This year, the International City/-...

This year, the International City/-County Managers Association meeting overlaps with the International Public Works Congres

To my mind, this is fitting, because the more I behold the more it looks like the couple jobs are beginning to overlap.

The couple positions have traditionally defined the opposite fall of the curtains of the local-government-appointed-official spectrum; public works the operational and city (or county) management the administrative. They were the yin and yang, the sales rep and the editors, the proprietors and players, both necessary to the operation, and each stepping warily around the other in a measured attempt to cover turf and avoid cooties.

Public works directors have to worry about sewers and garbage. City and shire managers have to worry about councils and commissions. (In a places, it's pretty much the same thing.)

In the past, that's where the resemblance [i]finale[/i]ed The two didn't attend the same meetings,