Municipal Government Essay

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The structure of municipal government is important because it determines the individual or group who has the power to carry out administrative actions for a given municipality. When a city or village is in the process of passing a particular ordinance the structure of the municipal government will decide what routes must be taken in order to make the legislation into law. The structure also helps to identify who has the responsibility for resolving issues when they arise. In the state of Georgia municipal government generally takes one of two forms, the mayor-council form or the council manager form. With regards to the mayor-council form, the primary policymaking role is shared by the city council and the mayor (Structure of Municipal Government, …show more content…

This agenda item was one that I also discussed with the city manager during the interview. At the city council meeting a council member challenged the fire department on the decision to bring up the need for an additional fire fighter now when the matter could have been addressed in the upcoming budget plans. The council member felt that this issue would have been better suited being addressed and documented in the request to extend the budget to incorporate the salary of the additional hire. During the interview the city manager reiterated what she had stated during the council meeting. Her stance was that given the amount of time and paperwork it takes to find and hire another firefighter, waiting for the budget could mean that the city would not be able to hire the firefighter until September or October of 2014. If the council took action now to approve the motion to hire the additional employee, the fire department could start the paperwork that was necessary and have the fire fighter start around the time that the new budget would go into effect. After her explanation of the issue the council moved to approve the hire of the additional …show more content…

The agreement would provide a basis from which the county and the city could sufficiently maintain the trail through cooperative means without duplication of work. When this issue was discussed by the city manager the mayor confirmed that the matter had been reviewed by the city attorney before asking the council if they would like to make a motion on the issue. Because this issue had been carried over from a previous meeting the city attorney had already had a chance to review the issue and ensure that the memorandum of understanding was a feasible venture. The council moved to execute the memorandum of understanding between Newton County Trail-Path Foundation, Inc. and the City of Oxford to be effective immediately (Newton Trails,

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