Martin School of Public Policy and Administration
October 5, 2010
Her passion is national defense. His is local government. She explored the Department of Defense; he took a closer look at urban consolidation. But differences aside, both Meredith Howes and Matthew Howell surprised themselves with their Martin School research findings. And Meredith and Matthew have another thing in common: they’ll both be taking home student paper awards from this year’s Southeastern Conference of Public Administration. Only three students receive awards, and Martin School Director Dr. Bill Hoyt says, “We’re extremely proud of Meredith and Matthew, and proud that not just one but two of the three winners are from the Martin School.”
Meredith’s interest in the military began with a marriage: her own. Right after she and her husband tied the knot, they moved to Fort Bragg where he was active duty army. To her own surprise, Meredith discovered she loved the military atmosphere, and soon realized she’d found her professional calling. “I get so into this stuff….I find it fascinating,” the current Bluegrass Station based-contractor says of her chosen field. By the time she arrived at the Martin School, Meredith knew she wanted to focus on national defense.
For her capstone, Meredith decided to evaluate the cost effectiveness of domestic contractors. Contrary to popular belief, she found that in most situations civilian employees are actually more cost effective than contractors. But the findings that really surprised Meredith related to contractor oversight, or more specifically, lack of oversight. “With the current conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan there’s obviously been a huge jump in the amount of contractors. However the personnel, the oversight agencies - they haven’t been able to keep up with the surge.”
Meredith feels there is a growing trend away from military contractors. “The current administration is trying to push to get back to a civilian service- driven rather than a contractor-driven workforce.” As for her own future –whether she’s acting as a contractor or civil servant, Meredith’s goal is to continue building her career in national defense.
Matthew, a longtime fan of federalism, became fascinated with consolidated governments when he moved to Lexington. He noticed that most of the research treated local government consolidations and separations like economic issues, but Matthew thought something else was going on – and that something was human nature in the form of politics. In his own work, Matthew has seen a merger stall over disagreements between political leaders, and he points out, “If you want to talk about a merger, you’re talking about merging groups, just like merging labor unions or merging companies. You’re looking for similarities…or some way to make differences not matter.”
So Matthew looked at how many towns there were in certain American counties. As he suspected, separate cities are more likely in areas where there are more diverse groups of people. But Matthew found that something even more powerful was at play. The biggest predictor of multiple cities isn’t the local residents; it’s the state laws governing city creation and city powers. Cities, after all, are creatures of the state, and Matthew found that separate cities were far more likely to form in states that protect their cities from bankruptcy and allow them a great deal of freedom. His research also raised further questions, which Matthew plans to dig into as he continues his doctoral studies.
Meredith will receive the Robert Kline Award for Outstanding Paper by a Master’s Student for Providing Department of Defense Support Domestically: A Study of Cost; and Matthew will receive his honorable mention for a doctoral paper for Lines in the Sand; Lines on the Map: Group Formation and the Fragmentation of the Metropolis at the SECOPA conference in Wilmington, North Carolina, the week of October 10th.
Click to read Matthew & Meredith’s papers.