In Michigan ... they may prescribe the terms and conditions for licensing taverns, peddlers, and public vehicles.  They have control of streets, bridges and public grounds; and have authority to construct bridges and pavements, and to regulate the use and prevent the obstruction of the highways.  They may establish and maintain sewers and drains.  They may construct and control public wharves, and regulate and license ferries.  They may establish and regulate markets.  They may provide a police force and a fire department.  They may construct or purchase and operate water works and lighting plants.  They may own cemeteries, public pounds, public buildings and parks.[Footnote:  John A. Fairlie, Local Government in Counties, Towns, and Villages, pp. 207, 208.]

The council also has limited power to levy taxes and to borrow money for public purposes.

There is a chief executive officer, sometimes called mayor, sometimes president, or by other names.  Subordinate to him are various other officers, such as the police marshal, the street commissioner, fire marshal, tax assessor, treasurer, clerk, and so on.  In larger villages boards of health and other boards and commissions exist to administer various forms of public service.  The village may also have its minor court presided over by a justice of the peace.

CITY GOVERNMENT

When villages or towns reach a certain population usually fixed by state law, they may be incorporated as cities.  The change that takes place is simply one of elaborating the governing machinery and giving to it larger powers to correspond with the larger needs of city life.  The complex problems of city government we shall not attempt to study in this book.

CHANGES IN URBAN GOVERNMENT FOR BETTER SERVICE AND BETTER CONTROL

Great improvement in the government of towns and cities has been made in recent years.  The latest plan of government to be adopted, and it has spread to a considerable number of towns and cities in the United States, is the city manager, or town manager, form of government.  By this plan the voters elect a small council, or board of directors, who in turn appoint a manager who serves as a superintendent over the affairs of the city or town.  He is a trained specialist, often an engineer, and cities and towns sometimes search the country over for the best man available for the place.  The manager appoints the heads of the various departments of government, such as health, police, public works, etc., and is responsible to the council for their work.  It is the application to town government of methods long used by successful business corporations.

Investigate and report upon: 

How the county in Louisiana came to be called a “parish.”

Organization and powers of your county board.