Government of Atlanta
The city government of Atlanta, Georgia, United States, headquartered at Atlanta City Hall is primarily vested in the Atlanta City Council and Mayor, a mayor-council system. In addition, there is the Atlanta Police Department, Atlanta Fire Rescue Department, the directly-elected Atlanta Board of Education, several city departments, and the Atlanta municipal courts.
Organization
Mayor
The mayor is the Executive Officer for the city and serves a four-year term and is limited to two consecutive terms. The mayor makes appointments of heads and staff of departments and commissions with the approval of the council, and is able to veto ordinances passed by the council. In addition, the mayor is able to issue executive orders, prepare the annual budget, execute contracts and assume certain emergency powers during states of emergency.City Council
The Atlanta City Council, a 15 member unicameral body, serves as the legislative branch of government, which has an elected council representative from each of 12 single-member districts, 3 at-large post seats and the at-large City Council President who chairs meetings of the council.- Post 1 representing districts 1–4
- Post 2 representing districts 5–8
- Post 3 representing districts 9–12
Executive Offices
The mayor's office maintains several offices which provide executive oversight over aspects of city government:- Office of Communications
- Office of Constituent Services
- Office of Contract Compliance
- Office of Cultural Affairs
- Office of Emergency Preparedness
- Office of Film, Entertainment & Nightlife
- Office of Innovation Delivery and Performance
- Office of Intergovernmental Affairs
- Office of International & Immigrant Affairs
- Office of Special Events
- Office of Sustainability and Resilience
- Office of Transparency
- Office of Technology and Innovation
- Office of Violence Reduction
- Office of One Atlanta
- * Mayor's Division of LGBTQ Affairs
- * Human Relations Commission
Departments
- Atlanta Police Department
- Atlanta Fire Rescue Department
- Invest Atlanta
- Atlanta Housing Authority
- Atlanta Beltline
- Department of Atlanta Information Management
- Department of Aviation
- Department of City Planning
- Department of Corrections
- Department of Customer Service/ATL 311
- Department of Finance
- Department of Grants & Community Development
- Department of Watershed
- Department of Law
- Department of Human Resources
- Department of Parks & Recreation
- Department of Procurement
- Department of Transportation
- Department of Labor and Employment Services
- Department of Public Works
- Office of Emergency Preparedness
- Department of Enterprise Assets Management
- Office of One Atlanta
- Office of Technology and Innovation
- Office of International And Immigrant Affairs
- Office of Sustainability & Resilience
- Office of Constituent Services
Independent offices
- Citizens Review Board
- Civil Service Board
- City of Atlanta Commission on Aging
- Senior Citizen Anti-Displacement Grant
- City Auditor’s Office
- Ethics Office
- General Fund Pension
- Office of the Inspector General
- Task Force for Review
- Police Officers' Pension
- Firefighters' Pension
- COA Pension Investment Board
- Water and Sewer Appeals Board
Atlanta Public Schools
Judicial agencies
The city government maintains three judicial agencies:- The Municipal Court of Atlanta is a municipal court whose ten judges are appointed by the mayor.
- The City Solicitor serves as the prosecuting arm of the city government before the Municipal Court.
- The City Public Defender provides Public defender services for indigent clients before the Municipal Courts, including holistic legal services and community outreach.
Other governments
County
Atlanta's borders straddle much of eastern Fulton County and western DeKalb County. In addition, the mayor of Atlanta is a member of the Atlanta Regional Commission, the intergovernmental planning organization for Metro Atlanta.Federal
As of 2026, Atlanta is largely represented in the United States House of Representatives by Georgia's 5th congressional district.History
In 1954, Atlanta’s ward system was changed from a bicameral body of councilmen representing Wards and three citywide aldermen to a system of six citywide aldermen with a Vice-Mayor who served as the president of the Board of Aldermen. This eliminated the strength of the wards.In 1973 a new charter was passed which shifted the city to a district system and took effect at the start of 1974.
The chief architect of that charter was Grace Towns Hamilton with the purpose to more equitably represent the changing racial composure of the city and coincided with the city's first Black mayor, Maynard Jackson, taking office.
In this reformulation, the Vice-Mayor was changed to the President of the City Council and 12 districts were drawn represented by one Council member each; in addition there were 6 at-large posts giving a 19-member body.
In 1996, the current makeup was enacted which reduced the number of Council members to 16 by reducing the number of at-large posts from six to three.