Discusses city councils and what they do.

Now in its fourth edition, this book provides city councils with model procedural rules for their meetings. The model rules cover, among many other topics, the organizational meeting, pertinent requirements of the open meetings law, the role of the presiding officer, agenda preparation and approval, substantive and procedural motions, voting rules, ordinance adoption, public hearings, and public comment periods. Legal and practical issues are analyzed in the comments that follow each rule. The fourth edition differs from prior editions in important ways. It incorporates significant statutory changes that have occurred since a revised version of the third edition was published in 2007. Both the rules themselves and the comments have undergone extensive modifications in an effort to make the book even more useful to municipal governing boards. New appendixes include tables showing the numbers of members necessary to establish a quorum and the number of votes required to adopt an ordinance or approve a contract. This book is a must for council members, city managers and administrators, city clerks, and city attorneys. Anyone with a general interest in local government or parliamentary procedure will also want a copy. BONUS FEATURE: Upon purchasing this book, the buyer will receive an electronic version of the book's procedural rules that can be customized to fit a particular council's specific needs. See the Local Government Board Builders Series webpage for other books in the series and related School of Government publications (https: //www.sog.unc.edu/resource-series/local-government-board-builders-series-0).

"Mastering Council Meetings guides councils toward smooth, efficient, and fair meetings using effective leadership principles and practices grounded in Robert's Rules of Order."--Back cover.

Most American cities are now administered by appointed city managers and governed by councils chosen in nonpartisan, at-large elections. In the early twentieth century, many urban reformers claimed these structures would make city government more responsive to the popular will. But on the whole, the effects of these reforms have been to make citizens less likely to vote in local elections and local governments less representative of their constituents. How and why did this happen? Ariane Liazos examines the urban reform movement that swept through the country in the early twentieth century and its unintended consequences. Reformers hoped to make cities simultaneously more efficient and more democratic, broadening the scope of what local government should do for residents while also reconsidering how citizens should participate in their governance. However, they increasingly focused on efficiency, appealing to business groups and compromising to avoid controversial and divisive topics, including the voting rights of African Americans and women. Liazos weaves together wide-ranging nationwide analysis with in-depth case studies. She offers nuanced accounts of reform in five cities; details the activities of the National Municipal League, made up of prominent national reformers and political scientists; and analyzes quantitative data on changes in the structures of government in over three hundred cities. Reforming the City is an important study for American history and political development, with powerful insights into the relationships between scholarship and reform and between the structures of city government and urban democracy.