No deficit of talent.(LETTERS)(Letter to the Editor)

Public Management, July, 2005 by Brown, Adam

I want to comment on the article by Frank Benest titled "It's a Reality: The Shrinking Talent Pool for Local Government Managers," which appeared in the March 2005 PM.

As an aspiring manager, I have closely followed the articles and studies from ICMA on mentoring, the baby boomer exodus, and succession planning. I appreciate ICMA's attention to these subjects, and I realize that for the profession these are challenges. To someone only three years removed from graduate school, however, they present a tremendous opportunity.

I was immediately taken aback by the use of the word "talent" in the title and throughout Benest's article. One of my mentors in local government once told me, "Words don't seem that important to us, until they matter." The...