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 (with the council being able to override vetoes by a two-thirds vote). 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.
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.[1]
Post 1 representing districts 1–4
Post 2 representing districts 5–8
Post 3 representing districts 9–12
The entire slate is elected for four-year terms in off-year elections (2001, 2005, 2009, etc.).
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 (formerly Equity, Diversity and Inclusion)
Mayor's Division of LGBTQ Affairs
Human Relations Commission
Departments
The mayor appoints the heads of the following departments and offices, all of whom are listed as members of the mayor's cabinet:[2]
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.
In 1954, Atlanta’s ward system was changed from a bicameral body of councilmen representing Wards and three citywide (at-large) 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.[3] 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 (and Board of Aldermen president) was changed to the President of the City Council (elected citywide) 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.[3]
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