Government in the twilight zone: volunteers to small city boards and commissions
Intro -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Tables -- Figures -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction Government in the Twilight Zone: Volunteers to Small-City Boards and Commissions -- Overview and Synopsis of the Book -- Genesis, Methodology, and Approach -- Data -- Methodological Concerns -- Chapter 1 "We're Not Dead Yet"-Small Cities Become Big(ger) Players? -- Two Competing Narratives -- A Vanishing America? -- The Revival of Small Towns -- Large Units in Small Jurisdictions: Superstores, Big Business, and Prisons -- Two Decades of Change and Its Effects on Sample Cities -- What the Transformation of Small Towns Means for Their Systems of Boards and Commissions -- Chapter 2 The Taxonomy of Local Boards and Commissions in Small Cities -- The Small Cities Board and Commission Landscape -- Does Size Matter? -- Metropolitan Status and Form of Government -- Types of Boards -- Mandated Versus Optional Boards -- Planning Commissions -- Site Plan and/or Development Proposal Reviews -- Design Review -- Zoning Change Requests -- Zoning Code Amendments -- Conditional Use Permits -- Overall Planning Advice and Supervision -- Zoning and/or Building Appeals Board -- Batesville, Arkansas -- Napoleon, Ohio -- Appeals of Administrative Decisions -- Requests for Variances -- Parks and Recreation Board -- Parks and Recreation Planning -- Monitoring of Recreation Services -- Hearing Complaints -- Promoting Collaborative Arrangements for Service Provision -- Executing Plans Adopted by the City Council -- Civil Service Commission/Personnel Review Board -- Summary and Conclusions -- Chapter 3 The Ties that Bond and Bridge: Small-Town Board Members as Social Capitalists -- A Portrait of Small-City Board Members -- Small-City Board Members as Social Capitalists -- Combining Bottom-up and Top-Down Influences on Social Capital Creation.