City Council Study Session Agenda and Packet 2019 11 12

Home Browse Search

city or town manager, administrator, or superintendent. This person serves as the chief administrative officer, coordinates municipal administration, supervises other employees, and is directly responsible to the city council or board of trustees. This system permits administrative responsibility to be centralized in one full-time employee and it may lead to better coordinated administration and more professional leadership in municipal government. Nationally, Colorado is viewed as a state that strongly supports this approach to municipal government. Administration by committees. In municipalities where neither the mayor nor any appointed municipal official has the responsibility to direct municipal affairs, the governing body itself must supervise and coordinate municipal administration. This can be done as a collective endeavor; more often, the governing body forms smaller committees that recommend policies and supervise administration of programs within each committee's sphere of responsibility. The mayor may appoint members of the governing body to various committees, or the members may choose to organize their own committees and make their own appointments. Either way, each member may serve on one or more committees composed of several members of the governing body. The names and scope of the committees may vary from municipality to municipality, but commonly they include water and sewer, street and alley, police and fire, finance, park and recreation, and health and welfare. In some municipalities the governing body relies almost entirely on its committee structure to supervise administration of municipal affairs. Under such an arrangement, the street superintendent, for example, would report to the street and alley committee. In practice, the committee chairperson may assume most of the responsibility and control and directly oversee administration within each committee's area of responsibility. Committees provide a way to divide up the work, study activities in greater detail and more closely supervise municipal administration. This system usually requires members of the governing body to devote a great deal of time to committee work, leaving less time and energy to solve overall municipal problems. Both systems — administration by the governing body and administration by committees — go against modern public management practice, which holds that only one individual should have the responsibility to supervise and coordinate administrative operations. As a result, neither administration by the governing body nor by council committees may be a sound and effective system for supervising and coordinating municipal administration. BOARDS AND COMMISSIONS Boards, commissions, and citizen committees can provide the governing body with a great deal of assistance both in recommending public policy and in transforming policy decisions into action. Some are required or permitted by statute, while others are created by ordinance, resolution, or motion. Some are empowered to make administrative decisions, others can only make recommendations to the governing body, and still others are primarily fact-finding bodies. Some boards and commissions are established permanently, with members appointed for overlapping terms to add continuity to committee operations, while others are established for a limited time to accomplish a single purpose and cease to exist once their functions are completed. In some situations, municipal governing bodies may find the use of special boards and commissions to be to their advantage. They may be helpful in analyzing technical problems considered beyond the scope of the governing body. Boards and commissions give the municipality an opportunity to use the talents of local specialists in certain fields and permit citizens with special interests to serve the community in an area of personal concern. Here is a partial listing of special boards and commissions authorized or required by state law (numbers in parentheses refer to title, article, and section number of the C.R.S. in which the board or commission is authorized): • Board of Trustees, Police Pension Fund (§ 31-30.5-203); • Board of Trustees, Fire Pension Fund (§ 31-30.5-202); • Board of Trustees of Public Libraries (§ 24-90-108); • Planning Commission (§§ 31-23-201 et seq.); • Zoning Commission (§ 31-23-306); • Board of Adjustment (§ 31-23-307); • Local Licensing Authority (§§ 12-46-101 et seq.; §§ 12-47-103 et seq.). Other boards or commissions may be set up by the governing body to follow a particular project through to completion. Frequently, citizen committees are appointed to study such things as possible new sources of revenue; the need for new building codes; the need for new municipal facilities such as swimming pools, fire stations, or parks; or the desirability of launching new projects. In many cases, persons who serve on such advisory committees may be carried over onto permanent commissions or boards upon completion of their study projects. Heather Balser / City of Louisville Order #azzov CQr 3NN XbAUNICIPAL LEAGUE 21 opyright by C