovative behavior with political Party affiliation. 9Aside from the Navy, only one man's father had worked in government, an administrative position in a local juris- 1ction. 58 TABLE 5 Party Affiliation by Type of Director Party Innova— Pre-Inno- Affiliation tive vative Adaptive Total Republican 1 5 2 6 Democratic O 5 1 4 Independent 7 5 7 19 Total 8 11 1O 29 Clearly the innovators Show little party affiliation. This is reinforced by the indication in the data that the middle-class origination planners show weak party affiliation. A question as to the place of birth of each man‘s father was asked as a disguised means of getting at the ethnic back- ground of the men interviewed. The results of the question itself are not too useful, as all the fathers were born in this country except three. Two were born in England, and the other, an engineer, was born in Switzerland. The evi- dence indicates, however, that most men do not spring from the more recent, less socially prestigious, immigration streams from southern and eastern Europe. This pattern shows in their religious preferences. Nineteen indicate that they are either Protestant or Christian; while only two self designated Roman Catholics are included in the total of twenty-nine. Eight indicated that they had no religious 39 TABLE 6 Religious Affiliation by Type of Director W Religious Innova- Pre-Inno— Affiliation tive vative Adaptive Total Protestant or Christian 7 6 6 19 Roman Catholic 0 1 1 2 Unaffiliated 1 4 5 8 Total 8 11 10 29 affiliation at the time of interview. As is normal with many current—day affiliations,1° only seven of the twenty-one who profess some religious affiliation are at all active; of these, however, all attend regularly and two are on commit- tees or clubs. As with self-designated middle-class origin, a Protestant or Christian affiliation is a generally helpful condition but not a sufficient cause with respect to innovative behavior. Here, again, it should be pointed out that the sub- population of planners who are planning directors may not be representative of the profession as a whole. The author knows personally a number of men of Jewish background in the profession, both on public payrolls, and with consulting 10W. Herberg, gtotestant, Catholic and Jew (Garden City, New York: Anchor Books, 19607. 40 firms. He also knows men from southern and eastern Europe in similar positions who, in the larger cities, are Often quite high up in the staff hierarchy and, sometimes a princi- pal in a consulting firm. There may be certain factors at work, however, in selecting for the role of planning director for a community a type of person who adheres more closely to the white, anglo-saxon, protestant ideal in American culture. However, the writer has come across nothing which indicates that those who deviate in a great or small measure from this culturally preferred type confront any great difficulty in pursuing a successful career in planning, such as has been 11 Certainly the found in studies of the medical profession. schools and the profession itself are open to all qualified entrants. One of the directors is of African extraction, and works in a community with a proportionately large Negro population. The writer has known a few other Negroes in planning, all of them young, and all of whom entered the profession after World War II, which evidently served to break down many educational and racially discriminatory barriers. A number of Japanese-Americans (mostly Nisei, although a number of Sansei are nOW'Of an age to be in the early stages of a career) are planners. In fact, one is director of a county planning agency in the state where the interviewing 11Oswald Hall, "The Stages of a Medical Career," Ameri- can Journal of Sociology. Vol. 55: NO- 5 (March, 1948), pp. 527-556. 41 was conducted. As in the case of the sex of planning direct— ors, our research universe was a small subset, so that some of the standard deviations around the mean of the larger universe (all planning directors in the U. 8.) did not show up in the data. Although nothing in the research design deals with the problem of those who do not enter city planning as an occu- pation, I would hypothesize that many individuals who pre- sumably could succeed in both the educational and job tasks of the planner never learn of it as a possible career be- cause of the limitations of knowledge about possible careers of an exotic or a numerically limited nature. Edward Gross outlines an approach to this in his material on "cultural perspectives." By the cultural perspective we understand the process by which a culture channels the occupational ambitions of its young by limiting the alternatives available and endowing some with higher value than others.12 The Recguitment and Education of Planning_Directors The consideration of who gets to be a planning director or planner, leads us to a concern with the question of how this recruitment is done, what social and educational proc— esses are involved in the selection and training of city planners. —‘ laEdward Gross, Work and Society (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1958), p. 147. V I «an .rn 42 All of the planning directors completed high school, and most went to public high schools. Twenty-five directors attended public schools, one a private school, and three attended parochial schools. The interview data on high school majors are not very informative. Most of the reSpondents reported taking a college preparatory curriculum. Of the three who reported a general degree curriculum, however, all had working-class backgrounds, and only one went immediately on to college- level education. This is significant in that some college work, in every instance but one, preceded an awareness of, interest in, and knowledge about planning as a possible occupation. As will be noted below, only one of the di- rectors interviewed became interested in city planning as a vocation through a high school teacher. All of the planning directors have had at least some college. In fact, only two do not have at least Bachelor's Degrees. Only seven of the twenty-nine in the population stopped at the Bachelor's Degree. Twenty of the planning directors have had some graduate work and nine of these twenty have Master's Degrees. One of the nine with a Master's is currently completing work on a Ph.D. When the distribution of educational attainment is cross— classified by type of director, the data indicate a trend toward lesser educational attainment on the part of the adap- tive planners. The innovators do not have a markedly higher level of education than the pre—innovative planners, however. VA. CU any CU 45 TABLE 7 Educational Level by Type of Directors Number of Planning Directors Innova- Pre-Inno- ‘Educational Level tive vative Adaptive Total Ph.D. nearly com- pleted 1 O O 1 Master's degree 5 5 1 9 Some graduate work 2 4 4 10 B.A. or B.S. degree 2 1 4 7 Some college work 0 1 1 2 Total 8 11 10 29 What sort of educational backgrounds do the men bring to their jobs as indicated by the substantive content of their training? Seven of the undergraduate majors were in land- scape architecture; another five in landscape architecture combined with city planning; five were in city planning itself, and another in architecture and city planning combined; three were trained in architectural engineering and three in govern- ment; two in architecture; one in geography; one in economics and one in mechanical engineering.13 Perhaps more significant than the information on undergraduate majors is the fact that twenty-four of the twenty-seven represented were trained in 13This totals to twenty-nine whereas only twenty-seven of the men have Bachelor's Degrees. The answer is that two of the men have two Bachelor's. 44 "design" or related disciplinesMr while only five have major work in social sciences. Only two of the innovators had work in the social sciences, and each had a design degree, also. It should be noted also, that quite a few have mixed backgrounds and two have combined training in the social sciences with their training in the design disciplines. Also, many of the more recent students have been eXposed to an increasing amount of social science, in both graduate and undergraduate programs, as necessary curriculum changes have been implemented. Any degree in planning is not what it was as little as ten or even five years ago.15 Of the twenty men who have started or completed.Master's work, seventeen worked in urban or regional planning, two have done work in public administration and the other in geography. There is a strong pattern in the data which shows that the educational background of the men is rather more varied at the undergraduate level, but that the great majority have selected majors in planning at the graduate level. Taken in conjunction with the materials below on career lines, and the late decision to enter planning as an occupation, this is 14We classified as "design" or related disciplines the following: landscape architecture, urban planning, architec- tural engineering, and mechanical engineering. The other disciplines reported were: government, geography, and eco— nomics. 15Based on observation and participant observation in the apprOpriate universities. 45 readily understandable. Again, the point is emphasized that the "cultural perSpective" which allows individuals to per— ceive planning as a possible career is very limited, and only through participation in certain schools at the colle- giate level is an individual of this age group liable to become aware of the potential career in planning. Both of the men who have done graduate work in public administration had undergraduate majors in political science, and the man who did graduate work in geography had an under- graduate background in geography. Only one man with a back- ground in government at the Bachelor's level switched over to a Master's in planning. For the most part, those who have done graduate work in planning come from landscape architec- ture, architectural engineering, or have an undergraduate degree in planning. The above materials on educational backgrounds must not be overinterpreted since it was impossible to get much more detail on specific course content within the majors. It is apparent, however, that men with a background in landscape architecture have easily moved into planning, both in graduate I schools and as a career. Also, many of the other planning directors come from planning related, design oriented dis- ciplines. However, graduate work in planning is in the process of becoming a requirement for building a successful career in the occupation, and some jobs at the entry level require a substantial background of planning education, although the pressures of an eXpanding demand for planners 46 serve to permit entry to the field for many who have not (yet) finished professional training. Of the men who have not taken work beyond the under— graduate level, all were trained in landscape architecture (some combined this with urban planning) with the exception of two, one of whom has two B.A. degrees in architecture and in economics, while the other trained as a mechanical engineer. In connection with this, it is interesting to examine the responses received when the men were queried as to how they happened to get into planning. All of the men with undergraduate majors in planning went to the same school, one of the few in the country with an undergraduate program in planning. One of these five reports the earliest notiva- tion towards planning, instilled by a high school teacher of architectural drafting who was interested in city plan- ning. ‘The other twenty-eight in this survey became inter- ested in planning later in life, either in college or on various jobs. Two of the men transferred into the city planning major after they were enrolled in school, both hav— ing found out about it through friends. One of these trans- ferred from engineering, and one started in landscape archi— tecture and transferred to planning. Many of the men took mixed Bachelor's degrees (landscape architecture and plan- ning), and then concentrated on urban planning at the graduate level, thereby keeping two possible job lines open-- one in landscape architecture, the other in city planning. 47 One of the men who started in architecture came from a family with a background in architecture and construction, and later became interested in engineering and planning. Of the ten who got into planning work "on the job," three come from landscape architecture and one from architec— ture. Two have no degrees and worked their way up to their current positions, two got into planning work after training in political science. In addition to materials on the high school, college, and graduate training of the planning directors, data were develOped as to whether or not they had any further educa— tional aspirations and if so, what they were. The data in Table 8 on the Educational ASpirations of Planning Directors summarize the results of this question. Sixteen, over half the directors, have no further educational aspirations. Seven, approximately one-fourth, wish to complete work in planning. Six of these are working towards their Master's and one toward a Bachelor's degree. One of the men classified in the table as "Other" category is in the process of just finishing up a Master's degree in public administration. One director is close to finishing his Ph.D. and the other is interested in beginning work towards one. It is interest- ing to note that the man finishing the degree is interested in developing a career in research and administration while the director reporting that he wishes to work toward a Ph.D. is interested in getting into teaching. Two of the men report an interest in Law School although one was not positive 48 TABLE 8 Further Educational Aspirations of Planning Directors Number of Planning Educational Aspirations Directors None 1 Complete work in planning Finish Ph.D. degree Law school Other NNNVO} Total 29 about this as a realistic or near—term goal. Also, their comments indicate that neither is particularly interested in practicing in the field of municipal law or zoning, as might be anticipated. Examination of the data indicate no pat— terned differences in educational aspirations by type of planner. In summary, it is obvious that most of the men consider their education finished, or that it will be finished upon completion Of a Master's degree. None eXpressed a strong desire or strong feeling about the need for additional edu- cation. This should not be construed to mean that they do not think a good deal more education might be profitable; they are simply in no position to think realistically beyond their current level of training, or, for the seven involved in Master's work, beyond the completion of this program. Certainly when one considers the position at which they have 49 already arrived in their career patterns, which must be interpreted as indicating some degree of adequacy of prep- aration and job experience, together with the career and financial cost of dropping out for extended graduate train- ing, their responses are not at all unwarranted or unrealis- tic. Most are now in a position where the normal channels of professional communication, professional society meetings, etc., are the means whereby they will acquire additional educational inputs as these may be needed and disseminated to them via the professional channels. Career Patterns of Planning Directors The job histories of individuals within many occupation- al groups display a number of patterned changes. Studies of these career patterns normally focus on recruitment pat- terns and socialization into the occupation, which we have discussed above in the materials on recruitment and education. A second pattern is the amount of job movement and, as a correlary, the amount of vertical mobility; a third, the degree of job security; and a fourth, adjustment at various Stages of the career, often referred to as career contingen- cies.16 The planning directors in our universe are no expection, and a number of patterns are displayed in the data regarding 16For a good summary of this approach see, Sigmundliosow and William Form, "Career Patterns," pp, c1t., Chapter . pp. 284-552. 50 their job histories and characteristic moves from job to job until they obtain the position of planning director held at the time of interviewing. Table 9 shows the number of jobs held by the planning directors. First, the general pattern may be summarized. Two of the men started their work experience as planning directors, both in relatively small cities, and two others have held a maximum of six jobs in their working life. The average number of jobs held by a planning director is three, and fourteen of the men, in fact, have held this number of jobs. TABLE 9 Number of Jobs Held by Each Planning Director Number of Number of Planning J b H ld* o s e Directors NI-‘(J'IPUTN CDU'II-P‘UJNP Total 29 Total number of jobs-—91 Average number of jobs--5.1 — * . . 0 Excluding military, education, promotions, and including current position. When the data is classified by type of director, no dis- distinctions are at all apparent. The innovative planners 51 have the same distribution as the pre-innovative and the adaptive. The average length of jobs, again excluding military service, education, and promotions but including the current position, is 5.57 years. Details on length of job are pre— sented in Table 10. TABLE 10 Length of Time in Each Job Worked by Planners Number of Planners Working a Job That Length of Time Long Under 2 years 25 2-4 years 57 5-6 years 11 7-10 years 12 11 years and over 2 Total number of jobs worked 87 Source: Interview data. Inspection of the data reveals no differences by type of planner. Most of the jobs of under two years duration are in the early stage of the individual's career, represent breaks for military service, or, in seven cases, the directorship re— cently taken, in which case the final duration of the job is not yet known. rh 9|. nhfihv 2V 1.5. .I‘ 52 Table 11 shows the number of jobs held by the planners in various age grOUps. Some of the older men have held two or three jobs for long periods of time, since five out of the six who are forty years of age or older have held only two or three jobs. TABLE 11 Age by Number of Jobs Held Age of Number of Jobs Held Director 1 2 5 4 5 6 Total Under 50 1 1 5 7 50—54 1 2 5 1 7 55-59 5 4 1 1 9 40 and up 2 5 1 6 Total 2 5 14 5 1 2 29 Our twenty-nine planners worked a grand total of 511 years, exclusive of military service and educational activi- ties. The average years worked is 10.75 years. The longest careers are twenty-one years each worked by two men, and the shortest careers at date of interviewing were of three years duration and were worked by three men. Table 12 shows the distribution of length of working career by type of planner. The data show a tendency for most of the innovative planners to be well into their working careers, in contrast to the number of both pre-innovative and adaptive planners 55 TABLE 12 Length of Working Career, Excluding Military and Education Number of Number of PlanningyDirectors by Type Years Innova- Pre-Inno- Worked tive vative Adaptive 1-5 1 5 4 6-10 4 4 0 11-15 0 2 6 16-20 5 2 O who are still in the first five years of their careers. However, length of service does not lend automatically to innovative behavior, as the data also show. Table 15 shows that, although the younger men do not work as directors in the larger cities, the older planning directors are distributed throughout the size range of cities in the state. TABLE 15 Age of Directors by Size of City Age of 50,000 Under Directors and over 50,000 Under 50 1 6 50-54 4 5 55-59 5 4 5 5 40 and up —_ 54 Our data indicate that, with the exception of military service and an occasional period of time devoted full-time to higher education, all of the planning jobs occurred dur— ing the "stable" work period.17 Some of the planners have had a bit of trial work exPerience before becoming planners. However, once they embark upon planning careers, the job histories are definitely stable. In the material above on recruitment into the planning profession, we dealt with how an individual gets to be a planner. Now let us consider how a planner gets to be a planning director; that is, what job, or set of jobs, leads one to be selected as a planning director. Table 14 indi- cates the type of job which immediately preceded the first position as planning director. Clearly, a majority of the men moved from a position as a public planner to that of planning director, sixteen in all. .Next, in terms of rank order of incidence is the move from a job within a planning consulting firm to the job of planning director. In each case but one, the individual moved to a community with which he was currently employed in a consulting position; that is, he switched from the private consulting to the public payroll while working in and for the same community. Four each of the directors went directly from school to a position as planning director and four from 17William H. Form and Delbert C. Miller, "Occupational Career Pattern as a Sociological Instrument," American Jng- ggltof.SociOIOQy, Vol. 54, No. 4 (January, 1949), pp. 517-529. 55 TABLE 14 Job Preceding First Planning Director Job Number of Planners by Type Innova- Pre—Inno- Adap- Type of Job tive vative tive Total Public planning 5 4 7 16 Consultant planning 2 2 1 5 No job--school 1 2 1 4 Public, non-planning* 0 5 1 4 Total 8 11 10 29 *Includes two urban renewal jobs, one engineer. a public, non-planning position to the planning directorship. Two of these latter who assumed planning director positions had been working previously in urban renewal offices. The data indicate that the paths to the directorship do not differ markedly for the various type of planners. Of the planning directors who moved to the directorship from a position as a public planner, eight were promoted within the city for which they were currently working, and the other eight transferred to another city. As an itinerant professional,18 the planner has a two dimensional capability to move which he must build and preserve. First is the 18George K. Floro, "The City Manager in the State of Michigan: A Case Study of an Itinerant Professional" (unpublished Ph.D., dissertation, Chicago, Illinois: Univer_ sity of Chicago, 1954). C) (D t‘l 56 dimension of promotability, so that he may eventually become a planning director if he so desires. The second dimension is the capacity to move from city to city, the ability to change his locus of employment in order to improve his career development as indicated by the number of jobs success- fully held. The reSpondents have a well-developed ability to move both geographically and vertically. In a labor market of short supply, this is not surprising. Conversely, one of the things which has been of concern to some of the older men in the profession19 is the unwillingness of some of the men to move from a comfortable job on a large staff in a major city with a professionalized civil service to the more exposed job of planning director in smaller communities. A number of post-war planners have preferred to build a career within the hierarchy of positions provided in a large staff rather than to move to a directorship in a small or medium-size community and then move to succeedingly larger cities in order to enhance their career development. This is not surprising, however, if one realizes that on large staffs of large cities, considerable occupational mobility and important and interesting positions with large numbers of men and weighty responsibilities are available to a planner without ever assuming a directorship. This brings us to a consideration of other types of careers open to the city 19Participant observations. “H.- ‘v! 1 \ FL 57 planner, and a consideration of the career contingencies in- volved at various stages in the planner's career. Cateer Contipgencies in Citerlannipg A number of contingencies enter at various places in a career and are resolved in differing ways by various indi- viduals, depending on how their perspectives of their overall career lines influence their decisions. Some of these con- tingencies revolve around the level at which to practice planning: city, county, region, state, federal, and latterly, the United Nations. Other contingencies are the locus of employment: public or private, the occasional opportunity to teach, offerings of jobs in non-planning endeavors, and suitable tenure of employment in given positions. In order to better understand how planners conceive their own tenure in a given community, we asked them if there were either a minimum or maximum period of time that a planner should spend on a job and queried them as to the reasons for this. The results, summarized in Table 15 below, indicate that only slightly more than one-third of the planners believe there is a minimum that a man should spend on the job before he moves on. Almost two-thirds indicate that there is no absolute maximum, and that the length of maximum tenure depends on satisfaction with the job, the ability to get things done, to be accepted, and to have planning work accepted in the community. Of those who do feel there is a minimum length 58 TABLE 1 5 Minimum and Maximum Job Length Minimum Stay Maximum Stay Planners' Beliefs on Job on Job Yes 12 8 No 15 18 Not answered 2 5 Total 29 29 of time a planner should stay with a job, one-third, specify- ing a minimum duration, feel that planners should stay only from one to two years. Over one-third, five of those respond- ing, specify either three to four years as a minimum, or five years as a maximum. There is evidently a lack of concensus among the planning directors as to what is an acceptable minimum length of job stay. In Specifying reasons for mini- mum length of stay, there is a strong emphasis on the fact that it takes from two to five years to really learn a city and its problems and, therefore, to be in a position to make a contribution to the city. Other reasons given indicate that there is a concern with the development of the individual's career, that at dif- ferent times in the planner's career, depending on his own professional development and on what he is learning in a given position, a shorter or longer tenure may be optimal for him. -Some expressed the thought that a planner should 59 TABLE 16 Length of Minimum Job Stay, Where Specified Length of Stay Number of Responses 1-2 years 4 At least 2 years 5 5-4 years 5 5 years 2 Total 12 move quite regularly when he is young and breaking in, and then stay for longer periods of time when he arrives at positions of greater responsibility and when he has accumu- lated a suitable body of work experience to bring to these jobs. .Some of this type of reasoning showed up in the materi- al on the maximum length of stay, where it was pointed out that there is no reason for there being any absolute maximum §§£££ a planner has accumulated a good background of experi- ence and is in a job where he is able to contribute regularly to the flow of decisions in the community which employs him. Seven of the respondents point out that an acceptable minimum should be based on the state of given projects, or work in progress; that jobs started should be completed before a planner moves on to another, presumably better, job. There is, then, a strong sense that a planner needs to Spend two to five years learning about a community before he can be of much use working within it, and that he should not leave Av . y :. IllIrL 60 unfinished business behind him when he moves. This exercise of re8ponsibility over the work flow is, of course, more important for planners in more responsible positions than it is for a young man who is breaking in and learning a variety of tasks and a variety of communities. The planners interviewed are not unaware of the risks involved in participation in potentially controversial public issues. One remarked at this stage of the interview, "a good innovator should keep his bags packed." In addition to pro- fessional norms, however, which affects a planner's decision about when and when not to move, there is also a set of exterior circumstances which may force the planner to remove himself from a position or may result in his dismissal. None of the planners interviewed have ever been removed from office. Over two—thirds report that they have never even been pres- sured enough by a situation to feel like resigning, although five report that they have, and one of these men went on to say "who hasn't?" When queried as to under what conditions a planner should resign, they listed two basic reasons. The primary one, listed a total of sixteen times, revolves around the problematic situation in which the community is unwilling or unable to accept professional recommendations, and the plan- ning program then bogs down. "When nothing is getting done, or lack of OOOperation from administrative offices, if there is an unsuccessful political environment—-stonewall, then it is time to look around.“ Next in importance, cited by 61 five men, is the situation in which they feel personal in- tegrity might be questioned, or attempts are made to compro- mise it by putting political pressure on them. This, they feel strongly, is when a planner should leave. One planner pointed out that he thought the threat of resignation as a political infighting tactic should never be used by a professional planner. "Either you stay and fight, or, if the situation is intolerable, you pack your bags and go elsewhere." Paraphrased, his feeling was that if a situ- ation is tolerable, one tolerates it and works with it to the best of his ability. When, however, for either personal or professional reasons the situation becomes intolerable, one leaves. The data on reasons for leaving lend some insight as to what kind of community a planner will stay in. Where plan- ning is "moving ahead," where the planners have a feeling that they are able to make contributions from day to day, where the environment is perceived by them as both needful of and receptive to what they have to offer, they will stay. These factors also bear on the selection of a new job in a different community. .A decision every planner makes at one time or another in his career is whether or not he wishes to work or seek employment in either the public or private sector of the economy. If he decides to work in the public sector, he must decide whether he wishes to associate himself with a larger office and work for somebody else, usually someone 62 trained in planning, or become a planner in his own small office and gradually move up from there, city by city, job by job. In addition to city jobs in the public sector, he may now find many Openings in county planning agencies, with regional agencies, and with the state or federal govern- ment, each of which in itself entails different career pos- sibilities. Jobs are now available with the United Nations, r the maximum level of geographical generality at which a t planner could practice his profession. Jobs are now avail— a able for planners in small units of government, such as townships, and with neighborhood associations and other com- munity organizations. If he chooses to enter the private sector of the econ- omy, he must decide whether to be self-employed or to work in somebody else's consulting firm. Also, some planners have to decide between working in a planning firm, generally con- sidered acceptable within the profession, or as an adjunct to an engineering firm, which many planners feel presents problems and difficulties and is generally not a good position for a planner to occupy. In addition, other employers in the private sector include major utility companies and large 19 corporations. One of the planners in our sample worked for a while with a land development firm, although because of lsThe-author was led to understand that a large, inter— national manufacturing firm was actively searching for young planners to work in its Division of Community Relations because of planners' demonstrated capacity to talk with local government officials in a convincing manner. ITICII tea 853 4 tea 65 certain conflicts over policy, he later left them and re- turned to employment in the public sector. Another decision some planners face from time to time is the choice to continue in the practice of planning or to enter university teaching. Many planners seem to prefer the action of the office as Opposed to what they perceive as the more contemplative life of teaching. However, a number of teachers manage to fulfill their own job satisfaction by engaging in part—time consulting at the same time that they teach. Another possibility is to take jobs in non-planning fields. This tends to happen in city government when a plan- ner moves into the city manager's office, or into related areas such as a large parks and recreation department. In some of these jobs, they may continue to do planning work. For instance, a major city Board of Education has a number of city planners on its staff to aid in school location decisions, site design, and other similar planning-related decisions. Other planners get completely removed from any planning content in their day to day jobs, although they may continue the rest of their working lives in the public sector. Occupational differentiation is already appearing within city planning, in addition to the major distinction between those in consulting practice and those on the public payroll. Indeed, the work itself which planners are called Upon to accomplish is leading to a differentiation between planners wit} are war; A-‘UO‘ w 118 car rier P." d. 64 with different types of competencies. Among the most obvious are those between planners with design background, those with more general administrative skills, and those with specific social science or engineering based research competencies. The designer/non-designer distinction also represents, to a certain extent,.a battle of the generations. The older plan- ners in this country, particularly the pre-war members of the profession, came primarily from architecture and landscape architecture. The newer entrants to the profession are com- ing from broader backgrounds gained in Urban Planning schools and, as indicated above, engineering and social sciences, in addition to the continuing training in landscape architecture. In addition to the design/hon-design background and orientation (background and orientation are far from perfectly correlated) in the profession, there are other Specialties. One community which now has a mall hired a planning director with a known competence and experience in downtown, commercial planning. Another, a suburban community, hired a planning director with a recent job history in one of the three, depression—built green belt communities. Obviously, they Wished to employ someone with the green belt community, sub- urban experience to conduct the affairs of their planning office. Some planners have special competencies in zoning, others in urban renewal, a skill in high demand on the market as more and more cities initiate programs.' Others have had or are building good careers in tranSportation planning, and have AV V- a: "1 is r—3 a: r) 65 worked not only for cities, but also for counties and state highway departments in this aSpect of planning. With the massive federal funds available for comprehensive metropolitan transportation studies, these particular men have had a widely expanded career potential Opened up to them. Some planners develOp a specialty in industrial land use and problems, others in residential development, including subdivision layout and related site planning skills, while others tend to preserve at least the perspective of a general- ist; that is, some competence and interest in all these areas. The larger city planning offices, and many medium sized ones, are finding a need to develop more and more research materials, and are either converting planners into researchers on the job, or are hiring people in related social science discip- lines to carry on the research. »With this complex of differential skills, differential interests and ambitions, and varied progress in each planners' career development, there is no professional concensus on the topic of what is the best city in which to work. Planners will evaluate the job, the city, and the current status and likely future of planning activities there. The fiscal con- dition will be examined (a debt burdened community is not ideal;funding for future projects will be in short supply). The city will be evaluated as a place to live as well as a place to work. If a city manager is employed, his attitudes and actions with respect to planners and planning activities will be carefully evaluated. All of these factors will be In). bal and Vii 66 balanced against the values of the planner making the choice, and the decision as to whether or not to accept a job will vary from man to man. Summary First we established that city planning is a growth occu— pation. Then we categorized the directors as Innovative, Pre-innovative, or Adaptive, based on their work record of current and recent activities and accomplishments. We then examined the social origins of the men, their recruitment and education in planning, and their career experiences. The Innovative planners may be a bit more middle—class in origin, profess Protestant or Christian religious affiliation, and tend to have some years work experience already behind them. In all cases, Pre-innovative and Adaptive planners can also be found who fit the same criteria, so we have isolated no characteristics peculiar to the Innovators. There is no appar- ent differentiation by size of city, either. The chapter closes with a general discussion of career contingencies in city planning, based largely on participant observation rather than the survey data. CHAPTER III THE PRESENT OCCUPATIONAL SITUATION Introduction A number of dimensions serve to delimit the social con— ;a text within which the planner carries on his activities. These relate to the internal conditions and operations of the planner's office, and to the complex set of relationships between the planner together with his Office, and a wide range of other individuals and organizations within city government and other groups within the community at large. Let us briefly enumerate the possibilities. First are the relationships in the planning Office, the internal organizational patterns. These can be character- ized, in part, in terms of the manpower and the budgets utilized in the Operation. However, considerations of quant— ity are not enough. Therefore, it is essential to attempt to develOp information about the quality of the staff as indicated by the number of professionals employed, vacancies, by which the offices may currently be handicapped, and some evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the office 67 (vs Iv' . be g) '1' r f) 68 personnel. In addition to the human inputs, are the financial resources available to the planning director. The directors responded as to the adequacy of the funds allocated for the Operation of their offices, in addition to the amounts in- volved. The next set of relationships to be delimited are those , with other city departments, such as departments of public I‘ works, engineering offices, personnel and budget functions where these are institutionalized in separate offices, fire, is police, and others. In addition to the operating departments, the executive, legislative and judicial components of local government are of concern. Here, we deal with relationships between the planner and the executive officials, either a city manager, mayor, or both. The legislative function is represented both by the city council, and also partially by the city plan commission, which has some para—legislative and some para-judicial functions. In addition, the action of the zoning board of appeals, or its equivalent, and the courts of jurisdiction are of import. The planner is in contact not only with organs of his own community's government, but also with those of the county, sometimes adjacent cities or townships, and occa- sionally with regional agencies. Besides local and regional units of government, there are contacts with both state and federal officials from various departments, such as the State Highway Department, the Federal Urban Renewal Adminis- . tration, and others. " 69 Turning from the public sector to the private sector, we find the planner, from time to time, in contact with the local communications media, radio, television, and newspapers. The sets Of relationships with all of the various actors outlined above constitute the subject matter of this chapter. Internal Office Situation One of the prime variables effecting the conditions under which planning work is carried forward is the nature of the office staff available to carry out this function. Most of the operations which we studied were characterized by relatively small offices. Well over two-thirds of the planning Operations, twenty- three,employ five or fewer employees, not counting the plan- ning director. Five of the office staffs can be classified as of medium size, employing from six to fifteen employees, and there is the one large major city staff, which at the time of interviewing had a total of sixty-one and a half employees. When classified by type of planner, it is apparent that most of the innovative Offices have larger staffs. while only one of the five innovative and none of the adaptive offices have such a staff, excluding planning directors, part- time employees expressed as full-time equivalent. See Table 17 for size of staff by type of planner. 70 TABLE 17 Size of Staff by Type of Planner Innova- Pre-Inno- Number Employed tive vative Adaptive Total 5 or under 5 10 10 25 6 or more 5 1 O 6 F1 ! I. | Total 8 11 10 29 ' Table 18 shows the size of office staff by size of city. The city of over 100,000 which has only a four man staff is a very adaptive operation.1 TABLE 18 Size of Office Staff by Size of City Office 25,000- 50,000 100.000 Staff 50,000 100,000 or more Total 5 or under 16 6 1 25 6 or more 5 5 6 Total 16 9 4 29 k 1A local foundation has been heavily supporting the com- munity schools in a program of evening adult educational activities. The director believes that this has drawn the attention of many away from other concerns of local govern— ‘ ment, and he has had a difficult time generating interest and support for his planning activities. 71 Of the three cities of 50,000 to 100,000 pOpulation with staffs larger than five, two are in the three county S. M. S. A. of the large metrOpolis. One is a rapidly growing suburb with the resulting development prob- lems, but a fortunately high tax base to provide for plan- I ning services. The central city which is being engulfed by I the physical spread of the larger metrOpolitan complex, is F1 heavily engaged in urban renewal programs and other plan— i ning activities in efforts to COpe with its problems. a The third city, located farther out state, has a very successful program, and a well-trained, energetic young director who continues to work effectively in the community. Perhaps just as important to the nature of the work which the staff is capable of carrying out, is whether or not there are additional professionally trained planners on the staff to assist the director. We divided the employees into those working at a professional level and sub-professionals, i.e., draftsmen, clerks, typists, and stenographers. Table 19 contains the data on the number of additional professional planners working in the office besides the director himself. Almost one-half of the offices employ no other professionals, and only the five largest offices have more than five profes~ sionals. Thirteen of the fourteen cities with no other pro- fessionals are under 50,000 in population. The other is less than 5,000 over 50,000. Clearly, much of the planning work which is done in technical areas of planning must be carried 0 out by the directors themselves. Of the three innovative '(J )1 n) 72 TABLE 19 Office Staff--Number of Professional Level Employees (Excluding Planning Directors) Number of Number of Employees Cities 0 14 1 4 2 5 5-4 5 5-9 4 59 1 Total 29 planners, only one has additional professional help. The other two have non-planning renewal assistants, however. Minimum staffs are essential to innovation. In a growing occupation with an increasing work load, increasing budgets, and a shortage of personnel, it is important to note how many of the offices are understaffed as indicated by existing vacancies. Seventeen staffs have no vacancy, seven have one vacancy, and five have two or more. These vacancies are in the innovative or pre-innovative offices. The interview data indicate, however, that a number of the offices are anticipating additional personnel as soon as budget capabilities permit, and at least two of the respondents reported anticipated vacancies, in that they know Of staff who were planning to depart in the near future. The data clearly indicate that there are not large numbers of Ti 75 peOple, in comparison with other city departments, engaged in accomplishing the tasks of city planning. Furthermore, some forty per cent of the cities are Operating at under budgeted manpower level. Let us turn now to the considera— tion of the budget funds allocated to the internal opera— tions of the planning office. r1 TABLE 20 Size of Planning Office Budgets a Budget (exclud- Size 0f City ing Urban 25,000- 50,000— 100,000 Renewal funds) 50,000 100,000 or more Total Under $50,000 15 1 14 $30,000- 49.999 2 2 1 5 50,000- 69,999 1 5 1 7 $70,000- 100,000 1 1 2 Over $500,000 1 1 Total 16 9 4 29 Table 20 indicates that almost half of the offices get by with budgets of less than thirty thousand. Two, in fact, have budgets under ten thousand dollars for planning. Larger offices have larger budgets, and the major metropolis has a budget of over half a million dollars. The one city over 100,000 pOpulation with a budget under $50,000 is the city previously referred to which also had a small staff for its size, and where planning activities are overshadowed by 74 other community affairs. The city of 50,000 to 100,000 with a budget over $70,000 is one of the two in that size class with a large staff and an innovative program. Rather more important than the size of the budget are the evaluations of the directors with regard to the adequacy of the funding which supports their operations. Table 21 summarizes the reSponses of the planning directors when r4 asked whether or not they thought they had enough money. Twelve say they do, another twelve say they do not, and five 1* say that it is adequate, but they qualify this either by pointing out that in the future it will not be, or by saying it is not bad in terms of the current financial situation of the city. In this sense, a qualified statement of adequacy of the budget probably means that a planner is doing without money which he could put to good use in the operation of his office. If this definition of the meaning of the re- sponses is accepted, then over half are doing without what they consider to be adequate amounts. However, if one interprets these qualified responses on the basis that these five men are willing, for what they consider to be good reasons to accept their current budget amounts, then over half are reasonably satisfied with the level of funding which their activity is receiving. Only one of the four largest cities is reported to be inadequately funding the planning office. However, if the qualified adequate response is interpreted to imply that 0 there are unmet planning needs which are not being SUpported, 75 TABLE 21 Adequacy of Office Budget by Size of City Size of City_ Budget 25,000— 50,000- 100,000 Adequacy 50,000 100,000 or more Total Budget adequate 6 4 2 12 ' Qualified budget rj adequate 4 1 5 1 Budget inade- 11 quate 6 5 1 12 Total 16 9 4 29 then here too, as in most of the other size classes of cities, the grief is spread over one-half or more of the communities. Clearly, there are no size classes of cities where planning is reported to be uniformly adequately funded. When these responses are categorized by type of planner, it is apparent that the innovators tend to be more satisfied, and the pre-innovators and adaptors less satisfied, in that order, with their budgets. Yet even half of the innovative directors may be said to be dissatisfied with their alloca— tions. Since both the amounts of dollars and of personnel avail- able are only quantitative indicators of the planning activi- ties going on, we attempted to get some qualitative indica— tion of the office capability by asking the planning (I) :11! (I) n: [Ti 76 TABLE 22 Adequacy of Funds by Type of Planner Type of Planner Budget Innova- Pre-Inno- Adequacy tive vative Adaptive Total Budget adequate 4 5 5 12 Budget qualified adequate 2 2 1 5 Budget inadequate 2 4 6 12 Total 8 11 10 29 directors in what areas they felt they had particular weak— , nesses in terms of the capability of themselves and their staff. Twenty of the directors reported that they felt them- selves to be, generally, in a well-rounded position of strength. In addition, many of these went on to mention some Specific areas where they were particularly capable. Some, however, after making this claim, reported some specific weaknesses. Only eight of the planners reported that they perceived no weaknesses in their current staff capability. Another eight of the planning directors reported a weakness in the area of analysis and report writing, particularly in statistics and economics. Six felt they were weak in design, and four indicated a weakness in public relations. Seven others specified weaknesses such as traffic engineering, f) 77 capital improvement programming, law, and public housing. One director, charged primarily with the conduct of a renewal program, reported that he felt himself to be weak in general planning skills. However, since the community's plan had been done by a consultant, he felt himself adequate to the task of implementing it. The innovative planners report strong, well-rounded r. capabilities, and only two of the eight qualified this by mentioning a specific weakness. ” In comparing and contrasting the reported strengths and weaknesses, we noted that many of the men who reported a general strength tended to emphasize some aspect of design, such as architectural design, site layout, or landscape architecture capabilities. Conversely, many of the men, who feel they have a design weakness, stress capabilities in other areas such as general planning, public administration, zoning and subdivision regulation. It seems, upon examination of the data, that if a strong design capability exists, it is recognized, and if it does not exist, it is a felt weakness. Since both designers and non-designers were involved in the reporting, either of the capability or the lack of it, there would seem to be strong support for the hypothesis” that some sort of design 2Peter H. Nash, "The Responsibilities and Limitations of the Planning Director in a Council—Manager Form of Government: An EXploratory Analysis Based on Case Studies of the 'Plan E' ‘ Cities in Massachusetts," Cambridge, Massachusetts, Harvard University, April 1958. Nash lists this as a "tentative" criteria for office technical functions. See all of his cri- teria, pp. 105—185, particularly number 55. 78 capability is a very important facet of a city planning office, and if it is not present there, it is missed. It is interesting, too, that the largest single area of functional weakness stressed is in the analytical or research function. Obviously, as the awareness of the complexity of urban prob- lems increases and as the ability to carry out more sophis- ticated analysis comes more and more into demand, it can be r1 hypothesized that more and more planning Operations will be searching for, and adding this capability to, their package of expert skills available for the wide number of tasks which working planners must accomplish. In our interviews with the planning directors, we queried them as to what sort of work load was supported by their office, and followed this with a question as to how priorities of the work program were established. Both the nature of the work load and some aspects of how priorities are established appear to be somewhat determined by the long term develOpments of city planning Operation in a given community. Ideally, a community would first develop a comprehensive master plan. Then it would move in the direction of various implementation devices, such as a zoning ordinance, subdi- vision regulations, and, if such were indicated by the prob- lems of the community, some sort of urban renewal program. In actual practice, the implementation devices can and do occur independently of the master planning process. That is o to say, the zoning ordinance, or a set of subdivision (') (n 79 regulations, may be develOped before a master plan is adOpted, or may be revised independently of master plan revisions. Similarly, urban renewal programs may be undertaken without coordinating them with the master planning process, and, sometimes, unfortunately, without coordinating the project with the overall plan for physical develOpment of the city. I Be that as it may, the work actually going on in an 7- office will be dependent upon the prior record of accomplish— ment of these major tasks. If a community is in the process m of working out for the first time, or comprehensively revis- ing, its master plan, then our interview data from that com— munity would indicate time Spent on the master planning process. Other offices may have moved on to a concern with various implementation programs; this is exhibited by heavy emphasis on current zoning administration and subdivision regulation administration, or by spending a heavy amount of office time in urban renewal program administration. Our data on office work loads then, is not fully repre- sentative of the flow Of work which would normally occur over a period of years as a full-fledged planning and imple- mentation process might be carried out in a given community. The status of the overall planning Operation determines, in some ways, not only the current work load, but the establish- ment of priorities within the work load, and helps in arriv- ing at an understanding of how the current work had developed through time. For instance, one city reported that its ‘ priorities were pretty well determined by the stage they were 80 in as they conducted their “701" planning process. Another community reported that their operations were pretty much dictated by the paper work assignments necessary to satisfy the Urban Renewal Administration Office. One matter which had been of concern to professional planners and other concerned individuals with regard to American City Planning Operations is whether or not zoning is the tail which is wagging the planning dog. Our survey data do not bear this out. While this was true in some com— munities, we found other communities in which master planning work was absorbing much staff time, or current planning Operations Such as site design and layout work, for both public and private facilities, wasaniimportant part of office work. This, together with urban renewal programs, can use— fully implement master plans. At the time of our interview— ing, given the status of the current office activities in the long-term conduct of the planning Operation in a given community, and the constraints imposed by these processes of long-term program develOpment, the character of the work load is better understood as a function of who establishes the priorities. Table 25 summarizes the data with regard to who is involved in setting the priorities. Only a dozen' of the planning directors feel that they are involved in establishing the priorities for the office work load. The second largest category in the data is the situation reported in which there seems to be no system of fixed priorities, where the Office is reacting to demands from the external 81 TABLE 25 Establishing Work Priorities by Type of Planner Innova- Pre—Inno- tive vative Adaptive Total Planning Director 5 5 2 12 I No priorities: P‘ pushed by demands 1 4 4 9 City Manager, city :I council planning ’7 commission 1 1 2. 4 Federal requirement 701, Urban Renewal association 1 1 1 5 Other 0 O 1 1 Total 8 11 1O 29 environment rather than controlling its own activities. Next in Order of occurrence is the case in which the city manager, the planning commissions, and the City Council, are in- volved in setting priorities. Control of work through the control of paper work, records, and reports,is exemplified by the Federal Government, which influences the operations of the Office through its contractual requirements. It should be pointed out that the one entry in the residual category (other) is that of a planning director who ~reported that his priorities were established by the master plan. They use this document to determine what needs to be 82 done next in their various community programs and in their annual work programs, and attempt to work from this basis. The innovators have more to do with establishing priorities than the other types of planners, but are able to Operate in any Situation. It is evident from the interview data that many sources , external to the planning office originate demands upon the staff there, and that these can, in a significant number of instances, be deleterious to a well-organized, well-paced program. The comments by the planning directors suggest, for instance, that some city managers are very helpful in assisting the planning department to establish its work priorities and carry these out, while other managers, unfor- tunately, from time to time tend to use the planning staff as a source of labor for tasks which would otherwise not be accomplished with due speed and convenience for the manager, i.e., the planners become errand boys for the managers rather than being prOperly supported and assisted to carry out work programs they deem desirable. Similarly, this is true for requests for action initiated by individual planning commissioners and individual city councilmen and, sometimes, by these groups acting in concert. It should be kept in mind that a summary table which indicates that the council, plan commission, or manager help establish priorities, does not indicate whether or not this is done in an effective, workman—like manner, or is still a hit-or-miss type of opera- ° tion, with effective demands persistently generated external 85 to the planning Office and continually interrupting the smooth flow of work within it. External Office Relationships The city planning director is in interaction from time to time with a wide variety of individuals, organizations I and agencies external to his planning office. In order to gain a better understanding of the types of relationships with individuals and groups external to the planning office, we queried the planning directors as to the character of these relationships. The responses, while illuminating in some ways, fall far Short of a complete description of these various interactions. Nevertheless, we are in a position to make some statements about the general congeries of social actors with whom, from time to time, the planning directors must deal, and can record some of their evaluations, and the variation from director to director and city to city, of these relationships. The first segment of other social actors about whom we asked the planning directors were those contained in a listing of the usual complement of city departments and the various schools, public, parochial, private, and collegiate or university level. We asked the planners how well these departments COOperated with them, probed for details and followed up with a question “Do any of them generally work at cross purposes with you or with each other?" after which 84 we asked for examples, if appropriate. The literature avail— able at the time of the research design, although scanty, indicated that there might well be patterns of conflict or competition existing between the planning director and the city attorney.3 We discovered no reports of this particular type of potential conflict in our survey. In fact, we began ‘ to perceive a suspiciously high level of reports of good or excellent cooperation with all other city departments. About III- 1“ ‘ midway through the interviewing, then, we decided to probe, using the specific example of the possibility of conflict 4 Once we began either with the city attorney or engineer. using this Specific probe in the interviewing situation, we began to generate more responses with regard to problem rela- tionships either with other city departments and agencies, or with the schools. The planners perceive two kinds of problems in these areas. One is the problem of lack of contact, with the result- ing lack of coordination and cooperation. This is the case particularly with the schools in the state, which exist and are treated as separate units of government with their own 3Nash, 93. cit., p. 167. 4tttg, As Nash points out, this arises occasionally for one of two reasons: the attorney and the planner are both “intellectuals working in government" and each occasionally thinks the other to be trespassing in his territory. Or, as planners work with zoning and subdivision regulations and other types of legal affairs, they may from time to time be defined by the attorney as traspassing into legal areas where , they have no competence or legal rights. 85 taxing power, their own governing bodies, etc. Moreover, many of the planners reported no contact at all with the private or parochial schools. ,The other problem in the interaction with these various city departments or schools is not a lack of contact, but a lack of cooperation or in some cases, real conflict. The following tables summarize the incidence of reporting of problematic situations on the part of the planning directors interviewed. Keeping in mind, then, the possibility of under-reporting of conflict situ— ations, the data clearly indicate that the problems with the schools are largely a matter of lack of contact. Exami- nation Of the data indicates that this occurs throughout the size classes and geographic locations of the cities, and regardless of type of planner. The planners perceive a prob- lem of establishing suitable relationships for working to- gether on what they define either as mutual problems or as the type of problems in which they feel they could improve the quality of school decisions. This is in contrast to the situation, which is the case with most of the city departments, in which the problem is one of conflict in the patterned relationships. The possible exception to this point has to do with the police and fire departments, which tend to be extremely independent and to go their own way. The selection of sites for police stations and fire stations and working with officials from these departments seems to be a difficult area for planning directors. Because of the greater desire to participate in 86 TABLE 24 Problem—Interrelationships: City Departments and Schools* Lack of Necessary Conflict/Poor Contact Cooperation Board of Zoning Appeals 6 Parks and Recreation 1 Health 1 Police 1 5 Fire 1 4 Water 1 Streets and Traffic (traffic engineer) 1 Public Works 1 Housing 1 Civil Service 2 Other 1 Public Schools 8 Parochial Schools 12 College or University 2 *Coding judgment involved: Because of the suspected over- reporting of the quality of COOperation, the problems indi- cated in Table 24 are relative problems, i.e., relative to the level of reporting of each respondent. A few respondents obviously used the "average" as their best mark, in which case, poor or very poor is used to indicate a problem. Others coded almost everything very well, in which case, falling off this by at least two points on a five point scale (down to "average") is considered to be indicative of a problem relationship. Comments by the respondents were used in coding as indicators of whether or not such problem relationships are indicative of a lack of a necessary contact or of a conflict type of Situ- ation. In all cases, these comments were forthcoming. land use decisions, and the fact that fire facilities are scattered throughout a community, whereas in a small community, most police facilities are centralized, there obviously is a greater possibility for negative contacts with the fire department, and this, in turn, Shows up in the data. 87 Because of the planner's interest in the physical land use plan and its develOpmemt and implementation, it is not surprising that there are occasional conflicts with the public works departments, which are Often responsible for public investment in land develOpment projects. Two direc— tors pointed out that they had had problems in the past in this area, but that these had been resolved.5 The signal fact borne out by the data presented in Table 24 is the problem with the Board of Zoning Appeals. In addition to the six reported cases, two planning directors reported that they had been having problems, but that these had recently resolved in some measure through political actions taken by the manager or the council. In one of these problem situations, the council itself acts as the Board of Zoning Appeals and the planner has an extremely difficult time dealing with the council on this particular matter. Since zoning is one of the key tools available to implement master plans, it is unfortunate that comparatively high number of problems with appeals boards are present, as it must necessarily serve to work against the aims and goals which the planning directors are trying to accomplish with regard to the physical development of the cities in their charge. sSee preceding pages 85-84 for our problems in elicit— ing reports of problem relationships in the interview Situa- tion. We cannot estimate the extent of underreporting in- volved, but it is probably considerable. 88 The planning directors reported an extremely good set of relationships throughout city hall; all went on to define the city manager as the person responsible for building a good working team with good COOperation. In order to further explore the sets of relationships external to the planning office but within city government, we gathered data on informal meetings on the part of other city personnel. we determined whether or not this included the planning director, and whether or not there were factions, cliques, or informal groupings among the department heads. Table 25 summarizes the information. TABLE 25 Informal Staff Meetings by Size of City W = Informal 25,000- 50,000- 100,000 Meetings 50,000 100,000 or more Total Regular 7 5 5 15 Occasional 4 O O 4 Initiated by Executive 1 2 0 None 2 4 1 7 Total 14 11 4 29 Fifteen of the planning directors, slightly over half, report regular informal get-togethers concerned with both city affairs and personal interests. Another four reported 89 occasional get-togethers, and three reported informal get- togethers which were initiated by the executive, either the manager or the mayor, and were held for the purpose of considering, "off the record," as it were, problems of con— cern to the city administration. Of the directors who reported no informal meetings, two added that there existed what they felt to be a situation of generally poor communi- cation within the city administration. Judging from the comments of the directors with regard to all types of meetings, there is no "shadow" government, or informal but powerful set of administrative figures who decide on their own what they will do, what they will not do, and how they will accomplish it. Most of the informal get- togethers are either of a primarily social nature or are directed to specific problem-solving tasks, and are a matter where information is shared and the best judgment of each made available to all interested participants. In the meet- ings they pool their knowledge and attempt to derive work- able solutions for the types of problems the city may face. Table 26 summarizes the data with regard to the existence of factions or cliques among the city department heads. Here, again, the situation varies from city to city. Thirteen of the planning directors reported that none exist, five pointed out that they do exist but are avoided by the plan- ning director. In each of these latter cases the planning director gave us no further information about who was on which side and what sort of cliques they were. They definitely 90 TABLE 26 Factions Among Department Heads None reported 15 Factions exist, avoided by Planning Director 5 Factions: old vs new 5 Factions: appointed vs civil service 2 Factions: other 4 Total 29 preferred not to talk further about this situation. Where factions were reported in eleven cases, and the planning director was involved, the pattern varied. Five cities show a definite pattern of old-timers versus newer, younger men. In all five of these cases, the planning director fell into the younger group. Two of the cities, both relatively large, reported the existence of factions between those department heads who are direct appointments of the mayor, and those who enjoyed civil service status. In others, the pattern varied (plan- ning directors felt that they had other competitors within the city administration). Both said they felt this to be detrimental and both seemed to be as disengaged as possible from this kind of Situation. They prefer not to have their own personal relationships deteriorate to this degree and will not "stOOp" to that level if they can possibly avoid it. 91 One of the planners who reported that there were no real factions existing went on to say that the only split noticeable in their social interaction was between the graduates of the two major state universities, but that this was all in fun and presented no real problems in the day to day conduct of the administrative affairs of the city. In summary, the general content of these informal meet- ings is either social or problem solving in nature, and the problem Solving activities are considered by the planning directors to be Open, above board, and well motivated. In the data on how well they cooperated with the other city departments, the planners report some honest differences of opinion, but at no time in their remarks did they relate this back to any cliques reported to exist, or to other negative factors in the organizational environment. One gets a sense from the interview data, which may be overly Optimistic in this regard, that there are few in- stances of pettiness, back biting, bureaucratic intrigue or organizational skulduggery. One innovative planning director reported that his budget had increased measurably for the last few years in comparison with the other city departments, primarily because he was engaged in an active renewal pro— gram and because the other city departments had not worked very hard. He said that he suspected that some of them may have felt jealous of his advances in this area, but that he had not set out to build an empire, he had just set out to do a job and that the city commission and the manager were 92 helping him get it done. He had more funds at his disposal because he turned out more work. The data indicate no patterns in cliques by type of planner. Innovators are Operative in either environment. In addition to the set of working relationships within the city administration in which the planner is employed, he is from time to time, depending upon circumstances, in touch with other local governments such as contiguous Cities, townships, or the county (or counties) of which his city may be a part. Also, there are a few regional organizations, particularly regional planning commissions, covering larger geographic areas, but not the state in toto. Our data on the amount of contacts the planners had, and how well they managed to cooperate, with the representatives of the other units of local government, are summarized in Table 27. TABLE 27 Relationship With Other Local and Regional Government Units Contacts WOrk Well Problematic City 19 15 4 Township 12 7 5 County 12 5 9 Regional 7 7 Total 50 52 18 95 There are actually more contacts with specific units of government than the fifty reported. Some of the directors report contacts with as many as nine other cities, all of which were working well. Others may report one adjacent city or one or two townships. In all cases, contact with either a Single county or a single regional planning organi- zation was reported. The types of problems encountered have to do with such things as boundary zoning, annexation at— tempts by a city, lack of agreement on expressway or highway routes through contiguous and adjacent units of local govern— ment, or, in a couple of instances, a rural-urban Split where the county has one major city located in approximately its geographical center. The data clearly Show that the regional plan commissions work well with the cities. No problematic relationships are reported. Next, in order of good working relationships are the cities themselves. Three of the directors reported that one of the most functional aspects of this was the fact that they could relate with other professional city planners in adjacent and contiguous cities, and that, because they spoke the same language, they could effectively work on their mutual problems even though, from time to time, they had "friendly" disagreements on some of the matters under discussion. Never- theless, they felt they had a common OCCUpational framework established for working together and attempting to resolve their problems. 94 The townships represent more of a problem than contigu- ous cities. A recurrent theme expressed by the planners, was that there was no professional man to whom they can re- late, or not even a really workable lay planning commission. Again, the attempt from time to time by the central city to annex creates a history of conflict with township government officials, and this probably does nothing to ease the strains on the planner as he attempts to coordinate his activities with those taking place in the township. The counties are reported to be the most difficult with which to coordinate city planning efforts. This may be the result of the fact that in the state where we conducted our research, the county boards of supervisors are composed of representatives from the townships (as well as the city(s)) so that the townships which may be having trouble with a city attempting to annex their territories, raise this prob- lem to the county level, and influence other rural township representatives to go along with them in Opposition to the central city. Two of the planners report difficulty in relat- ing with the professional planners employed by county plan- ning commissions. Both reported that they have known of situations where a joint city-county planning commission with a single professional staff has been much more effective in working on professional endeavors. It would seem unfor- tunate then, in terms of the potential gains to be made from a cooperative relationship, to have established separate city and county planning departments, each with a separate 95 professional staff. I observed that the county planning departments often times do staff work on a semi-consultant basis for their constituent townships, and this again rein— forces the rural biases of the townships and counties in opposition to the goals of the cities. Nothing in these relationships varies with type of planner. In addition to units of local government, the planning directors sometimes interact with representatives from administrative agencies of the state and Federal government. Table 28 summarizes the incidence and character of these contacts. The data in Table 28 clearly indicate that there is a higher level of interaction with the state agencies than with the Federal and that, in general, a slightly more favorable or cooperative set of relationships exist with the state than with the various offices of the Federal government. Conversation with the planners clearly bears this out. Two or three state that the Federal government runs "by the rule book" and that this is "just barely functional." About half of the contacts with the Urban Renewal Admin- istration, or its superior, the H.H.F.A., are reported as "problematic." There are many problems in the administration of urban renewal programs, and these are oftentimes exacer- bated by the personalities involved. My observations suggest that the engineer in charge of the regional Office handling affairs for the state often appeared to make things unneces- sarily difficult for local planning officials. 96 TABLE 2 8 Relationships With State and Federal Agencies Good Problematic State Highway Dept. 17 8 State Conservation Dept. 2 1 State 701 Administration 10 0 State Econ. Expansion 5 0 State Health Dept. 5 0 State Other 0 Federal H.H.F.A.* 7 5 Federal U.R.A. 15 4 Federal P.H.A. 5 0 (Federal) F.H.A. 6 2 Federal Other 2 3 Total State 57 9 Total Federal 51 14 *The Housing and Home Finance Agency (H.H.F.A.) at the time of interviewing and for some years preceding, included under its jurisdiction the Urban Renewal Administration (U.R.A.) , public Housing Administration (P.H.A.) , and the Federal Housing Administration (F.H.A.). All four were cited by the planners in their responses to this question. It must be kept in mind that planners are servants and students of local government, and may be quite biased in their perceptions of an apprOpriate, manageable, comfortable level of government in which to work. However, many of them are much more comfortable dealing with various state agencies, with the possible exception of the Highway Department where 97 they have problems on route location, than they are with the various agencies of the Federal government with whom they come in contact. Key_Administrative Relationshtps In this chapter on the current occupational Situation, we have dealt with materials and details having to do with the relationships between the planning director and other paid governmental employees, be they on his staff, in other city departments, or in the employ of other units of govern- ment. We shall close the current occupational Situation presentation by dealing briefly with the complex set of relationships obtaining between the planning director and three key social actors in his day-to-day working environ- ment, the planning commission, the city manager,6 and the city council, together with some material on relationships with community organizations. The planning director is in a situation where he may be faced with conflicting role demands and expectations, certainly a Situation which contains a good deal of ambigui— ties for him in terms of where his responsibilities and 6In some instances, a strong mayor stands in the place of the city manager. However, this does not introduce im- portant differences. Usually, the mayor is either the city council member with the largest number of votes, or is a relatively "weak" mayor and the major executive responsibili- ties in the day-to-day administrative affairs are exercised by a city manager. 98 authority lie. However, one of the advantages in such a situation is that a strongly inner-directed personality is able to work in the potential freedom provided by such an ambiguous situation to a very good end in terms of further- ing their own goals as laid down for them by the professional values and norms which they bring to their position. Some professionally trained planning directors are just this sort, that is, they have internalized the professional norms and goals for what a city Should be and what a city planning Operation Should be and take Significant behavioral cues from this body of knowledge. Such a strongly motivated indi- vidual is able to thread his way through the loose web of social relationships in which he is placed, continue to advance in his programs and his career in the directions which he chooses, being careful to honor other role expecta— tions or claims upon himself and his planning function only when they are mutually agreeable to his aims and in further- ing his program. To put it in a Slightly different manner, such a loosely structured, ambiguous type of social situation allows him to decide pretty much what he will do, when, and with whom. This sort of Situation, at certain stages in the develOp— ment Of a given program or Operation, can be very advantageous because of its potential capacity to be exploited, which is built into it by the very looseness of the variable role expectations. ‘While it may be very difficult to get other actors in the situation to carry out actions which may be 99 necessary, it is conversely extremely difficult for them to prevent the planning director from carrying out that which he wishes to carry out, and insofar as his goals are such that he can proceed towards them with little support from other social actors, he is free to move in the direction he wants to, and no one has the capacity to effectively impede his progress. In asking the planning directors about the possible overlapping Obligations to the planning commission, the city council, and the manager or the chief executive officer, we phrased our question7 so that there were two possible inter— pretations of responsibility. One is the matter of legal responsibility as SXpressed in terms of a formal organiza- tional chart. The other interpretation, as cued by the "Who would you take orders from" part of the question, has to do with who it is that the planning director works for. Our data indicate that the respondents did perceive both the option of formal responsibility, in which case they would answer, generally, the plan commission, or the alternative of who they actually work for, in which case they tended to report a Split in responsibility as indicated by whom they take orders from. Only six did not report a Split in responsibility. The extra manuvering room would seem to be a real advantage, as all of the innovative directors ._'_Y 7The question, page 14 of the questionnaire was stated, "Who would you say are most responsible to-—the commission, the council, the mayor, the manager? Who would you take orders from. . . ." 100 reported a Split between at least two of the three possible authorities, the plan commission, city council, and execu- tive. The comments of those who reported a split shed some light on the strains which may be felt by them in this situation. Their responses are exemplified by the following: "I feel I am not responsible to anyone, unfortunately, and each goes their own way. I am formally responsible to the manager. There is a split between the council in the loose, informal structuring of their relationships." "I feel I am approximately equally responsible to the commission, the council, and the manager, and the council has the purse strings and I am caught right in the middle." But these relationships can be made to work, as indi- cated by the following comments: "I am most responsible to the commission and the mayor and secondarily to the council and I feel the relationships, in all cases, are good working relationships." "I was hired by the plan commission and feel that they are the body to whom I am responsible. I take orders on technical affairs and work load from the manager, and there has been no conflict in this so far." Table 29 contains data which describes how the plan commission actually spends its time. A majority, as indi- cated by the table, Spend most of their time on zoning and subdivision regulations. If we add to this the five com— missions which are also spending time on renewal programs, 101 TABLE 29 Plan Commission Work Load Cities Mostly Zoning, Subdivision regulations 17 Over 1/2 time long-range planning Mostly zoning & renewal (including C.B.D.) 5 Don't do much 2 Total 29 over two-thirds of the plan commissions Spend almost all of their time on implementation or plan effectuation activities.8 In contrast, only five of the plan commissions Spend more than fifty percent of their time concerned with long-range plan- ning, and policy formulation. The comments of the respondents indicate that in at least two cases, the directors are attempting to get the com- mission steered away from its concern with day-to-day deci- sions in zoning, in order to be able to spend more time on long-range planning. As one director put it, "They have spent a lot of their time on zoning, and this is a serious Problem. Our staff has been successful regarding the (plan- ning) program, but every so often we tend to take it and run 8This assumes that the zoning and subdivision ordi- nances in fact have something to do with implementing the master plan, which experience in America indicates is not al. ways the case. 102 a little too fast. We are going to have more special meet- ings on planning matters in order to keep up with that and the zoning work load." Two others report that they are try- ing to schedule additional plan commission meetings in order to have more time available for long-range planning con- Siderations. A number of the comments are indicative of the fact that the plan commission itself, in most cases, does not originate its own work load, but instead, responds either to referrals from the city council, the planning staff, or re- quests for specific decisions originated when a citizen applies for a building permit. The following quotes are indicative of this impression. "Right now (they are reviewing the zoning amendments) they spend most of their time on zoning . . . everything of a planning nature or initiating studies comes from me." "Lately they have been spending most of their time on the disposition of renewal lands, 75—80%, and about 20-25% on zoning." This is not always the case, however. One of the commissions in a city with a rapidly growing, and by professional standards, successful planning program, is characterized in the following manner. "They spend about 60% of their time on policy matters and determining goals and about 10% on zoning and about 25% on capital improvements, and are good at major project development and public rela- tions. They are well enough instructed in planning matters that I feel I can send them out on Speeches." 105 The impression one gets in reviewing the data is that the planners feel that they can work comfortably with their plan commission and the plan commissions tend to go along with their recommendations, with an occasional exception regarding zoning matters. The managers tend to exercise the most surveilance, control, and support in the day-to-day work activities, and the city councils enter the picture particularly at the time of budget making. This is indeed a complex array of other Social actors, but most of the plan- ning directors survive well in this arrangement. Again, many of the planners handle this by falling back on their internalized professional values. As one director reported, “In my dealings with the council, I am careful not to feel them out or anything else. I do what I think is technically and professionally the best job and let them take it from there. Table 50 summarizes the amount of contact with various types of organizations or institutions which the planners reported to us in a very open-ended question. These are the groups or organizations with which they have relatively long— term working relationships established or other patterned forms of contacts. It is not surprising that the highest single amount of contacts are with real estate boards. The planners report some satisfactory and some unsatisfactory working relation— ships with real estate people. One planner, in a city which has had problems with the real estate interests in the past, 104 TABLE 50 Community Contacts of Planning Directors Contacts Real Estate Board 21 Chamber of Commerce and/Or C.B.D. organization 20 Homeowners Associations 8 Service Clubs, etc. 5 Utility Companies 2 Banks 2 Human Relations, N.A.A.C.P., etc. 2 University or College 2 due to a series of political activities on their part sup- ported by a campaign fund raised through contributions to a multiple listing Service, reports that he now meets for an hour and a half with the real estate board every Thursday morning, and that they have worked out a satisfactory rela— tionship. Another director reports that his board likes to participate in detailed decisions with regard to land de- velopment and that sometimes they can be troublesome in broader planning matters. Next in order of importance, numerically, are the Chamber of Commerce or central business district organizations. In some communities the central business district organization is a subsection of the chamber, in others they may be mutually overlapping organizations. In any case, twenty planners 105 report good working contacts with these groups, either one or both. The tone of the remarks regarding the Chambers of Commerce or the central business district organizations is generally much more positive than those dealing with the real estate boards. One planner remarked that his chamber is totally community oriented. Another remarked that his chamber was, at the moment, relatively dormant, but they were all hoping to improve its activity and service record so that he could accomplish more of his goals. A third planner, work— ing in a situation with “old time political hacks" and a non— professional manager, reported that the downtown group was one of his key sources of support. He could go to them, generate interest and support, and get some action on his proposals-—otherwise it was a "dead situation." Others re- port very good contacts with utility company representatives, and others reported they have worked very nicely with banks, in addition to their other contacts within the community. Eight directors report that they are in regular contact with homeowners associations. Three reported contact with the service clubs, generally of a public relations nature, which might possibly be classified along with the other contacts. Only two planners reported that they were in active interaction with human relations groups, the N.A.A.C.P., or other similar organizations. A number of planners report that they are in contact with individual develOpers, particu- larly where they are in growing suburban cities or engaged 106 in active renewal programs, and this then tends to become a key part of their concern. In these instances, however, they tend to deal man by man, firm by firm and parcel by parcel, rather than with organizations. When examined by type of planner, there is no pattern to the type of organization which the varying types of planners are in contact with. But the innovative planners report more community contacts, and the data indicate that they are aware of these avenues to community decision-making and support. Summary All of the planners are active in a complex web of social relationships, within and without the Office in city government, with representatives of other levels of govern- ment, and with an assortment of community groups. The inno- vative planners have larger staffs, larger budgets, and a lively sense of community contacts. Other than that, they do not differ markedly from the pre-innovative or adaptive planners. The innovators all work in a system of split responsibility, whereas some of the adaptive and pre-innovative men feel a sole responsibility to the executive, the plan commission or the city council. But many of the non-innovative planners also report a Split in their work responsibilities. Let us turn now to a consideration of the political aspects of the planners occupational situation. CHAPTER IV POLITICAL ASPECTS OF THE PLANNERS' SITUATION Introduction Every facet of the planning director's activities, of his role playing behavior, has as one of the threads in the complex strand of interactional activities that of the authority dimension. In any of his interactions, the planner is acting in a manner subservient to the authority of others, he is sharing authority with others or he is exercising authority over others. In turn, this exercise of authority, singly or with others or subservient to it, is related to the power of an individual or group. An excellent brief summary of this is to be found in Mitchell‘s analysis of Talcott Parson's work.1 In Mitchell's chapter on the “Institutional Structure of the Polity,"2 he summarizes Parson's work on authority in the following manner: 1William C. Mitchell, Sociological Anatysis and Politics (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, Contempor- ary Political Theory Series, 1967). 21pm .. pp . 99-124. . 107 108 In brief, authority is a subtype Of institution which governs the production and allocation of power. More particularly, 'authority comprises the general rules which govern the making Of Specific binding decision. . . . It is the institutional matrix of the function- ing of power.‘ A more extended definition reads: . an institutionalized complex of norms which do not involve the prescription, permission, or prohibi- tion of particular acts, but which on a general level define the conditions under which, structure, in the given social and in given statuses and situations within it, acts of others within the same collectivity ppy_ be prescribed, permitted, or prohibited.3 Mitchell points out the following: Parson's emphasis on authority as a component of politi- cal systems seems to be a most fruitful one--one that is frequently forgotten in power analyses of nation- states and particularly in the study of community power structures. An implication in the study of community power structures is that nothing need be said about the system except to describe its power relationships. Whatever is done is done only because power has been exerted. The notion that decisions may be made and accepted because authority is involved is seldom recog- nized nor made explicit.4 Weber defines authority as "the probability of Securing obedience to specific commands on the part of a given group of persons“ and defines power as “the probability within a Social relationship of being able to secure one's own ends even against Opposition.“S The very existence of a professionally staffed planning activity in the local structure of government indicates a 31mm, 9. 111. 4Ibid., p. 112. aralcott Parsons, The Structure of Social Action (Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, ), p. 656 and'Weber, 'Wtrtschaft und Gesellschaft, pp. 28 and 122. 109 positive commitment on the part of the community and its institutions to support of the planning function. Prior policies and decisions will have been made and implemented with regard to establishing the function, providing budgetary support for planning activities, and securing appropriate personnel. In this sense, a legitimate authority has been granted the planning director insofar as his institutional base is concerned. We are dealing then, with a situation in which some basic decisions have already been made, and a certain amount of authority for planning established. Operating from this base, the planning director then works marginally to increase his authority, and thereby his power, or to prevent decreases in it. He must attempt to carry out the planning function as he best sees fit without alienating or eroding his institutional and/or community support to such an extent that his activities result in losses to his authority rather than gains. Clearly, in such a situ- ation, radical changes are an unlikely probability, and what one would anticipate discovering is that the planning di- rectors play for marginal, evolutionary type changes in the social system of which they are a part. This, in turn, must necessarily put some constraints on them with regard to what they can and cannot attempt to accomplish. As an actor with a vested interest6 in the system, it is likely that the 6Talcott Parsons, The Social System (Glencoe, Illinois: The Free Press, 1951), p- 491- 110 motivational structure of the planner will be such that he will not be inclined to risk radical proposals and changes, even though these might, in terms of the larger conditions of the system, be actually more apprOpriate solutions to the socially and/or professionally defined problems of the system. In his political relationships with others, the author- ity dimensions of role are carried on along with other behavior patterns indicative of other elements of role behavior. The roles of the planner have been reported in the following way: These functions, or roles, of planners are not only categories of activity which may be investigated, but they also relate to two specific sets of relationships planners maintain with others in the political system. For this reason they are not merely arbitrary classifi- cations of activity, but constellations of behavior pat— terns with definite functions in distinct social sub- systems. Specifically, the reference group of the planner in his institutional role consists of the administrative organization of which the planning agency is a part. The reference group of the planner in his professional role is the planning profession, and Specifically the American Institute of Planners and other organizations. The reference group of the planner in his political inno— vation role is the community leadership structure. His reference group with respect to his educational role is the urban community at large which he is obligated to 'plan'. His behaviors towards these groups vary, and occasionally conflict. The conception indicated here, while independently developed, bears considerable simi- larity to the 'role sector' analysis discussed by Gross, Mason, and McEachern (1958), and is consistent with it.7 7Robert T. Daland and John A. Parker, "Roles of the Planner in Urban Deve10pment," in Chapin F. Stuart, Jr. and Shirley F. Weiss, eds., Urban Growth Dynamics in a Regional Cluster of Cities (New York and London, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1962 . 111 Again, in each of these roles there is an authority dimension and although the question of authority is liable to loom a good deal larger with respect to the political innovation role, nevertheless, the authority of the planner must be established and can be increased or decreased in any of these role relationships. The conduct of these roles, in turn, affects the ability of the planner to get things done. The educational role may make it easier to innovate in the political role, and the professional role may assist in enhancing the planner's credibility and acceptability to the others with whom he is interacting in the institutional role or the educational role. Adequate functioning in any role may enhance the probabilities of goal accomplishment in any of the others. A great deal of research has been carried out in recent years on local community power structure and political behavior. This has been usefully summarized by Robert R. Alford, in an article entitled "A Comparative Study of Urban Politics."8 There have been three principle objects of study in the area of comparative urban politics: decisions, policies and roles. A decision is a particular act by a local government agency or other authoritative group. A policy is a series of decisions of a certain type, any one of which has a certain probability determined by the consistency of the policy, its legality, and support by political and economic forces. A role of ggvernment is a commitment to certain types of policies, 8Leo F. Schnore and Henry Fagin, eds., Urban Research and Policy Planning (Beverly Hills, California, Urban Affairs gnnual Reviews, Sage Publications, Inc., Vol. 1, 1967), pp. 65-504. 112 established fOrmally by law or informally by means of the dominance of groups in a community holding certain political values and goals.9 Alford then defines urban political factors; namely, situa- tional, structural, cultural, and environmental. A situa- tional factor is one which pertains to a particular sequence of events.and balance of political and social forces bearing upon and determining a particular decision. A structural factor includes both long term situations and relatively un- changing structural elements of the society or political system. Cultural factors are defined as the value commit- ment of groups within the community as a whole as eXpressed through laws and policies. Environmental factors are defined as those which are considered to Operate outside the boundar- ies of the particular community and political system under analysis although they help to affect the situation. After an excellent summary of the research literature in the field, he points out that, . . . those who have studied particular decisions have usually sought their explanations in situational factors, policies have usually been explained by structural factors and role of government by cultural ones. Because of limitations of resources, few studies have systematically taken environmental factors into account.10 Alford also concludes that the analysis of decisions, based on situational factors, tends to be short range in terms of the focus of analysis along the time dimension. This vari- ation in the time dimension may result in major differences 91bid., p. 264. 1°Ibid., p. 301. 113 in understanding the behavior of local community political systems. »When this type of analysis is applied to the structural elements as defined in the roles described in the Parker and Daland study, it can be seen that they are considering a longer time frame, and are more concerned with develOpment of policies and roles of government than specific decisions about given items. At the same time the role of political innovator may focus on a few decisions of major impact occurring in a relatively brief time span, such as the de- cision to create a downtown mall. Their report indicates the interrelationships between the short term and long term activities and impact of the planner on the community and vice versa. Another element which Parker and Daland deal with in their description of the roles of the planner specifically relates the planner in his political innovation role to the power structure of the community. Again, the growing body of literature indicates that the "power structure" is not all that simple and may, in some cases, not even exist. Francine F. Rabinovitz has dealt with this problem.11 The variability of community decision making systems suggests a diversity of roles for those who wish to guide urban growth. A community with an elite political group may provide a hospitable environment for the uFrancine F. Rabinovitz, "Politics, Personality and Planning,“ Public Administration Review (March, 1967), pp. 18-24. 114 planner as technical staff aid. In a community with a more competitive pattern of decision making, the planner may be required to be a broker, arbitrating between Opposed interests to build support for innova- tion. In.a fragmented system, where §g_hoc coalitions form on particular issues but are rarely maintained, and it is easier to prevent action than sustain it, the planner may have to act as mobilizer of influence. He might first have to arouse those with interests in an issue and then coordinate these interests.12 These variable characteristics of communities as current research leads us to understand them have to do with the role playing behavior of the planner in his role as political innovator. As pointed out above, the planner may exercise authority not only in his role of political innovator, but also in his organizational interactions as a full time employee of city government—-his institutional role. In conjunction with this, the research on the role of professionals or semi- professionals in large organizations sensitizes the researcher to some of the conditions which must be understood in order to arrive at a better understanding of the behavior of the city planner as an organizational member. Bernard Barber is a useful source for this.l3 In his section on professional roles and organizational necessity, Barber maintains the following: 121bid., p. 679. 13Bernard Barber, "Some Problems in the Sociology of the Professions,“ in Daedalus, Journal of the American Academy 2£_A££§_§nd Sciences (Fall, 1963i: issued as Vol. 92, No. 4 of the Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, The Professions, pp. 669-688. 115 One of the essential attributes of the professional role we have seen is autonomy or self control by the professionals themselves with regard to the develOpment and application of the body of generalized knowledge in which they alone are eXpert. (See the role of the planner as professional expert above.) On the other side if there is an essential requirement for an effec— tive formal organization which is devoted to the coordi- nation of a variety of activities necessary for the realization of some specialized goal, it is that the executive maintain adequate control over all those per- sons in the organization reSponsible for carrying out the subsidiary activities . . . inevitable strain exists, then, in this situation . . . but a variety of accommo- dative mechanisms can often be created to reduce the strain or to forestall conflict resulting from the strain that remains.14 Barber then describes three types of accommodative mechanisms: differentiated role structure, differentiated authority structures and differentiated reward structures. Differen- tiated role structures are created in such a manner that Specialized roles in partially segregated substructures of the organization are maintained for the professionals. One of the problems of this, Barber points out, is that the pro- fessional may find it harder to get other groups in the organization to use his ideas and skills. Where differentiated role structures exist to pro— tect his own needs, the professional must be all the more active in transmitting his professional knowledge and skill to other differentiated subgroups in his em— ploy or organization. He has to be forceful in promot- ing his ideas, because of lack of knowledge of what he can do and because of structural resistence.1 A Specialized type of authority structure is often created generally by having a professional himself act as the 1“11:31:51., p. 579. 151bid., p. 680. 116 authority figure by playing a role as "professional- administrator." "Finally there is the accommodative mechanism that con- sists of differentiated reward structures. Organizations that employ professionals can usually create opportunities fbr them to achieve professional rewards while still serving the primary needs of the organization."16 Barber points out that these include facilities and such rewards as the oppor- tunity to participate in professional meetings, publish research, continue education with training through tuition subsidies and leaves of absence, and not having to be bothered with nonprofessional work. . . . In most organizations, of course, there exist only different approximations to success in establish- ing these differentiated structures required by pro- fessionals. With better understanding of them as necessary accommodative mechanisms, however, consider- able improvement in the relations between professional roles and organizational necessities could be achieved in many business, government and other formal organi- zations.17 Survey Findings The survey data and participant observation in the planning profEssion allow us to make the following points with regard to the city planning director and these accommo- dative mechanisms. Certainly, a differentiated role larbid., p. 681. 17ibid., p. 682. 117 structure exists, and the planning office, as a partially segregated substructure of the organization, is maintained as a haven for the professionals. This, in turn, creates the strains of attempting to communicate planning concepts across internal organizational, substructure boundary lines, a task which is not always carried out successfully.18 The materials on the problems certain planning directors have with engineering and public works departments support this contention. Turning to the third accommodative mechanism, the dif- ferentiated reward structure, we see an interesting varia- tion from city to city. Twenty-one cities provide for released time for their planners to attend university classes during the day, provide funds for attendance at professional meetings, and attempt to otherwise encourage the planner in his pursuit of his professional goals. Indeed, one of the most important rewards a city may provide a planner with is the publication of master plans, new or revised zoning 18M.E.T.R.O. Project Technical Report No. 5, A Gaming gimulation, Report on Phase I, "Plan effectuation, or the implementation of specific proposals, has always been a weak link in the planning chain. The first generation of "Master Plans" failed, by and large, because they did not present realistic alternatives: second generation "Compre- hensive Plans" similarly were of restricted value, more because their increased s0phistication and complexity re- sulted in recommendations which could not readily be trans- mitted to the decision-makers of the community. The latest generation of plans has vastly increased the gap between the urban "plan-makers" and the "decision-Makers“ they attempt to serve." M.E.T.R.O., Tri-County Regional Planning Commis- sion, Lansing, Michigan, January, 1966. 118 ordinances, or other planning studies which are the result of the professional work of the planner. These, in turn, allow him to build a professional record which enhances his ability to secure higher paying positions, should he choose to move. The authority pattern, as has been pointed out in the chapter on the current occupational situation, is a complex one. The planner normally is in charge of his own office, but recognizes some sort of formal responsibility to the plan commission. However, the responses of the planning directors indicate that they generally control their commis- sion through informal means quite effectively, and thus the capacity to initiate programs and requests for programs. In addition, they are somewhat responsive to the requests of the city manager and, particularly at budget time, are within the sphere of influence of the city council. In all cases there is a delicate balance between the planner being treated as a semi-autonymous professional and his being treated as a civil servant or "hired hand" with a knack for doing certain kinds of things, who is suPposed to take orders from others in more authoritative positions, and assist them in carrying out their goals. Some role strains inevitably result. We have placed the planner, then in a complex social situation, stressed that he plays multiple roles in inter- action with other social actors in his environment. Influ- encing any analysis is a variable time dimension which 119 includes the short term consideration of individual deci- sions with regard to policies, and broader changes in the role of government. Further, the planner is faced with certain organizational necessities and some accommodations to these necessities, due to this locus of employment within the institution of local government. Finally, the planner's authority, and whether he exercises it, shares it with others, or is subservient to others, varies with respect to a large number of variables from situation to situation, role to role, time to time, and task to task. The individual planning director may vary in his place- ment along a continuum of SOphistication with regard to his knowledge of and about the complex concatenation of vari- ables in the environment in which he is working. At one end may be a very unSOphisticated individual who does not know much about organizational necessities, differences between communities, is unaware of the available information on the roles of the planner, and is blissfully ignorant of the research findings on the community power structures. He may have limited training in certain aSpects of technical plan- ning tasks, such as land use planning, the writing of zoning ordinances, design in an architectural sense, and rudimen- tary forecasting techniques. And he may be at work in a community with only these limited and uns0phisticated profes- sional resources. At the other end of the continuum, ideally, might be a person with considerable training in recent social science research in the above mentioned areas, considerable 120 experience in working with a variety of communities, an ex— tremely sophisticated political animal who realizes all of the sources of support and Opposition in his environment, who knows how to organize other actors, mobilize coalitions to accomplish goals, and who is otherwise extremely knowl- edgeable about processes of successful social action, innovation and change. One measure of the political aspect of planning activities, then, may be delineated as the measurement of the political awareness and SOphistication Of the planner himself. Another measure of political events within the sphere of planning activities is the measure of results, Of accom- plishment, Of what gets done. In specific, concrete terms, this is measurement of how and to what ends authority is exercised, a measurement of the ability of the planner to get decisions made and actions taken, policies established, and decisions and policies carried out. In short, how well is his authority accepted and acted upon, and, in a larger sense, how is the conduct of government changed through the incremental effects of specific decisions and broader poli— cies over the long term. The concern here, then, is with hOW’mUCh of the planner's ends and acts are accepted by the other actors in the situation, and how much planning gets done, accepted and acted upon.19 191t is interesting to note that there is no necessary, logical or empirical correlation between these measures or the empirical phenomena they represent: that is to say, a 121 If one looks at the specific activities of the planner in an attempt to discover how it is that he moves to accom- plish his ends, it is helpful to focus upon such behavior as his ability to initiate action, his ability to veto or stop other people's activities, and his ability to support or maintain activities which he desires. These may be cate- gorized as his ability to set goals, and his ability to implement these goals, or plans, once they have been estab- lished. Basically, there is a set of day to day actions which the planner, acting in his various roles, carries out, and which have to do with these phenomena. In order to separate the planner's perception of his political activities, from an impartial analysis of the activities of the planner, it is necessary to set aside the consideration of the plan- ner's perception, self-awareness, or SOphistication about his political activities. This will be taken up in the next chapter. The remainder of this chapter will center upon the data in the survey which bear upon what gets done in these communities, and what this implies with regard to the exer- cise of authority on the part of the city planning director Vis-a-vis other actors in the situation. ‘What then, are the recent accomplishments of planning Offices surveyed? sophisticated planner may or may not accomplish his ends, and, conversely, a relatively unSOphisticated planner, in the political sense, given the right set of circumstances, might accomplish a broad and fruitful set of Objectives within a given community, or he might fail. 122 TABLE 51 Planning Accomplishments of Twenty-Six Cities Type of Activity Number of Cities Renewal 14 Preventing specific types of land use development 14 Master planning activities (including establishing a viable planning function) 10 Zoning-~broad ordinance revision, amendment, or adoption 8 DeveIOpment of other codes and ordinances and enforcement Special studies 6 Parks and recreational planning and development 5 Capital improvement planning. including bond issues 4 Public housing (Miscellaneous 6 A considerable proportion of the concerns and activities of the planner, at least in policy areas where he is able to accomplish things, has to do with automobiles and central business districts. Examination Of the data indicate that almost all of the parking projects are concerned with parking in and adjacent to central business district areas, and that most of the urban renewal programs are concerned with aiding the development Of the central business district, either through the direct application Of renewal to the commercial sites involved, or as‘a means Of improving the economic 125 hinterland of central business district areas by rooting out slum buildings and slum pOpulations, and replacing these with higher tax yield structures designed (and priced) to be inhabited by middle and upper middle income residents. At the other end of the spectrum is the showing in public housing, with only two cities reporting significant accom- plishments in the time period involved. The pattern of accomplishments clearly demonstrates that the economic dominants in a community are Open to plan- ning endeavors in substantive areas which are of material assistance to their economic interests, such as the central business district development, related renewal programs, and parking and expressway patterns which will enhance the economic life of the community. The planners' responses in- dicate that they have been able to do a number of signifi— cant things at the level of individual land use decisions, but it must be assumed that the overall impact of these few preventive steps cannot be very important in determining the quality of life of the community because Of the limited spatial and social magnitudes involved. Note that the basic plan-making activities themselves loom relatively large in importance in the reported accomplishments. This is rein- forced by further comments in the data, made by planners in the few cities which are still Operating without completed master plans. In each case, the planner reported that he was not satisfied with this condition, and felt that he would have a much better basis upon which to make day-to-day 124 decisions as soon as he had his master plan completed. The professional norm here, of course, is very strong. But also, evidently, the planners like to be able to use a master plan document as a bench mark against which to measure specific decisions affecting day-to-day problems. It is obvious that the planner, as change agent, is best able to exercise authority over other cities in the system when working on matters which can be perceived as being in the interests of the economic dominants in the system. To the extent that the system can be argued to have its own economic logic20 Of develOpment as Opposed to socialzl or political base for controlling develOpment actions, it may be that the planner perceives no other practicable alternatives. A brief look at federal census statistics on housing quality indicates that almost all cities of any size have varying proportions of low grade housing. There are seven cities in our survey which have been built up largely since World War II,22 are suburbs, and which do not have this type of housing problem. However, the imbalance in housing activities in contrast to commercial activities and 20Amos H. Hawley, Human Ecology_(New YOrk: Ronald Press, 1950). 21Walter Firey, Land Use in Central Boston (Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1947). 22These cities have sixty percent or more Of their hous- ing units built since 1950, as reported in the 1965 Municipal Xear Book. 125 transportation (including parking programs), and a similar relative lack of attention to parks and recreation, indi— cates that a significant number of human needs and problems may be going unmet by the planning activities' cumulative impact on the community. The program areas in which the planner is able to get things done are primarily those in which his pr0posals support the dominant perceived economic functions of the community. The data presented in Table 52 represent areas of plan- ning activity in which planning directors were unsuccessful. They reported these failures because of their concern over lack of acceptance. These, then, are areas where they have attempted unsuccessfully to exercise their authority for the furtherance of their programs. The orders of magnitude represented in our data indi- cate that the planners report that they are concerned with relatively small, in terms of impact on the community, land use decisions which "got away" from the planning director. When it comes to such specific decisions with regard to policy implementation, they Often times are not able to accomplish their ends. In View of the heavy emphasis in planning literature on the need to increase the effectiveness of the implementation of plans, it is interesting to note that second in order of reported problems, as indicated by the fact that they cannot get their authority accepted to the extent that it will further their program, is that of the actual planning function itself. As one planner put it, 126 TABLE 52 Areas of Planning Activities Unsuccessfully Attempted Number Of Areas Cities Problem with negative land use arrangements 9 Lack of adequate long-range planning or master plan 7 Inability to influence public investment decisions 5 Problem with codes and ordinances including enforcement 5 Problem with streets, traffic, highways and parking 5 Problems with zoning 4 Problem with urban renewal and conservation programs 4 Problems with C.B.D. development programs 4 Problems with housing, including public housing 5 Problem with capital improvement planning 2 Negative community environment 2 Industrial development or business organization 2 "I have been pulled away from our more general planning stud- ies. We have done a couple of area studies but nothing for the city as a whole. I feel that this is a definite lack because we don't have a broad framework giving us the neces- sary basis for making decisions about specific prOpOsals when they come in.“ Another planning director who had reported real progress in establishing a viable planning function, is still dissatisfied with it. Although the city has made a 127 good beginning, he feels that it needs more long-range plan- ning, giving as his reason "it's important for the city." Third in order of occurrence is the inability of the planners to communicate planning concepts and secure compliance across departmental boundaries within the city organization. This shows up with regard to public investment in such areas as park lands, fire stations, and civic center develOpment. They are decisions where planners are unable to influence either the apprOpriate departments, or the political decision makers who allocate the budget funds. The remainder of the problem areas are such as to indi- cate a concern with normal planning activities, and highlight the fact that from time to time, in city to city, planners encounter difficulties as they attempt to carry out their functions in a relatively Open political environment where any activity may, from time to time, be generated into an issue, or Opposed by other actors in the system. In contrast to the evident concern with elements of the community which matter to middle and upper class groups is the fact that only two cities reported accomplishments in housing, and this in light of the extremely limited accomplishment in public housing and the census data which indicate that dilapidated housing represents a significant portion Of the total stock in all but the newer suburban areas. Furthermore, as indi— cated by lack of opposition reported by respondents, the planners are not trying on this particular problem, or were not at the time our data was collected in the Fall of 1964 128 or the year previous to this. The data indicate that in two of the cities reporting problems with urban renewal programs, the renewal projects are part of their attempts to deal with problems in the central business district. This, again, serves to indicate the close tie-in between the existing emphasis in urban renewal programs and concern with downtown develOpment. ~SO far, in the analysis of the data, attention has been focused on substantive areas Of work in which the planner either succeeds because his authority is accepted (or the authority of others for whom he is working is accepted) or there is some resistance with a resulting lack of authority. Another important consideration to be noted at this point is that of which other individuals and groups are involved in these various substantive areas and what is the nature of their relationships along the authority dimension of role with the planner? Reasoning from the preceding explanation of the occupational situation, it is possible to derive the following classification system for the various Spheres of activity, and the people and groups involved in each sphere or set of role relationships, with whom the planner may be involved. (1) Internal governmental relationships. These are still within the structure of government but include relationships with the legislative body, the chief executive if he is elected, the board Of zoning appeals, or its equivalent, the courts, and the planning commission. It moves out of the realm of the Civil Service and includes all of the various functionaries of local government. 129 (2) Internal administrative relationships. These are relationships within the administrative structure Of the city government. (5) External relationships, involving small numbers of peOple and small numbers of organizations. An example of this type of involvement would be a problem with the location of a gasoline station in a residential neighborhood, where the primary actors involved would be the neighborhood improvement associ- ation, the real estate firm representing the oil company and representatives of the company itself. (4) External relationships, involving other governmental agencies. A prime example of this is the impact of the Federal Urban Renewal Agencies on planning and renewal programs, or, in the sphere of streets and traffic, the impact of the state Highway Department on expressway location decisions. (5) External relationships, involving large numbers of people and organizations. This is typified by a situation such as a bond issue for public improvement, where pressure groups for and against it are involved, various special interest associations are active in agitating the issue, and the populace at large, is involved in balloting on the issue. In addition to these five spheres of activity and in- volvement, combinations of them may occur. In developing this classificatory scheme and trying to Operationalize it through classification of the data, I tried to classify activities based on the numbers and kinds of people and groups actually involved in the decision, rather than those poten- tially affected by it. As an example, a highway location decision may potentially affect large numbers of persons, both within and without the community, as the highway is finally located, built, and used. However, the numbers in- volved in deciding on the location may vary. On one hand a few people within the city government plus some highway 150 engineers may decide and proceed. With a more controversial location decision, residents of the neighborhood through which the highway is to run may organize around the issue, some for it, some against it, trying to influence the final outcome, and finally, if enough peOple decide to align them- selves symbolically with the issue, the whole community could become involved. In turning to the data to reclassify it within this scheme, it readily becomes apparent that on the basis Of the fact that the planning function exists and is supported to the extent of having a full-time director, authority has been granted to him and his office. All of the directors have a certain amount of authority and exercise it with respect to the internal workings of their planning Offices, and all exercise some authority over other employees of the community governmental agencies. All are involved with other segments of government, via zoning ordinances, which exist in all of the twenty-six cities under consideration here. These ordi- nances have the authoritative legitimation Of the planning commission, the city council, and the court of jurisdiction and represent a: broad measure of governmental involvement. By the same token, in the day to day enforcement of zoning provisions, all planners come in contact with individuals and small groups in the community as, parcel by parcel, land is submitted to authoritative regulation under the ordinance. The data show that twenty-one of the twenty-six cities are related to external units of government, although it is 151 unclear from our data whether they exercise authority in these relationships, participate or share in the exercise Of authority, or are, in fact, subservient. Data presented earlier in the chapter on the current occupational situation indicate that many of the planning directors feel uncomfort- ably subservient when dealing with certain state agencies, and that this feeling is intensified when dealing with federal agencies. In the final category, which by definition involves large numbers of individuals and grouPs, all but one of the cities, with data complete enough for analysis, report some inhibitions on the exercise of their authority in at least one activity in this fifth area. In these cases, the planning directors have tried to accomplish something, or in some cases, have sought to get something stOpped rather than carried out, and they have been unable to do this. This, then, represents a real limitation on the use Of authority to gain their ends. What picture emerges from this examination of the data, then, with regard to the planner's authority in these ever widening spheres Of interaction within city government, with small and large numbers of individuals and organizations within the community, and within extra-community organiza- tions, primarily governmental? The planner does have a firm basis of authority established in all of these areas. However, from time to time and place to place, there are limitations on this authority in all these relationships. 152 For instance, two of the planners are concerned that they have not been able to establish capital improvements planning and programming in their cities. To accomplish this requires the sharing of authority at least and perhaps the acceptances of the planners' authority in this area on the part Of other operating agencies, particularly the budget Offices of other administrative departments and the legislative body which must officially legitimize such a plan. These planners both exercise well-established spheres of authority within their community's governmental institutions in other areas, but in this area, they feel a real limitation on their authority which is contrary to their wishes and desires for the Operation of the planning function in that community. The day-to-day exercise of zoning enforcement regularly brings planners into contact with individuals, singly and in groups, who may wish to develOp or use land in ways which are contrary to the regulations and intent Of the zoning ordinance. Here, significantly, the planners are often unsuccessful in their attempts to exercise their authority. Zoning enforce- ment is based on the initiation of acts not on the part Of the planner, but on the part Of the land user or develOper. In some instances, violations are brought to the attention of the prOper authorities on the basis of the good of other individuals in the community. Rarely, however, does a broad program of zoning enforcement originate from city hall. In the cities under study, only one man reported that he had 155 been able to initiate a move to improve the enforcement of the ordinance. The application of the ordinance to discrete land use decisions is further complicated by the number of other persons involved. In all of the cities under discussion, the first enforcement steps are taken within the Buildings Department or its equivalent. When building permits are issued the zoning code is checked in addition to the applic- able building code, to see that all is in order. The Build- ings Department is charged with the responsibility for issuing notice Of violation in cases that are brought to their attention. The initiation of action, then, is at least two steps removed from the planner. First, a private citizen or developer must initiate a request for action, and secondly, the zoning inspection functionary in the Buildings Department must act, based on his interpretation of the ordinance, which may from time to time differ from the planner's interpreta- tion. Furthermore, in cases Of special approval uses as established in some ordinances, either the approval of the plan commission must be gained, in which case the planner has a chance to influence it, or, in certain cases both the recom- mendation of the plan commissiOn and the final approval of the city council must be Obtained. Should the land develOper or user not feel that his ends have been attained through this route, he may take a denial of his application to the board of zoning appeals or its equivalent, and here again, another set of decision-makers are involved with whom the 154 planner may have a more or less satisfactory record of shar- ing authority, or a more or less strong capability to influence their decisions. It is in this situation of com- plex decision chains that the activities affecting the regu- lation of land use and development take place. It is not surprising that occasional actions are taken which are contrary to the wishes of the planning director. Other factors which may vary from time to time in a given community and can vary considerably from community to community can affect the capacity Of the planner to exercise his authority in the manner in which he desires. Two of the planners reported an extremely negative reception of their efforts on the part of the city councils in their communi- ties. In one community a recent election had resulted in a definitely anti—planning majority on the city council, which made it difficult for the planning department to do any political innovating. They were, at the time of interviewing, holding the line on zoning enforcement and other "house keep- ing" chores, but were forced to bide their time before they would be able to proceed with certain develOpments such as renewal programming, central business refurbishing, and other Office goals. -The planner in this situation does not feel completely out off from his community, however, as there were other organizations in the community, such as the Chamber of Commerce, which were as interested as he was in the attainment of certain of his ends. SO, he bides his time 155 to wait until the local political environment again may change. Another planner facing similar difficulties in getting his recommendations acted upon by the city council reported a general lack of leadership and professionalism both on the council and in appointed positions in the community's civil bureauracy. This sort of negative environment makes it extremely hard for him to get others to accept his recom- mendations on the basis of their professional merit, and to act upon them and help carry them out. This chapter has presented data and interpretation on the substantive areas in which the planner's authority is accepted as indicated by his ability to get things done. We are now in a position to turn, in the next chapter, to some consideration of how this looks to the planner, how he perceives his political environment and his role in it. CHAPTER V THE PLANNERS' PERCEPTIONS OF COMMUNITY POLITICS Introduction Thus far we have presented materials on the occupation— al profile of the city planner, data on the complexities of his working environment, the current occupational situation, and the findings reflecting the analysis of the political dimension of his activities. These findings relate to the area of his activities in which his authority is accepted, in which he shares this authority with others, and activities in which he is subservient to the authority of others. Data on the limitations of his authority have also been presented. It has been argued that, acting as an established functionary in city government, the planner has a body of work with respect to which he is an authority figure. He attempts to expand the margins Of acceptance of his authority in order to increase his efficacy within the system. At the same time he is constrained to protect his institutional base, i.e., to prevent incursions upon his authority on the part of other actors in the system. 156 157 This chapter presents our findings on the planner's perceptions of this process in which he is engaged. The data presented will deal with what it is that the planner perceives going on in the day-to-day conduct of his office, and will describe what he views as the important problems in the political environment, and how he deals or attempts to deal with these problems. The Planners‘I Perceptions of Political Activities Within City Government In the chapter on the current occupational situation we made the case that a major key to understanding the planners' authority relationships are his multiple relationships with the planning commission, whom he serves in a staff capacity, the city manager or chief executive officer who is the full- time executive head of governmental administration and is necessarily a key authority figure in the administrative hierarchy, and the city council, or city commission, the chief legislative branch. We described the various activities of the plan commission and we discussed the quasi-judiciary function of the board of zoning appeals and, in some cases, the courts of jurisdiction. We gathered little data in our survey with respect to the judiciary role, since it is clear that the chain of events leading to this type of involvement necessarily puts the planner and other parties into a role subordinate to the courts. Furthermore, and our data bear this out, there is relatively little day-to-day, or for that 158 matter, month-to-month and year-to-year, contact with the courts. In addition, there is strong motivation to avoid this because of the feeling on the part of many concerned that where things get bad enough that they have to be adjudi- cated, the job is not going well, and it is far preferable to avoid such involvement with all its negative connotations. Most of the actors in city government would rather avoid the city or county courts, and conduct affairs within their more normal spheres of activity. How does the planner perceive his relationships with the planning commission with regard to the authority it delegates to him, formally and informally, and his capacity to influ- ence their decisions? Table 55 summarizes the responses of the planners regarding their perception Of the situation. TABLE 55 Planners‘ Perceptions of Authority Granted Them by Planning Commissions Number of Cities Delegate much authority to planning director and accept his recommendation on everything with the exception Of zoning 18 Delegate much authority to planning director, no mention of zoning 7 Delegate little or nothing to planning director Not receptive to staff recommendations 1 ¥ Total 26 159 The planning directors' comments are interesting. particularly with regard to the largest category, that is. those who are granted considerable authority and are able to have most of their recommendations accepted by the plan com- mission, with the exception of zoning recommendations. Typical comments are as follows: “On zoning, they (the commission) are subject to local community pressures. They delegate responsibility to me, specifically the Operation of the department, on all the plan- ning matters. They give me good SUpport on the whole, and they generally go along with staff recommendations. Where we differ it's because of local Opposition on zoning, and they walk kind of a tight rOpe there. We have a new zoning ordi- nance which I feel is too technical and has some weaknesses which it's known to have, and this makes for problems." "They differ with me in zoning, particularly in the expansion of less restrictive districts." "The commission generally goes along with staff recom- mendations. They tend to differ on some zoning cases and other relatively minor details. The commission is not to be conceived Of as a unitary body. There are many differences, weak and strong, within it on the various matters that come before it." One of the directors who reports no problems on zoning has the following to say. "They delegate a good deal to the director, both formally and informally, and I am particularly charged with effectuation, renewal and with the planning 140 process of design matters and so on. There is very little interference by either the city commission or the planning commission." Another director reports, "They go along with my recommendations 95% of the time. They differ on zoning cases. I feel that in this, sometimes their personal interests go contrary to good zoning." Another director responded, "The commission delegates much responsibility, both formal and informal, on program, on zoning, on estab- lishing policies in map changing. They go along with staff recommendations about 100%." In addition, we gathered data on the planners' contacts with the city council or commission. Because the planners are nominally subservient to the legislative body, we de— cided to elucidate the patterns Of interaction which prevailed in the various communities. This provides data on methods of access to the city legislators which the planners have develOped, and provides some insight into the ability of the planners to influence legislative decisions through Oppor— tunities to communicate information and professional judg- ments to the councilmen (see Table 54). We asked the planning directors about other kinds of contact they might have with the councilmen, in addition to attending council meetings. Table 55 categorizes their responses. A variety Of responses were received to this question with the dominant mode of interaction being a system of informal contacts through which the planning director or his 141 TABLE 54 Attendance of Planners at City Council Meetings Attend Often and/or regularly 17 Attend when planning matters are on agenda 9 DO not attend 2 Attend at request of city manager 1 Total 29 TABLE 55 Informal Contacts with Councilmen Information requests, service 10 Committee meetings, council working sessions (not official) 5 Social contacts 1 NO contacts 5 Avoidance 5 NO data 4 No information 4 Other 2 Total 29 _—_ 142 office SUpplies information to the councilmen. As one man puts it, "I run a sort of information service for the council- men, and I have tried to avoid alliances." This sort of information service is not always positively defined by the planning director as a chance to influence the system. As one man reported, "I feel that some of them just want to burden me with their Opinions or some request for information." JThe second largest category of information contacts as shown in the survey data, indicates avoidance of the council— men so far as information contacts are concerned. In these cases, the planning director prefers to work formally and professionally, within the regular Official meetings of the council, or he approaches them through the manager. The planner is careful not to engage in contact which might serve to raise questions as to whether or not he may be violating the chain of command. All but two of the planning directors would seem to think it a good thing to provide information to the councilmen when it is requested, at least they report no negative feeling about this. There are some interesting additional insights to be gained from the remarks Of the respondents in this context. One man, after reporting that things generally go pretty well, pointed out that earlier in his city's history, for a four year period, there was a split on the council, and it was "much harder to get things through." One who reported that he does not attend council meetings and has no contact with 145 the councilmen informally, or with the mayor, who is a member of the council, goes on to add, "I am in daily contact with the manager." One director reported that he had many calls from councilmen "for information and for advice on how to handle citizens." Another one, after reporting that he stays away from the councilmen, went on to say that council goes along 1,000% with his recommendations. "I do what I think is technically and professionally the best job and let them take it from there." With regard to the information provided by planning directors, one went on to say "This is usually on controversial issues, when they are looking for more (information)." As with the planning commissions, when asked what the city council is liable to go against them on, the most fre- quently mentioned item is zoning. Two Of the men report problems with their councils on traffic or streets. For the most part, there is not much data on the substantive issues, not nearly as much as there is on their relationships with the plan commission. One gets the impression, in inspecting the responses of the planners to these questions, that they perceive themselves in a different role relationship with the council than they do with the plan commission. The plan commission they feel obligated to assist with the best of their professional knowledge, and, where possible, to influ- ence their decisions for the betterment of the city. Some are almost possessive in their feelings about the plan com- mission. Planners refer to "my" commission, when talking 144 about the plan commission, but are much more impersonal in their discussion of the city council, or commission. The city council has final authority, barring the courts, within the urban arena, and is generally perceived as a body which will initiate its own requests for information or other services, which is to be supplied with this as requested, and which is, within the normal framework of democratic ideology, p2£_to be pressured or influenced. Therefore, few attempts are to be made to influence them directly, in any way other than providing technically sound, "professional" planning information. The third key relationships within the structure of city government is that which obtains with the city manager. The perceptions of the planning directors with regard to our questions about the type of relationship which they have with the city manager are as follows. Of the twenty-five cities for which we have appropriate data, five have no manager, so the question does not apply. For the remaining twenty cities, all the planners report that they have a close daily working relationship with the manager. Two planners report that they work through the city manager in dealing with the city council. That there are existing or potential strains in this relationship is not surprising since the planning director is sometimes split in his responsibility between the plan commission, the manager, and the city council. One man 145 reports, for instance, that "With the current manager, the relationship is all right. With the prior manager, I didn't know; We have frequent contacts on detail matters, two or three times per week, largely technical questions. It's hard to get some things across to the manager. With respect to general planning, however, and the highway plan we are concerned with, we got what we were after, and I managed to get this across." Another director reports about the char- acter of his dealings with the city manager, with whom he has very close contact, that "the manager requests things, and I do them. I am almost an assistant to the city manager in certain routines." Another director, in reporting on a close working relationship, reports that "I take my orders on technical affairs and work load from the manager. So far, there has been no conflict in this." Another, in expanding on the type Of contacts with the manager, went on to say they include "technical matters and problems of annexation, capital improvements, and disposition of property." Another reports that he has some problems "with zoning, particularly with the new ordinance. The whole thing was too much. It's a split between the planning commission and the manager. The manager tends to initiate most of these things." Another director reports that "The manager comes up for advice and help in dealing with the (city) commission." Another planner, reporting he works closely with the manager and sees him daily, went on to report that “Once a week we sit down and have a good heart-to-heart." This director is one Of the two 146 who stays completely away from the council and works only through the manager. The daily contact is indicative of the more intense nature of the relationships with the manager. Although we did not ask Specific questions pertinent to the process of resolving staff differences within cities, I would judge from the data and from my participant observa- tion in talking with planners in many situations, that there is a strong pressure, particularly in manager cities, to resolve differences before they are presented to the city council. One planning director referred directly to this process. "The manager and I solve most of our problems before we make a recommendation. The department heads meet- ing together, including the buildings inspector, the city engineer, the utilities director, the renewal director, and parks and recreation, have a staff development committee. And, when they have a major zoning or subdivision matter, we bring in the utility peOple and these other city department heads and go over it and get it set before we go." A classic concern in the literature of planning admin- istration is with the appropriate institutional relationship which will purportedly be most productive of efficient re- sults for the planning function within government.1 The question raised, about which a number of recommendations have been made from time to time, is one from the traditional 1Robert A. walker, The Planning Function in Urban Government (revised ed., Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1950). 147 literature of public administration, and relates to a tradi- tional concern with what set of institutional arrangements will best promote the desired goals or Objectives of a given program.2 The whole movement to utilize the city manager in government was a result of the business oriented ideology of the efficiencies and economies to be realized by the employ of a non-political chief executive or administrative official to manage the city.3 In order to gain some insight into the impact of close day-to-day working relationships with the manager upon the planning efforts in a given city, we compared, for the twenty-five cities for which we have complete information, the record of the planning department in terms of major accomplishments, as summarized above in Chapter IV, and the record of the planning directors in terms of problems in the acceptance of their authority. The data indicate that there are a number of cities without city managers which have as strong a record of accomplishment as any of those with a workable manager-planning director relationship, thereby showing that the absence Of a manager does not necessarily deter the effectuation of an adequate planning program. 2Frederic N. Cleaveland, "Organization and Administration of Local Planning Agencies," Local Planning Administration (Chapter 5, Mary McLean, ed., Chicago: International City Manager's Association, 5rd edition, 1959), pp. 40-75. 3Charles R. Adrian, Governinngrban America (New York: McGraw-Hill Co., Inc., 1955), pp. 219-225. 148 Similarly, the data include a number of cities with the manager-planning director relationship, which report a sig- nificant number Of problem areas. The converse obtains also, namely, two or three non-manager cities with a low number of problem areas. It should be kept in mind that this is not a clear test of the desirability of attaching the planning function to a strong executive. Some of the non-manager cities may have a strong executive, and the planning func- tion may well be supported effectively by this executive, perhaps an elected mayor rather than a city manager. Also, the situation is obscured by the fact that many of the plan- ning directors are at least nominally responsible to the planning commissions, although the data generally indicate that the manager is a much more important authority figure in their day-to-day conduct of planning affairs. It is still a safe assumption that any institutional arrangement will not work unless it is adequately manned by well-motivated and capable peOple. As reported above, one planning director in a manager city said that one of his basic problems in working with the community is that both the councilmen and the manager are amateurs, and there is no leadership to which he can turn for getting things accomplished in city government. A staff advisory role player, the position most planning directors occupy, must have some line decision makers to help imple- ment his thinking, if much is to be accomplished. 149 Two of the planning directors reported a curious role strain which results from the following set of circumstances. First, they make a staff recommendation to the planning com— mission on some decision, in all probability a zoning matter. The plan commission, exercising its own good judgment, decides to turn down this recommendation and support another position on the issue. Then, as is normally the case, the planning director, acting as the agent of the plan commission, reports this new policy recommendation to the city council. At this stage, in at least two of these reported incidents, the city council turned down the plan commission recommenda- tion and decided, itself, to adopt a position on the matter similar to that originally recommended by the planning staff. As one of the directors put it, "You have to be careful how you tell the plan commission about this sort of thing." Planninngirectgrg' Perceptions of Political Relationship§_External to Governmental Functionaries In addition to being in contact with the various persons and agencies in government, the planning directors are in contact with, and are certainly aware of, many groups within the communities in which they are employed. The following material presents a summary of their perceptions of the various representatives of the community with whom they are from time to time in contact. The planners' perception of the role of radio and T.V. and of the newspapers, insofar as these media support or 150 oppose planning activities, is the first of their perceptions of the political environment within the community in which they work to be described. The data tends to lend support to the proposition that the planners feel more warmly towards radio and T.V. support, and feel that they must be more careful with the press. This aspect of press relationships shows up specifically in the responses generated by a question regarding what types of information are sensitive, and what types of groups do the planners have to be careful in working with. Here, many re- port that they have to be careful with the press in order to insure accuracy. As one planning director put it, "I'm very careful with the newspapers. They misquote things and do not get things straight." One planner who evidently had had other dissimilar experience said, "the newspaper's support has been very good. They supported Federal aid and zoning, and they are careful to avoid out of context quoting." Some Of the men in smaller cities, which are usually suburban in this study, are serviced by weeklies. A number Of them report that the local weekly gives them good SUpport, more interest, and more depth in their coverage. In contrast, one reported that the big city daily gets most of the readership atten- tion, and they get very little notice in either this or the weekly. One planner running a large and successful program pointed out that he had good relationships with the newspaper editors, certainly men of authority in the publishing world. Another director has a fifteen minute, weekly radio broadcast 151 with conferences on his problems, which he feels is an excellent public information service. Another reported that the radio and T.V. had given him very good support on a bonding program, particularly the radio station. In summary, the planning directors generally feel that they have good working relationships with the mass media, and that they are generally supported. Only one man reported Opposition, and one reported that one outlet in his community varied in its position with regard to issues. The planners are careful in dealing with the newspapers in order to insure accuracy in print, and some do not get much coverage in either media because of their suburban location. ‘We asked the planners about the general community climate and whether it was favorable to planning activities or not. The results are presented in Table 56. TABLE 56 Planners' Perceptions of "Community" Climate ‘ Generally favorable to very favorable 21 Apathetic, indifferent 5 Community favorable, city council Opposed 1 No information 2 Total 29 152 Of the twenty—seven communities for which we have responses recorded, twenty-one were reported by the planners as being "generally favorable" or "very favorable" to planning. Five are reported as being apathetic or indifferent. One planner responded to this question with the succinct com— ment, "Yichl" In our final case, the planning director reported that the community generally was favorable to plan- ning, but that he had a working majority on the city council which was opposed to it. Some of the Observations and comments made in response to this question are illuminating. One planner reported that the climate is favorable, that in his experience and compared with other communities, they are very aware of planning activities and that all general studies had been received well. What controversies there have been have been around implementation. In one Of the cities, classified as apathetic or indifferent, the planning director went on to say that the larger tax payers are favorable to planning but the pOpu- lation is indifferent. He felt that there was no comparison between this and his one other job, where the "community climate" was very much better. Another planner qualified his positive appraisal of the community climate by stating that the community was much in favor of planning “as they understand it." He went on to say that he suspected they confused renewal with planning. One man compared his city very favorably with other cities where he has worked, and went on to point out there is "much less political 155 interference." One reported that his community was general— ly indifferent and said that he felt it to be below average for the state as a whole. He went on to say, "it's a slow process thing, but it's improving." In line with an earlier qualification, another man said "the community climate has been very favorable for the last three years, although lots don't understand planning." Another one, in characterizing his community, said that the climate is indifferent, "but the people who count and the council are favorable." Summary Most of the planners interviewed are willing to accept the constraints on their authority imposed by the complex urban systems which are their locus of employment. They seem to enjoy best a community where they can quietly carry out sound technical staff work and rely upon the manager, plan commission, and the city council to implement their recom- mendations. Many do not enjoy what they define as fiddling around with the fine print of zoning ordinance enforcement. They sense that this does not do much to make major changes in the urban environment which is their concern, and also that they are often times liable to be defeated in the hurly-burly Of local politics generated by and focusing upon these issues. They seem to seek not praise but a good pro— gram, not controversy but quiet, orderly progress towards the goals they have set for themselves and for the community. 154 As relatively well-paid career civil servants, they can afford to play a waiting game and ride out any period of adverse political conditions which may Occur from time—to-time in a given community. They much prefer, however, a community climate which allows them to develOp their planning programs and their planning careers in an orderly manner. Their political perceptions are couched in a language which speaks almost entirely to the two points of the ability to carry out a planning program and the ability thereby to develop a planning career. They occasionally give lip service to the democratic ideology, particularly when they have lost on a decision or an issue, and this serves to ameliorate their discontent. However, they are evidently much more satisfied with non-issue, non-agitated, non-political approaches to obtaining their goals rather than the converse. The planner as.a political animal, hides behind the pro— tective coloration of technical staff expert, rather than declaring himself to be a policy innovator. By dint of assuming this humble stance, he is granted some authority in limited spheres Of action set aside for him by the decision- makers in the community. Yet it is a slow, and oftentimes unrewarding battle. Less than one-third of our respondents can be said to be carrying forward a decent program of work, and some of the adaptive planners have almost nothing to show for their time but a paycheck.‘ CHAPTER VI SUMMARY AND DIRECTIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH Summary The planning directors were classified as Innovative, Pre-innovative, or Adaptive as determined by their recent and current accomplishments in the communities where they are at work. Examination of a number of characteristics indicates that there is not much to distinguish between the successfully innovating planners, and those who are not. Neither does size, location, or type Of community serve to explain the differences in planning activities from city to city. There are a number of factors which could usefully be explored in greater detail in future research directed toward a more intensive analysis of the phenomena under considera- tion, but our findings are generally inconclusive. Part of this problem could be remedied by surveying a larger sample, which in this instance was not possible. The planning work which is being accomplished, both long range planning and specific implementation activities, shows a strong bias toward the needs of the economic domi- nants in the community. Evidently, when planning activi- ties are supported and accepted within a community, it is 155 156 because they are perceived as meeting the needs and concerns of vested economic interests. There are exceptions to this, of course, but the planner oft appears to be the handmaiden of the Central Business District Association, middle- and upper-income home owners associations, and users of the auto- mobile. Certainly a revitalized downtown is a pleasant amenity for many persons in a community, but the economic returns on such an investment cannot but be limited to a few major retailers and landowners. As a change agent, the planner is captive to the social system of which he is a part. Yet he must remain so in order to have any effective role. He can make marginal improve- ments in such segments of the system as are receptive to his overtures, and which command resources, financial and other- wise, sufficient to assist him in accomplishing such changes. Indeed, in many of the communities studied, those where we classified the planners as Adaptive, there is not even much of this sort of activity being carried forward. Clearly, even moving in directions of change favorable to the socially advantaged in our complex urban society is not easily accom- plished. The data on the interactions of the planning directors with the many segments of society, within and with- out government, and within and without the community, serve to underscore the complexities in the sociopolitical environ- ment which must be coped with in order for a planner and a city to move a program or series of programs forward. 157 we are faced, then, with a dilemma. City planning has enjoyed continued and growing SUpport, both nationally and locally, for two decades or more. Yet over two-thirds of the cities we investigated were not, at the time of inter- viewing, moving vigorously in support of planning activities. In order to better understand such a situation, it is Obvious that further, more refined and SOphisticated research is essential. Let us turn to a consideration of some of the factors which may fruitfully be investigated in such research as indicated by our findings and participant observa- tion. Directions for Further Research In presenting the report of our research effort thus far, we have examined some Of the patterns which we were able to discern in the universe we were exploring with our research methodology, and we have from time-to-time faced a variability in the behaviors of the planners and others in their community which is not easily explained because of the complex multi-variate environment in which planners, as well as other human beings, carry on their day-to-day life and work. In Chapter IV we presented a number of theoretical ideas which sensitize us to the important elements to be investi- gated in a project of this nature. We have attempted to answer some of the questions raised by this theory. and to 158 point out some of the conditions which we discovered in our field work which are anticipated in the theory. In the consideration of further needed research, we shall demon- strate additional work which needs to be carried out in order to better understand the complex human behaviors in— volved in politics and community planning. We postulated, following Mitchell's interpretation of Talcott Parsons, that the existence of a full-time, publicly employed planning director represents a considerable grant of authority by other actors in the situation, to the plan- ning Office. Further, we state that one of the goals of the director is to expand this base of authority where pos- sible and to prevent incursions upon it or erosions of it when necessary. In examining the substantive areas in which the planner enjoys the exercise Of authority, shares it with others through choice or necessity, or is subservient to others, we began to see the full range of community forces or, to use different words, the interaction of the complex of variables involved in influencing, both the planners' authority and the decisions policies, and urban development which are the outcomes of these complex human activities. Our study deals with some cities with active planning and renewal programs which have been able to accomplish a number of things because of the supportive interaction Of others in the community. Other cities exist in which the authority of the planning office, and of city government generally, is 159 not supported, and little gets done because of competing demands for time, attention and commitment from other major institutions in the community. The interplay of these forces, particularly in planning implementation activities such as zoning and subdivision regulation, urban renewal programs, and central business dis- trict development programs, is borne out by our data. Other cities illustrate the problem a planner encounters when he pursues the professional goal Of "balanced growth" in such ways as trying to get high rise multiple dwellings accepted in a suburban residential community which wants no part of it, or in trying to further the develOpment potential Of the downtown shOpping district in the face Of other concerns of the merchants and lending institutions involved. We per- ceive additional variations from community to community exhibited in our data. Our theoretical materials moved on to demonstrate the various roles the planning director plays, his institutional role, professional role, political innovation role, and educational role and the interaction of these roles in sup- porting or impeding progress in his planning endeavors. We then turned to a summary consideration of community poli- tics as prepared by Alford in which he points out that studies of local politics have tended to concentrate on decisions, policies and roles of government, and eXplained these by situational, structural, cultural, and some times environmental factors. We quoted the work of Rabinovitz, 160 showing the diversity of community decision-making systems and the necessity for diversity in political innovative roles. We examined the impact of the organization on the planner as contained in the work of Barber, the need for autonomy or self control in the professional role, the desirability of differentiated role structures and reward systems in order to accommodate professionals, and we dis- cussed some of the data which bears upon this aspect of planning activities. Professor Charles Adrian has summarized the political situation in the following manner: The American political system is designed for incre- mental change. Policies are modified bit by bit and there are large numbers of veto loci so that any pro- posed change must successfully overcome a whole series of hurdles and never merely one . . . public policy is eXpected to be a compromise among a host of parochial interests. . . . Central develOpment Of policy (as dis- tinguished from policy positions of the executive) and comprehensive planning to meet develOping social situ- ations are the exception. This pattern of policy develOpment and short range, as distinguished from long range, planning has fre- quently been criticized. It seems likely that reformers who denounce it and call for comprehensive planning "with muscle in it" do not understand fully the implica— tions for change in the American system that this implies. It would sharply diminish the number Of interests having access to the governmental decision making process and would eliminate from the representation system many groups in society. Furthermore, the critics make the normative judgment that a comprehensive policy which includes careful consideration of future probabilities is better than that which does not. This may not neces- sarily be the case. . . . Such an approach to [incre— mental] policy making produces only "outcomes“ and not deliberate "solutions". . . . We should note, however, a strong trend in the present century toward executive planning of all types, budgetary. physical plan, capital 161 program, and policy planning. These plans are rarely accepted in their entirety and by the logic of the system are not intended to be. Instead they serve as effective resources in the bargaining process on behalf of those who support them, including usually the chief executive. The general pattern in human behavior that we are deal— ing with is represented in the establishment and continued support of an authoritative planning function within the established bureaucratic forms of local government. The complexities and problems in understanding and prediction follow immediately as a function of the many variables in- volved in any given community and the possible permutations and combinations Of these variables through time and their impact on the flow of decisions, policies, and roles of government which are the outcomes of the working of the system.2 In addition, the demographic, sociological, cultural and economic variables in community life also filter through the on-going political system and research indicates that the political actors do make a difference. The work of Eyestone and Eulau bears this out.3 1Charles R. Adrian, State and Local Governmengg (New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1967), p. 528. 2One comparative study of the 157 largest towns in England and wales , indicating their diversity, tabulated data on sixty discrete variables. See Claus Adolph Moser and Wolf Scott, British Towns: A Statistical Study of Their Social and Economic Differences (Edenburough: Oliver and Boyd, 1961). The summary table referred to is found on pages 10 and 11 of this work. 3Robert Eyestone and Heinz Eulau,"City Councils and Policy Outcomes, Developmental Profiles," quoted by James 162 The policy orientations Of city councilmen are essential- ly unrelated to city size, growth rate and resource capability. . . . Theoretically policy is the result of the forcing effects of population size and growth as mediated by the city group life and the goals sought by policy makers as expressed in their commitment to develOpment and their attitude toward this SCOpe of government activity. In some cases resource capability may be an important constraint on policy development but the willingness of policy makers to tap available re— sources seems tO be a more important variable in explain- ing the course of policy development. . . . We hope the relationships we have been able to demonstrate will help to restore the political scientists belief in the importance of politicians in the policy process. . . .4 Considering the number and potential complexity of the per- mutations and combinations in the interrelationships of the variables which may explain the outcomes of community socio- political systems, it is no wonder that our ability to pre- dict or control is limited. But, the state of our theory and our empirical findings point the way to additional needed research. Let us take the case of zoning activities as an example of the more close grained, in depth research which is needed in order to more fully understand the outcomes of planning endeavors and community political systems. Zoning decisions are attractive for political analysis because they represent authoritative determination on the part of government as to who gets what, where, when and how, with respect to the use of land and the economic returns and other advantages accruing to the user therefrom, together Q. Wilson, ed., City Politics and Public Policy (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 1968), pp. 57-66. ‘Ibid., pp. 64-65. 165 with the costs which may from time accrue to adjacent land owners or users as the result of negative characteristics resulting from the use of a given parcel in a given manner. In our interpretation of the responses with regard to differential acceptance of the planners' authority in zoning matters, we had to be careful not to overstate our findings. Participant Observation has sensitized the author to the difficulty in measuring zoning activity and in understanding zoning controversies, or the lack thereof. The lack of reported controversy in zoning matters may be a function of a number of variables. First, the fact that a city may be largely built up, there is little vacant land, little economic incentive for conversion of existing parcels to other types of uses, in sum, not much building activity, and therefore not much problem with political behaviors revolving around the impact of zoning regulations on building activity. A second variable is that the standards for controlling the use of land and the other aspects of physical develOpment contained in a zoning ordinance may be quite low--so low, in fact, that they represent no serious impediment to the wishes of the home owner or entrepreneur who wishes to build or change the structure or use in a given parcel. Again, in such a case controversies over zon- ing would be few. A third variable is that of the enforcement Of such standards as do exist in the zoning ordinance. High or moderately high standards may exist in print but a low level 164 of enforcement, generous interpretations made at the zoning desk in the Buildings Department or on the part of other related officials, may serve to ameliorate the impact of the standards and regulations so that the parties and interests do not feel themselves to be negatively affected. Fourth, the enforcement of such zoning standards as do exist may further vary with the types of social behaviors in opposition 'i to or in support of the zoning ordinance, and the impact of these behaviors on the officials making the day-to-day decisions. Where homeowners are protecting single family neighborhoods, zoning may be rigorously enforced. Where commercial real estate entrepreneurs are expanding to meet a growth market, considerable flexibility in the interpretation of ordinance restrictions may be granted them through a de- sire to enhance the community's tax base with the additional develOpment. Historically, most communities have mapped commercial and industrial districts in excess of current demand for these parcels and have thereby minimized the im— pact of zoning restrictions on these types of development. The impact of such standards as exist in the zoning ordinance is further screened from potential negative impact, and the resultant political controversy, by the economic forces underlying current develOpment. In some cities, builders and developers may be building "over the code"; that is to say, reasonable standards, or even unreasonably high standards, may exist. However, because of the type of market they are meeting, the builders and develOpers 165 concerned are providing greater amenities than those speci- fied in the code so that, again, there is no conflict and no controversy. The permutations and combinations of these variables in different geographic areas of a city may also vary. Builders may be building over the code in upper-class resi— dential areas, yet be in conflict with ordinance provisions in an attempt to provide lower cost housing at densities which are prohibited by the ordinance in working-class neighborhoods in the same city. Or, zoning standards Of a high nature may be rigorously enforced in middle-class neighborhoods with strong improvement associations acting in a watch dog role, and be under-enforced in working— or lower-class neighborhoods which do not have the benefit of the social organization and ability to apply pressure on the political system which exists in the middle-class neighborhoods. In our culture there is a manifest pattern of exploiting the poor and this pattern may be acquiesed to by the city Officials who know that there are few rewards for protecting the poor as Opposed to the penalties they might incur from violating the values and wishes of the better organized middle— and upper-social strata. Assuming that we had detailed information on all of these variables, we could then move to the larger question of who benefits from zoning and who does not. In general, certain patterns are evident, but again, at the level of 166 the discrete case, the variation is amazing. The general pattern is well summarized by Babcock.s No one is enthusiastic about zoning except the people. . . . I become tired of the planner's cry that zoning is a failure. By the test of acceptance in the market place, zoning has been a smashing success. To the dweller on the urban fringe, the usefullness of zoning as an exclusionary technique, both present and poten— tial, must seem unlimited.8 In discussing the situation in Houston, Texas, which turned down zoning in an unofficial referendum in 1962, Babcock makes the following point. By and large the residents of the wealthy subdi— visions of River Oaks and Memorial Drive were indiffer- ent. They were sufficiently cohesive and wealthy to maintain a rigorous legal patrol over their private covenants. . . . At the other end of the economic scale, the poor preAWorld War II subdivions--largely Negro—- voted against zoning. . . . I would guess that this negative reaction was because in these poorer neighbor- hoods substantially all the value had disappeared from a residence as a home. The restrictive covenants had long been destroyed by indifference. All that remained was the possibility of an increment of value from some ancillary commercial use of the home. . . . The articu- late leaders Of the anti-zoners were primarily composed of substantial prOperty owners and real estate inter- ests. . . . The largest unified endorsement of zoning in Houston came from those areas where any student Of the subject would expect support to originate: The middle-income, postSWorld War II subdivisions, those suburbs within the city. Lacking the glue of status and money to enforce their covenants, they watched the intru— sion of scattered commercial uses into their areas. They still believed their single family homes worth saving but they lacked the means to do so independently of municipal help. In zoning they saw the chance for municipal assumption of responsibility.7 5Richard F. Babcock, The Zonipg_Game (Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1966). 6Ibid., p. 17. 7Ibid., pp. 27-28. 167 Not only do different groups benefit or suffer from the working out of zoning regulations on the community or the lack thereof, but a specific individual may be caught in a system of cross pressures. The businessman who needs land for his business and wishes to expand near or into a residential neighborhood will feel negatively impacted by building restrictions which prevent this. Conversely, he himself must live in a home and is likely to be quite de- fensive about it when other businessmen, in their role as businessmen rather than homeowners, threaten to invade his neighborhood. How each resolves this for himself varies.8 It is evident from the foregoing that additional SOphisticated measures of social behavior with respect to municipal zoning ordinances must be develOped and applied in order to arrive at a better understanding of this complex of behaviors. Another source of variation in social behavior is the fact that the real world, and peoples' images or perceptions of it, can vary considerably and at times almost independ- ently of each other. For example, a professional concensus of planners might indicate that the standards in a zoning ordinance are extremely low. The individuals in a community, 8One of the strongest supporters of residential protec- tion is an industrialist serving on a planning commission I observed. He evidently perceived no conflict in his puna- tive reaction to the distributive sector of the economy because of his involvement in the productive sector. 168 however, attempting to do as they wish, might feel themselves severely constrained by these minimal standards as seen by the professional. This phenomenon is apparent in many as- pects of political behavior; that is, people act on their perceptions or definitions of situations, rather than in terms of any grasp of the objective reality of the world. Additional SOphisticated measures need to be developed, then, not only on such complex empirical phenomenon as zoning and zoning behaviors, but also of the more difficult to measure matter of peoples' perceptions of these situations. If this proves possible, one can then make the next move in the analysis which is to determine hOW’peOpleS' behaviors are ordered by their perceptions of situations and how the three interact, one on the other, to result in change or stability in the social system and predictability of events. The same form of analysis could fruitfully be utilized by planners and social scientists interested in future states of affairs in the following manner. People have not only images or perceptions of the present and definitions or meanings Of the current and past situations in which they have participated or of which they have learned, but they also have some images of the future. Such a future-oriented image may contain personal or familial goals, job or career goals, educational goals, personal economic goals, and may also contain social goals or images of desirable or eXpected future social conditions. Some understanding of these 169 future-oriented images is essential for a planner in order to understand what his clients are interested in, and in order to be able to work with them in ways which will en- hance a capability to arrive at these goals. In a complex industrialized urbanized society such as ours with a complicated status system, many ethnic streams, and many forms of formal and infOrmal social organization, it is to be expected that there is a wide variation in the future orientations of individuals and of groups. Planners have done virtually no behavioral research attempting to find out what these images are and how they may coincide or contrast with the planner's professionally informed image of the future which he is attempting to use as a base for establishing policy in a community. A number of other areas that need additional research can briefly be touched upon. In our survey we did not deal with planners employed in any other public capacity than that of planning director. A more exhaustive occupational study, and some interesting differences in political per- ceptions, would have been turned up if we had interviewed county and regional planners and staff men junior to the planning director in municipal Offices. Where one is placed in a social organization makes major differences in how one perceives the world about oneself, and it is no doubt true that if we had talked to a wider range of planners, we would have gathered data on a wider range of political per- ceptions. In addition to planners in public employ, there 170 is good reason to believe that consultant planners have a different orientation to lOcal community politics and dif- ferent perceptions of the community in which they are employed.9 In addition to amplifying our information about the different roles planners are in and how this effects their political perceptions and political behavior, we need addi— tional comparative analysis of various kinds of communities and of processes of social and political change within com- munities. Although a large series of census-type data are now available on communities, it is likely that additional measures need to be developed in order to get a more refined understanding of the social processes Which are involved in communities and in community political phenomena. It seems to me that existing comparative studies are just starting on what may turn out to be an extremely fruitful research activity. Not only must we broaden our comparative base, and deepen the sophistication of our measurement and analysis, but we must extend our studies through time. One of the innovative planning directors is successfully at work in city Delta, reported on by Williams-and Adrian.10 At that time, 9Conversations with some staff level consultant plan- ners bear this out. 10Oliver P. Williams and Charles Adrian, Four Cities: A Stud in Com arative Polic Makin »(Philadelphia, Univer- sity of Pennsylvania Press, 1965). 171 Delta was not innovative, and the city manager form of government was particularly weak. Williams and Adrian saw that a turnabout in affairs was possible, but did not predict it. We also interviewed the planner in city Alpha, which Williams and Adrian reported to be a city in which good professionals were well paid and well supported. Since the time of our interview, as a result of local elections and a major change in leadership, the director has resigned, and the tenor of community political life has substantially changed. Clearly, the nature and output of local political systems can and does change markedly through long- and Short-time spans. Such processes of change need to be studied through time in order to understand them, their im- pact on planning activities, and the reverse. Broad com- parative studies of such processes of change would provide additional knowledge as to the range and variation in com- munity political patterns and planning activities. BIBLIOGRAPHY BIBLIOGRAPHY BOOKS Adrian, Charles R. Governing Urban America. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1955. Adrian, Charles R. and Oliver P. Williams, Four Cities: A Study in Comparative Policngaking. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1965. Adrian, Charles R. State and Local Government. New York: McGraw-Hill Book Co., 1967. Altshuler, Alan A. The City Planning Process: A Political Analysis. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press, 1965. Anderson, Martin, The Federal Bulldozer: A Critical Analysis of Urban Renewal, 1949—1962. Cambridge, Massachusetts: the M.I.T. Press, 1964. Babcock, Richard F., The Zoning_Game. Madison, Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press, 1966. Berger, Peter L. et al., The Human Shape of WOrk: Studies in the Sociology of Occppations. New York: Macmillan Co., 1964. Caplow, Theodore and McGee, Reece J., The Academic Market- place. New York: Basic Books, 1958. Daland, Robert T. and Parker, JOhn A., "Roles of the Planner in Urban Development," in Chapin F. Stuart, Jr., and Shirley F. Weiss, Eds., Urban Growth Qynamics in a Regional Cluster of Cities. New York and London: JOhn Wiley drSons, Inc., 1962. Edelman, Murry, The Symbolic Uses of Politics. 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Schulze, Robert O., "The Role of Economic Dominants in Com- munity Power Structure," American Sociology_Review, Vol. 25 (February, 1958). 177 Simon, Herbert, "The Proverbs of Administration," Public Administration Review, Vol. 6 (Winter, 1946). Vernon, Raymond, The Myth and Reality_of Our Urban Problems (Joint Center for Urban Studies of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, 1962). Wilensky, Harold L. "The Professionalization of Everyone?" American Journal Of Sociology (September, 1964). Wood, Robert C., "Urban Regions: The Challenges and Achieve- ments in Public Administration," Planning 1962, American Society of Planning Officials (1962). UNPUBLISHED MATERIAL Belknap, George M., and Smuckler, Ralph H. Leadership and Participation in Urban Affairs (East Lansing, Michigan: Government ReSearch Bureau, Michigan State University, 1956). Duke, Richard,"Gaming Simulation in Urban Research" (East Lansing, Michigan: Institute for Community DevelOpment and Services, 1964). Floro, George K. "The City Manager in the State of Michigan: A Cast Study Of an Itinerant Professional" (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago, 1954). Gold, Harry, “The Professionalization of Urban Planning" (unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, University of Michigan, 1965). Nash, Peter H., "The Responsibilities and Limitations of the Planning Director in a Council-Manager Form of Government: An Exploratory Analysis Based on Case Studies of the 'Plan E' Cities in Massachusetts,"(Cambridge, Massachu- setts, Harvard University, April, 1958). 1966-67 Occppational Outlook Handbook, Bulletin No. 1450-87, Employment Outlook for Urban Planners, United States Department of Labor, W. Wirtz, Secretary, Bureau of Labor Statistics, Arthur M. Ross, Commissioner, Occupa- tional Outlook Report Series. May. Richard, Jr., American Institute of Planners, The Planner in Emerging Urban Society, Proceedings of the 48th Annual Conference, St. Louis, Missouri, October, 1965, "As a Profession We Must Share Common Principles." APPENDIX Interview NO. Respondent_fi Date: Interviewer Time: Start Finish # Total Call Back Record Date Time Reason no interview Date Time Reason no interview Date Time Reason no interview Interview Complete Incomplete Reappointment Time Phone No. Remarks and evaluation: Physical working conditiopp: __, Yes No , New building I I New furniture I I Private office I I Ample space I __I Other remarks h 178 NAME OF SCHOOL 179 SCHEDULE A--EDUCATION Public Private Paroch. Community and Size High School(s) College(s) Undergraduate Graduate Other Training Adult education Special courses and conferences Military Training Further educational aspirations, if any: DATES From TO 180 SCHEDULE A--EDUCATION MAJOR(S) MINOR(S) P-—-———d-__—'II——-- ‘-'..a' I til “.1 F3.” me‘.viisr- ‘ ‘v! 181 How did you happen to get into planning as a line of work? (Probe--did any specific individuals influence you? How?) (Probe-—reasons) PeOple get into planning by various routes. Some go into it directly and some have other jobs first. I'd like to get a listing of all the permanent jobs you've held, both planning and otherwise. What was your first job which lasted six months or more? (Probe--how about military serVice, if necessary.) (Schedule B) ‘. .. .‘OrLl-Lm.’ 182 SCHEDULE B--JOB HISTORY JOB TITLE DESCRIPTION DATES Lincl. military) From, To Ismfih 1. 11. 12. 15. 185 SrQHEDULE B--JOB pis'rogy Reason for leaving Reason for accepting new job Was the experience in any way useful to you in your present job?- In what wgy? 1. 2. 10. 11. 12. 15. 184 Do you think there's a minimum or maximum length of time a planner Should stay with a city? No Yes Minimum Maximum What are some of the reasons for this? How about quitting? Have you ever felt you had to resign? NO Yes Describe: What sort of situation should a planner leave, or under what circumstances should he resign, or threaten to? Is there much reading of reports, legal briefs, minutes, and so on that you have to do in your job? Do you have a chance to do much other reading at work or at home? Are there any newspapers that you try to read regularly? NO Yes Which? 185 How about magazines or periodicals. Do you subscribe to any? Magazine Yes NO Scan _Selective Read Varies Thoroughly Do you have a chance to really read them? (Probe by name of magazine.) Are you much of a book reader, or do you stick mostly to news- papers and magazines? About how many books would you say you read on the average? (Let respondents set initial time span--week, month, year.) What sort--maybe you could give me a few titles, or tell me the kind of books you like? How about any other types of reading material? 186 Some planners feel it is a good idea to join a lot of community organizations and others do not. How about you? What is your feeling? Is this a good idea or not? Good idea Not good Other Why do you feel that way? What community organizations do you currently belong to, if any? (Fill in Schedule C, Memberships) NAME OF ORGANIZATION 187 SCHEDULE C--MEMBERSHIPS NO MEMBER YES: Dates (YearpL ATTEND MEETINGS: Reg. Irreg. Not at all Service- Community: (Rotary, Kiwanis Lions) PROBE: any Political Neighborhood other civic org.. incl. charitable, other Religious Educational (PTA, etc.) Veterans Recreational, Hobby or Special interest Other Occupational Groups ASPO MSPO k AIP MICH. AIP Other Occupational I 188 §§HEDULE C--MEMBERSHIPS ‘??3 ATTEND OFFICE OR * IF YES, .-. LAST CONF. COMMITTEES DESCRIBE, NO YES NO nys ipCL. DATES / /I / \\ 189 Now that we have gotten a pretty good idea about yourself I would like to get some information about the Office situation here. HOW'many people do you have on your staff? (Include all employees.) For each of these could you give me their title and a little bit about their training or background? (Fill in Schedule D, Training and Background.) ““n - 3_.w.—2m’tm I - TOTAL NO. Full time Part time 190 SCHEDULE D--OFFICE STAFF TITLE OF POSITION PROF . SUB- PROF. CLERICAL AND/CR TECHNICAL HOWIDMS ON STAFF 1. 2. 10. 11. 12. 15. 191 W PREPARATION OR BACKGROUND AND TRAINING 1. HOW MUCH PLANNING BASEMENCE 10. 11. 12. 15. 192 In what technical areas of planning do you think your staff is particularly strong? Do you feel there are any areas Of weakness in technical matters that you would like to correct by adding a person with special competence in these skills? No Yes Which? What are the characteristics of a good city planner? Could you name a few really competent ones--(three to five)? 1 4 2 5 5 _y_ 6 Do you plan to add any new positions in the very near future? How many vacancies do you have? of a help or a hindrance 't ersonnel eo le more Are Your C1 y p p p fessional staff? in recruiting and selecting your pro 195 How about your budget? (Check for amount Who really decides how much you get? How are your requests for budget handled--on what basis do you get an increase or decrease? Do they give you enough money to perform all your office activities adequately? How much do you participate in general budget decision—— capital improvement budgeting, operating apprOpriations, questions on levels of service, etc.? ParticipationScale Deter- Influen- Not mine tial Share much Not at all General budget Capital improvements Operating appropriations — VLevels of service questions 194 Do you have any special "tricks of the trade" with regard to budget requests such as asking for more than you need so if it gets trimmed back you don't get hurt? (Or doesn't it work that way here-—how does it seem to work?) Do you have a table of organization for the Office, or could you sketch for me a diagram showing how the staff is organized? (If sketch or diagram, probe for meaning of lines-—authority, responsibilities, etc.) How do you have your work load out up and Channeled? (Probe here for what really gets staff attention and time.) (Probe for feelings of imbalance.) How do you establish priorities on office work programs? Who all participate? What other sorts Of office policies do you have--formal or informal, on moonlighting? (Probe for educational leave, overtime, promotions from within, and so on.) How do you feel about the use of consultants in your program here? Do (have) you use(d) them? In what way? Were you satisfied with the results? Are they liable to be a help or a hindrance? (Probe for details.) Why? Where a help? Where a hindrance? 195 Now could you tell me a little about your Planning Commission, what sort of peOple do you have on it? (If necessary, probe for occupation, interest group.) Who appoints them? What is the chief role of the Commission? What do they spend most of their time on? On what things does the Commission have final authority? If they don't have final authority, who does? Are they really subordinate, or do they tend to share authority? (Get examples) DO they delegate much responsibility to you, formally or informally? (if yes) What sorts of things? How is your record with the Commission-—do they generally go along with the staff recommendations or not? (if not) Where do they differ? DO you attend Council meetings: NO Yes How often? 196 What sort Of contacts do you have with individual council- men, the mayor, or the city manager? How about the city council as a whole-—how Often do they go along with planning recommendations? What things are they liable to go against you on? Who would you say you are most responsible to-—the Commission, the Council, the Mayor, the Manager? Who would you "take orders" from--(get full explanation). (Probe for split between (manager) and Plan Commission.) 197 How about your work relationships with other city departments? Could you give me a list of the other departments and officials that you normally have dealings with? (If not given, probe for rest of list.) Agency How well do you cooperate Details with them? VW W IAve. P VP __-_— Bldg. Dept. (zoning_enforcement Board of Zoning Appeals Renewal authority (LPA) Parks and Rec. I. Health I Police Fire Water Light Gas Streets & Traffic (traffic engineer) Qity attorney Public works Civil defense Housipg Library Airport Farmers market deget Civil service Other Schools Public __Parochial Private College or universit 198 Do any of them generally work at cross purposes with you or with each other? (Probe for examples) No Yes Which? What sort of mandatory and voluntary referral set-ups do you have with city departments and agencies? Are there any informal meetings, lunches, or get—togethers among department heads, aides, or other people concerned with city government to discuss some problems Of mutual interest and concern? No Yes (If yes) Who attends? Do you go to these meetings or get-togethers? Yes No (If no) How do you find out what they decide? (If yes) What kinds of things get discussed? Are there any factions or informal groupings among department heads? Where do you fit in? DO you have any, shall we say, competitors--people who often oppose you because of honest differences of opinion or personality conflicts? 199 rAre there any other local governments, other cities or villages, townships, the county, or others, with whom you come in con- tact? Agency HOW’Well do you cooperate Details with them? VW W Ave. P VP Do any of them generally work at cross purposes with you or with each other? NO Yes Which? ,- hid“. Klflvfi'mvfllofim A I .~ ,Q . 200 I would also like to get a listing of departments, or agencies of any regional organizations that you may have dealings with as you Conduct your work. -Agency How well do you COOPerate Details with them? VW W .Ave. P VP Do any of them generally work at cross purposes with you or with other agencies? No Yes Which? 201 Could you give me the same state agencies? have contacts with? Agency Which ones do you HOW’Well do you cooperate Details with them? VW W -Ave. P VP Do any of them tend to work at cross purposes with you or with each other? NO Yes Which? (get details) T 1'”- 3'3 3 . .3 gmfiv-yfilrm ! . 202 Could you give me the same for federal agencies--that is those that you work with from time to time? Agency How well do you COOperate Details with them? VW W Ave. P VP Do any of them generally work at cross purposes with you, or with each other? (Probe for examples.) No Yes Which? 205 Planners generally have to deal with groups outside of the government like real estate dealers, home owners associa- tions, contractors, downtown businessmen's associations, and others. What kind of contacts do you have with any such groups or individuals? (Get full description.) One of the things that good planners can occasionally accom- plish is to prevent undesirable things in the community. Has there been anything of this nature that you have been able to stOp? (Probe--get details.) Has there been anything of this sort that you have tried to stOp and been unsuccessful? (Probe-—get details.) How much trouble with Opposition? (political or otherwise) Can you recall any instances of this sort of thing? (Probe for details.) Are there any particularly important groups, organizations, or individuals in the community that are important to you either as sources of support or opposition? (Probe for Real Estate Board, Utilities ((Railroads)). CBD organization, Neighborhood groups, etc.) Are there any specific programs or activities that they are liable to single out for SUpport or opposition? 204 Have you successfully or unsuccessfully launched a specific major proposal such as a downtown mall, rezoning, urban renewal, or something else really big within the last year or two? (Probe for earlier) No Yes (if yes) Was it successful or not? Yes NO Can you give me a rundown on how it was handled? How did you go about it? What other peOple were involved? (Probe for who initiated interaction) Who helped you, who opposed you, and how did it go? Are there any records or newspaper clippings with regard to this that you could let me have to get copied and returned to you? Of the things you have accomplished in the recent past what would you say is the single most important thing you have been able to do? Why do you feel that way? Undoubtedly there are a number of things that you have not been able to do. What is the most serious thing which you have not been able to deal with in the last year or two? Why do you consider this to be serious? WOuld you say that the general community climate is favorable to planning activities or not? Yes No 205 How would it compare with other communities in which you have worked? What are some of the things you do here that are pretty well accepted? What are some of the things that you have tried here that have not worked out so well? (Probe for controversy) Have you ever conducted any follow-up studies to see how well a given policy or program is working out? . No Yes Can you tell me what you discovered? I *- Are there any specific things that you have not tried to do because you thought they might not go over so well? Has anyone ever advised you against something which you have decided not to do? (Probe for who gave advice) Are there any "tricks of the trade" that planners use to help put programs across? Is there a "honeymoon" period when you first take a job? NO Yes How long? Do you make it a point to live in the city where you're working? Do you try to memorize street names and patterns or other things about the city? (What schools, police, fire, other public facilities?) 206 Do (did) you ask for a big budget for the first year, even if you may not be able to spend it all? Do you use demonstration trips to help put programs across? Do you have any pet work Short cuts? Do you have any regular system for meeting the public, handling cranks, and the like? How do you handle a situation for a request for a quick decision if you feel you need more facts? ‘3 1““ I; d.\‘..‘ 'wlm ‘- What kind of pressures of this sort are there? How do you handle them? DO you ever have situations where a short run decision con- flicts with long range plans? ‘Describe. (Prove--zoning vs. Master Plan) How do you handle this? How do you handle things when people want information? Do you have any established Office procedures or informal ways of handling these requests? What types of information are "sensitive" or confidential-- have to be handled carefully--how do you manage this? 207 Are there any peOple or groups you are particularly careful Of in handling your information releases? Do you have any program Of public relations established or does the city carry out anything of this sort that would in- clude information on planning? (Get details) How about speeches, etc., with community groups--does this take much time? Do you send other staff peOple? How important is this in your Operations here? Do you feel that you have good working relations with the newspaper people? How about radio and TV? Has the press or the other news media Offered particularly effective support or Opposition to your actiVities? Which ones——get details? Now I would like to get a quick idea of the planning work in the office here, what items have been finished, what you plan to do in the future, or are currently engaged in. (Fill in Schedule E--Technical WOrk) Do you consider yourself a Republican, a Democrat, or what? Are you very interested in politics, or not? How would you rate yourself on a five point scale from very highly interested to extremely diSinterested? High Low Very Int. Int.___ Indifferent___ Disint.___ Very Disint.___ What are your plans for the future? 7.!Vl L- — mmmmnfvfivfiLUII-IIIIIFIIIIIHLIIIIIIII . 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