The Jack Charlton of local government gets the big job

BIT IS typical of John Fitzgerald, that he's keeping such a low profile after bagging the job in Irish local government. He says it would be "presumptuous" to give interviews to the media while Frank Feely serves out his last few weeks in office and, more importantly, before his own appointment is ratified by Dublin City Council.

When news came through that he was to be the new city manager, some 30 members of his staff were on a bus touring north Clondalkin. An Eircell phone rang and the official who answered it used the public address system on the bus to tell colleagues that "Fitzy" had got the job. Virtually in unison, they responded by exclaiming "Oh, f. . k!".

It is a measure of the loyalty and esprit de corps which Fitzgerald generated in South Dublin County Council that few, if any, of its 1,500 staff are happy about his departure. "Of course, we're all glad that he got the big job. But we're sad to be losing him", said one of his colleagues. Indeed, the feeling in Tallaght is that he'll be a hard act to follow.

"He has been a great team builder," said Brian Brennan, the county architect. "What he created is a very effective, coherent and unified management team, integrating senior professional and administrative staff, so everyone knows the game plan, what they have to do and how to do it. In that sense, he's the local government version of Jack Charlton."

Though seemingly quite shy, he is said to have a tremendous facility for putting people at, ease and making it clear to them that their role is to "contribute", not to account for their actions. At the same time, he is very managerial. "Staff who don't perform, who don't measure up to the corporate standard or who let the team down are sidelined", another source said.

Fitzgerald brought a strong work ethic to South Dublin County Council, firmly grounded in teamwork rather than command and control or management by anecdote. "He gets the best out of people. He brings them into the decision making process and everything he is doing. On a personal level, he's also very concerned about the staff, not just as employees but as individuals."

He has obviously been reading the right books. Bedside or holiday reading must have included some heavy tomes on management, such as Douglas McGregor's The Human Side of Enterprise, which formulated the "X" and "Y" management philosophies and Abraham Maslow's ground breaking works on behaviourism and motivation, such as his Further Reaches of Human Nature.

In terms of "X" and "Y" Fitzgerald is very much a "Y" man. The "X" style is the reign of terror, under which staff area treated as recalcitrants who will only perform if they're flailed repeatedly. The "Y" style is to bring people on board, to involve them in the process of decision making, if only because such an enlightened regime leads to greater productivity.

Take the bus trip, for example. Every couple of weeks, South Dublin County Council hires a bus, puts 40 members of the staff on it and takes them out to see the territory they help to administer. "Whether you're a clerical officer, an architect doing design work or someone who's paying the bills, you get to know the places you're dealing with," said one of those involved.

The prospect of bringing this kind of philosophy into the city is quite exciting, given the rigidly bureaucratic nature of Dublin Corporation. Some of the changes Fitzgerald is likely to make will be easy enough to achieve, such as setting a new, more progressive tone for the organisation. But others will take much longer, testing his patience and determination.

The new city manager is expected to begin the task of devising a new strategy as soon as he takes over, in early June. If the South Dublin strategy is a yardstick, this in itself will involve a quite radical change of philosophy, committing the corporation to provide "open, effective and participative local government ... mobilising community commercial and resources".

Fitzgerald, as one of his colleagues said, has created expectations of what a manager should be with the public at large, the business community and especially the staff. There is a tremendous team atmosphere in the place. People walk with a spring in their step, they've got their shoulders back and are aware of their self worth as never before," he added.

Given that city and county managers wield most of the power at local level, maintaining a good relationship with the largely powerless elected councillors is crucial. Fitzgerald gets on well with his elected representatives in South Dublin. "There's no Sir Humphrey here. He doesn't treat them as the enemy, but brings them on board too and expects them to be part of the process."

It is impossible to imagine him lording it over the city councillors, dressed in a set of robes invented to fit the manager's role as town clerk. However, Fitzgerald is believed to view his new job as having a metropolitan dimension and sees himself working closely with the three county managers (in Fingal, Dun Laoghaire Rathdown and South Dublin) to push the boat out for Dublin.