Council-manager government

The council-manager government is one of two main variations of representative municipal government (for contrast, also see Mayor-Council government). In the council-manager form of government, an elected city council (typically between 5 and 11 people) is responsible for making policy, passing ordinances, voting appropriations, and having overall supervisory authority in the city government. In such a government, the mayor (or equivalent executive) will perform strictly ceremonial duties or will act as a member and presiding officer of the council.

The council will hire a manager or administrator who will be responsible for supervising government operations and implementing the policies adopted by the council. The manager serves the council, usually with a contract that specifies duties and responsibilities. Ideally, the manager is apolitical, but this is often difficult.

Typical roles and responsibilities of a city manager include:

Supervising day-to-day operations of all city departments;

Supervising the department heads

Preparing a draft city budget each year with options the council votes on;

Researching and making recommendations about topics of interest to the council;

Meeting with citizens and citizen groups to understand their needs better;

Providing executive leadership that encourages good performance by city workers;

Operating the city with a professional understanding of how all city functions operate together to their best effect.

Typically, city managers have hire-fire authority over all city employees, though these decisions may be required to be approved by the council, and must comply with locally applicable civil service laws. This authority includes talent searches for "department heads" who are the managers of the city departments.

Municipal governments are usually administratively divided into several departments, depending on the size of the city. Though cities differ in the division of responsibility, the typical arrangement is to have the following departments handle the following roles:

City Planning and zoning:

Public Works: construction and maintenance of all city-owned or operated assets, including the water supply system, sewer, streets, snow removal, street signs, vehicles, buildings, land, etc.

Parks and Recreation: (construction and maintenance of) city parks, common areas, parkways, publicly owned lands, etc. Also, operation of various recreation programmes and facilities. Note: often this department operates as a regional entity with its own tax authority and governmental structure.

Police

Fire

Accounting / Finance: collects taxes owed by the city, incorporates human resources department for city workers,

Legal - Risk Management: handles all legal matters including writing municipal bonds, verifying the city is in compliance with state and federal mandates, responding to citizen lawsuits such as lawsuits allegedly stemming from city actions or inactions. Typical legal actions include someone who fell on city-owned sidewalks suing the city for negligence, or a city annexing land.

Transportation (varies widely): If the city has a municipal bus or light rail service, this function may be its own department or it may be folded into the another of the above departments.

The council-manager system can be seen to place all power into the hands of the legislative branch. However, a city manager can be seen as a similar role to that of corporate CEO in providing professional management to an organization. Council-manager government is much like a publicly traded corporation. In a corporation, the board of directors appoints a CEO, makes major decisions and wields representative power on behalf of shareholders. Likewise in council-manager government, the city council appoints a city manager, makes major decisions, and wields representative power on behalf of the citizens.

The International City/County Management Association (ICMA) (see http://icma.org ) is a professional organization for city managers.
It was founded in 1914, and has more than 8000 members worldwide.

This system of government is used in the majority of American cities with populations over 25,000.

In New England, where municipal government is often invested in an incorporated town, the city manager may be called town manager, and the council can often be referred to its traditional name of Board of Selectmen.

History of the council-manager government

This form of government was first adopted by Staunton, Virginia in 1908; Dayton, Ohio became the first major city to use the system in 1913.

References

Managing Urban America -- David R. Morgan & Robert E. England (1999)

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