More than half of Dublin City Council's senior managers live outside the city

A little more than half of the members of Dublin City Council's senior management team live outside the area they help to govern.

Of 47 people listed on the council's Who Does What? page in late August, 25 of them have home addresses outside the Dublin City Council area.

That's according to a response from the council to a request for that data under the Freedom of Information Act.

People are not required to live in a local authority's area to run it. But would the council's senior managers be more in touch with the needs of the city if more of them lived in it?

"Dublin City Council's senior managers are experienced professionals, many with decades of service across the public sector, who are directly accountable for the quality of services delivered to the city and engage daily with the areas and communities they serve," a council spokesperson said in response.

"Their effectiveness is grounded in that professionalism, experience and accountability – not in their home address," she said.

That is all well and fine, says Ray Maloney, sitting on a bench on Capel Street about lunchtime last Wednesday. But as he sees it, it definitely matters whether senior council managers live in the city.

"Anyone who's planning the city, they should have on-the-ground lived experience. Not coming from the leafy suburbs, out the window of a nice restaurant on a Friday evening," Maloney said. "How could you have ownership of a strategic plan if you don't have to live with its impacts?"

People see the benefits of guards and priests living in the areas they serve, Maloney said. "Why should council executives be any different?"

###"Living where you lead"

Unlike Ireland, some jurisdictions require local government leaders to live in the areas they govern.

In the USA, "many states enable their municipalities to impose a residency requirement on the chief administrative officer, and in some cases, their department heads", according to the first part of a two-part article in the International City/County Management Association (ICMA)'s PM Magazine.

Requiring city managers to live in the areas they govern had both positive and negative impacts, according to the "Living where you lead" articles, written by a trio of researchers.

On the plus side, respondents to the researchers' survey of 446 city managers said they believed "living in the community gives them a better chance to be more visible, helps them understand their needs more effectively, and allows for better connections with residents".

"They also feel that interacting with elected officials and constituents can be easier because they know firsthand the community’s conditions," the researchers write. And, "sharing the same experiences as other residents means the manager becomes a stakeholder in the outcomes being made, which can create greater accountability and credibility with the residents".

There doesn't seem to have been similar research done in Ireland. But this rang true to Michael Kelly, who was sitting on another bench on Capel Street last Wednesday about midday, finishing his lunch.

"It's not everything but it makes a difference. You're going to be more attuned to problems and solutions if you're living here, not just driving through on your way to work," Kelly said.

Also, a senior manager who does live in the city may well have family living here too, which gives them an even wider network of information about what's going on, and incentive to improve things, he said.

"I cycle a lot in town and one thing that you do get a sense of, it just seems like the people that designed the cycle lanes, the active travel infrastructure, they don't cycle through here enough," Kelly said. "Otherwise the problems would be glaringly obvious."

Dublin City Council's senior managers are held "directly accountable" for the quality of services delivered in the city, the council spokesperson said.

That's done through "annual performance management and development (PMDS) processes", "oversight of service delivery and budgets by elected councillors", and "statutory external audit of the Council's finances and performance", the spokesperson said.

As well as "public reporting against corporate plan and service delivery plan targets", and "independent oversight through mechanisms such as the Office of the Ombudsman and Freedom of Information", she said.

Could the council provide any concrete examples of a senior manager facing consequences – disciplinary action, non-renewal, or reassignment – specifically because of the quality of services delivered to the city?

"As with any employer, Dublin City Council does not comment publicly on individual staff members' employment or disciplinary matters. This is standard practice across the public and private sectors and protects due process for employees", the spokesperson said.

What would be the considerations around, and obstacles to, requiring people above a certain level in a local authority to live here?

"Staffing is a matter for each individual local authority," said a spokesperson for the County and City Management Association (CCMA), which represents local government management in Ireland.

"Queries regarding staffing and other operational matters at Dublin City Council should be directed to that local authority," the spokesperson said.

Work-life balance

Senior management posts at Dublin City Council are filled through open, competitive recruitment processes, a council spokesperson said.

These are "designed to attract and appoint the best available talent", she said. "Residency within the local authority area is not, and has never been, a requirement or criterion for these roles."

Changing that, and imposing a residency requirement, would likely have negative impacts, the "Living where you lead" researchers found.

A residency requirement might result in fewer applicants for a job, and "This shortage of candidates can also harm the quality of the hiring pool," the wrote.

When asked whether a residency requirement ever discouraged a manager from applying for a position, 48 percent said yes, in the survey.

Why? Among the most common responses were housing costs, children needing to change schools, difficulty finding childcare, and a partner's inability to find a suitable job in the same area.

The survey also showed that 58 percent of urban managers required to live in the cities they governed reported that their work-life balance was "very poor or poor".

There's the feeling of being forced to live there, and then also "When residency is required, managers often find themselves choosing a smaller or otherwise less desirable home to live in to afford their new community, or they make compromises regarding their partner’s career or children’s school," the researchers found.

Not only that, but living in the community means they are more accessible to people who live there, which can make managers more in touch with the needs of the community but can also be overwhelming.

One survey respondent said they shop for groceries entirely online, for delivery, "knowing that a trip to the grocery store is a community meeting", the researchers found.

"While everyone in the local government profession understands they are 'living in a fishbowl,' each person likely has a different tolerance level for how transparent the fishbowl walls are," the researchers write.

"Community visibility is often a family decision as well. While the manager may be completely comfortable with their high-profile career, their family members may not be as comfortable," they write.

Middle ground?

It definitely matters where council managers live, says Gayle Cullen Doyle, chair of the Oliver Bond residents' group.

"It's going back to people making decisions on people's lives that they actually don't have any clue about, that they aren't in communities to know what's going on, and what people need," Cullen Doyle said.

There's good people from the council who work well with Oliver Bond residents, she said, "but they have to deliver that back to their, we'll say, hierarchies, and then the hierarchies have to deliver them back to the department, and a lot of things get lost in transit while doing that".

But it's not that all senior managers at the council should be living in the city, Cullen Doyle said. Even those who do might not necessarily be in touch with all the different experiences city residents have, she said.

"Let's say the other half, that is living in the city, they also could be in an area that's a totally different environment than a flat complex," she said. "It depends on the area, it depends on the environment, so they still mightn't understand what is going on on the ground somewhere else."

What really needs to happen is that senior management need to get out of their offices more, she said.

"If you're working and you're passionate and that's what you want to be doing, get down and get your hands dirty as well," she said. "Come and talk. Come and get to know. Come and build relationships."

"Don't still sit behind your desk, come and see what your community is about, come and see what your workers are facing," she said.

On the other hand, though, David Turner, chair of the Sandymount and Merrion Residents Association (SAMRA) said the current situation is working grand for them.

"I feel we have good access to DCC’s senior management team - and we continue to meet up at regular intervals," Turner said. "On that basis, I don’t feel it to be an issue for SAMRA. On the contrary, whenever we seek a meeting they are available and we have a good dialogue. This It did not used to be the case pre-Richard Shakespeare."

"We do now have a very constructive and productive relationship," he said. "It wasn’t always the case and we have worked hard over the last 3 or 4 years to get what we have now."