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List:       sas-l
Subject:    CARY, NC and the Weak Mayor,
From:       "Andrew A. Beveridge" <andy () PIXIE ! SOC ! QC ! EDU>
Date:       1997-11-28 13:24:33
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SFBAY0001 wrote:
>
> Let me add my 14.7 cents to this thread.
>
> Most small communities, including Cary, have what is called a
"Council-Manager"
> form of government.  In these communities the actual day-to-day
administration
> of the city is handled by the professional, full time, City Manager, to whom
> all employees report through their respective chains of command.
>
> The Mayor and Council set broad policy, but the City Manager carries it out.
> The Mayor serves as sort of a figurehead, chairs meetings of the Council,
signs
> proclmations, ordinances, buys the first box of Girl Scout cookies every
year,
> declares "National Walk to Work Month," etc.
>
> In most communities with a "Council-Manager" (also called a "Weak Mayor"
> set-up, the Mayor and City Council receive a small stipend for their
servcies,
> not a "real" salary.  In my home town, roughtly the same size as Cary, the
> Mayor and Council each received $1 a year for their sevices.
>
>
That is actually correct.  The Council City Manager Form of Government
Merges
many of the functions of the legislature and the executive into one
package.
It began as an effort at reform of the corruption that many saw in large
cities.

Indeed, Yonkers, where I live, the city switched to Council-Manager in
1949 right
after a mayor had gone to jail.  We just switched back to a pretty
"strong mayor"
form of government right after the City Council had been declared in
contempt of
court by the Federal Judge during a desegregation case.

Lake Wobegone, Garrison Keillor's fictive town in Minnesota, has a
Council-Manager
form of Government, which he has characterized as a "Weak Mayor, Stupid
City Council"
form of government.

If you don't expect the largest business in a town to have influence
over that town
then you are not living in the real world.  As an ex-Yonkers democratic
party official,
and ex-School Board President, all I can say is I wish SAS were in
Yonkers. . .

Andy Beveridge
Sociology Department
Queens College and Graduate Center
City University of New York

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