Handbook·Local government

What a city council actually does

Explainer·Verified 2026-07-10

The answer

A city council passes ordinances, approves the budget, and sets zoning policy. Most people assume the council also runs the city day to day. It usually doesn't. In roughly 40 percent of US municipalities1, the "council-manager" form, the council hires a professional city manager who alone has legal authority to hire, fire, and supervise city staff, department heads, and the police and fire chiefs. A councilmember who calls a department head directly to order a change is typically violating the city's own charter. The council sets policy, the manager runs operations. About 38 percent of cities instead use "mayor-council" government2, where an elected mayor, not a manager, holds administrative authority, ranging from ceremonial to a strong executive depending on the charter.

How it actually works

On December 16, 2025, the Seattle City Council voted 8-0 to adopt the "One Seattle Plan," a comprehensive growth plan (Council Bill 120985) setting housing and job-growth zoning policy through 20443, along with a unanimous vote on new zoning standards for the city's lowest-density areas. The legislation took effect January 21, 20264. City planning staff drafted the plan, a council select committee held hearings and amendments, then the full council voted. Zoning changes at this scale rarely start as one councilmember's idea decided in a single vote. They move through staff drafting, committee markup, and a floor vote, often over a year or more.

Who holds the power

In council-manager cities, the manager controls the budget draft, staffing, and contracts. The council's power is to approve, amend, or reject what the manager and staff bring forward, and to hire or fire the manager itself. In mayor-council cities, the mayor holds that administrative authority instead, and the council is purely legislative. At-large council seats represent the whole city, district seats represent a slice of it, so who controls a given zoning or budget vote depends on whether a city elects by district or at-large.2 A further constraint sits above both forms: state preemption law. In 2024, Missouri barred Kansas City and other municipalities from setting their own minimum wage, gun, or pesticide ordinances, regardless of what the local council wanted.5 State legislatures can override local council decisions entirely on specific topics.

Where you come in

  • Public comment periods at council meetings are a scheduled, structured entry point, not an interruption. See how to speak at a city council meeting.
  • Zoning decisions move through planning commission review before they reach the council. See how to comment on a zoning decision.
  • The budget document is where competing spending priorities actually get resolved. See how to use a budget hearing.
  • Which councilmember represents you, if your city elects by district, determines who you actually need to reach.

Public comment can shift outcomes, but who shows up to speak skews unrepresentative of the resident population as a whole.67

Sources

  1. ICMA, "Municipal Form of Government by the Numbers," 2018. source ↩

  2. National League of Cities, "Cities 101, Forms of Local Government," 2024. source ↩ ↩2

  3. The Urbanist, "Seattle OKs New Growth Plan, but Biggest Zoning Battles Lie Ahead," 2025. source ↩

  4. Seattle City Council Blog, "City Council passes final Comprehensive Plan legislation," 2025. source ↩

  5. The Beacon, "Missouri legislature is cutting local governments' power to pass their own laws," 2024. source ↩

  6. Einstein, Glick & Palmer, "Who Participates in Local Government? Evidence from Meeting Minutes," 2019. source ↩

  7. California YIMBY, "Unrepresentative Sample: How Public Meetings Weaken Fair Housing," 2022. source ↩