As for the actual duties of the chief ad ministrative officials and boards, these are broadly connoted by the titles which they bear. The city clerk has charge of the munic ipal records; in a word, he is the secretary of the municipal corporation. The city treasurer has the custody of the public funds, receives the income and pays the warrants which are presented to him for payment in proper form. The comptroller authorizes the payment of bills against the city after he has satisfied him self that appropriations are available to cover them, and that the expenditures which they represent have been legally incurred. The auditor checks up all items of revenue and dis bursement. The corporation counsel, or city attorney, or city solicitor, as he is variously named in different cities, is the chief law officer of the municipality. He gives advice and opinions on legal matters when so requested by the mayor or by the city council, and repre sents the city in all cases to which the munic ipal corporation is a party before the courts. The commissioner, fire commissioner, superintendent of streets and water commis sioner have duties which, in a general way, their titles imply. And the same is true of the various other administrative posts, for example, the inspector of weights and measures, the commissioner of gas and electricity, the superintendent of parks and cemeteries, the assessors, overseers of the poor, and so on. From city to city the exact powers of these and many other officials differ somewhat in extent but in a general way they follow much the same lines.
The Subordinate Service.— Below the of ficials at the head of departments come the rank and file of the municipal employees, rang ing from the deputy-heads, through the chiefs of divisions and bureaus, the inspectors and foremen down to the ordinary laborers. Ordinarily the heads of departments, either of their own authority or with the approval of the mayor, appoint all of these. But in some cities, though not in the majority, these selec tions are governed by the civil service regula tions and by the same rules the employees are protected against capricious removal. The gradations and pay of the different ranks are fixed by ordinance (usually by the budget or appropriation ordinance) or in some cases by the provisions of the State laws.
State Legislation.— In most parts of the Union the intervention of the State in city affairs is frequent and of far-reaching import ance. A dozen or more States have by consti tutional provisions forbidden this interference in matters of local concern and have guaranteed to the cities the right to determine all such matters freely for themselves. Even here,
however, the line between matters of general interest affecting the whole State and those of purely local concern are hard to draw. As a result there is still, even in home rule States, a considerable amount of interference with affairs which primarily concern individual cities alone. In the States which have not as yet recognized the principle of municipal home rule, the hand of the central authority is ex tremely active in local matters. Scarcely a legislative session passes many new statutes regulating even the minutiae of munic ipal administration are enacted. And these statutory provisions often relate to such purely local matters as the pay of city laborers, their hours of work, their holidays, the paving of specific streets, the rates to be charged for water, and the way in which city officials shall keep their records. By this practice the legis latures have in many cases virtually taken away from the citizens their power to control and regulate their own purely local affairs. This authority has been in large degree usurped by the State and is exercised through channels of legislation. Herein the situation differs.widely from that which exists in the various European countries. In them there is state supervision of municipal government and in some respects it is a stricter supervision than that exerted anywhere in the United States. But it is ex ercised through administrative and not through legislative channels. The provincial president in Germany, the prefect in France and the local government board in England are all administrative agents of the central govern ment; they deal with all cities alike and deal with each local problem on its individual merits. That is obviously a different and far more satisfactory policy than one which deals with cities by acts of legislatures enacted by men who know little about the local problems in hand. So far as central control of munic ipal affairs is concerned that is the chief dif ference between American and European prac tice. See CITY MANAGER; EXECUTIVE; COM MISSION GOVERNMENT; CABINET AND CABINET GOVERNMENT; BOARDS, MU NICIPAL ; APPOINT MENTS TO OFFICE; BUDGET SYSTEM, AMERICAN.
Bibliography.— Beard, C. A., 'American City Government' (New York 1912); Good now, Frank J., 'City Government.in the United States' (New York 1904); Matthews, Nathan, (Municipal Charters' (1914) ; Munro, W. B, The Government of American Cities' (New York 1912); Zueblin, Charles, Municipal Progress' (1916).