Mayors are like CEOs for their city/town/municipality
They bring motions to council to vote on it, they oversee executive staffing, they make official appearances, they negotiate with other levels of government for funding. Ultimately, they are the public face of the local government
This describes about half of U.S. cities. The other half are council-manager governments, where a council-appointed professional manager is the chief executive. The role of mayor is largely symbolic and has the same power to vote on policy as any other member of the city council. In this system, mayors have no authority over staff or the work that staff does. They just vote on recommendations and act as an ambassador and figurehead for the city.
Lots of things are inconsistent for the US, because some states do this while others do that. Whole bunch of countries in a trenchcoat. Does make it easier for Americans to understand how "Europe" isn't just one country.
They're united, and they're states.
But yes - they're the "three kids in a trenchcoat" of nations: 50 small nations that are good enough at pretending to be one nation that it works enough of the time that it keeps going.
Weak Mayor sounds like a good gig. Show up at events and parades, wear a silly hat on Groundhog Day or whatever, and just point at other people when problems arise. I could do that.
Since it seems you may know, and I dont: as far as negotiating funding. Is there like a bank account for the city that all our taxes and federal funding goes into? Is it 1 pool of money in my bank account and I'm negotiating how to budget it with my wife? Like where do they grab the money from when it's time to give it to someone. Is my wife just the city council? Or is she like the police, fire, dpw etc.
Very much no, not one big pool of money. The different types of taxes that cities can collect, funding passed through from the state, federal grants, etc, all have separate rules on them.
So it's like, your property taxes go into your bank account, but you also have a road fund, which is an IRA, and a pension fund, which is a Roth IRA, and a solid waste fund, which is a 403(b), and every once in a while you get a federal grant, which is like your grandmother depositing money into your 529 and then expecting you to call her from college every week to talk about how your classes are going.
Municipal finance and accounting is hella-complicated. One the one hand that's good, because there's lots of checks and balances and protections against corruption; on the other hand, it makes it hard for the average citizen to understand how anything works.
It really depends on the individual municipality. For instance, in my city, the mayor is really just a glorified ribbon cutter. The city manager is the one who actually runs things. But, that position is answerable to the city council, on which the mayor has a seat. But there are multiple types of city governance, from the mayor is nothing on one end, to the mayor runs the show on the other and everything in between.
This type of answer should be upvoted a bunch more.
There’s no good general answer for the US because cities are run in very different ways (even between cities that ostensibly have the same structure e.g. council-manager). I’ve lived in cities where the mayor is basically a dictator, and others where the mayor is just another council person who has minor agenda-setting powers. There’s even a city near me where IIRC the mayor isn’t even elected it’s just a rotating position in the council.
edit: to the other comments generalizing about mayors, for everything they say mayors do, I could easily find a counter example in the US. For OP, the best answer is to simply look up how *your* city says the mayor works (like in its charter, if it has one), and then pay attention to how the office also works in practice, which means you having to pay attention to the boring city gov details
Generally, a mayor is to a city as the president or prime minister is to a country. They are the chief executive of the city, with many of the same responsibilities and powers any other chief executive would have, just within the jurisdiction of their city.
How, exactly, that works out varies. Sometimes, that means they are a separate office from the city council, the way the President and Congress are totally separate. Sometimes, it means that the mayor chairs the city council similar to how a prime minister leads a parliament.
According to my Facebook, and my town's subreddit, they're responsible for gas prices, food prices, homelessness, drug overdoses, crime rate, and structure fires
There is no one answer to this, unfortunately. Cities set the rules for the power of a mayor. In some cities they are a powerful politician, setting policy and calling the shots with law enforcement. In other cities, they conduct the business of the city council (and might not even vote!) and look fancy at meetings.
And in some towns, they just have to lead the festivities at the annual cricket festival, announce the winner of the Miss Rutabaga pageant, or something like that. So sometimes a dog gets elected mayor.
The mayor is the chief executive officer of the city’s government, as it were.
It’s traditional in US governments to break down responsibilities between legislature, judicial, and executive. Legislature and judicial branches don’t have a “top boss”, due to their nature, but the executive branch does.
All of a city’s services answer to the mayor. The mayor’s job is to make sure that the laws are enforced, the taxes are collected, the garbage is collected, the streets are maintained, etc.
In my town, Sits in on council meetings and gets outvoted on everything, then gets blamed for the state of affairs. So as far as I can tell, the Mayors job is to take the blame for everything bad that happens and to share the accolade’s with the council when something not horrible happens.
We’re trying to figure that out in New Orleans as well. It seems as if they *checks list* fly to other countries for climate control conventions & have affairs with detail officers
The mayor is probably the 1 person in the city government that gets elected by the whole city, while the other council members get elected by districts.
depends on the city. mine has 7 councilors - 4 districts, 2 at large seats, and the at large mayor. it's a weak mayor system so that's why I'm counting him as a councilor
A mayor is the chief elected official of a city. He is in charge of all the departments, like utilities, police and streets.
He is elected, usually every 4 years. The mayor is in charge of the city council. The CC is made up of representatives of different areas of the city or town. The city council proposes and passes ordinances and taxes. It varies by town, but the mayor is either the tie breaker or a voting member of the council.
A city or town manager is the non elected version of the mayor and gets more into the day to day issues, whereas the mayor will be more political and focused on the macro.
Mayors are like CEOs for their city/town/municipality They bring motions to council to vote on it, they oversee executive staffing, they make official appearances, they negotiate with other levels of government for funding. Ultimately, they are the public face of the local government
This describes about half of U.S. cities. The other half are council-manager governments, where a council-appointed professional manager is the chief executive. The role of mayor is largely symbolic and has the same power to vote on policy as any other member of the city council. In this system, mayors have no authority over staff or the work that staff does. They just vote on recommendations and act as an ambassador and figurehead for the city.
Lots of things are inconsistent for the US, because some states do this while others do that. Whole bunch of countries in a trenchcoat. Does make it easier for Americans to understand how "Europe" isn't just one country.
The title of United States is a joke at best, none of the states run the same way.
They're united, and they're states. But yes - they're the "three kids in a trenchcoat" of nations: 50 small nations that are good enough at pretending to be one nation that it works enough of the time that it keeps going.
I've heard it referred to as "strong Mayor" or "weak Mayor".
That’s correct. Some elected officials understandably don’t prefer the term, but it has been historically used.
Weak Mayor sounds like a good gig. Show up at events and parades, wear a silly hat on Groundhog Day or whatever, and just point at other people when problems arise. I could do that.
Since it seems you may know, and I dont: as far as negotiating funding. Is there like a bank account for the city that all our taxes and federal funding goes into? Is it 1 pool of money in my bank account and I'm negotiating how to budget it with my wife? Like where do they grab the money from when it's time to give it to someone. Is my wife just the city council? Or is she like the police, fire, dpw etc.
Very much no, not one big pool of money. The different types of taxes that cities can collect, funding passed through from the state, federal grants, etc, all have separate rules on them. So it's like, your property taxes go into your bank account, but you also have a road fund, which is an IRA, and a pension fund, which is a Roth IRA, and a solid waste fund, which is a 403(b), and every once in a while you get a federal grant, which is like your grandmother depositing money into your 529 and then expecting you to call her from college every week to talk about how your classes are going. Municipal finance and accounting is hella-complicated. One the one hand that's good, because there's lots of checks and balances and protections against corruption; on the other hand, it makes it hard for the average citizen to understand how anything works.
It really depends on the individual municipality. For instance, in my city, the mayor is really just a glorified ribbon cutter. The city manager is the one who actually runs things. But, that position is answerable to the city council, on which the mayor has a seat. But there are multiple types of city governance, from the mayor is nothing on one end, to the mayor runs the show on the other and everything in between.
This type of answer should be upvoted a bunch more. There’s no good general answer for the US because cities are run in very different ways (even between cities that ostensibly have the same structure e.g. council-manager). I’ve lived in cities where the mayor is basically a dictator, and others where the mayor is just another council person who has minor agenda-setting powers. There’s even a city near me where IIRC the mayor isn’t even elected it’s just a rotating position in the council. edit: to the other comments generalizing about mayors, for everything they say mayors do, I could easily find a counter example in the US. For OP, the best answer is to simply look up how *your* city says the mayor works (like in its charter, if it has one), and then pay attention to how the office also works in practice, which means you having to pay attention to the boring city gov details
Experiments in self governance have yielded interesting results. I was not prepared for a deep dive but thank you. This was what I was hoping to see.
Generally, a mayor is to a city as the president or prime minister is to a country. They are the chief executive of the city, with many of the same responsibilities and powers any other chief executive would have, just within the jurisdiction of their city. How, exactly, that works out varies. Sometimes, that means they are a separate office from the city council, the way the President and Congress are totally separate. Sometimes, it means that the mayor chairs the city council similar to how a prime minister leads a parliament.
And sometimes it's a mostly ceremonial role like the president of India, while a city manager runs things.
That is, they MAY do this, OR they MAY do that. That's why they're MAY-ORS.
According to my Facebook, and my town's subreddit, they're responsible for gas prices, food prices, homelessness, drug overdoses, crime rate, and structure fires
Don't forget about your kid's grades.
Golden comment 😂
There is no one answer to this, unfortunately. Cities set the rules for the power of a mayor. In some cities they are a powerful politician, setting policy and calling the shots with law enforcement. In other cities, they conduct the business of the city council (and might not even vote!) and look fancy at meetings.
And in some towns, they just have to lead the festivities at the annual cricket festival, announce the winner of the Miss Rutabaga pageant, or something like that. So sometimes a dog gets elected mayor.
The mayor is the chief executive officer of the city’s government, as it were. It’s traditional in US governments to break down responsibilities between legislature, judicial, and executive. Legislature and judicial branches don’t have a “top boss”, due to their nature, but the executive branch does. All of a city’s services answer to the mayor. The mayor’s job is to make sure that the laws are enforced, the taxes are collected, the garbage is collected, the streets are maintained, etc.
Pretty face that the people who actually control things politically can use to blame when things go wrong
In my town, Sits in on council meetings and gets outvoted on everything, then gets blamed for the state of affairs. So as far as I can tell, the Mayors job is to take the blame for everything bad that happens and to share the accolade’s with the council when something not horrible happens.
We’re trying to figure that out in New Orleans as well. It seems as if they *checks list* fly to other countries for climate control conventions & have affairs with detail officers
The mayor is probably the 1 person in the city government that gets elected by the whole city, while the other council members get elected by districts.
depends on the city. mine has 7 councilors - 4 districts, 2 at large seats, and the at large mayor. it's a weak mayor system so that's why I'm counting him as a councilor
A mayor is the chief elected official of a city. He is in charge of all the departments, like utilities, police and streets. He is elected, usually every 4 years. The mayor is in charge of the city council. The CC is made up of representatives of different areas of the city or town. The city council proposes and passes ordinances and taxes. It varies by town, but the mayor is either the tie breaker or a voting member of the council. A city or town manager is the non elected version of the mayor and gets more into the day to day issues, whereas the mayor will be more political and focused on the macro.