dc.contributor.author	Nettles, Darryl A.
dc.coverage.spatial	United States	en_US
dc.coverage.temporal	2013-2018	en_US
dc.date.accessioned	2019-08-15T13:52:49Z
dc.date.available	2019-08-15T13:52:49Z
dc.date.issued	2018-09
dc.identifier.other	2D2F366E-A11D-3D8A-4E5A-0D73EDB0D71B	en_US
dc.identifier.uri	https://hdl.handle.net/10428/3930
dc.description.abstract	Cash strapped municipalities have become the new normal in local city governments. This research was conducted to determine if council-manager systems of municipal government have better bond ratings compared to municipalities with other forms of local government. One theory is based upon evidence that city managers operate more professional cities. In addition, city managers may be trained to negotiate better financial contracts, make decisions utilizing analysis techniques, and practice extremely sound budgetary practices. This study examined if city managers give municipalities any advantages, when bond rating agencies award bond values for financial resources. There was not a wealth of knowledge related to this topic. The data for this research was collected from secondary sources such as the US Census Bureau, Moody’s Investors Service, Augusta University city database, and various American city websites. Excel 2013 was utilized to randomly select 330 cities from the Augusta University city database of over 10,000 American cities. Moody’s Investment Services was the only chosen credit rating agency, because of the varied procedures that each agency utilizes to award city bond ratings. Moody’s website was the resource that was employed to assign municipal bond ratings to the 330 randomly selected cities. This was a quantitative methods study. A measurable value was assigned for council-manager forms of government, and all other forms of local government were assigned a different value. As a result of this study, there seems to be agreement that the form of local government in municipalities does influence the city’s bond rating values awarded. This finding could aid municipalities in the future to determine what form of local government may work better for achieving better bond ratings.	en_US
dc.description.tableofcontents	Chapter I: INTRODUCTION 1 -- Purpose of Study 1 -- Statement of the Problem 2 -- Research Areas Identified 2 -- Study Significance 3 -- Research Questions 3 -- Hypotheses 4 -- Research Description/Methodology 5 -- Research Goals/Objectives 6 -- Organization of the Research 6 -- Chapter II: LITERATURE REVIEW 9 -- Introduction 9 -- Overview of the Literature 10 -- Historical Perspective 10 -- Forms of Local Government 11 -- The Adapted City 15 -- Effective Local Government Leadership 16 -- Effective Organizational Leadership 19 -- Municipal Bonds 21 -- Chapter III: METHODOLOGY 28 -- Introduction 28 -- Professional City Manager 29 -- City Manager Training 30 -- Stable Budgetary Practices 30 -- Procedure 31 -- Data Collection/Research Design 32 -- OLS Regression or Linear Regression 33 -- Research Questions 33 -- Hypotheses 34 -- Research Limitations 34 -- Bond Ratings Determined 35 -- Ethical, Moral, and Political Considerations 36 -- Study Population 36 -- Distribution of Results 37 -- Study Delimitations 37 -- Assumptions 37 -- Resources 37 -- Chapter IV: RESULTS 38 -- Introduction 38 -- Reliability/Validity 39 -- Bond Ratings Determined 39 -- Summary of Findings 55 -- Bond Rating and Form of Local Government 55 -- Chapter V: DISCUSSION/CONCLUSION 58 -- Significant Findings 58 -- Consideration of the Findings in Light of Existing Research 62 -- Study Overview 63 -- Implications of This Study 64 -- Limitations of This Study 64 -- Recommendations for Further Research 65 -- Conclusion 66 -- REFERENCES 67 -- APPENDIX A: IRA EXEMPT APPLICATION 73.	en_US
dc.format.extent	1 electronic document, 85 pages.	en_US
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf	en_US
dc.language.iso	en_US	en_US
dc.rights	This dissertation is protected by the Copyright Laws of the United States (Public Law 94-553, revised in 1976). Consistent with fair use as defined in the Copyright Laws, brief quotations from this material are allowed with proper acknowledgement. Use of the materials for financial gain with the author's expressed written permissions is not allowed.	en_US
dc.subject	Dissertations, Academic--United States	en_US
dc.subject	City planning	en_US
dc.subject	Economic development	en_US
dc.subject	Public administration	en_US
dc.subject	Local government	en_US
dc.subject	Local government--Finance	en_US
dc.subject	Municipal bonds--Ratings and rankings	en_US
dc.subject	City managers	en_US
dc.title	Comparison of the Bond Ratings in Municipalities with City Managers and Municipalities without City Managers	en_US
dc.type	Dissertation	en_US
dc.contributor.department	Department of Political Science of the College of Humanities and Social Sciences	en_US
dc.description.advisor	Peterson, James W.
dc.description.committee	Hatcher, William
dc.description.committee	Yehl, Robert
dc.description.committee	Cruz, Becky K. da
dc.description.degree	D.PA.	en_US
dc.description.major	Public Administration	en_US