Municipal Reform Movement A continuum – Some cities adopted one or two reforms – A “reform City” has most / all reforms in charter – Western, smaller, suburban, newer = more reforms

Reform Movement What effect on politics today? Institutions are different at national, state & local level due to early 1900s reform era

Reform Movement What effect on politics today? Federal – Income tax, direct election of Senate State – Direct democracy, primaries, civil service Local – Reform city charters, most smaller places “Council-Manager” form

Reform Movement What effect on politics today? Local – Increased ‘red tape’ (Bureaucracy) – Lower participation – Lower public spending (?) – Cities ‘less political’ Is that less democratic?

Reform movement A defense of patronage – Can a big city mayor govern w/o the power to hire and fire people? CEO model – How many staff does elected exec need? – At what level?

One problem with patronage James Garfield, 1881Carter Harrison, 1893

Reform movement Today: – Many big city mayors looking for stronger powers – Many (large) cities have changed to councils elected by districts Seattle just changed to districts Detroit the last big city still AL

Post reform institutions Forms of government – Council-manager – Mayor-council – Commission – Town meeting – Most places have no mayor, non-partisan, with off year, at-large elections

Council-Manager form

Council-Manager City council sets policy, budget Council hires city manager to do exec functions – day-to-day administration Mayor is figure-head (one of council)

Council-Manager Most common form of city government Increasing – Of cities over 10K: 48% in 1996 to 55% in 2006 – More common in south east, west coast Phoenix, San Jose, Dallas, Las Vegas Salt Lake City, San Antonio, Austin, Ft Worth, El Paso

Strong Mayor Council

Weak Mayor-council

Strong Mayor-Council Mayor elected, full-time pay Mayor has most administrative and budget power Strong mayor may veto council; mayor appoints dept head 2 nd most common form, 34% of cities – Older, larger; east coast, midwest – NY, Chicago, LA, Philly, Houston, SF, Seattle

Commission Small governing body w/ no executive Commission has legislative and exec powers Each commissioner responsible for one policy area – Fire, roads, public healt Rare, lt 1% of cities: – Portland OR (but has a mayor)

Town Hall Direct democracy Just show up, and vote on policy About 5% of cities

Mayor vs. no mayor How much of city admin. should be controlled by someone elected by voters? How much power does that (elected) exec need? Big city vs. small place

At-large elections less parochial less log-rolling, vote trading larger candidate pool better qualified candidates Elections cost more Less racial/ethnic minority representation 2/3 of all municipalities use at-large representation

District elections Geographic representation Council reflects very local concerns People may know councilmember Less cost to run Safe seats Less interest in city- wide interests

District vs At-large, K-70K70K-200K+200K At large49%44%16% Mixed25% 38% District26%31%46% Only 14% of all municipalities use district elections (there are lots of small places

Non partisan elections Cons – no labels = voter confusion – voters cue of name-ID, ethnicity – business ‘slating groups’ fill void – upper-class bias – low turnout Pros – No partisan way to distribute services – elected officials cooperate better if non- partisan

Non partisan elections 77% of cities have non-partisan elections Big cities that are non-partisan – LA, Phoenix, San Antonio, Dallas, SD, SJ, Seattle, Austin, Ft Worth Big cities that are partisan: – NY, Chicago, Houston, Philly, SF, Indy, Baltimore, Wash DC

Consequences of Reforms Less corruption, more efficiency Weaker political parties Less participation Less minority representation Cities as corporations, not polity

Consequences of reforms Who has power? Mass public Upper-status folks, business

Post reform politics Low turnout – LA Mayoral election: 15%