Seattle’s mayor and nine-member city council are elected at large by popular vote in nonpartisan elections and serve four-year terms.
The mayor is the chief executive officer of the city and provides direction to Seattle’s Executive Department, including the Office of Economic Development and the Office of Management and Planning.
The mayor also directs the activities of city agencies and departments, including Seattle City Light, the Engineering Department, and the police and fire departments.
The city council is the legislative arm of Seattle’s government. Council members work on committees that study areas of interest or concern and recommend legislation to the council; these committees include Parks, Public Grounds and Recreation, Public Safety, and Business and Labor.
Local government responsibilities changed as Seattle became a major city and as King County became less rural. Increasingly, Seattle and King County have found ways to work together to solve common problems. For example, as Seattle and the Eastside grew in the 1950s, Lake Washington became polluted by untreated sewage.
By 1958 many lake beaches were closed to swimming because the water was filthy. However, a solution was hard to coordinate because the lakeshore crossed the jurisdictions of many towns and cities, including Seattle. In response, the state legislature passed the Metropolitan Municipal Corporation Act, which enabled the creation of a new metropolitan district encompassing the Lake Washington drainage basin.
City and county voters passed the so-called Metro clean water proposal in 1958, which approved the Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle and authorized the new corporation to issue bonds and to administer a comprehensive sewage treatment program.
Ten years later, in 1968, King County’s citizens approved a $333.9 million bond issue to pay for a metropolitan capital improvement package called Forward Thrust. This ambitious program included construction of the King County Multi-Purpose Stadium (the Kingdome), sewer extension, fire station construction, and park acquisition and development. However, the same year, voters rejected Forward Thrust regional mass transit as too expensive. The voters did not approve a Regional Transit Authority until 1996.
In 1993 Seattle and King County merged some of their functions into the Metropolitan King County Council, a form of regional government. The council is the legislative branch of county government, and its 13 members are elected by voters throughout the city and county. Seattle and King County continue to work together to cope with metropolitan problems.
The mayor is the chief executive officer of the city and provides direction to Seattle’s Executive Department, including the Office of Economic Development and the Office of Management and Planning.
The mayor also directs the activities of city agencies and departments, including Seattle City Light, the Engineering Department, and the police and fire departments.
The city council is the legislative arm of Seattle’s government. Council members work on committees that study areas of interest or concern and recommend legislation to the council; these committees include Parks, Public Grounds and Recreation, Public Safety, and Business and Labor.
Local government responsibilities changed as Seattle became a major city and as King County became less rural. Increasingly, Seattle and King County have found ways to work together to solve common problems. For example, as Seattle and the Eastside grew in the 1950s, Lake Washington became polluted by untreated sewage.
By 1958 many lake beaches were closed to swimming because the water was filthy. However, a solution was hard to coordinate because the lakeshore crossed the jurisdictions of many towns and cities, including Seattle. In response, the state legislature passed the Metropolitan Municipal Corporation Act, which enabled the creation of a new metropolitan district encompassing the Lake Washington drainage basin.
City and county voters passed the so-called Metro clean water proposal in 1958, which approved the Municipality of Metropolitan Seattle and authorized the new corporation to issue bonds and to administer a comprehensive sewage treatment program.
Ten years later, in 1968, King County’s citizens approved a $333.9 million bond issue to pay for a metropolitan capital improvement package called Forward Thrust. This ambitious program included construction of the King County Multi-Purpose Stadium (the Kingdome), sewer extension, fire station construction, and park acquisition and development. However, the same year, voters rejected Forward Thrust regional mass transit as too expensive. The voters did not approve a Regional Transit Authority until 1996.
In 1993 Seattle and King County merged some of their functions into the Metropolitan King County Council, a form of regional government. The council is the legislative branch of county government, and its 13 members are elected by voters throughout the city and county. Seattle and King County continue to work together to cope with metropolitan problems.
0 comments:
Post a Comment