Government of New York City
The government of New York City, headquartered at New York City Hall in Lower Manhattan, is organized under the New York City Charter and provides for a mayor-council system. The mayor is elected to a four-year term and is responsible for the administration of city government. The New York City Council is a unicameral body consisting of 51 members, each elected from a geographic district, normally for four-year terms. Primary elections for local offices use ranked choice voting, while general elections use plurality voting. All elected officials are subject to a two consecutive-term limit. The court system consists of two citywide courts and three statewide courts.
New York City's government employs approximately 300,000 people, more than any other city in the United States and more than any U.S. state but three: California, Texas, and New York. The city government is responsible for public education, correctional institutions, public safety, recreational facilities, sanitation, water supply, and welfare services.
New York City consists of five boroughs, each coextensive with one of five counties of New York State: Brooklyn is Kings County, the Bronx is Bronx County, Manhattan is New York County, Queens is Queens County, and Staten Island is Richmond County. When New York City was consolidated into its present form in 1898, all previous town and county governments within it were abolished in favor of the present five boroughs and a unified, centralized city government. However, each county retains its own district attorney to prosecute crimes, and most of the court system is organized around the counties. Because of this, New York City is not considered to be an independent city nor a consolidated city-county, as it technically encompasses multiple counties which each have limited autonomy. Rather, the municipal structure of New York City exists in a category of its own. Each borough also has an elected Borough president, which is a largely ceremonial office.
New York City is divided between two federal judicial districts. Bronx County and New York County are in the Southern District while Kings County, Queens County, and Richmond County are in the Eastern District, although both districts have concurrent jurisdiction over the waters in their respective districts.
Executive branch
The executive branch of New York City consists of the Mayor, and numerous departments, boards and commissions. The Mayor also appoints several deputy mayors to head major offices within the executive branch of the city government. The City Record is the official journal published each weekday containing legal notices produced by city agencies, and regulations are compiled in the Rules of the City of New York.Mayor
The Mayor is the chief executive officer of the city and a magistrate, appoints and removes all unelected officers and exercises all the powers vested in the city except otherwise provided by law, and is responsible for the effectiveness and integrity of city government operations. The mayor is directly elected by popular vote for a four-year term. The mayor is also responsible for creating the city's budget through the New York City Mayor's Office of Management and Budget, submitted for approval, not drafting, to the Council.Mayoral agencies
Other citywide offices
Along with the mayor, the Public Advocate and the Comptroller are the only three directly elected citywide officials in New York City.Public Advocate
The Public Advocate is an elected official with responsibility to ease public relations with the government, investigate complaints regarding city agencies, mediate disputes between city agencies and citizens, serve as the city's ombudsman and advise the mayor on community relations. The Public Advocate is a member of the Council. The Public Advocate stands first in line of succession to the mayoralty.Comptroller
The Comptroller conducts performance and financial audits of all city agencies, serves as a fiduciary to the city's five public pension funds totaling nearly $160 billion in assets, provides comprehensive oversight of the city's budget and fiscal condition, reviews city contracts for integrity, accountability and fiscal compliance, manages the fair, efficient and effective resolution of claims against the city, ensures transparency and accountability in the prevailing wage rate-setting process and enforces prevailing wage and living wage laws. The Comptroller stands second, after the Public Advocate, in the line to succeed a mayor who has become unable to serve.Non-mayoral agencies
There are also numerous commissions, boards, tribunals and offices that are independent of the mayor's office.Legislative branch
Legislative power in the City of New York is vested in the New York City Council. The New York State Constitution empowers local governments to adopt local laws in addition to ordinances, resolutions, rules and regulations. The codified local laws of New York City are contained in the New York City Administrative Code.Image:Nyc city hall jan06a.jpg|thumb|New York City Hall, the seat of city government
The Council is a unicameral body consisting of 51 Council members, whose districts are defined by geographic population boundaries that each contain approximately 157,000 people. Council members are elected every four years, except that after every census held in years divisible by twenty, districts are redrawn, requiring two consecutive two-year terms, the second of which is held in the redrawn districts. The Speaker of the Council, selected by the 51 Council members, is often considered the second most powerful post in New York City's government after the Mayor.
Bills passed by a simple majority are sent to the mayor, who may sign them into law. If the mayor vetoes a bill, the Council has 30 days to override the veto by a two-thirds majority vote. A local law has a status equivalent with a law enacted by the New York State Legislature, and is superior to the older forms of municipal legislation such as ordinances, resolutions, rules and regulations.
The Council has several committees with oversight of various functions of the city government. Each council member sits on at least three standing, select or subcommittees. The standing committees meet at least once per month. The Speaker of the Council, the Majority Leader, and the Minority Leader are all ex officio members of every committee.
Prior to 1990, the city also had a powerful Board of Estimate, a unique legislative-executive hybrid. Although it could not pass laws, it shared authority for the city budget with the council and controlled functions such as land use, municipal contracts, franchises, and water and sewer rates. The Board's membership consisted of the mayor, comptroller, president of the City Council, and the five borough presidents. The three citywide officials each cast two votes, and the borough presidents one each. In 1989, the Supreme Court of the United States struck down the Board of Estimate as violating the principle of "one man, one vote", due to the dramatically unequal numbers of constituents being represented by each borough president. The city subsequently adopted its current arrangement by referendum.
Courts
The state court system in New York City has two citywide courts, the Criminal Court and the Civil Court, and several statewide courts, the Supreme Court, Surrogate's Court, and Family Court. Unlike the rest of New York, New York City counties do not have a typical County Court. Each statewide court is located in each of New York City's five counties. There are also numerous extrajudicial administrative courts such as OATH, which are executive agencies and not part of the state Unified Court System.File:Surrogate's Courthouse Hall of Records 31 Chambers Street from west.jpg|thumb|The Surrogate's Courthouse containing courtrooms for the Surrogate's Court for New York County
The Criminal Court of the City of New York handles summons court appearance tickets, violations, misdemeanors, and conducts arraignments and preliminary hearings in felony cases.
The Civil Court of the City of New York includes Housing Court for landlord-tenant matters, Small Claims Court for cases involving amounts up to $5000, and generally has jurisdiction for damages up to $25,000. It handles about 25% of all the New York state and local courts' total filings. There are also several extrajudicial administrative courts, e.g. the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings adjudicates matters for city agencies unless otherwise provided for by law, and the city Parking Violations Bureau adjudicates parking violations.
The Supreme Court of the State of New York is the trial court of general jurisdiction, which in New York City hears felony cases and major civil cases. The Family Court of the State of New York is a family court that hears cases involving children and families. The Surrogate's Court of the State of New York is the probate court which oversees the probate of wills and administers estates.
Borough and community government
New York City is composed of five boroughs or counties, collectively comprising 59 community districts.Borough presidents
Each of the five boroughs has an elected borough president. Borough presidents are elected by popular vote to four-year terms and can serve up to two consecutive terms. They can have legislation introduced in the council, recommend capital projects, hold public hearings on matters of public interest, make recommendations to the mayor and to other city officials, make recommendations on land use and planning, and make recommendations regarding the performance of contracts providing for the delivery of services, in the interests of the people of their borough.They advise the mayor of New York City, comment on land-use items in their borough, advocate borough needs in the annual municipal budget process, appoint some officials and community board members, and serve ex officio as members of various boards and committees. They generally act as advocates for their boroughs to mayoral agencies, the city council, the New York State government, public corporations, and private businesses. Their authorizing law is codified in title 4, sections 81 to 85 of the New York City Charter, while their regulations are compiled in title 45 of the New York City Rules.
The two major remaining appointments of the borough presidents are one member each on the New York City Planning Commission and two members each of the New York City Panel for Educational Policy. Borough presidents generally adopt specific projects to promote while in office, but since 1990 have been mainly ceremonial leaders. Borough presidents influence the Uniform Land Use Review Procedure by appointing community boards and voting on the applications. The staff of boroughwide economic development corporations are often closely aligned with the borough president, and work closely with the New York City Economic Development Corporation, the primary coordinating agency of city-sponsored economic development.
For most of the city's history, the office exercised significant executive powers within each borough, and the five borough presidents also sat on the Board of Estimate. After it was disbanded in 1990, the borough presidents were stripped of a majority of their powers in the government of New York City.