City government manages the affairs of and provides services for cities, towns, villages, and other communities. Communities with their own government are known as municipalities, and city government is also called municipal government.
About 75 percent of the people of the United States live in municipalities. The municipal governments provide a variety of services for residents. These services include police and fire protection, recreational facilities, street maintenance, and health and welfare services. Most of the states grant cities home rule. That is, the cities may, within the general laws of the state, adopt their own charter (form of organization) and have considerable freedom in local matters.
The United States has about 19,000 incorporated municipalities. An incorporated municipality is a corporation under the law and has a charter from the state defining its powers, responsibilities, and organization. Illinois leads the states with about 1,280. Hawaii, on the other hand, has no incorporated cities. All of the cities and towns in Hawaii are governed as part of the county in which they are located. Nevada, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island have fewer than 20 incorporated municipalities each.
Municipalities vary greatly in size. The largest municipality in the United States is New York City, with about 71/2 million people. The smallest municipalities may have only a few hundred residents.
All municipal governments perform similar functions and have similar organization. These governments are the principal providers of such services as police and fire protection, sanitation, water supply, and public health programs.
City governments are organized into three branches: (1) legislative, (2) executive, and (3) judicial. Legislative responsibilities are carried out by a lawmaking body called the city council, sometimes known as the board of aldermen or city commission. The council makes laws for the city in the form of municipal ordinances. The executive branch is headed by the mayor or city manager, who administers the city government and coordinates its public services. Courts, which make up the judicial branch, try people accused of violating municipal ordinances. They also deal with civil cases that involve settlements of limited amounts of money. In small municipalities that do not have their own courts, county or district courts handle most cases.
