City
From Ballotpedia - Reading time: 5 min
A city is an urban area with a high population density and a particular administrative, legal, or historical status. The definition of cities (and town, village, township, municipality, etc.) is a matter of state law, and the definitions vary widely by states.
Ballotpedia uses the word city as a generic term to refer to all municipalities within counties.
Organization[edit]
There are five historical forms of municipal government found in cities and towns throughout the United States that are summarized below:
Mayor-council government[edit]
- See also: Mayor-council government
Mayor-council governments generally feature an elected executive officer, called a mayor, and an elected legislative body that is most often known as the city council. Depending on a city’s history or its relationship with the surrounding county, however, the legislative body might go by another name such as an urban-county council, a common council, a board of supervisors or a metro council. Similarly, the number of city council members varies widely. The Madison Common Council, for example, consists of 20 members, while the New York City Council consists of 51 members.[1][2]
In a mayor-council government, the mayor and city council work together to balance and pass a budget, draft and enforce legislation, and oversee city departments and appoint departmental heads. The dynamics of how the mayor and city council work together depend on the type of mayor-council government that a city uses. In a strong mayor-council government, the mayor is the city’s chief executive, while the council is the city’s primary legislative body. In a weak mayor-council government, the executive authority of the mayor is less expansive and more power is shared with the council.
City commission[edit]
- See also: City commission
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.
Council-manager government[edit]
- See also: Council-manager government'
In a council-manager government, an elected city council serves as the city's primary legislative body and appoints a chief executive officer called a city manager to oversee day-to-day municipal operations, draft a budget, and implement and enforce the council's policy and legislative initiatives.
Most council-manager governments also feature a mayor, who may be elected at large, who officially represents the city on the state, national, and international levels. However, unlike in a strong mayor-council government, the mayor is a regular voting member of city council with little or no legal privileges that may distinguish him or her from other council members.
Open town meeting[edit]
- See also: Open town meeting
An open town meeting government is a form of municipal government in which all qualified voters of the municipality have an opportunity to assemble on a given day to debate and vote on policy decisions. The town meeting usually occurs annually, but special meetings may be called more frequently. A board of officials, called selectmen or supervisors, is elected to carry out the legislative policies set by the citizens. Voters gather to speak their minds, weigh the pros and cons of policy, and directly participate in passing ordinances, taxes, budgets, bonds, and other legislative matters. The open town meeting form of government is largely found in New England.[3][4]
Representative town meeting[edit]
- See also: Representative town meeting
A representative town meeting government is a form of municipal government similar to the open town meeting structure in that legislative policies for the town are debated and set at an assembly of residents. However, in this form the residents of the town elect a large number of citizens, called town meeting members, to represent them at the town meeting. The voting members are elected from and represent a certain precinct or area of the town. While all residents may attend the meeting, only the town meeting members are permitted to vote on the legislative policies, such as ordinances, taxes, budgets and bonds. The town meeting usually occurs annually, but special meetings may be called more frequently. A board of officials, called selectmen or supervisors, is elected to carry out the legislative policies set at the meeting. The representative town meeting form of government is largely found in New England.[3][4]
Characteristics[edit]
All cities share similar characteristics. With the rise of urban areas in the early to mid-20th century, academics began naming those characteristics. Louis Wirth, a sociologist, found four common characteristics among all cities. They were:
- Permanence
- Large population size
- High population density
- Social heterogeneity
This is the definition used to determine whether an area is a city.[5]
See also[edit]
Footnotes[edit]
- ↑ City of Madison, "Alders," accessed November 19, 2014
- ↑ New York City City Council, "Members," accessed November 19, 2014
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 National League of Cities, Forms of Municipal Government
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 City Mayors Foundation, "Mayors play the central role in US municipal government"
- ↑ Wide Urban World, "What is a city? Definitions of the urban," accessed February 21, 2015
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