Click here to follow election results! A city commission is a form of municipal government in which individually elected officials serve on a small governing board, called a commission, that exercises both legislative and executive powers to govern the municipality.
The commission contains a specified number of members, often five or seven. Usually, commission members are elected on an at-large basis, rather than from wards or districts. Apart from the legislative role of the commission, each commissioner is administratively responsible for at least one specific aspect or department, such as fire, police, public works, health or finance. One commissioner may be given the title of mayor or chairperson.
This position is largely symbolic apart from presiding over meetings. The commission form of government is sometimes referred to as the Galveston Plan , after the town in Texas where it originated in The commission form of government is one of the five historical forms of municipal government in the United States.
The others are mayor-council , council-manager , open town meeting and representative town meeting. The commission form of government is rarely used today in the United States. The first commission form of government was implemented in Galveston, Texas, in It came about as a reaction to the Galveston hurricane of Business leaders did not believe the current city council was effective enough to provide a proper recovery effort. In council-manager cities, this prohibition is established statutorily; the council must deal with the city manager concerning matters of city administration.
Under the city manager's direction and "for the purpose of inquiry, the council may deal directly with officers and employees. Of course, things do not always run smoothly between the council and the city administration, and the line between policy and administration may in some situations be blurred and imprecise.
This section will explore two areas in which disagreements often arise. The remedy for some of these situations may be to review the respective roles of the mayor and the council and to understand the limitations of their respective authorities. Mayoral appointments offer insight into this dynamic, as not all councils have the same authority with respect to these appointments.
Here are two examples. Note that both council A and council B may, through policymaking, provide for a detailed personnel system establishing specific qualifications for positions or requiring publication and public posting of job opening announcements for their respective jurisdictions. Similarly, if the council feels that an officer or employee is performing poorly and should be disciplined or fired, it can say so to the mayor but has no power to do anything else.
Although it controls the salaries paid to city officers and employees, the council may not lower a salary so as to cause and with the purpose of causing the person holding that position to quit. A rule to follow is that the council and the mayor may not do indirectly what it cannot do directly. On the issue of communication between the council and city officers and employees, the mayor may not prevent councilmembers from gaining information through an inquiry process, although he or she could reasonably regulate such a process.
However, if councilmember inquiries of city employees serve to harass those employees, become burdensome, or unreasonably take them away from their duties, it may be necessary for the mayor to require those inquiries be channeled through the mayor's office, or that of another department head, as long as this can be done without unduly encumbering the council's access to information. Finances and budgets are additional sources of conflict. For example, the mayor may not take full advantage of the budget authorized by the council.
The council may authorize a certain position at a certain salary but the mayor may decide either not to fill the position or may do so at half-time and half-salary. The mayor may cite financial challenges, such as revenues falling short of projections, and may conclude that the city cannot afford someone filling this position full-time.
In either case, the city council will then appoint a city manager to carry out the administrative functions of the municipal government. This frees the city council to address political functions such as setting policy and formulating the budget. Municipal governments are responsible for providing clean water as well as sewage and garbage disposal. They must maintain city facilities, such as parks, streetlights, and stadiums. Municipal governments typically rely on property tax revenue, user fees from trash collection and the provision of water and sewer services, a portion of sales tax receipts, and taxes on business.
Visit the ICMA Priorities page to learn what makes a better leader and how you might improve your local community. County governments can adopt the commission system, the council-administrator system, and the council-elected executive system of government to carry out their functions, which usually include the work of the sheriff, the county clerk, the assessor, the treasurer, the coroner, and the engineer.
Municipal governments can use the mayor-council system or the council-manager system and manage services such as the provision of clean water, park maintenance, and local law enforcement. Cities and counties both rely on tax revenues, especially property taxes, to fund their provision of services. They maintain city facilities, such as parks, streetlights, and stadiums. In addition, they address zoning and building regulations, promote economic development, and provide law enforcement, public transportation, and fire protection.
Council of State Governments. The Book of the States. Elazar, Daniel. American Federalism: A View from the States , 2nd ed. New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Company. Rosenthal, Alan. Wright, Ralph. Inside the Statehouse: Lessons from the Speaker. Privacy Policy. Skip to main content.
0コメント