Your city council acts as the legislature for your city, passing laws and ordinances. They are the folks who decide how to spend your tax dollars, from a new stoplight to a bike lane to banning DIY guns. The mayor serves as the executive branch, meaning he or she can approve or veto legislation passed by council.
Your council members are elected directly by you to represent your interests. Each member is assigned — through a voting process that involves all of the Council Members — to serve on committees that work on specific issues, such as human services or infrastructure. Those committees meet often and hold hearings on legislation and policy proposals.
The Council is arguably the most important legislative body in your city. It sets the budget and sets the rates for income, sales and property taxes.
Observers point to the council’s efforts to tackle homelessness and other critical issues as one example of its coequal role in city government. Those include the council’s override of the mayor’s veto of a package of bills expanding eligibility for housing rental vouchers and passage of legislation to require that mental health professionals be available at family shelters.
The Council also plays a critical oversight role, holding hearings and issuing subpoenas to ensure that the administration is being held accountable for its actions. Those included the council’s decision to hold a Committee of the Whole hearing on the city’s response to asylum seekers, which is considered a milestone.