B) Local Government: Meeting The City Council, Our City's Life Changer Porterville California, is a city in Tulare County where we have roughly 59 thousand American residents living here. Porterville has its City Hall where our citizens are allowed to go ask questions. It is a place where our cities residents our allowed to come and share their concerns about how the State’s new laws affect them personally. On April 3, 2018, I attended the Porterville City Hall Council meeting, where our cities residents had come to address their thoughts and considerations about the Consent Calendar. A few people were concerned about Item 17, which was a law under State of California of SB 54 which states, “Existing law provides that when there is reason to …show more content…
believe that a person arrested for a violation of specified controlled substance provisions may not be a citizen of the United States, the arresting agency shall notify the appropriate agency of the United States having charge of deportation matters.” This item was asked to be removed from the Consent Calendar, and it was. We need to see the impact this council has on our lives and we need to look at where the City Council gets its authority, how it is organized, and how is it open to the community. The city has the authority to make laws as long if they are not in violation of the general laws of the State of California.
According to California Research In-Depth, “The California Government Code and Article XI of the California Constitution provide for the creation and existence of local government agencies. California local government is comprised of counties, cities, special districts and regional bodies” (pg 1). This is where our city gets its authority under the State Constitution and we elect our Councilman in office, not through an electoral college, but by our citizens. This is one law we the people should be thankful for because it is what makes California more democratic than America. Even though we are Americans, we still have more of a democracy. We in California, directly elect our Mayor and Governor, but we do not do this with the president. If one of our members of the Council breaks a law, we can remove them out of office using our power called Recall. With the president we don’t have that power, Congress does. Who we elect determines how the Council impacts our city and our lives. The way we can follow how it is effecting our lives here in Porterville, would look at how the City Council is …show more content…
organized. Organization is the most common way the City Council runs the office.
The most powerful tool in our Council is how the elected men and women keep track of our city, according City of Porterville website, “the Porterville Redevelopment Agency, the Porterville Public Improvement Corporation, the Porterville Public Financing Authority, and the Porterville Planning Commission.” The most common and well known part of this power goes to the mayor. “The Mayor, who is a member of the Council, signs official documents, chairs the meetings and acts as the official head of the City on public and ceremonial occasions.” The Mayor is like the President or Governor, he/she is the top one person in power in Council and has the power just as they do in a smaller county or city. According to the city of Porterville’s
website, The City Council is assisted by two permanent commissions (Parks and Leisure Service Commission and Library Board of Trustees); three citizen committees (Redevelopment Advisory Committee, Community Development Block Grant and Housing Opportunity Advisory Committee, and Transaction and Use Tax Oversight Committee (Measure H)); and an Internal City Audit Committee. The Council appoints the members to each of these bodies (pg 3). This is how the body of the Council plays a role in the city’s authority and assistance to the residents and it also connects to the City Manager. The City Manager duties are to enforce municipal law, direct the daily activities and operations of the City, and prepare and implement the City Budget (City Manager). Another job the Manager does is, according to the City website, • Communicate with elected officials as they develop policies • Ensure that all laws and policies are equitably enforced throughout the community • Obtain input from City residents and members of the business community to address and solve problems • Prepare the annual Budget, submit it to the City Council for approval, and implement the adopted Budget • Investigate citizen complaints and problems and recommend changes • Undertake special studies, research and projects to manage and complete City Council directives. The City manager has a lot of duties to follow to help the community just as the much with organizing the law, but not as much connected with the law as the City Attorney. The part where the law of Porterville has is the City Attorney where he/she jobs are, • Representing the City in litigation, administrative hearings, and other legal matters • Preparing or reviewing all ordinances, contracts and other legal documents • Rendering legal advice and opinions to the City Council, City and Agency Boards and Commissions, and City staff • Overseeing all work done by outside counsel on behalf of the City The City Council’s input from the community is to allow the people, who live in the city, can come in and tell the Council how they feel what is going on in the community that needs to address. From the meeting I went to, the problem was about how the immigration residents are feeling in our community. A few of them are worried they could be doomed to deportation and feel the law enforcement would not welcome them or assist them do to their immigration status. The people can go into the City Council meeting and can share with everyone what they want to get done. This is our way to connect to the City and how we want to see change is to get our voice out there and see the lawmakers in person to show them how we feel. In summary, the Porterville City Council reviews state laws to determine whether they need modification for the community’s purposes. The Council obtains its authority most directly from California’s state Constitution. The laws passed by the Council must not be in violation of California’s state laws. Five members sit on the Council, elected by the people. The Council is responsible for a number of committees and appoints the members to these bodies. The Council is also closely linked to the City Manager and City Attorney, appointing officials to both of these positions. The Council is completely open to input from the community; anybody can see the Consent Calendar and anybody can reserve an appointment to speak in front of the Council members.
The Mayor also has the power to appoint, promote, transfer, reduce or remove any officer or employee of the City, except those who are elected.
The “Darth Vader” mayors are an example of the use of systemic power. Instead of focusing more on those who consume, the mayors are pressured by the system and society to focus on those who produce. This inhibits the minority mayor from addressing the issues that he was initially elected to solve.
The government of Syracuse consists of a mayor and a common council. The mayor, Roy Bernardi, has served at the city's Chief Executive since 1993. He is responsible for all of the city administration and business. The city of Syracuse also has a ten member common council. The current president, Matthew Driscoll, and the nine other common council members, meet biweekly to create legislation and balance the 1.5 million-dollar city budget.
Texas has a wide variety when it comes to sizes of its cities and towns, with the most populated city being Houston, with a population of 2,099,451, and the least populated city being Los Ybanez city, with a recorded population of only 19. (togetherweteach.com) With that in mind, it’s important to have different types of local governments to best accommodate the type of city or town. There’s one problem with that though. What if a huge corporation moves into a small town, increasing the population significantly and changing the dynamic of the city in a matter of 2-3 years? "Local community decisions about what government-types are chosen, and when, have lasting consequences for the future configuration of governments in an area. If cities are established earlier...then fewer government options are available later.” (Thomas, 1993) With the way local governments are determined now, it’s unlikely that the government would be able to quickly change how it functions and accommodates to its citizens. Even something like campaigning, which may not have been needed much during elections beforehand due of the closeness that tends to happen in people of small towns, would be a much bigger part of running for a local
It is a real tragedy that the civil rights of a substantial group of people has been trampled upon by the passing of Proposition 8. When one looks at the reasons why people voted for it, pointless arguments taken out of context are seen. As was pointed out in many of the sources which I found on the debate about the revision, California wields a large amount of influence on how the rest of the United States, and by extension, the rest of the world views issues. It can only be hoped that that will not be the case in this instance.
The founding fathers established the United States Constitution to maintain a strong government. In order for the United States government to flourish it is vital for the state and city to work in unison establishing policies that are beneficial for society. The United States maintains a political system, in which the nation derives its’ power from the state. In the book New York City Politics: Governing Gotham, Berg discusses the function of the state and federal government in relationship with the city. Although the City can organize their own government, they are dependent on the state and federal government.
Furthermore, the proposition states many beneficial outcomes due to it being passed but never do they address any negative outcomes due to it. All of this is done with the right use of word which appeals to the reader’s emotions causing one to vote with their feelings and not their knowledge. What is being stated in the proposition are only things to sway a voter into voting for it. For instance, it talks about how with the money being saved from having fewer inmates in prison will be redirected towards bettering higher education by purchasing learning devices, books, and other material. With this being said, it is obvious that the intended voters are parents of adolescents. The reason being is that parents are the most vulnerable in this
...t severely reduced the amount of property taxes collected and thus diminished funding for California's education system. Although, voters intended to reduce state government interference in local governance, the proposition had the opposite effect. The shortfall in tax revenue made it necessary for the State to provide aid to local governments to keep public safety, welfare programs, and education programs running. Property tax revenue at the county level decreased from thirty-three percent to only twelve percent after the implementation of Proposition 13.(Chapman 1998) The allotment of aid means that the state has greater control over how money is allocated and spent, while cities were able to transfer lost revenue onto residents through service fees, counties had to turn to state and federal funding to provide for public safety and public assistance programs.
The Dahlonega City Hall was crowded on the evening of March 1st 2010. The seats were full, except for at the very front, and the standing room was filled almost out the door. The crowd, mostly made up of students, leaned in to hear as the voices of the City Council members faded in and out of the faltering sound system. The six City Council members and the mayor sat along a bench as if they were the judges at a hearing. Because of the ongoing discussions and the crowd, I thought I had arrived a few minutes late; but I was able to find a seat in the front two rows. Despite how packed the small room was there were plenty of empty seats in the front. I had thought the meeting was well on its way by the way conversation was going and apparently I was not the only one who shared this feeling. After a solid forty-five minutes of talking about parking laws and if there was a parking problem in the city, the mayor stood up and thanked everyone for coming. Most people took this as a sign that the meeting was over and started to pack up and leave. However this was just the meetings call to order. Following a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance the City Council meeting began.
Throughout the 1900s, the African American citizens and visitors to Detroit, Michigan faced discriminatory treatment by the white citizens of Detroit and the surrounding areas. As a means of lessening the unfair treatment of African Americans, several groups, including the Detroit Urban League, were organized to increase the welfare and decrease the negative actions toward and hatred of the African American people of Detroit. The Detroit Urban League focused on the involvement and incorporation of African American adults and youth in the workplace, housing, and education settings of Detroit.
According to Allender, Rector, and Warner (2014), public health is a combination of both an art and a science (2014). The mission of public health nursing is to promote health, prevent disease and ultimately prolong life (Allender et al., 2014). In order for this to occur an assessment must take place. An aggregate or community assessment begins with a collection of data. This includes: the community’s health needs, risks, environmental conditions, financial resources through local census data, and a windshield survey (Allender et al., 2014). Through public health nursing, communities can collectively come together to help promote an overall better health standing.
If you are not already aware, my home state of California is undergoing civic pandemonium disguised in political rhetoric as a “recall.” We are witnessing one of the biggest travesties in the modern era and poor Gray Davis is clearly the victim. Given the circumstances when he took office, Davis has done a pretty damn good job with the mess he inherited from former Governor Pete Wilson. Davis is surrounded by malevolent bureaucrats on a day-to-day basis, as is true for most politicians, and when one has to work with these bad guys, bad things tend to happen. Why is this? California is dealing with the fallout from an inefficient federal government that left its western daughter to flounder in the wake of a crisis the feds very likely created. When Wilson pushed for de-regulation of energy distribution (electricity/gas), outside suppliers, primarily Texas ringleaders like Enron, were allowed to run wholesale pricing up unchecked. Pacific Gas and Electric then filed for bankruptcy, Southern California Edison was similarly affected. Now layer on surplus spending from dot.com tax coffers and the inability of legislators to rein in spending after the collapse of the dot.com industries due to their greed or bury-the-head-in-the-sand mentality. Now you have a reversal of a record surplus to a record deficit of some 35+ billion dollars. Prime fodder for the Republicans.
They are in charge of numerous things like roads, tax collection, trail building, community planning, public safety, and public health. These things impact our everyday lives. I mean without our county commissioners what kind of state would our roads be in? Where would all the money go? What about our public safety and health? Everything would be disorganized and dangerous.
Imagine a town without government. At first, such a place may seem like a fantastic place to live, there would be no laws, no fines, and no taxes. But look a little closer and you’ll notice mounds of reeking trash heaped along sidewalks and by doors, sewage oozing from pipes and seeping into the soil, and streets and roads in horrible states of disrepair. Buildings would burn to the ground for lack of fire departments, and schools, no longer supported by tax dollars, would become empty and silent. While it may seem that government officials do nothing but argue and impose taxes, without them a community couldn’t function. Some of the amenities we take for granted now as Americans are a direct result of our local government’s actions.
A local government is a political subdivision of the state, constituted by law and may or may not have substantial or much control over local affairs. “Under the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, all powers not granted to the federal government are reserved for the states and the people. All state governments are modeled after the federal government and consist of three branches: executive, legislative, and judicial. The U.S. Constitution mandates that all states uphold a "republican form" of government, although the three-branch structure is not required” (State and Local Government 2014)Therefore, Local Governments exercise certain basic powers like police power, and the power to implement social services so as to best serve the interest and promote the general welfare of their respective inhabitants. In order for the autonomy of Local Government to function, the national and or federal government places the power to delegate authority to the state that then transfers these basic powers to the local governments to allow for the inclusion of its constituents in governmental and local affairs by what we call decentralization. Often times the state government divides powers between the local governments which usually include two divisions: municipalities and counties. Counties are usually the largest and broadest geographic area and include many local governments however; a county’s power is very miniscule compared to city government. Generally in North Carolina, local governments do not have the power or authority do anything unless it is explicitly granted or enumerated in the state constitution. Although cities have a large range of delegated authority and counties have the least, the state government would still exerci...