An influential citizens group wanted a major sports complex built in Hays, KS. The city commission, which is Hays' elected body, was against the idea, citing other priorities such as stormwater and street improvements that required the city's financial resources. The city manager was caught in the middle because he and his staff serve both the commission and residents.

After a tornado through Greensburg, leveling the city, Administrator Steve Hewitt saw an opportunity to rebuild green and strong.

Camden County did not have a mission or vision statement, had not formalized or declared its core values, nor did it have a strategic plan. the county administrator understood that in order to help Camden County make its journey, a clear roadmap would be required.

By the late 1980s-early 1990s, the City of Mountain Brook, Alabama, desperately needed additional space and facilities to accommodate the community's growing recreational programs. Read how the local government collaborated with the board of education, the youth association, and the soccer association to build an athletic complex on the high and junior high school campuses.

Find out how this city of 7,000 residents came together to create a world-class park which makes Savannah even more attractive to retirees and young families alike. Assistant City Manager C. Seth Sumner calls it the most ambitious project the city has ever undertaken.

After the Great Recession, slightly declining tax revenues and other reductions threatened full implementation of the city's proposed new pay plan for its employees, and layoffs seemed imminent. At the same time, expectations that the city would continue to provide quality public services persisted. While the tax decline soon subsided, it was replaced with a long-term financial stagnancy that exists even today.

In 2005, the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation commissioned a Blue Ribbon Task Force, which found that metropolitan Kansas City was all but alone in not having a world-class research university in the region.

Two videos illustrate how professional local government management contributes to the quality of life in Lake County and the villages of Glenview and Woodridge, Illinois.