Municipal Form of Government Definitions*: Mayor-Council Form of Government: Elected council or board serves as the legislative body. The chief elected official (e.g., mayor) is the head of government, with significant administrative authority, and generally elected separately from the council. Council-Manager Form of Government: Elected council

The Municipal Form of Government, 2006 survey used the following definitions for the five forms of government: • Mayor-council: An elected council or board serves as the legislative body. The chief elected official (CEO) is the head of government, with significant administrative authority, generally elected separately from the council.

A municipal charter is the legal document that defines the organization, powers, functions, and essential procedures of the city government. The charter also details the form of municipal government, of which there are historically five forms: council-manager, mayor-council, commission, town meeting and representative town meeting.

Managerial Form The manager form of government is available to all municipalities under 500,000 in population. The municipality may retain its governmental structure as an aldermanic-city form, trustee-village form, or commission form …

The City Form of government is based on a series of laws enacted in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that represent the legislature’s initial attempts to provide optional forms of municipal government for local adoption. Their use was …

Forms of Government Although the revised constitution allowed the legislature to approve by general law up to five forms of government for municipalities, the General Assembly authorized just three in the Home Rule Act. S.C. Code 5-5-10. • mayor-council form • council form • council-manager form In addition, the Home Rule amendments required the

The Small Municipality is commonly thought of as a cross of the two most common “traditional” forms: the township and borough.6 It is also a strong mayor form in that the mayor exercises the executive authority of the municipality.

An important resource for municipal governments in Maine. There are two basic forms of local government in Maine. There is the "direct" form, often referred to as the town meeting form of government, in which the town meeting serves as the legislative body, passing laws, approving the spending of monies.

Forms of Municipal Government • Council-Manager form: Professional manager hired as chief executive to manage municipal operations. Council performs legislative functions, sets policies, and provides oversight of the executive function; Council operates at arms-length from daily affairs •Strength: professional management; decoupling of politics