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Camille Cates Barnett is both
a professional city manager — widely regarded
as one of America’s most talented — and
a leading national authority on effective government. She is currently Strategic Consulting Director for Public Financial Management in Washington, D.C.
Most of her 24 years in city
management — after some early stops in Grand
Rapids, Mich., and Sunnyvale, Calif., were in the
Texas hot-spots of Houston, Dallas, and Austin.
While in Austin, she broke the city manager mold
with her customer service orientation, public visibility,
emphasis on public participation, and her ability
to broker all the competing interests that maneuver
for power.
It was during her tenure in Austin that Barnett became engaged with the realties of regionalism. She challenged the Austin region to think differently about the problems “we love to hate” and pointed to regionalism as the only way Austin could survive and prosper. Subsequently she worked with the Center for International Development at the Research Triangle Institute — one of the nation's largest not-for-profit contract research organizations — traveling the globe counseling governments on transferable, city government innovations, a major share of her consulting work focused on developing and transitioning citistates in eastern Europe and Russia.
Late in 1997, the Congressionally-designated Financial Control Board of the District of Columbia turned to Barnett to serve as Washington 's Chief Management Officer — in effect, city manager — during a period of transition back to home rule for the Nation's Capital. Barnett focused on restoring quality in the management and delivery of basic services ranging from repaired streets to reduced permit processing times to adequate, answered telephones in municipal offices. She also focused on employee motivation and a start at performance contracts. After the election of a mayor focused on government efficiency, and with the home rule she'd encouraged returning to the District, Barnett resigned in the early 1999.
Barnett now works with public sector clients to improve governance—through strategies as varied as the federal, state or local governments themselves. She has been associated in recent years with the Public Strategies Group, with a particular interest in using budgets to focus on results and transform organizations.
She encourages collaborative approaches to growth, disaster recovery, economic strength, environmental sustainability and other issues that cross-governmental jurisdictions. She has written numerous articles on emerging networks in governing and thinking differently about governmentand speaks often to audiences around the country.
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