Good Mayor – Bad Mayor
I’ve preached about this before but it is a lesson that bears repeating over and over again.
Now it is the City of San Diego which is debating the virtues of Strong Mayor vs. Weak Mayor philosophies of government.
According to the National League of Cities website the difference between Strong Mayor vs. Weak Mayor is:
Characteristics of a “weak” mayor:
- The council is powerful, with both legislative and executive authority
- The mayor is not truly the chief executive, with limited power and/or no veto power
- The council can prevent the mayor from effectively supervising city administration
- There may be many administrative boards and commissions that operate independently from the city government
Characteristics of a “strong” mayor:
- The mayor is the chief executive officer, centralizing executive power
- The mayor directs the administrative structure, appointing and removing of department heads
- While the council has legislative power, the mayor has veto power
- The council is relieved of day-to-day administration
This is the lesson.
Strong Mayor doesn’t mean effective Mayor and Weak Mayor doesn’t mean ineffective Mayor.
It all depends on the Mayor.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010 at 3:47 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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