What is the history of the council-manager plan?
The plan is an American concept. The first position legally defining, by ordinance, the broad authority and responsibility associated with today’s local government manager was in Staunton, Virginia, in 1908. Sumter, South Carolina, was the first city to adopt a charter incorporating the basic principles of council-manager government in 1912. Westmount, Quebec, introduced the plan to Canada in 1913. The first large city to adopt the plan was Dayton, Ohio, in 1914. The first counties to adopt it in the 1930s were Arlington County, Virginia, and Durham County and Robeson County, North Carolina.
