How The System Work In The City - Essay Example

Insert Insert Grade Insert 2nd December, How The System Work In The Or The County Government A county or a council works in diverse manner. Many stake holders are at play in decision making process, governance and the general running of the institutions (Voelpel 6). However, disparities are notable in the general functioning of the governments in different countries and states. Distribution of power and authority among state and local governments vary. World class cities of the United States like Chicago, New York, California among others are the center points of economic development and civilization. The architecture and everything in these cities is not governed by their local governments but by the states defining their laws. Looking at the different states in the U.S, we see that different states have given more or less power or authority to the local governments. Also, we see that distribution of power is yet unbalanced within the same state. The distribution of power from a state to its localities is not immutable, nor is it unidirectional. Some states are kind enough to give more authority to their cities while others like to keep power in their own hands. John F. Dillon set out his rule stating that local governments can only exercise powers given to them by the state. This rule is dominant in the working of many cities in the world today. In addition, we see that many states that adopted Dillons rule have home rule provisions that they follow. This allows them to have more autonomy from the state and make important decisions they need to make for the development of their cities. Statistics show that cities have lost discretionary powers in the last decade. The city managers feel this loss more than other stake holders because it makes their work hard. One way that has been adapted by cities is to act as coherent force against states rather than being divided among themselves. Some states legislators show loss of trust in the local governments being the reason for them to not let them enjoy the freedom. Annexation is a method used to improve the overall fiscal environment of a municipality. Looking at the effects of annexation we see that it has influenced spending but effects of spending are complicated depending on the changes in municipality density levels. Annexation has been an important method of physical municipal growth. In the U.S, this is a very intense local issue. Due to this, there are a lot of conflicts that arise because it can increase a city’s population, tax base, demographics, population of voters etc. In addition, annexation can lead to removal of an existing tax or district which can have serious counter effects on a district like losing finances and many more. Annexation is an instrument that properly used may preserve an expanding metropolitan area as a unified whole; it permits an urban society to conduct its affairs in an economic and comprehensive way. Nevertheless, those against annexation argue that fragmentation is a better choice for local governments as it increases competition between them. Net fiscal outcome of annexation depends on relative strengths of changes in both land area and population density and other geographic variables constant. Advantages of annexation are the opportunities for municipalities to get to their desired service delivery and have more efficient administration.State governments do not always want to give authority to the local governments either due to lack of trust or to keep power in their hands. However, there are some cities that are substantially empowered and are doing very well economically. The city managers roles are greatly affected by the freedom or absence of power to the local cities. In addition, annexation is widely used in the U.S; it has its own benefits and disadvantages for different districts. City councils are the policy makers for local governments (Voelpel 6). Unfortunately, they do not provide sufficient information on how they can be more successful in making good decisions. Councils that are not organized nor have a functional group end up being ineffective in implementing their ideas and performing their duties. City administrators should give importance to making the city councils successful in decision making. It is important to look at the relations between the council members, the leadership of the mayor, and the disagreements among council members to decide whether a council is doing its work effectively or not. Looking at these aspects we can improve the council’s efficiency and outcome. When we look at small groups of municipal councils, for example seven members, we see that it controls the members from being deceptive and reduces their chances of personal conflicts to be part of the decision making process. This is because the smaller the size the more pressure it puts on the members to work together as a team and come to common grounds. With small councils, members have to accept to the norms of a group or else it will cause disturbance easily. Rogues are group members who do not agree to the decisions made by the majority. It is seen that small groups enforce their culture and ideas more on the members and make sure that members solve conflicts among themselves and so can be easy to handle and come to common terms leading them to be more effective. In addition, it is important that interpersonal relationships between the members be properly maintained. The risk of failure to deliver is minimal; there is trust, and openness between members. The higher the trust the better the understanding among members and the effective they will be in coming to decisions. However, if there is lack of trust and risk is more, members will not be open to each other and that will negatively affect the decision making process. Furthermore, effective councils should respect their staff and see their staff as an integral part effecting there decisions. Councils where staff and members of the council have a good understanding and are competent with each other give good outcome. The leadership style of a mayor also plays an important role in determining the success of a council (Voelpel 4-5). Facilitative leadership style can be the best in management of councils by the mayor. This empowers the members and makes them work better. There are some dependent and independent variables that can determine the success of a council. These include trust, mutual understanding between members, sharing common norms, dealing with controversial issues wisely, council members being productive and sharing common goals and many more. There are many theories on municipal council limits. They discuss the advantages and disadvantages the term limits have. It can either be good for the people or be bad. Proponents of term limits argue that it is good since it allows different people to be elected and given a chance to show their expertise. In addition, with new people coming in there are new ideas and new ways of solving problems and coming to conclusions. It allows for change and diversity. On the contrary, officials who are performing their duties well, are experts at what they do, and have grasped the concepts well have to leave there positions due to term limits. The major advantage with the term limits is that they give everyone an equal chance to work and prove their competencies. They derive different ways of solving the same problem. People are also restricted from misuse of office and the problem of corruption can be curbed. Conflicts within councils can lead to harm, loss of trust, no team work and general inefficiency. More so, like-mindedness can lead to no better solutions to conflicts. Diversity brings new ideas and solutions. In other times, different governments cooperate to become more competitive. This is referred to as coopetation (Brandenburger and Nalebuff 1,7). It is common for both the state and local government officials to compete to increase economic development. Economic development for administrative officials includes attracting more businesses, marketing, negotiating terms and other ways to increase jobs and quality of life for people in the county or city. However, in the recent years economic development now depends on governments not competing much with each other but with other nations because of globalization. Every government is competing against each other in order to realize more benefits in the international market. The global competition is necessitating investments in multinational corporations. Therefore, for a nation to be successful the local governments must co-work with each other to get higher profits. Economic development cannot just be defined by bettering the lifestyle of a community by increasing resources but rather the management of the resources matter most. Another basic way of management of available resources is strategic planning. This is the disciplined effort to make fundamental decisions and actions that shape and guide what a city council is, what it does, and why it does it. This basically helps in being clearer about a local government’s goals, expectations, and actions. It includes having objective analysis and futuristic thinking. This helps in the company’s success. It also helps achieve goals faster and more efficiently. One of the basic ways of strategic planning is having objectives, missions, visions, values and future goals. Other ways include setting guidelines to achieve them and what to expect from each stake holder among others. This process can be very successful but only when it is well implemented. If everyone does his/her part, strategic planning always proves successful and beneficial. A good number of municipal councils and local governments use the strategy though there still remain others who have not yet adopted the strategy In addition to strategic planning it is important for governments to do economic planning. This helps in increasing employment rates. A nation’s success is gauged by the performance of the local and state governments working either separately or even in union. This cooperation in competition (coopertation) leads to better results. In addition, economic growth depends on strategic planning. The municipal governments and city managers need to make sure that their employees use strategic planning to set goals and to achieve those goals. This will greatly help in economic growth and in the countries success. Public input is considered important in matters like budgeting and public policy drafting. Public participation and political support is considered the basis of democratic governance. Disparities arise with some states like Florida acknowledging every bit of public participation while others such as California, Delaware, Massachusetts and Missouri have no incentives towards public participation. Different factors such as political, institutional and economic affect the policy adoption by the different states. The city Attorney manages attorney’s activities serving the area on diverse authorities and panels (Anonymous 12). He functions as the prosecuting attorney of the city and the labor advocate. Most municipal attorneys serve in private practice and manage the city on temporal basis. The Code of ethics of the city prevents all the appointed attorneys as well as other firm members from appealing before the board, agency of the city or sector on behalf of private customers. Additionally, the roles and responsibilities of City Mayors are different depending on the city they serve, but some roles are universal across all the cities. The city attorney’s facilitate the government operations such as drafting domestic laws and public contracts in the local government. As the public defenders and municipal prosecutor, City attorneys attends all Municipal Court sessions where the prosecutor appeals all charges of the criminal act on behalf of the department of police and City. As a public defender, he helps the defendants who cannot access legal counsel. City Mayors oversee various activities of the city administration (Voelpel 6). In both small and large cities, a mayor acts as the leader and in charge of controlling routine City administration of the region. Local administration success centers on the mayor’s choices and his efficiency in carrying out his roles. For instance, in Orange City, a mayor’s leadership has potential political motivation but laws demand that mayors hire qualified managers such as City Attorneys. Mayors also maintain peace in the city, and their appointment to the sector of public safety determines the success of the city in preventing crime. They must ensure that the responsible sectors are working to minimize crime. Mayors manage routine operations of the city by supervising each city sector officials. They take part in long-term planning and ensure that all departments are operating towards their objective. In conclusion, the working of a city or a county can be evaluated from different angles. Different components make up a city or a county government. Nevertheless, much can be borrowed from the running of these units to understand the broader working of a national or a state government. In large countries such as the U.S, many states make the country. There is harmony in the correlation between the states administration, which is beneficial to all. Competition is seen from the advantage side of the administration and as such it’s not hazardous. Many governments accord city or county governments the power of operation. Some decisions and policies are also formulated at these low levels of operation and are validated by the state. Works Cited Anonymous. “Office of City Attorney 210 Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.” Room 401 266-4511. 2012. Web. 2nd Dec. 2012. Brandenburger, Adam and Nalebuff, Barry. “Co-opetition: A Revolutionary Mindset That Combines Competition and Cooperation.” 1998. Web. 2nd Dec. 2012. Voelpel, Gwendolyn. “The Policymaking Role Of The Mayor In Council-Manager Cities: Detracting and Enhancing Factors.” 2007. 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