The
City of Charleston, South Carolina
This city is the second largest city a
state in the United States of America known as South Carolina. This city derives
its name from
the king of England, Charles II. In the seventeenth century, this city was
known as Charles Towne, but later there was a change in the name. In the
eighteenth century called Charleston. Records show that this city is the second
largest in terms of the population, according to the recent census carried out
in the United States in 2010. This city is also referred to as the holy city
because of many churches that are there.
Charleston is a metropolitan city because it is
in the urban area. The office of management and budget in the United States and
the census bureau uses this city for the purposes of statistics reasons. For
these many reasons, the city of Charleston has a strong government that gives
the rules and guidelines to be used and followed by the residents of the city.
System
of the City Government
The city of Charleston has a mayor
government, which is very strong. The city consists of 12 districts less than
one municipality. Their government has several departments that have a role to
play, different from all the other departments. The major and most important
part of the government in this city is the municipality. The current mayor is
Joseph P. Riley, Jr who has been in office from 1975.
The mayor plays an important role and
acts as a chief administrator of that particular municipality. The mayor of the
municipality in that city is the executive officer who is in charge of the
whole municipality. The city council is also presided over by the same mayor. In
the council,
the mayor is also a member with equal votes like the rest of the members. The
council constitutes of 12 members elected from the 12 districts of the city.
All of the 12 districts have representatives who
come up and make the council, where, as said above the mayor is a member of the
council. The districts have their names simply named in numbers, form number
one to number 12, representing the names of the districts. They hold their
meetings to address issues and, for instance, they had held a meeting of the
council this year on July 19. Transparency in these meetings is evident because
they post their agendas and discussions in their website, for the public to
view them. They have documents of the agendas and the meeting’s discussions for
the purpose of record keeping.
The office of the mayor has several
offices, among that is the office for children, youth and families. The role of this office
is to ensure that children receive a positive development whereas youth and
families obtain the necessary resources for their success. They ensure that the
youth and families become productive members and the future leaders of the
society. This office has a role to play in the development of infrastructure,
identifying needs of families and the youth and helping them to achieve them.
The youth are also provided with opportunities that will help them in improving
their leadership skills, by also offering programs for their career
exploration.
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The county has received so many awards
because of the innovative services and programs that it has come up. The
national recognition's are of awards ranging from local, state, and international.
The system of government here has also
incorporated the court system, known as the municipal courts. The division of
the municipal court is there with the responsibility to punish the wrongdoers,
and it is responsible for the proper management and operations of the court.
They deal with the traffic courts, criminal cases and parking tickets, which
are given by
the division of revenue collections. The municipal courts have many other
responsibilities apart from those stated above.
Origin
and Evolution of the City Government’s System of the Public Services
The history of Charleston’s political
system traces back in the colonial era in the seventeenth century up to the 18
century by England. The idea of counties as an entity in the government
originated from Europe. During the conquering of the city by England, they were
using counties in the description of the geographical areas, which were known
as shrines. With time, they grew, and they were included in the enforcement of law and in
parliament representation. Eventually, this concept of counties got its way in
Carolina.
During the formation of the fundamental
constitution, they decided to adopt the idea of counties, by dividing provinces
into three counties.
The counties acted as the basic
territorial divisions of the government. The first counties became the election
districts of Carolina, though they had little to do with government operations
in Carolina. The commons house of assembly was responsible for the performance
of the local government’s functions.
With time, after the World War II,
population of Carolina was increasing, hence the need for adopting a change in
the government systems because of increased
in the administrative responsibilities. In the twentieth century, voters
decided to adopt the county system, and they elected the council leaders and later
sworn into office. In the beginning, the council had nine members, in 1949. Due
to the growing population in Carolina, the members of the council were
increased to a larger number of 12. The county
operates on council administrative system up to date.
The public service of this city was born
so that it could
take care of the needs of the community that the government cannot
do. It strives to achieve provision of public service in a good environment,
recognizing fiscal responsibility, and maintaining excellence. The Lonnie Hamilton III
public service was opened in the county recently. The main purpose of the
city is to be a helper of the government because it interacts more with the
community hence, is aware of their needs. The public service has several roles,
which include providing environmental services. Its responsibility is to
maintain a clean and safe environment for the residents of the area. It is also
gives education on how to deal with storm water, and provides the storm water
services, which include repairing, and constructing its drainage system. They are those responsible
for the maintenance the streets and sidewalks in the city. They also design,
approve, and inspect storm
water manuals.
Open
or Closed Government System
The government system in Charleston is
an open one. It is so because there are councils in the process of
decision-making, which is vital in the government system. This type of a system
is advantageous because the decisions made are reached at after consulting many and
different people in the system. This affects the decisions made positively,
decisions made are not biased and they are quality decisions. An open type of government
system provides quality decisions due to the pool of opinions given by the
panel that makes the decisions.
Power
Roles in the System
Power roles in this system are evenly
distributed from the mayor to the council members and to the court systems. It
is evident because, the mayor does not
have much power over each person in the
county. The members of the council are also involved in the decision-making in
the system. The residents of the city also have a say, they are given the
right and opportunity to vote for the representatives of the districts, who
later form the council.
This influences the decision-making by
the administration because they have to make decisions with the electorates
in mind bearing in mind that they elected them into government to represent
their views. Political interference in the decision-making is common in this
system. This overlaps the system because politics interfere with the decision-making by
the administration. The interference by political influence in the
decision-making by the administration, hence the decisions made tend to be
biased.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the city of Charleston
has a very organized system of the government, from the study done above. It is
this because of the strong government system that this city has excelled much
in its activities, and peace has prevailed in the city. Therefore, an organized
government system comes with many advantages, as seen from the example of the
city of Charleston.
References
Rhodes. R. (2008). Charleston, South Carolina: A photographic portrait. Twin Lights
Publishers
Campbell. J. (2006). USA, Lonely Planet
Pyatt. E. S and Meffert. W. J. (2000). Charleston, South Carolina. Arcadia
publishing
Humphreys. J. (2009). Charleston, South Carolina: steeped in story.
Smithson Associates
Slater. T and Halperin.L. J. (2007). Heritage Slater political and America
auction. Heritage Capital Corporation
Upton. N. J and Rucker. C. W. (2007). Encyclopedia of American race riots.
Greenwood publishing group
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