Dear ASPA

I am an assistant to a city manager in a small no growth suburban community. I live approximately 20 miles from the community in which I work and have been involved politically in my home city for about five years. My home city has a population of 15,000 and is growing rapidly. Several years ago while serving as the treasurer of my home city, the city council refused to take action on my request to hire a full-time finance officer, instead ceding responsibility to the city manager and department heads for financial responsibility. Moreover, the council refused to take action on new investment strategies intended to make the most of short term excess cash flows and responsibly reinvest them for a small yield. When the council ultimately hired a finance director, they hired someone who had never held a responsible position in a finance department in either the public or private sector.

I was told by the council that if I felt I could do a better job making decisions for the future of the community I should run for city council. Hmmm! This was a difficult decision because I recognized that I would have to resign from my professional city management association. This I did by not renewing my membership and sending a letter to this effect to my association. I was elected in November and am currently serving a four year term on city council. I am also continuing my day job as assistant to the city manager.

I was elected during a sweeping change in the council. Only one of three members was re-elected, and many citizens I spoke with cited the need for change and responsibility in public institutions as the reason for ousting incumbents on council. Essentially, I ran to protect the integrity of my home community and the city management profession that, in my estimation, was being tarnished by irresponsible actions.

My question is this: "Do you feel that administrative public service and political public service are mutually exclusive as my professional city management association feels?" I know for a certainty (three lawyers reviewed the circumstance of my roles prior to running) that I have not violated any laws. If the response to this question was yours to craft from an ASPA perspective, what would you say?