An amendment to the ICMA Code of Ethics declared that personnel decisions should be exclusively merit-based and made without “political, religious, and racial considerations”.
Model Cities was launched in the 1960s as part of Lyndon Johnson's “Great Society program” and functioned partly as a remedy to the shortcomings of urban renewal, which caused mass displacement and hurt many African American communities who had largely been excluded from post-war prosperity, leading to urban unrest.
ICMA launches “goals review” and features several articles on the topic of social justice, racial equity, and civic unrest. Several of the articles refer to the changing urban landscape and requirements of being a city manager.
This Issue focused on the summer of 1967 when there were numerous periods of urban unrest in communities across the country. These more than 159 instances of urban unrest sparked the establishment of the Kerner Commission by President Lyndon B. Johnson to investigate the causes of the Long Hot Summer of 1967. The Commission determined that the causes were a combination of lack of economic opportunity, failed social service programs, police brutality, racism, and the white-oriented media.
This entire issue of PM Magazine was focused on the Lyndon B. Johnson-era Model Cities program and how it was being used in various communities to develop new antipoverty programs and alternative forms of municipal government. This program presented a new framework for city government that highlighted social programs as well as physical renewal, and sought to intertwine the actions of various government agencies in a multifaceted approach to addressing the complex roots of urban poverty and ultimately succeeding in fostering a new generation of mostly black urban leaders.
The Kerner Commission Report is a seminal work of the period discussing the long period of civic unrest in American cities in the late 1960s. The report notes that local government failures are in part a significant cause of civil unrest in America’s cities.
The May edition of PM Magazine featured another article on the Kerner Commission, with strong language for city managers to pay attention and learn. This issue was likely being published when Martin Luther King was assassinated, warranting an even greater need for fundamental change.
The July issue of PM Magazine features several guest articles by various senators as well as Otto Kerner, chairman of the U.S. Riot Commission Report, which had been released earlier in 1968.
The September 1968 issue of PM Magazine features another article focusing on the details of the US Riot Commission Report.
In this issue, ICMA featured two articles about former managers that went to work with USAID in Vietnam
