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Article written by: Wayne Fortin Government Weak Mayor, Strong mayor, Council manager, and the commission form, sound familiar? Lets take an in depth analysis into the local government sector and find out how it really works. For starters we see that the weak mayor form of government was constructed to prevent government corruption so not all the power lies within the single hands of an executive head. Traits in the weak mayor form include, the appointive powers of the mayor being restrictive the council must approve the mayors appointees, the council having primary control of the cities budget, the weak mayor still normally has a veto and can recommend legislation so policy making power is there but there is a lack of administrative power on the mayors part. In The Strong Mayor form of government the mayor has almost total administrative authority; the mayor is in charge of the budget policy making is shared equally between council and mayor, and a veto can only be over ridden by a 2/3, ¾ majority vote on the councils behalf. In some strong mayor forms of government there is also a CAO, Chief administrative officer that works for the mayor exclusively and has no responsibilities to the council. Most cities today with a population over 25k use the council-manager type government, this form is known for its business like strategy to maximize efficiency therefore most council manager governments tax and spend less due to those business attributes. The mayor’s ties are to the council, the citizenry responsibilities fall within the city manager who works under the council. As we go on to commission form only about 4% of cities with a population over 10k use this form of government. In this form basically business like commissioners run the cities public works with the mentality that goes as so: “if you stay out of my department I will

stay out of yours” thus giving the mayor no more authority than the commissioners. As we read onto electoral systems, nonpartisan ship are those elections that have no political affiliation but some research suggests that non partisan voting give a slight edge to republicans. At large vs. Ward elections suggest that minorities are being overlooked and are not given the same voting rights as those that take place in at large elections. Last but not least the issue of home rule which grants a city to frame their own which grants them more freedom to chose their own form of government. •

We conclude that by knowing how each type of government works we can easily get a better understanding about who’s responsible for the budget

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Municipalities have responsibilities when adhering to the citizens when it comes to topics such as what goods to provide, which private services should be regulated, the amount of revenue it needs to raise and how much, also the quality and quantity of those goods. All the responsibilities we have just gone over refer to the technical term known as “Provision.” Accountability, fiscal equivalence and preference when dealing with these goods and services are key roles.

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We conclude that provision, production and governance is essential for municipalities to operate efficiently