The City's Governement

Chapter 5

Because the United States is a republic federal democracy this means that the central government gives States the power to handle their own tax, police force and the like. From the Governor all the way down to a city council member, these offices are voted by the people, not appointed.

San Francisco has a unique municipal government.

Most cities use the mayor-council system, where the mayor is elected citywide, but the council members are appointed by are elected by council districts. Mayors appoint heads of departments.

Another approach is the commission and council-manager system, where the voters elect a city council, who in turn, selects a mayor from its membership. According to the book, half of all U.S. cities us this approach.

There are less than three percent of cities who use a mayorless system. The city commission plan is where voters elect a commission board to be responsible for administration of the city.

Then there is a form of government that few cities use called metropolitan government. This is a two-tier government. The mayor and city officials handle the local functions while the metropolitan performs more area-wide functions, such as public transportation and pollution control.

This is the one that San Francisco practices, and has since 1856. It is the only one of its kind in California. There are two co-equal branches: the mayor is the county’s executive and the county’s board of supervisors acts as the city council and legislative branch. Both are elected by the people. The best I can figure is that the Mayor’s office oversees programs and initiatives for the City, and the Board develops City policies, adopts ordinances and resolutions, and manages urban issues.

I read that the Federal Government uses the City as a regional hub for different federal bureaucracy, such as the U.S. Court of Appeals, the Federal Reserve Bank, and the United States Mint. I am not sure what that means.

Also interesting to note that the State Supreme Court is located in San Francisco, including other State Agencies. No wonder why people don’t think that Sacramento is the Capitol!

Here is SF's offical government site, beginning with the Mayor's bio: http://www.sfgov.org/site/mayor_index.asp?id=22014 He is the youngest Mayor in 100 years! Pretty handsome guy.