Councillor

“ It happened that this Councillor was the leader of a select faction of three on the Corporation, whose métier consisted in opposing every scheme that was brought forward by the Town Clerk, and supported by the other members of the Corporation. Now the Town Clerk had hired a shooting one autumn, and as the birds were plentiful, he thought that it would be a graceful act on his part to send a brace of grouse to every Alderman and every Councillor. He did so, and all the members of the Board accepted the transaction in a right spirit—all, except the leader of the opposition faction. ”

“ Miscellaneous Special provisions as to qualifications, elections, and retirement of councillors, guardians, commissioners, &c., day of annual or borough quarterly meeting, and day for electing mayor or chairman, selecting sheriffs, &c.
94.— (1) A person being in holy orders or being a regular minister of any religious denomination shall not be eligible as a county or district councillor. ”

“ An alderman must be a councillor or a person qualified to be a councillor. If a councillor is elected he vacates his office of councillor, and thus creates a casual vacancy in the council. In every third year one-half of the whole number of aldermen go out of office, and their places are filled by election, which is conducted by means of voting papers. It will be observed, therefore, that while a county councillor holds office for three years, a county alderman holds office for six. The council may also appoint a vice-chairman who holds office during the term of office of the chairman ”

“ Where there are so many vacancies in the office of parish or community councillor that the parish or community council are unable to act, the district council may by order appoint persons to fill all or any of the vacancies until other councillors are elected and take up office. ”

“ The Council was ordained to consist of “a Mayor, six Aldermen, and eighteen Councillors, to be respectively elected at such times and places, and in such manner” as those of other boroughs existing under the same acts, in common with which they “shall have, exercise, and enjoy all the powers, immunities, and privileges, and be subject to the same duties, penalties, liabilities, and disqualifications” appertaining to such positions. ”

“ The charters of all boroughs have been brought into substantial agreement and the organs of borough control are everywhere the same. The governing authority is the borough council, which consists of councillors, aldermen, and a mayor, sitting as a single body. The councillors, varying in number from nine to upwards of one hundred, are elected by the voters of the borough, either at large or by wards, for three years, and one-third retire annually. ”

“ The mayor is elected annually by the councillors and aldermen, frequently from their own number. In boroughs of lesser size re-elections are not uncommon. Service in all of the capacities mentioned is unpaid. The council determines its own rules of procedure, and its work is accomplished in large measure through the agency of committees, some of which are required by statute, others of which are (p. 189) created as occasion demands; but, unlike the county council, the council of the borough cannot delegate any of its powers, save those relating to education, to these committees. ”

“ These municipal councillors go home among their constituents, where they have to explain and defend their proceedings; while so engaged, they have occasion to communicate facts and opinions, which are fairly discussed, and thus enlightened views are diffused through the mass of people. ”

“ Every large town has a mayor and deputy mayor, appointed by the government, and a town council, of whom one third are similarly appointed, while the citizens choose the rest; a proportionate number of councillors representing each religious community. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Women, other than married women, are eligible. Borough councillors are elected for a term of three years, one-third of the whole number going out of office in each year, and if the borough is divided into wards, these are so arranged that the number of councillors for each ward shall be three or a multiple of three. ”

“ Councillors shall be elected by residents of the municipality by universal, equal, free, direct and secret suffrage, in the manner provided for by the law. The Mayors shall be elected by the councillors or by the residents. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Within each commune is a council of from seven to forty-five members elected directly by the people of the commune for a term of six years under franchise arrangements identical with those obtaining in the election of members of the provincial estates, save that no one, although otherwise qualified to vote for communal councillors, may exercise the privilege unless he contributes a minimum amount yearly to the communal rates. ”

“ A principal council may pay the vice-chairman for the purpose of enabling him to meet the expenses of his office such allowance as the council think reasonable.
6.— (1) Councillors for a principal area shall be elected by the local government electors for that area in accordance with this Act and Part I of the Representation of the People Act 1949.
(2) For the purpose of the elections of councillors—
(a) every county shall be divided into electoral divisions, each returning (subject to paragraph 3 of Schedule 3 to this act) one councillor ”

“ Perhaps the names of his fellow-councillors will not be uninteresting on the score of their being the first councillors of a town whose progress and interests are being closely watched and zealonsly guarded by thousands who have not as yet visited her boundaries. ”

“ This municipal assembly shall be the Council of Administration, which shall establish for the entire extent of its jurisdiction the rules of the common regime, and shall decide on all that concerns the municipal police, its internal security, sanitary policy, the management and use of municipal revenues, local expenditures, and generally all that is within the jurisdiction of the municipalities.
Art. 43. The active power shall be entirely, and for all the extent of the municipal district, in the hands of the mayor and his lieutenant, who shall be elected immediately by the primary assemblies. ”

“ And my case to-night is, that the existing local government bodies, your town councils, borough councils, urban district boards, and so forth, are, for the purposes of municipalisation, far from being the best possible bodies, and that even your county councils fall short, that by their very nature all these bodies must fall far short of the highest possible efficiency, and that as time goes on they must fail even more than they do now to discharge the duties we Fabians would like to thrust upon them. ”

“ A Village Council is composed of the Headman and one man from each family, and is empowered to pass resolutions on matters connected with education, registration of house- holds or lands, sanitation, roads and bridges, communal grain exchanges, agricultural improvements, common woods and dykes, payment of taxes, relief in famine or other calamity, adjustment of the corvee, savings associations, and by-laws. The Headman, who acts as chairman, has not only a casting vote, but the power to veto. ”

“ In every village a Council should be constituted and the headman should be its executive head.
How this Council should be constituted I do not know. I think there should be wards, each of which should have an elder, representative of the people, but no rigid system of election should be laid down. I have found that villages and wards can very often appoint a representative man by general consent, which is much better than by election. That should only occur in case of a dead-lock. The Council should itself define the wards, and it should be allowed to co-opt additional members. ”

“ Their chief officers are a Burgomaster, like our Mayor, twenty-four Senators, like our Common Council, and a Syndic, as our Recorder. These are the chief Council and Judicatory of the city, and order all the public affairs thereof; only in some extraordinary occasions of making laws or foreign treaties, matters of war and peace, the people of the town make choice of deputies, sometimes forty or fifty,—more or less, as they please,—who sit and consult with the Senate, and by their votes by the people, who willingly submit thereunto. ”

“ And be it further enacted, That the common council shall, annually, at their first meeting after their own election and qualification, choose by ballot a fit and able man, having the qualifications herein after directed, to be mayor of the town, which choice shall be made by a majority of the whole number of members of the said common council, unless the whole number of members be equally divided between two persons, in which case one of those two persons shall immediately, by the vote of the president of the council, elected. ”

“ The choice of the municipal councils shall not extend to a deputy, a general councilor, or an arrondissement councilor. [Footnote: See Article 4, law of February 24, 1875, supra. ] All communal electors, including the municipal councilors, are eligible without distinction. ARTICLE 3. In the communes where a municipal committee exists, the delegate and alternate shall be chosen by the old council. [Footnote: Amended by Article 8, law of December 9, 1884, infra. ] ARTICLE 4. If the delegate was not present at the election, the Mayor shall see to it that he is notified within twenty-four hours. ”

“ 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 mayor presides over the council meetings, serves commonly as an ex-officio member of committees, and represents the municipality upon ceremonial occasions. The office is not one of power, although it is possible for an aggressive and tactful mayor to wield real influence. The permanent officers of the council include a clerk, a treasurer, a medical official, a secretary for education, and a variable number of inspectors and heads of administrative departments. ”

“ The Mayor and the City Council should appoint all other city officials.
The Mayor should select the best qualified persons available for cabinet positions, and the City Council should appoint on the various
A City Government Organized as a Republic
committees those who have the best training, knowledge and natural ability to be of service on those committees. The same plan as outlined for conducting the national and State governments by the executive and legislative branches should be followed in the city government. City councils pass many more ordinances than they should. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Abandoned to their natural ignorance, the twenty-seven thousand petty municipal councilors of the country are no more passive, more inert, more constrained than ever; deprived of the light which, formerly, the choice of the prefect or a restricted suffrage could still throw into the darkness around them, there remains to them only one safe tutor or conductor; and this final guide is the official of the bureaus, especially this or that old, permanent chief, or under clerk, who is perfectly familiar with his files of papers. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”