Hildreth, W., J. Miller, G., & Rabin, J. (1980). The Liability of Public Executives: Implications for Practice in Personnel Administration. Review of Public Personnel Administration 1, Fall. Bartley Hildreth, author of this article, holds a B.A. Political Science from University of Alabama, M.P.A. from Auburn University at Montgomery, and a Ph.D from University of Georgia. When this article was published in 1980, Hildreth had just completed his Ph.D. In this paper, I summarize the article and offer comments about selected aspects, identify any relevant changes that have occurred since the article was published and suggest areas where additional research findings would assist in understanding the liabilities of Public executives in current areas.
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Personal liability of public executives is a balance of effective administration of government policies and protection of the individual citizen’s rights. Personal liability can be described as public officer’s individual responsibility as an employee of the government, whereas, official liability of public executives is the governmental liability where the government pays for the damages suits against the government unit. The officials making the offending policy have to account for their actions to the constituents they serve. Hilbert (1980) explains that the legislative mandate for the personal liability of administrators at local and state levels comes from the Civil Rights Act of 1871. In Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 1982, the United States Supreme Court emphasized that public administrators can be held personally liable if they violate Citizen’s Constitutionally protected rights for which a reasonable person would have known. Newbold (2011) brought a new concern on training future public administrators at various Master of Public Administration (MPA) and (MPP) programs around the United States. National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA), American Society for Public Administration (ASPA), and the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) have always focused on policy analysis, management, and leadership at the core of the MPA and MPP degrees, and …show more content…
However, it is crucial to find out if public executives are legally trained or educated about their official liability. Randolph (1998) points out that there are more than 83, ooo separated public bodies managed by public officials, both elected and appointed. All of these public bodies are not necessarily as big as congress. There are some township boards, library boards, fire protection district boards, school boards, and other local governmental bodies that do not have enough legal, financial, or the interpersonal resources to train their employees to identify and handle the public officials’
Personal liability of public executives is a balance of effective administration of government policies and protection of the individual citizen’s rights. Personal liability can be described as public officer’s individual responsibility as an employee of the government, whereas, official liability of public executives is the governmental liability where the government pays for the damages suits against the government unit. The officials making the offending policy have to account for their actions to the constituents they serve. Hilbert (1980) explains that the legislative mandate for the personal liability of administrators at local and state levels comes from the Civil Rights Act of 1871. In Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 1982, the United States Supreme Court emphasized that public administrators can be held personally liable if they violate Citizen’s Constitutionally protected rights for which a reasonable person would have known. Newbold (2011) brought a new concern on training future public administrators at various Master of Public Administration (MPA) and (MPP) programs around the United States. National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration (NASPAA), American Society for Public Administration (ASPA), and the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management (APPAM) have always focused on policy analysis, management, and leadership at the core of the MPA and MPP degrees, and …show more content…
However, it is crucial to find out if public executives are legally trained or educated about their official liability. Randolph (1998) points out that there are more than 83, ooo separated public bodies managed by public officials, both elected and appointed. All of these public bodies are not necessarily as big as congress. There are some township boards, library boards, fire protection district boards, school boards, and other local governmental bodies that do not have enough legal, financial, or the interpersonal resources to train their employees to identify and handle the public officials’