Building Capactiy of Local Governments by Dr. Beverly Cigler

Dr. Beverly Cigler is a professor of public policy and administration at Penn State Harrisburg. She specializes in state and local relations and state and local policy, politics, and management, with key interests in alternative service delivery, land use, emergency management, public finance, counties, and general issues of governance. Dr. Cigler led a discussion on the various points of view and political perspectives on the essential functions of local government. She noted that the local government environment has changed, and issues transcend geographic and municipal boundaries. Cigler explained the differences between 'governance' as opposed to 'government', which includes nonprofit, public, and private sector stakeholders, and the need to learn how to collaborate in a fragmented environment. She also presented an overview of public opinion and national research on citizen expectations of local government, and the capacity of local governments to fulfill them. Cigler explained that because many local governments in PA are small, and smaller governments often have less capacity, they might have a lack of professional managers, technical capacity, financial capacity, political will, and collaborative skills. According to Cigler, there is a continuum of cooperation where local governments can start small and learn to trust each other, and once they start building capacity and become more efficient in service delivery, the objections to cooperation might begin to fade.