City Governance
There are five historical municipal governance forms in America:
- The mayor-council
- The council-manager
- The open town meeting
- The representative town meeting (National League of Cities, 2016).
The form of governance in a city and the division of powers can be decided by local ordinances, the city’s charter, or state law.
Generally, in a Mayor-council government, an executive officer referred to as the mayor, and a legislative body called the city council are elected. The city council may be referred to by other names, such as the urban-county council, and the number of members on the council varies. For example, the Common Council in Madison consists of 20 members (City of Madison, 2021), while the City Council of New York has 51 members (New York City Council, 2021). A council-manager government entails an elected city council that works as the main lawmaking body in the city. a chief executive officer referred to as the city manager is designated by the city council, and oversees the municipality’s day-to-day operations, drafts budgets, and implements and enforces the council’s legislative initiatives and policies. In a city commission municipal form of government, officials are independently elected and work on a small council referred to as a commission that executes lawmaking powers and administrative powers in governing the city. This form of government is often called the Galveston Plan, after the Texan town it originated from in 1901 (City Mayors: US local government, 2021).
A mayor-council form of government requires the city council and the mayor to work together in balancing and passing budgets, composing and implementing laws, supervising the municipality’s departments, and designating department leaders. Nonetheless, the dynamics of the mayor and the city committee’s working relationship are dependent on the sort of mayor-council government utilized by the municipality. The mayor-council type of governance can be broadly classified into: the strong and weak types. The main contrast between the two is the scope of the mayor’s legal power and executive authority. With the mayor as the chief executive and the council as the city’s main lawmaking body, the strong mayor-council government’s general characteristics include:
- The mayor outlines and submits budgets to the city assembly.
- The mayor enforces ordinances and city laws.
- The mayor holds line-time veto or veto power.
- The mayor may appoint or demote heads of departments.
- The mayor serves the city officially on international, national, and state levels (National League of Cities, 2016).
A majority of council-manager governments also include a mayor who citizens may elect at large. Like the strong mayor-council government, this mayor serves the city officially on international, national, and state levels. However, the mayor has little to no legal privileges that may set them apart from other council members, and unlike the strong mayor-council government, they are just regular voting members. The mayor, city council, and the city-manager work together, enacting budgets, drafting and enforcing legislation, providing city services, and overseeing city departments and appointing heads of departments (DeSantis & Renner, 2002) (ICMA.org, 2021).
Efficiency is the most critical goal of any system of city governance. High-efficiency levels are attained if the city concentrates its powers on a set of individuals. The city commission form of governance is the most suitable for reaching this goal because its rulings can be arrived at faster without the “checks and balances” known to delay progress within other structures. This governance style has served well in emergencies since it provides swift and direct policy implementation (University of South Carolina, 2021).
References
City Mayors: US local government. (2021). Retrieved 2 December 2021, from http://www.citymayors.com/usa/usa_locgov.html
City of Madison. (2021). Alders – Council Members – Common Council – City of Madison, Wisconsin. Retrieved 2 December 2021, from https://www.cityofmadison.com/Council/councilMembers/alders.cfm
Department of Political Science – University of South Carolina. (2021). Retrieved 2 December 2021, from https://sc.edu/study/colleges_schools/artsandsciences/political_science/index.php
DeSantis, V. S., & Renner, T. (2002). City government structures: An attempt at clarification. State and Local Government Review, 34(2), 95-104.
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