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€\ -A_jt2^ i pi annmg Notes Number 7 For Greeturburgher** Department of Planning, City of Greensboro, North Carolina 23 March I960 MUNICIPAL SERVICES ***! Many reasons have been documented to explain the age-old attraction that urban areas hold for their inhabitants. Significant among these is the fact that the mere clustering of large numbers of people in a city makes possible and necessary, a wide range of services, facilities, and conveniences that can be justified and financed under no other circumstances. Such services and conveniences differ widely in kind and extent from community to community. There is also wide variation in the methods and types of organizations chosen to supply them. Because of innumerable variations and the complex patterns established by precedent, the analysis and projection of a community's present and future array of services and conveniences becomes a singularly unique undertaking for each individual case. Any examination of the services and conveniences furnished to the public by a municipal corporation leads us immediately to search for fundamental reasons that will justify any and all such functions. In some cases the rendition of a public service by use of public funds has a long record of continuous operation so that it is accepted because of established precedent. In other cases the service may be of comparatively recent orgin and we are inclined to a more searching analysis of its claim upon the public till. In the past there has been a traditional classification, particularly familiar to some members of the legal profession, which attempts to place all services rendered by local governments into two groups. The first is called the "necessary governmental functions" and presumably includes those activities and services which somehow must be performed by the local government if organized society is to continue to prevail in the countryside. The second of these two is called the "proprietary functions" which apparently includes any other governmental activity not within the scope of the first group. The title of the first group would seem to imply a finality which would establish the services so rendered as being absolutely essential, fixed and unchanging for all local governments. Closer examination of these services reveals quite the contrary. It may be concluded that the designation "necessary governmental functions" is actually a myth, or at best a convenient cliche designed to serve other objectives. Currently, there exists in North Carolina a list, of sometimes variable length, that is presumed to include all necessary governmental functions. A brief review of the history of such functions reveals that many were, at one time, not considered "to be necessary governmental functions and, in fact, were performed privately either individually or through corporate effort without benefit of public funds. Many services currently being rendered under the shield of the "necessary governmental function" might conceivably be rendered by private corporations, under franchise in some cases, and with no more than superficial regulation by governmental authorities. The almost universal municipal service of fire protection was at one time no part of any city government. When fire companies did exist, they were organized on a volunteer basis and, in some instances, under the direction of insurance companies. Subsequent experience has apparently proven that this service is rendered most satisfactorily as a function of municipal government. Water supply and sewage disposal were not, and in some cases still are not, a part of the local governmental services, although they are regarded as necessary governmental functions. Similar situations exist with respect to nearly all governmental services. At an earlier date, many cities and towns in North Carolina operated municipal abattoirs and it may be assumed that this was thought to be a necessary governmental function. Today, Greensboro no longer performs this function and other communities have likewise abandoned the operation. Cur-
Object Description
Title | Planning notes [Number 7, 23 March 1960] |
Date | 1960-03-23 |
Creator (group/organization) | Department of Planning, Greensboro, North Carolina |
Subject headings | Land use -- North Carolina -- Greensboro;Greensboro (N.C.) -- History -- 20th century |
Topics | Planning |
Place | Greensboro (N.C.) |
Description | Report of the development and necessity of Greensboro’s municipal services. Three area of municipal services mentioned are physical comforts like the police department, cultural services like the public school system, and transportation services. |
Type | Text |
Original format | newsletters |
Original publisher | Greensboro, N.C. : Department of Planning |
Language | en |
Contributing institution | Greensboro Public Library |
Source collection | Guilford Vertical Files (Greensboro Public Library) |
Folder | Government -- Greensboro (4) |
Rights statement | http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NKC/1.0/ |
Additional rights information | NO KNOWN COPYRIGHT. This item is believed to be in the public domain but its copyright status has not been determined conclusively. |
Object ID | GPL_GVF.028.002 |
Date digitized | 2014 |
Digital access format | Image/jpg |
Digital publisher | The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, University Libraries, PO Box 26170, Greensboro NC 27402-6170, 336.334.5304 -- http://library.uncg.edu/ |
OCLC number | 893991592 |
Page/Item Description
Title | Page 001 |
Full text | €\ -A_jt2^ i pi annmg Notes Number 7 For Greeturburgher** Department of Planning, City of Greensboro, North Carolina 23 March I960 MUNICIPAL SERVICES ***! Many reasons have been documented to explain the age-old attraction that urban areas hold for their inhabitants. Significant among these is the fact that the mere clustering of large numbers of people in a city makes possible and necessary, a wide range of services, facilities, and conveniences that can be justified and financed under no other circumstances. Such services and conveniences differ widely in kind and extent from community to community. There is also wide variation in the methods and types of organizations chosen to supply them. Because of innumerable variations and the complex patterns established by precedent, the analysis and projection of a community's present and future array of services and conveniences becomes a singularly unique undertaking for each individual case. Any examination of the services and conveniences furnished to the public by a municipal corporation leads us immediately to search for fundamental reasons that will justify any and all such functions. In some cases the rendition of a public service by use of public funds has a long record of continuous operation so that it is accepted because of established precedent. In other cases the service may be of comparatively recent orgin and we are inclined to a more searching analysis of its claim upon the public till. In the past there has been a traditional classification, particularly familiar to some members of the legal profession, which attempts to place all services rendered by local governments into two groups. The first is called the "necessary governmental functions" and presumably includes those activities and services which somehow must be performed by the local government if organized society is to continue to prevail in the countryside. The second of these two is called the "proprietary functions" which apparently includes any other governmental activity not within the scope of the first group. The title of the first group would seem to imply a finality which would establish the services so rendered as being absolutely essential, fixed and unchanging for all local governments. Closer examination of these services reveals quite the contrary. It may be concluded that the designation "necessary governmental functions" is actually a myth, or at best a convenient cliche designed to serve other objectives. Currently, there exists in North Carolina a list, of sometimes variable length, that is presumed to include all necessary governmental functions. A brief review of the history of such functions reveals that many were, at one time, not considered "to be necessary governmental functions and, in fact, were performed privately either individually or through corporate effort without benefit of public funds. Many services currently being rendered under the shield of the "necessary governmental function" might conceivably be rendered by private corporations, under franchise in some cases, and with no more than superficial regulation by governmental authorities. The almost universal municipal service of fire protection was at one time no part of any city government. When fire companies did exist, they were organized on a volunteer basis and, in some instances, under the direction of insurance companies. Subsequent experience has apparently proven that this service is rendered most satisfactorily as a function of municipal government. Water supply and sewage disposal were not, and in some cases still are not, a part of the local governmental services, although they are regarded as necessary governmental functions. Similar situations exist with respect to nearly all governmental services. At an earlier date, many cities and towns in North Carolina operated municipal abattoirs and it may be assumed that this was thought to be a necessary governmental function. Today, Greensboro no longer performs this function and other communities have likewise abandoned the operation. Cur- |