PREFERENTIAL VOTING). In most cities there are strict regu:ations for the prevention of fraud and corrupt practices at council elections and in some of them the maximum amount that may be spent by candidates, even for legitimate campaign expenses, is rigidly fixed by law.
City Council Each city council adopts its own rules of procedure, but these rules do not differ widely throughout the cities of the United States. Regular meetings of the council are provided for, these meetings being held once a week in the larger municipali ties, once a fortnight or even once a month in the smaller. In a few cities the mayor pre sides at these meetings, but for the most part the council chooses from its own membership a chairman or president to serve for one year. Meetings are almost invariably open to the public; the council records are kept by the city clerk or by a clerk of the council, and in the larger cities these are usually issued in printed form. Each city council has its own order of business and its own standing rules as to how business shall be disposed of ; but these rules may usually be suspended by a two-thirds vote.
Council Committees.—As city councils have a considerable variety of platters to deal with it is customary to maintain several stand ing committees. In large cities there may be 20 or more of these committees. Their selec tion is one of the first things to be done after a new council has been elected. In most cities the work of arranging the membership of these various committees is in the hands of the pre siding officer who makes his slate after con sulting with the councillors and announces it when completed. In a few cases, however, the work is done by the council itself through the medium of a °committee on committees.° Some one member of each committee is designated as chairman and presides at the committee's meet ings.
In the usual course of events all business coming to the city council for consideration is first of all referred to the appropriate com mittee. The standing committees on such fields of local administration as streets, public health, water supply, police, fire protection, parks, finance and so forth, each receive the matters which seem to come within their respective ju risdictions. At meetings of the committees these things are considered; public hearings are held if the importance of the matters in hand so warrant and in due course the committee reports to the council its recommendation upon each item that has been referred to it. The council
may or may not adopt these recommendations but the committee's reports usually carry con siderable weight. On the other hand the recom mendations of committees are set aside fre quently and this practice has greatly impaired the efficiency of the work done by the councils. So much business comes before the council that the members as a whole cannot study every question thoroughly. This work, if it is to be done at all, must be by committees. But the frequency with which the results of a committee's investigation are cast aside by the whole council has led to many abuses and forms one of the chief reasons for the growing de mand that councils be reduced in size so that committees may be abolished altogether.
Powers of the (a) Legislative. City councils are primarily legislative bodies; they frame and enact the local ordinances sub ject to the mayor's veto power where that power exists as it does in most cities. Through this ordinance-making power they exercise en tire or partial jurisdiction over a great variety of matters of which only the most important can be described here. First of all come powers in the domain of local finance. The city council determines the local tax rate although it does not, as a rule, have any discretion as to the forms of property that may be taxed nor the type of tax that may be imposed. These things are regulated by State law. But the rate of annual taxes depends upon the amounts of money appropriated for municipal expendi tures, and these appropriations must in all cases be passed by the council before they become available. The estimates of necessary appro priations for each year may be transmitted to the council by the mayor, as in Boston; in a few cities, notably in New York, they are pre pared under the supervision of an administra tive body known as the board of estimate and apportionment; in some cities, as for example, in Chicago, they are arranged by a committee of the city council itself. But, however pre pared, the estimates must be submitted to the council to be finally acted upon. If the esti mates are segregated, the council acts upon them item by item, appropriating a designated amount of money for each specific requirement. This is known as the segregated budget system of making municipal appropriations. If, on the other hand, the estimates are submitted in terms of total requirements for each municipal depart ment, the system is known as lump-sum budget plan. See Buncrrs, AMERICAN.