User:Tinkerer08/sandbox

Forms of Municipal Government
National League of Cities forms of government

Council-Manager Mayor-Council (also known as "Strong Mayor")

 Variations from the Two Major Structures 

According to the literature-although much of it is impressionistic and anecdotal-the two major municipal government structures (i.e., council-manager and mayor-council) may no longer be adequate to describe current governance. Indeed, these structures have been evolving into hybrid forms. Using data from the latest national Municipal Form of Government Survey conducted by the International City/County Management Association, the authors identify a typology of seven different subcategories of the two major structures to delineate the administrative and policy-making processes in American cities. The following forms are noted: council-manager, council-manager with at-large mayor, council-manager with an empowered mayor, strong mayor-council with an appointed chief administrative officer (CAO), strong mayor-council without CAO, weak mayor-council with CAO, and weak mayor-council without CAO. However, many mayor-council communities-with and without appointed CAOs-do not fit within these subcategories as a result of the inconsistency between the reported authority of the elected executive in budget preparation, appointment of department heads, and the veto power. If these hybrid forms continue to emerge, the practical and theoretical relevance of the two broad forms of government categories may become a thing of the past. https://www.jstor.org/stable/4355310?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
 * council-manager
 * council-manager with at-large mayor
 * council-manager with an empowered mayor
 * strong mayor-council with an appointed chief administrative officer (CAO)
 * strong mayor-council without CAO
 * weak mayor-council with CAO
 * weak mayor-council without CAO