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Local Governments: How They Work

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Published: 31Oct2009
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There are many types of local government setups. The first and possibly most common of the two is the strong mayor setup for local governments. In a strong mayor setup the mayor is the official with the most, if not all, administrative authority. He is an elected official who serves the city for a set number of years or for a particular term ("City Manager," 2009). Under the mayor there can be a city council. In some cases the city council takes the majority of the power from the mayor. If neither of these two setups are in place another very common one might be seen, the manager setup. Under this particular local government a mayor is elected by the people, however he does not have the majority of the administrative power. Instead a city manager that is either hired or appointed by the local government is in charge of the administrative duties ("City Manager," 2009).

One city that has a mayor system is New York City in New York State and one that has a manager system is Delaware City in Delaware State. Both cities are run in very different but affective ways. Even though they are run well the mayors in each respective city are given very different powers that either limit or bless them with the power to control the inner workings of their cities.

The mayor of Delaware City is one Cordelia W. Bennett. Her city representative is Daniel A. Tjaden. Tjaden has a very wide array of responsibilities in comparison to Bennett ("Mayors and City Managers," 2009). He is allowed to do everything from reviewing departmental programs to "establishing standards and priorities for the civic administration ("Mayors and City Managers," 2009)." To put it mildly the city manager of Delaware City is in charge of almost everything, whereas the mayor only has a limited amount of responsibilities. First, the mayor has the power to veto ("Mayors and City Managers," 2009). This is one of the most extensive and useful powers that can be given to any member of a local government. In this way the mayor is able to maintain some control over the proceedings of his city, whereas a lot of manager run local governments do not permit this choice.

The second and last major power the mayor of Delaware City has is the power to appoint ("Mayors and City Managers," 2009). He, along with his council, appoints who will be the city manager. In this way he is given the ability to control who will be the manager of the city. This allows him to insure that there is someone in office who he will agree with, politically speaking. Other than these two essential powers the mayor of Delaware City has no power. The council covers the majority of the budget, ordinances, and other legislative work and what the council does not cover the manager does ("Mayors and City Managers," 2009).

In the end the power that truly allows the mayor of Delaware City to even constitute as a valuable position is his ability to select the manager. Since the mayor appoints this particular position he is, essentially, responsible for how the city will be run during his two-year term. Otherwise, the mayor of Delaware City has little to no wanted power.

A Mayor that is in a strong mayor setup, however, has a lot more power and responsibility. This can be seen in New York City. The current mayor of New York City is Michael R. Bloomberg. He has all of the power over the how the entire city functions ("Mayor of New York City," 2009). He is in charge of all of the cities services including trash, fire, police, and how public property is taken care of and used ("Mayor of New York City," 2009). At the same time he is responsible for enforcing all city all of the city and the states laws. He is also allowed to elect duty mayors. He can elect as many as he wanted because the city charter does not specify how many can be elected at any given time or what they can do ("Office of Mayor," 2009).

Basically, the mayor of New York City can hire duty mayors to assist him in any areas of the local government he sees fit and he can hire how ever many he thinks he needs to get all of the jobs done. Most people generally agree that the mayor of New York City is one of the most powerful mayors in the country; he even has the biggest budget, nearly $50 Billion a year, than any other mayor in the United States ("Office of Mayor," 2009). Compared to the mayor in a manager setup, the mayor of New York or any other mayor setup is very powerful and has many more responsibilities. The mayor of New York is allowed to control everything. He has the power to make the city crumble at his feet if he so chooses. The mayor of Delaware City, on the other hand, has no power at all in comparison. All he can do is elect the official that will come to control the government. This hardly gives them any authoritative power, especially when comparing them to the mayor of New York City, which has the power over every major aspect of the local government. In short, a city that has a mayor-focused government is going to have a mayor that possesses a lot more power than one with a city manager.

This article sites other articles:

Work Citied "City Manager." Wikipedia. 06/03/2009. 30 Mar 2009

"Mayor of New York City." Wikipedia. 28/03/2009. 30 Mar 2009

"Mayors and City Managers." Delaware League of Local Governments. 2/03/2009. 30 Mar 2009

"Office of the Mayor." NYC Government Homepage. 2009. 30 Mar 2009

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