Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Municipalities – Question 4
Question for Coshendra J and Julie Kate K. Consider the alternative forms of municipal government. Look up your home town or the nearest major town from where you live on the Web. (You can find links off the SC Government link on the left panel on this page.) If you do not live in SC, then look up Aiken City. Describe its structure in terms of form (using the different forms listed in the text) and how it selects leadership (kinds of elections and when held).
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
The nearest major town to where I live is North Augusta, South Carolina. North Augusta has a Mayor-Council form of government, which is the most popular form in South Carolina. This form of government has a mayor and a city council with at least four elected officials. The City Council of North Augusta is composed of seven members elected for the most part on a partisan basis. The Mayor of North Augusta is elected to a four-year term. After every two years, three Council members are elected to serve four-year staggered terms.
The City Council is the legally constituted lawmaking and policy-making body for the City of North Augusta. Some of the council's major duties are adopting an annual budget,establishing the annual property tax rate, enacting policies concerning the operation of the city, enacting local ordinances, and appointing the Municipal Judges, City Attorney, City Clerk, and members of the various boards.
CoShendra Jackson
My hometown is Greenwood, SC, which operates under the Council-Manager form of government. The citizens are represented by an elected body called City Council, which is comprised of six council members elected from districts. The Mayor is elected at-large or by the entire city. The City Manager is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the City. Unlike the Major-Council form, the major in this type of government is weak. The administrative duties in this type of government are assigned to the City Manager, which means that the City Council does not interfere with the day to day operations of the city. However, the City Council does set policy for the departments and they also make the budget. This type of government separates the different powers, which I believe makes the everyday operation of the cities more effective. This type of government does not rely heavily on one executive, but rather the cooperation of voters, the Major and Council, the City Managers, and the City departments.
Julie Kate Keeney
Both CoShendra and Julie Kate seem to have it correct. You will note that even though North Augusta is not a council manager form, they do hire a city administrator who essentially serves as the manager, except that he is hired by the mayor rather than by the council as a whole (you can see this from the city's organization chart, which can be seen at:
http://www.northaugusta.net/GOVT/orgchart.pdf
Bob B
Post a Comment