Roles and Responsibilities
City Council Members
The roles and responsibilities of city council members vary by jurisdiction.
Common roles and responsibilities include the following:
• Attending regular meetings to discuss city policies and changes to laws
• Voting on legislation to decide whether motions become laws
• Negotiating and approving the city budget
• Meeting with constituents to discuss their issues and concerns
• Approving contracts and bids for city projects
• Establishing standing committees to handle specific areas of responsibility, such as finance and budgeting, public safety, and law enforcement
• Creating and modifying zoning laws to regulate land use
• Representing the constituents and community during meetings and hearings with other government officials
• Issuing licenses for new businesses to regulate business activity in the city
• Offering incentives, like tax breaks, to new businesses in the community to support them
• Providing oversight to city departments to ensure they’re working efficiently and effectively
• Coordinating city events like parades and festivals to ensure they run smoothly
• Encouraging and facilitating civic engagement (voting, political participation, volunteering, advocacy and activism, etc.).
Source: eScribe
Board of Trustees
Governance:
• The board of trustees serves as a body corporate and has the exclusive power and duty to govern and oversee the management of the public schools of the district.
• The board must ensure that the superintendent implements and monitors plans, procedures, programs, and systems to achieve appropriate, clearly defined, and desired results in the major areas of district operations.
• The board must adopt a vision statement and comprehensive goals for the district and the superintendent and monitor progress toward those goals.
• The board may adopt the policies necessary to carry out its powers and duties. In addition, state and federal law include over 100 provisions requiring the board to adopt policy on particular issues.
• The board must comply with the requirements of the Texas Open Meetings Act (OMA) for all school board meetings.
• The board must conduct elections in accordance with law.
Student Achievement:
• The board of trustees of an independent school district or the governing body of an open-enrollment charter school shall provide oversight regarding student academic achievement and strategic leadership for maximizing student performance.
• The board of trustees must establish performance goals for the academic and fiscal performance indicators outlined in law and any locally adopted performance indicators.
• The board of trustees must ensure that the superintendent is accountable for achieving performance results, recognizes performance accomplishments, and takes action as necessary to meet performance goals.
• The board must publish an annual educational performance report.
Financial:
• The board must adopt an annual budget for the district as well as a tax rate for each fiscal year.
• The board must monitor district finances and ensure that accounts are audited annually.
• The board must publish an end of year financial report for distribution in the community.
Community Engagement:
• The board of trustees must seek to establish working relationships with other public entities to make effective use of community resources and to serve the needs of public school students in the community.
• The board must adopt a policy to establish a district—and campus—level planning and decision-making process.
• The board must establish a Student Health Advisory Council and cooperate in the establishment of at least one parent-teacher organization at each school.
• The board must adopt a process through which district personnel, students or parents, and members of the public may obtain a hearing regarding a complaint.
To learn about the roles and responsibilities of the Board of Trustees in the areas of delegation, grievances, personal (hiring/compensation/firing), and student discipline, please click on the source link below.
Source: TASB
