Who Runs Your City
Mayor, council, agencies, boards, and what they control
Alternative 1
Cities operate through a division of labor. The mayor sets priorities, proposes the budget, appoints department heads, and oversees day-to-day management. The city council sets the rules: land use, housing, policing oversight, business licensing, tenant protections, street design, and countless small regulations that shape daily life.
Departments carry out both the mayor’s directives and the council’s laws. Public Works handles streets, signals, trash, and maintenance. Planning controls permits and zoning. Transportation designs bus lanes and contracts with regional agencies. Police follow city policies but operate with their own internal systems. Parks, libraries, housing, code enforcement, fire, and building inspection each carry their own workload.
When something breaks—streetlight outages, long permitting lines, transit delays—the cause sits somewhere in the triangle of rules, resources, and management. Cities rarely fail from lack of interest; they fail from mismatched authority and capacity.
Alternative 2
City governments operate through a split structure. The mayor sets priorities, proposes the budget, appoints department heads, and oversees daily operations. The city council writes the rules: zoning, housing policy, public safety oversight, business regulations, transportation design, tenant protections.
Departments do the heavy lifting. Public Works handles streets, lighting, trash, and maintenance. Planning manages land use and building permits. Transportation designs bus routes and works with regional agencies. Police enforce laws but follow city-set policies. Housing programs, libraries, parks, inspections, fire, and code enforcement all run through separate departments with their own constraints.
When something doesn’t work—a stalled permit, a broken light, a delayed bus—the root cause is usually a mix of policy limits, budget shortages, staffing gaps, and operational bottlenecks. Cities don’t work or fail because of one person. They work or fail because of the alignment—or misalignment—between authority and capacity.