City Manager

Meet Sterling's City Manager

Scott Shumard was appointed as city manager in January of 2008 and is Sterling's 5th city manager. He is a native of Illinois and has spent his professional career in Sterling. Shumard has a Bachelor of Arts in Public Administration with an Economics minor from St. Cloud State University and a Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree from the University of Kansas. The MPA required a year-long management internship which Shumard completed with the City of Sterling from 1999 to 2000.

Shumard worked for the next 8 years in Sterling under the prior City Manager before being named the interim manager in October of 2007. He is a member of the Illinois City Management Association and the International City Management Association.

Council-Manager Form of Government

The City of Sterling operates under the Council-Manager form of government. The managerial form of government is available to all municipalities under 500,000 in population. The municipality may retain its governmental structures as an aldermanic-city form, trustee-village form, or commission form while adopting the features of the manager form.

Under this form, the power of the council or board is purely legislative except that it is empowered to approve all expenses and liabilities to the municipality. The manager is the administrative and executive head of the government for some purposes. The manager appoints and removes all officers not required to be elected. The appointment to most boards, commissions, and other municipal agencies resides in the mayor or president subject to council or board confirmation.

Resources

You can learn more about the Council-Manager form of government and its benefits by visiting:

• ICMA Professional Local Government
• Illinois City/County Management Association

Or reading these documents:

• How Professionals Add Value to Their Communities and Organizations (PDF)
• How Professionals Save Local Governments Money (PDF)
• Smarter, Faster, Cheaper (PDF)