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Municipal government

As a general term, Municipal government refers to local government operating at the level of a city, town, or village.

"Municipalities" consist of a group of people living in a defined area. Usually this will be an urban area, but surrounding rural areas may also be included. In most countries, municipalities of various sorts are special corporations defined under state law, and have specific rights and responsibilities.

A "government" (see also politics) consists of a set of people that have legal power over an area of land and the people that inhabit that land.

In the United States, "Municipal government" is the technical term used to describe local government at the level of the city, town, or vilage. The remainder of this article gives details of these arrangements.

Municipal Government in the United States

In the United States, municipalities such as cities, towns, or villages are the level of local government below that of the county (although many states also have civil townships which are a separate type of government below the county level but distinct from municipalities). Most U.S. municipalities are governed in one of two ways, Council-Manager government and Mayor-Council government.

A partial list of some of the more common rights and responsibilities of a municipality include:

1. the ability to require payment of taxes by all those in the municipality limits;
2. the ability to create debt on behalf of the citizens, who are responsible for repayment of those debts;
3. the responsibility to enforce various state laws with a police force;
4. the responsibility to provide for civil defence and other special needs;

Municipal governments are usually divided into several administrative departments, depending on the size of the municipality. Though municipalities differ in the division of responsibility, the typical arrangement is to have the following departments handle the following roles:

1. Urban planning and zoning:
2. Public works: construction and maintenance of all municipality-owned or operated assets, including the water supply system, sewer, streets, snow removal, street signs, vehicles, buildings, land, etc.
3. Police
4. Fire
5. Accounting / Finance: collects taxes owed by the municipality, incorporates human resources department for municipal workers,
6. Legal: handles all legal matters including writing municipal bonds, verifying the municipality is in compliance with state and federal mandates, responding to citizen lawsuits like lawsuits allegedly stemming from municipal actions or inactions. Typical legal actions include someone falling on publicly-owned sidewalks suing the municipality for negligence, a municipality annexing land, etc.
7. Transportation (varies widely): If the municipality has a public bus or light rail service, this function may be handled by its own department or it may be folded into another of the above departments.

See also:

• Municipal Autonomy
• Washington city government