City council

“ If there is a corrupt council, the remedy is not its supersession by an independent executive. Such an executive is the abrogation of popular government. “Good and efficient government is possible under almost any form of organization. More depends upon men than devices.... But ... if we believe that the functions of deliberation or determination of municipal policy and of administration [Pg 63] or the execution or carrying out of that policy should be kept distinct, we cannot avoid the conclusion that a city council is a necessary part of the municipal organization.” ”

“ The elimination of ward representation in city government is a recent advance toward the unit idea. It is sometimes expressed in the commission form of government, sometimes in a single city council elected at large. From the viewpoint of city planning the most notable advantage of this simplified form of government is that the administration represents the entire city and is not a collection of representatives from the several parts of the city. Other advantages due to a saving in time and money caused by a smaller body with a businesslike procedure, are no doubt real. ”

“ The mayor is the chief executive of the city. It is his duty to see that the laws are enforced. He appoints a number of subordinate officers, and in most cities may veto the acts of the city council. The duties of the city attorney, the city clerk, the assessor, the collector, the treasurer, the school board, and the superintendent of schools are similar to those of township and county officers of the same name. The city engineer has charge of the construction of sewers and the improvement of parks. ”

“ Under the mayor are various heads of departments,—street commissioners, assessors, overseers of the poor, etc.,—sometimes elected by the citizens, sometimes appointed by the mayor or the city council. This city council Is a legislative body, usually consisting of two chambers, the aldermen and the common council, elected by the citizens; but in many small cities, and a few of the largest,—such as New York, Brooklyn, Chicago, and San Francisco,—there is but one such chamber. ”

“ The first was the centering of power in the city council, whether composed of two chambers—a board of aldermen and a common council—as in New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago, or of one council, as in many lesser cities. It soon became apparent that a large body, whose chief function is legislation, is utterly unfit to look after administrative details. Such a body, in order to do business, must act through committees. Responsibility is scattered. ”

“ In contrast, the City Manager has the power to appoint the chief officials of the various city government departments, the responsibility for enforcing city ordinances and resolutions, the obligation of attending City Council meetings and of making suggestions and recommendations to the Council, the duty of keeping the City Council informed of general and specific activities of the city including its financial status, the task of preparing and submitting a proposed budget to the City Council and the duty of carrying out miscellaneous functions assigned to him by the City Council. ”

“ ORGANIZATION.—Usually the city council is a single-chambered body, though some of the larger cities have from time to time experimented with a double-chambered council. In some cities councilmen are chosen on a general ticket, but in most cases the council consists of one member from each ward or district into which the city is divided. Councilmen must be voters in the city in which they serve, and by custom they are generally required to be residents of the ward from which they are chosen. ”

“ Let us make our own selections—or, rather, help our mayor to make hers—and show this town what can be done with an honest and sane council, every man of whom has at heart the framing of a model municipality and the development of an ideal city. ”

“ The city council shall have power to appoint a recorder, treasurer, assessor, marshall, supervisor of streets, and all such other officers as may be necessary, and to prescribe their duties and remove them from office at pleasure. ”

“ There is no reason for a distinct legislature to determine the broad matters of policy, for they are determined for the citizens of the city as well as those of the country, by the state and national legislatures, in which both the city and country are represented. In the second place, the work of a city is largely administrative and of a business character, as my colleagues will show, and there is no necessity for a separate council to legislate when a commissioner is better able, as we shall show, to pass the kind of legislation characteristic of the city. ”

“ The chief executive officer of a city is a mayor. A city is divided into wards of convenient size, in each of which are chosen one or more aldermen, (usually two,) and such other officers as are named in the charter. The mayor and aldermen constitute the common council, which is a kind of legislature, having the power to pass such laws, (commonly called ordinances,) and to make such orders and regulations, as the government of the city requires. ”

“ In England cities are governed according to the Local Government Act of 1888, by which cities of more than fifty thousand people become counties for administrative purposes, and control of administration is vested in a council elected by voters of the city. Councillors are regarded with high honor, but their work is a work of patriotism, for they are unpaid, with the result that the best men enter the city councils. Administration is carried on through various committees and through department officials who are retained permanently. ”

“ The Bureau of Municipal Research, admittedly the most practical organization of its kind in the country, is conducting its work along the line of effective competency in city departments. As a result of its investigations, the citizens of New York have been forced to the conclusion to which my colleague has already referred, namely, that the ultimate solution of their municipal difficulties will be reached only when they have disposed of their present inefficient and useless ward council and created in its place a commission council. ”

“ There shall be a city council to consist of mayor, four aldermen and nine councillors, who shall have the qualifications of electors of said city, and shall be chosen by the qualified voters thereof, and shall hold their offices for two years, and until their successors shall be elected and qualified. ”

“ The government is administered by a mayor, chosen every two years and ineligible to serve three terms in succession, a unicameral city council, elected by wards, and a board of public works appointed by the executive. ”

“ The few who were supporting charitable institutions and were working in the recently evolved slums were neither conspicuous nor fashionable. Nor does it mean political betterment. No efforts had yet been successful in substituting for the city's executive incubus a man of worthier type, nor was there yet any effective organization founded on the assumption—which would have seemed remote and fantastic indeed—that a city council could be improved. ”

“ The city is organized, like the state government, on the plan of distributed powers and diffused responsibility. It contains, as a rule, an elaborate system of checks which affords little opportunity for the prompt and effective expression of local public opinion in the administration of municipal affairs. At the same time, it gives the municipal authorities power to inaugurate and carry out policies to which local public sentiment may be strongly opposed. This is seen in the control which the mayor and council quite generally exercise over the matter of municipal franchises. ”

“ It is more satisfactory in urging the need of planning measures to deal with a few men, whether bad or good, efficient or stupid. It is also wholesome to fix the responsibility of a policy on an administration consisting of a few men rather than to trace the responsibility through a maze of committees and motions to an irresponsible clerk. City planning legislation may chance to succeed in two chambers of a city council in spite of numbers, because of the domination of one or two individuals ”

“ A community organized to comply with the foregoing requirements—divided into wards, having a council made up of aldermen from those wards, having a council authorized to levy taxes at its discretion, having a municipal court, having regularly employed police acting under the direction of the mayor—is a city, as the term is generally used in the United States.
Another reason for establishing a city government is frequently potent, although unmentioned. The pride of the community can be thereby indulged, and more citizens can have their ambition to hold public office gratified. ”

“ The law names certain things which each city charter shall provide, and imposes certain restrictions on the powers of cities. There must be an elected Mayor and a body vested with legislative power; the clerk, treasurer, and assessors, and other officers may be elected or appointed. This permits the establishment of a commission system, or of a Mayor and council with distinct powers. Provision must be made for the levy, collection, and return of State, county, and school taxes, for annual appropriations for municipal purposes, and for a system of accounts. ”

“ The corporate authority of said city shall be vested in one principal officer, styled the 'mayor;' in one board of aldermen, consisting of two members from each ward, who, with the mayor, shall be denominated the common council. ”

“ A city of the second class must elect a mayor and twelve councilmen, and its mayor must appoint a police judge, an attorney, a street commissioner and a chief of police. A city of the third class must elect a mayor, seven councilmen, a treasurer, a health officer, a clerk and an attorney, and its mayor must apoint a marshal, a police justice and as many policemen as the council provides for. An incorporated town must elect a mayor, five councilmen and a treasurer, and its mayor must appoint a marshal and a clerk. ”

“ This legislative body is divided into two houses—the upper, called the Council, consisting of thirteen members, elected at large; the lower, called the House of Delegates, with twenty-eight members, elected by wards; and each member of these bodies is paid twenty-five dollars a month salary by the city. With the mayor, this Assembly has practically complete control of all public property and valuable rights. ”

“ Each is chosen for life, and acts as magistrate within his division. The freemen of the various wards elect representatives annually to the common-council, to the number of 206 members. The lord mayor, aldermen, and common-council, compose the legislative body for the city. ”

“ The council of every city may, in a manner prescribed by law, increase or diminish the number, and change the boundaries, of the wards thereof, and shall, in the year nineteen hundred and three, and in every tenth year thereafter, and also whenever the boundaries of such wards are changed, re-apportion the representation in the council among the wards in a manner prescribed by law; and whenever the council of any such city shall fail to perform the duty so prescribed, a mandamus shall lie on behalf of any citizen thereof to compel its performance. ”

“ Hence, it is for this principle that the gentlemen must contend if they wish to argue for an isolated council in city government.
In conclusion, Honorable Judges, a commission council is superior to an isolated council, because the work of city legislation and administration must be unalterably connected; because the councilmen must have a direct and technical knowledge of city affairs; and, because the councilmen must be representative of the whole city.
Mr. Vincent Starzinger, the second speaker on the Negative, said:
The Affirmative continue to direct their attack against the "old form." ”

“ The board of street commissioners of said city, and the chairman of said board, shall have concurrent power with the mayor and common council of said city in the appointment of inspectors and clerks of election, and shall have all other powers conferred by law upon said mayor and common council, subject to the control of said common council, except the power of levying taxes, which they shall not have in any case whatever. ”

“ The ward or district method of electing city councilmen does not produce a body interested in the best development of the city as a unit, the best transit system for the whole city, the best park system for the whole people, the most complete playground system for all the children. Instead, forty units, more or less, with selfish ideas fostered by local business men and property owners, are represented each by a councilman whose best equipment is his ability to get things for his own ward, and the city plan develops like a crazy quilt. ”

“ Out of this grew a city-manager form of commission government, which the National Municipal League recommended to charter-makers, then multiplying in great numbers due to the growing dissatisfaction with existing conditions. A second “municipal programme” formally adopted by the National Municipal League in 1914, definitely embodied the city-manager plan and later recommended that the council or legislative body be elected on the principle of proportional representation.
The city-manager movement is justly regarded as the best fruit of the movement for better municipal government. ”