Civics 101: ​How cities are governed

Editor's Note: Ward III Alderman Brian Bray reached out to us with his idea to publish periodic articles on how city government works, and we were excited by the idea and grateful he thought of Grain Valley News to share these articles with readers. This first column focuses on how cities are governed and the powers and duties of a board.

This is an editorial: An editorial, like news reporting, is based on objective facts, but shares an opinion. The conclusions and opinions here have been derived by the guest contributor and are not associated with the news staff.
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by Brian Bray, Alderman Ward III

I was having a conversation with a constituent a while back and we got on the topic of how the City of Grain Valley’s government works.  I answered a few questions to the best of my ability and the resident was surprised to learn a few things. I don’t fault them at all for not knowing these things are there are a lot of things I had assumed prior to holding office that also aren’t true and lot of things I had just never really considered. 

We started to discuss that further and both concluded that maybe a primer of sorts would be beneficial to others. Maybe a small series of articles, Civics 101 “An Intro to small town government”.  I held on to this idea for a while debating with myself on whether I wanted to undertake the effort since there is a lot of pieces that would need to be covered and I was still relatively new to the Board of Aldermen.  But now I believe that time has come that I feel confident enough to start this.

So, without further procrastination, this will be the first installment of what I hope will be a series of essays explaining the who, whys, what’s, and how’s of municipal government. I appreciate any feedback and will do my best to answer any questions.

Part 1 – Municipalities and how are they structured.
In the State of Missouri, state statues describe how a municipality is formed. There are two basic types of cities: Charter Cities and Statutory Cities. Grain Valley is a Statutory City so I will mostly focus on that. Charter Cities are less common and are usually larger in size like Kansas City and St. Louis. These cities have their own constitutions and a little more freedom to self-govern.

Statutory Cities are further broken down by population size. Grain Valley is a Fourth-Class City, as are most cities in the state. These classifications also determine which set of statutes dictate their governance structures and powers. Fourth-Class cities like Grain Valley operate under Chapter 79 of the Missouri Revised Statutes, and typically have a mayor-council form of government. 

We operate as a Mayor/Board of Aldermen, which is like a city council with some small differences. Aldermen represent wards instead of districts or being at-large representatives. Grain Valley is divided into 3 wards, and each ward has two representatives or aldermen.  Those aldermen are elected by the residents of the ward they represent and serve a term of 2 years. They are also elected in alternating years, so each year you get to elect or re-elect 1 alderman.

This is done to keep continuity on the board and not cause a possible total reset every two years. The mayor is elected by all residents every 2 years. In addition to this, and I will cover this in more detail in future articles, the board then nominates one of the aldermen to be mayor pro-tem as well as assigns various aldermen to committees or to liaison with other city boards like planning and zoning or park board.

Beyond the Board of Aldermen, there are many other people involved. Grain Valley has a City Administrator, Assistant City Administrator, City Clerk, and various department leads that handle the day-to-day functions of the city. These individuals all ultimately serve the board to carry out the direction and decisions made by the board. The Board serves the community.

I’m going to lightly dive into the responsibilities of each role today but plan to revisit and dive a little deeper as these articles go on.

Part 2 – Board Powers and Duties

The Board of Aldermen meets on the 2nd and 4th Monday of each month unless otherwise noticed to the public. During our meetings we serve two primary functions. We adopt or reject resolutions and we adopt or reject ordinances. However, each has a different voting requirement to be adopted

Resolutions are a formal expression of the board's opinion, will, or intent. They are not laws and have a lower threshold to pass. An example of a resolution would be to declare that Company XYZ will hold a 1-year contract with the city to provide a service, or that we will hold a community wide hazardous waste disposal day. To pass a resolution, it is read into record then voted upon. There must be a majority agreement amongst all present aldermen.

Ordinances become law so the bar is a bit higher. Ordinances are read into record twice, usually, but not always, during different meetings. On the first read, the board will vote to accept the ordinance and bring it back at some point in the future for a second read. Upon passing the vote on the second read, the ordinance becomes a bill and that bill becomes law. The voting requirement for an ordinance is that the majority of aldermen must be in agreement. This is why we require a quorum to be present for a meeting to be held. 

In the event that either a resolution vote or ordinance vote ends in a tie, the mayor will be the tie breaking vote.  The mayor also has a veto power, but we will cover that later.

After each election cycle the Board of Aldermen will nominate and elect a mayor pro-tem or acting president. You might think of this position as being the vice-mayor. The mayor-pro tem will preside over meetings and other functions when the mayor is absent, they still maintain all of their powers and responsibilities of an alderman, including their seat and vote. When presiding over a vote, the mayor pro-tem still votes on the issue and in the event of a tie will be tie breaking vote.

It is important to understand that the board of aldermen is elected to make decisions in the best interest of the city. Individual aldermen are elected to represent their ward and should advocate and propose ideas that are in the best interest of the residents of the ward they represent. But once the vote is called, the decision becomes the whole board and city’s decision.  Even if an alderman disagrees with the outcome, they are bound to respect the outcome of the vote.

I hope this provides a little bit of insight into how the Board of Aldermen and city operates. Next time, I will dive into the powers of the mayor and what that role includes, as well as some of the other positions in the city government.