Unlock Local Government Secrets Councilmanager Vs Mayorcounc

Let's go to the next next topic at hand on hand for this evening. And that is, we're going to talk about local government. And it's just going to be a quick little video that I'm going to show you, but this is a type of local government that you may not, again, a lot of this is a learning curve for us, right? A huge learning curve. And I want us to learn all the different aspects of government that we can learn and how, whatever I can to help you be scaffolded in understanding what's going on in your local government. So what we're gonna learn about a little bit right now is council manager form of government. Now, Andy and I have been going over a whole lot of stuff, but this is just gonna be a little segment. I'm not gonna, this is like a two and a half minute video just to teach you real quick and it's animated. So it'll be more fun to watch, but a lot of areas. I think a lot of us think of, oh, I've got a mayor. Well, this actually, a lot of you don't. A lot of you have a council-manager form of government. So for those of you who don't know what that is or understand what that is, I'm going to show you that right now. All right, here we go. Put this on the scene. Let me just scrunch it in a little, make it pretty so you can still see what's going on down below here. All right. Sorry, I like things pretty. Don't blame me. My mom raised me to like things pretty. And to be neat and orderly. There, I just want you to be able to see all that. Okay. I'm gonna go turn it on now. Here we go. Which form of local government provides the best structure for community success? You're probably familiar with the Mayor Council or Strong Mayor form. Here, the people elect one politician, the Mayor, to lead the community, hire staff, and oversee all day-to-day operations and service delivery. Having a single politician at the top of the structure has its disadvantages. The elected council is largely unable to effect change because the Mayor is solely responsible for the budget and staffing. Political agendas can contaminate what should be transparent, ethical and efficient service delivery. And it also leaves that go-to person more susceptible to the influence of special interest groups, leaving ordinary voters with less say about what goes on in their community. The council manager form of government was created to combat corruption and provide for the professional management of local governments. In the Council Manager form, the people elect a council, including a mayor, and they collectively create a vision for the community and set policy. The council then hires a non-political professional manager, based on experience and credentials, who implements the council's policy and delivers services equitably. The manager remains accountable to the council because if at any time the council decides that person is ineffective, they can vote to replace the manager. Having the entire elected council setting policy makes it difficult for special interest groups to influence policy. But the council manager form of government isn't just about curtailing corruption. It's about managing services in ways that get better results. An IBM report found that council manager cities are nearly 10% more efficient than mayor council cities. Historically, nearly two-thirds of U.S. municipalities with Moody's AAA bond ratings are council manager, as are the majority of all America's city award recipients. So visit icma.org today to learn more about how your community can adopt or retain the council manager form of government.