City of Brooklyn Park Structure and Function

City of Brooklyn Park

Structure and Function

Origins

Philosophy

Evolution Openness

Power Structure

The City of Brooklyn Park focuses on family. It's governmental style encourages community participation. It encourages a sense of community pride by funding many projects that originate in ideas from citizens. Brooklyn Park utilizes a Council/Mayor form of government with Council meetings divided into both open and closed sessions.

City of Brooklyn Park

Brooklyn Park is a great place to work and play. Brooklyn Park is the sixth largest city in Minnesota. It is located in Hennepin County. The median age is 27 years old, making it a family oriented community. The city lies on the Mississippi River, just north of Minneapolis. Brooklyn Park is best known for its system of parks and trails, taking hikers through some of the most scenic routes in Minnesota. Let us now embark on a journey that will enlighten citizens as to their governmental structure and style.

Brooklyn Park is governed by a Council/City Manager structure. The Council meets on the first, third, and fourth Monday of every month (Brooklynpark.org, 2012a). The function of the Brooklyn Park government is to provide services for the people of Brooklyn Park, to manage the budget, to collect taxes for public use, It also determines issues regarding city planning, ordinances, land use, and other issues facing the citizens of Brooklyn Park.

Now, let's look at the history of Brooklyn Park to discover what makes it great. Brooklyn Park was first established in 1858, with the first election of officers. The first planning commission was formed in 1941, but the village was not incorporated until 1954. At the time of incorporation the population of the village was 3,868. The first village council was held in May of that same year. In 1966, the voters selected to change city management to a Council/Mamager form of governance. In 1969 Brooklyn Park became a charter city (Brooklynpark.org, 2012b).

City governments are typically not entirely open or entirely closed. City Council consists of 6 members with two from each voting district. The mayor and all council members are elected. Citizens of the city are allowed the opportunity to voice their opinions at council (Brooklynpark.org, 2012c). All council members and the mayor are elected by the citizens. The amount of participation in community government represents an open style of government (Brooklynpark.org, 2012d).. This may affect decision making, as council members may be swayed by public opinion, rather than relying on their own knowledge or feelings.

Lastly, power Roles are dominated by the people of Brooklyn Park, who hold the ultimate voting power in the city (Brooklynpark.org, 2012e).. The council meetings take place in both open and closed sessions. Closed sessions are largely for deciding routine matters. All matters of importance are brought to the citizens for commentary and vote (Brooklynpark.org, 2012c). The mayor cannot make a decision without first taking matters to council. Power structures are well defined with those of the council and mayor sometimes overlapping.

Citizens have considerable power in the governmental structure of Brooklyn Park, and the governance style requires many issues to be brought to the people for vote. The citizens to not, for the most pat participate in the daily operations and routine tasks of the government, but they remain an important part of the process. The people of the city have considerable influence in deciding the direct that the city should take.