Such an immense list of responsibilities raises several questions: what is the appropriate contribution of municipal chief administrators to the general public welfare? What are their rules of engagement? What are the standards used to assess their performance? How should they conduct themselves when confronting a host of expectations and dilemmas generated within and outside their public organization? These questions are related to the concept of public professionalism (Bourgault and Parent 2008). Sherwood (1997, 217) argues that public professionalism is “a matter of extreme significance to the achievement of effective, responsive government.” Professionalism among local government officials, particularly the appointed executives, has become a critical issue in many countries that have adopted the decentralization reform over the past few decades. Currently, there is little disagreement over the importance of professionalism among public officials. However, there is a lack of clarity about the definition and measurement of public professionalism. Martin (1994) notes that the lack of clarity arises from the two contrasting visions of the public service: the democratic model that stresses the importance of political institutions and due process and the managerial model that emphasizes technical and economic rationality.