City council: Encyclopedia - City council

City council

A city council is the most common style of legislative government in a city or town.

In some Australian jurisdictions, a 'city council' is an informal way of refering to local government areas in built-up areas.

City councils generally consist of several (usually somewhere between 5 and 50, depending on the city's size) elected aldermen or councillors. Other common titles for members of the council include councilmember or councilman/woman.

In some cities, the mayor is a voting member of the council who serves as chairman; in others, the mayor is the city's independent chief executive (or strong mayor) with veto power over city council legislation. In larger cities the council may elect other executive positions as well, such as a council president and speaker.

The council generally functions as a parliamentary or congressional style legislative body, proposing bills, holding votes, and passing laws to help govern the city.

The role of the mayor in the council varies depending on whether or not the city uses council-manager government or mayor-council government, and by the nature of the statutory authority given to it by state law, city charter, or municipal ordinance.

There is also a mayor pro tem councilmember who is in line to become the mayor within an election period because mayors are only mayors for one year at a time.

In some cities a different name for the municipal legislature is used. In San Francisco, for example, it is known as the Board of Supervisors because San Francisco is a consolidated city-county and the California constitution requires each county to have a Board of Supervisors.

Category: City councils

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "City council", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki