The ICMA Executive Board directed the organization's Governmental Affairs and Policy Committee (GAPC) to produce annual policy white papers, depending on resources available and the topics that require a managerial perspective. ICMA and the GAPC select key policy issues to which ICMA members bring an important perspective and produce white papers on these issues for general release to ICMA membership, other Big 7 organizations, and the general public.
ICMA's Policy Papers
- Blockchain Technology: Local Government Applications and Challenges (November 2018)
- Public-Private Partnerships (P3s): What Local Government Managers Need to Know (December 2017)
- Infrastructure Financing: A Guide for Local Government Managers (January 2017)
- Municipal Bonds and Infrastructure Development - Past, Present and Future (August 2015)
- Leveraging Local Change: The States' Role (May 2014)
- Management's Perceptions of Annual Financial Reporting White Paper (December 2013)
- Striking a Balance: Matching the Services Offered by Local Governments with the Revenue Realities (December 2012)
- Coping with Crisis: How are Local Governments Reinventing Themselves in the Wake of the Great Recession? (December 2011)
- 211/311: Is There a Case for Consolidation or Collaboration? (July 2010)
- Measuring the Results of Economic Stimulus Investments: Local Government Leading the Way (October 2009)
- Restoring the Intergovernmental Partnership: What Needs to Change(July 2009)
- Immigration Reform: An Intergovernmental Imperative (December 2008)
- A Networked Approach to Improvements in Emergency Management (August 2006 with April 2009 update)
- Emergency Management and Homeland Security (An Overview) (August 2006)
Other White Papers
- Navigating the Fiscal Crisis: Tested Strategies for Local Leaders (January 2009)
- Navigating the Fiscal Crisis: An Introduction for Elected Officials (2009)
- A Proposal for an Intergovernmental Policy Council
This proposal was created by ICMA and with the support of NACo and NLC. The proposal outlines ideas on how to rebuild the intergovernmental partnership between the federal, state, and local governments.
The ICMA Senior Advisor program (formerly Range Rider Program *) is a joint activity of ICMA and state sponsors established by the ICMA Executive Board in 1974 to make the counsel, experience, and support of respected, retired managers of the profession available to members. Currently 114 Senior Advisors in 30 states provide a highly valued service by volunteering their time to offer confidential professional and personal support and advice.
Senior Advisors are selected jointly by the state sponsor and the ICMA Executive Director. Although they are expected to be visible, accessible and responsive to members and association needs, Senior Advisors are unpaid volunteers who pursue other activities while in retirement and thus are not “full time.” Expenses are shared by ICMA and the sponsoring state organization. The expenses allocated depend on the size of the state, the number of Senior Advisors and funds available from the sponsors.
Senior Advisors are available to meet periodically with members in their states or areas to discuss the profession and their concerns as members. Discussion topics range from relations with elected officials, overall management questions, relations with ICMA, responses to local controversies such as referenda on the council-manager plan, to career development.
Senior Advisors are friends, colleagues, and advisors to the profession—not consultants. The Senior Advisor program is designed to help with personal and professional issues, not to provide technical assistance or solve substantive problems in a local government. However, Senior Advisors may consult with local governments as individuals, on a part-time basis, as long as the consulting does not impair the effectiveness of the Senior Advisors. Senior Advisor guidelines contain advice for Senior Advisors who do part-time consulting.
Senior Advisors may also help communities interested in creating a professional local government management position, including adoption of council-manager government.
Members with questions on the Senior Advisor program can contact Senior Advisor Program Coordinator, Pam Brangaccio at (727) 204-8095 or e-mail pbrangaccio@icma.org.
*2013-2014 Program Review
As part of a review of the program in its 40th year, the ICMA Executive Board, in February 2014, approved changing the name from Range Riders to Senior Advisors to better describe the role and its primary emphasis on providing members with advice and support.
