LONDON -- When it comes to creating new forms of local government, the British have decided it's time to call in some experts.

They're bringing over the Americans.

Baltimore Mayor Kurt L. Schmoke is the latest big-city mayor to cross the Atlantic and make a case for the United Kingdom to create government that is closer to the people. He'll be a featured guest at today's policy seminar organized by the U.K./U.S. Center for Local Government.

"We're not here to say what is the perfect way of doing it," Schmoke said yesterday as he arrived off a red-eye flight from Baltimore. Schmoke said he's just as interested in learning from the British.

"It's an opportunity to put our form of government under a microscope," he said of the seminar that will examine local government models and assemble political leaders, chief executives and policy-makers from both countries.

The British are embarking on their most ambitious government overhaul in decades, as Parliament relinquishes some power to newly created local governments. London will get its first elected citywide mayor and assembly next year. Scotland is gaining a parliament, while Wales gets a local assembly this spring. And Northern Ireland continues its long trek from war to peace with an assembly and ruling Cabinet that will soon gain control of the British province.

In England and Wales, more than 400 local authorities, over seeing everything from trash collection to schools to zoning, are due for a shake-up. Policy experts are trying to decide whether the smaller cities and towns would be better off with mayors, city managers or cabinet-style governments.

"We want to use the American system to help us think about what is the right way to proceed," said Janet Rutherford, policy and research director of Britain's Local Government Association. "My personal view is if you can attract people as mayors who are high-caliber leaders, that's a good thing. But the reservation people have is there will be a concentration of power."

Baltimore has emerged as something of a political laboratory for the British. The city was featured in a case study published in November on local government and the Scottish Parliament.

The Baltimore-Britain connection was strengthened 10 years ago when Schmoke, a former Rhodes scholar, was invited to a luncheon for Prince Charles. The British Embassy in Washington kept in contact with Schmoke, and the relationship yielded a variety of study tours and exchanges between Baltimore and Britain. Delegations from 17 British cities and areas have visited Baltimore. Oxford University students fill summer internships at City Hall.

The U.K./U.S. Center for Local Government grew out of the Baltimore-Britain connection. The center -- which agency literature indicates was "set up to expedite the exchange between the U.S. and U.K. of expertise and strategies on the shaping and implementation of local government policy" -- is linked with the new American Institute at Oxford University. Academic support is also provided by the Johns Hopkins University.

In trying to gain insight into the powers and perils of local government, the British are casting a wide net.

Thursday, Philadelphia Mayor Edward G. Rendell, Denver Mayor Wellington E. Webb and Norman B. Rice, former mayor of Seattle, spoke before more than 200 British business and civic leaders.

The blunt-talking Americans appeared to bowl over an audience unaccustomed to hearing politicians discuss the ins and outs of big-city government.

"The power of the bully pulpit is just enormous," Rendell said.

And what should London look for in a mayor?

"You should look for substantive ideas, substantive plans and leadership qualities," Rendell said.

And how powerful should a mayor be?

Webb said, "Since I'm a mayor, and I'm biased, I think the stronger, the better."

Pub Date: 3/06/99