The City of Onslow, Iowa

Est. 1871

 
 

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City Government

   
   

The City of Onslow maintains a Mayor-Council form of government. There are several types council governments.

1. Council-manager government

2. City Commission government

3. Mayor-Council government (Defined Below)

Mayor-Council government

The Mayor-Council government is one of two variations of government most commonly used in modern representative municipal governments in the United States. It is also used in some other countries. The Mayor-Council variant can be broken down into two main variations depending on the relationship between the legislative and executive branches.

Weak Mayor Form (The Form of Government The City of Onslow uses)

In this form of the mayor-council government, the council possess both legislative and executive authority. The council may appoint officials and must approve of mayoral nominations. The council also exercises primary control over the municipal budget.

Charles Adrian and Charles Press explain, "The weak-mayor plan is a product of Jacksonian democracy. It comes from the belief that if politicians have few powers and many checks, then they can do relatively little damage."

Strong Mayor Form

This form of government is most commonly used in small towns. It is a variant of City Commission government.

In the strong-mayor form the mayor is given almost total administrative authority, with the power to appoint and dismiss department heads without council approval. Likewise, the mayor prepares and administers the budget, although that budget often must be approved by the city council.

In some strong-mayor governments, the mayor will appoint a chief administrative officer (CAO) who will supervise department heads, prepare the budget, and coordinate departments. This CAO is responsible only to the mayor.

 

     

Mayor

 
Current Photo Not Available
   

Dean Holerud

   
Council
Current Photo Not Available
 

Betty Jordan

     
Current Photo Not Available
  Mike Lathrop
     
   

Lennie Miller

   


   

Darrell West

     
Current Photo Not Available
   

Ravin Ricketts

   
Clerk
   

Ginger Thomas