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52:13H-2 Mandate not covered; Expiry of compulsory status The term local self-government is traditionally used to refer to local authorities in the United Kingdom and Germany. The Basic Law states: “Municipalities shall be guaranteed the right to regulate all municipal affairs under their own responsibility within the limits prescribed by law.” On the other hand, the amended Constitution of the French Fifth Republic states: “Under the conditions laid down by law, these [local communities] are autonomous by elected councils and have the power to legislate on matters within their competence.” This expresses the spirit of deconcentration. However closely bound local officials may be to the authority and regulations of the headquarters, a certain degree of discretion is inevitable. Often, on the other hand, fairly pure bodies of local self-government, such as borough councils in the United Kingdom, are forced to achieve the objectives of central government. Mainly units of local self-government, they are at the same time units of local obligation, acting on the orders of the central government for services such as education and the police. Each year, the Office of Government Affairs maintains a table showing the status of all legislation on which the Legislative Committee has issued an opinion or considered on behalf of the Council during the year in question. The table for the current year is updated after each meeting of the Legislative Committee. The City Attorney`s client is the City as a unit, and the City Attorney`s role is to provide legal advice to all branches of city government, including the legislative and executive branches. The City Attorney will also represent the City in all lawsuits brought by and against the City. Cities can either hire an “in-house” municipal lawyer or enter into a contract for legal services. While the city council creates the position and determines the remuneration of an internal city attorney, the executive branch (the mayor or city manager) chooses the person who will fill the role (sometimes subject to council approval). If the position of City Attorney has been converted to a position by order or provision of the by-law and the position is filled by legal services contracts, the Mayor or City Manager will elect someone to fill that position, subject to possible confirmation by Council.

While federal and state governments share power in many ways, local government must be vested with power by the state. In general, mayors, municipal councillors and other governing bodies are elected directly by the people. Each committee of the board also has a team of lawyers and analysts. This team assists the committee by organizing public hearings and providing the legal and policy research needed to make decisions that benefit New York City. Similar to the city attorney, the elected district attorney represents the county as a unit and advises all branches of county government, pursues actions on behalf of the county, and defends the county against any legal action. The functions of the prosecutor are set out in RCW 36.27.020. Mayors, district councils, municipal managers and employees do not make political decisions. However, they have a strong influence on the political decision-making process and the resulting decisions. For example, they propose budgets, oversee staff-led studies and analyses of proposed actions, and make policy recommendations to councils. 10.

The Council shall from time to time establish and revise an organizational plan and may, within the limits of the resources at its disposal, incur expenditures. The Council may lay down rules of procedure. The Council shall employ such clerical and secretarial staff as it deems necessary. In addition, each member of the Council may employ a professional employee who must be directly at his disposal for a maximum period of one year. At the end of one year of service, a professional employee may not be reinstated by a member of the Board in that capacity. Professional employees of the Board are considered confidential employees within the meaning of the New Jersey Employer-Employee Relations Act, P.L. 1941, c. 100 (C.34:13A-1 et seq.). Employees and members of the Council shall be members of the Public Employees Pension Plan, except that no person who, before taking office as an employee or member of the Board, for any reason other than the acquisition or deferral of retirement in a pension fund or pension plan established under an Act of that State, may not receive a pension or a member of the Board before taking up employment as an employee or member of the Board. The old-age supplement is entitled to affiliation on the basis of this service or membership of the pension scheme for public sector employees. The Council may, on a temporary basis, be assisted by a lawyer to represent it in any proceedings to which it is a party.

The Council may use the services of other professional, technical and operational staff and advisers to the extent necessary for the exercise of its functions under this Act. The Board may employ operational and administrative staff, including an administrator and a coordinator, who serve the Board as it sees fit; however, no person may hold the office of director and coordinator for more than two years without being reappointed by the Board. Nothing in this Article shall be construed as empowering the Council to appoint an Executive Director, Director or other staff member, except as expressly provided in this Article. The history of local government in Western Europe, Britain, the United States and Russia shows the growing awareness of its importance. This awareness is the product of a development of parish and urban life that began long before the emergence of the modern state between the 15th and 17th centuries. Central control over these and other areas was rather rare until the 18th century. Notable exceptions were France under Jean-Baptiste Colbert or Prussia in the 17th century, where local authorities were already overshadowed by the heavy hand of the central intendants in the former and the Commissariat à la guerre in the latter. Many Germanic states, such as the Hanseatic cities, were nothing more than cities. In England, and particularly in New England, local units – parishes, towns and villages – emerged from their origins as spontaneous autonomous units. This was also the case in Russia, although the tsars there strictly controlled the cities through their provincial governors and through the Mir – the village and the agricultural unit – through taxes, the police and the boyars. The state colonized some cities from the beginning.

The various local units were gradually integrated by the State, which imposed obligations on them in the areas of peace, crime and law enforcement, taxes, military supplies, aid to the poor and highways.