About Me - Milton Laene Araujo

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Lake Worth, Florida, United States
My name is Milton and I am a reader. I love to feed my mind with what if’s?, through stories.

10/17/11

Community Political Systems by Milton Laene Araujo

American communities are very diverse, when referring to Community Politics, due to its population size, square miles, and socio economic composition. In the U.S there are more than 87000 local governments, these includes cities, municipalities, townships, counties, and a host of other districts and special districts. Nearly 2/3 of all Americans live in urban units of local government known as municipalities. there are about 280 metropolitan areas ranging in size from Oklahoma to New York. Community Political System is rural counties, towns and villages, cities of all sizes, or even sprawling metropolitan areas. The two principal functions of Community Political Systems is firstly, to supply good and services for example; policy Protection or sewage disposal that are not supplied by private enterprises - known as service functions. Secondly, to manage conflicts over public policy - known as political functions.

A good politician manages conflicts when he or she undertakes to arrange political compromises and balance competing interests. A good politician help people with different incomes, occupation, skin colors, religious beliefs and styles of living to live together in a reasonable peaceful fashion. This is a vital task,and often a difficult one. The sources of community conflicts are human diversity; difference in wealth, occupation, education, ethnicity, race, religion, and style of living. To cope with community problems, individuals resign from the situation and do nothing and just tolerate it, or move away and find a community that provides more satisfaction, or people stay and make an attempt to change things. To cope with community problems, political scientists tend to focus their attention on people who try to change things implying that this is the only way to respond rationally to community problems. To cope with community problems economists emphasize rational calculations and freedom of choice, which they assume most citizens possess.

People respond to community dissatisfaction more or less in this fashion:
White rich become politically active or move out, while white poor simply move out. Blacks typically become more active, while new affluent black middle class move to suburbs. Some city residents move out, while suburbanites fight. Immigrants stay and don't fight until about the third generation. We should care about the structure of local government because they pat hole in the middle of our streets, zoning, parks, schools, building of new public offices in the neighborhood, safety and police, traffic lights, airports, libraries, mass transit, sewage and sanitation, beautification, land value, etc. Citizens should focus on the local levels to know who fires and hires various types of local officials and drafting and approving budgets. In Lake Worth, FL commissioners are elected by voters living on his or her district.There are over 1000 Special District in Florida that allows counties to push off difficult and expensive services, health care, schools water and other bodies.  Special Districts have their own bonds and taxes that appear on our bills - so called - a sneaky way to raise taxes.

The basic structure of local government is that States are divided into Counties and within counties we have municipalities. Like this: Florida...Palm Beach County....Lake Worth

Local government is responsible mainly for Police, fire, trash and also to manage conflict development. Local Government have no status in the U.S Constitution. They exist based on state laws only, and in Florida they can be created or abolished by the state.

What is Dillon's rule? Local government only gets those powers set forth in the charter. Only the state legislator can change (amend) the charter - they retain local power.

A City Charter  - It is the basic constitution of a city of a county, set forth boundaries, powers and functions, structure and organization and means of election and appointment. It is a document that covers in detail matters such boundaries, structure of government, ordinance making powers, finance contracts, law enforcement, education health, public utilities, and so on. It requires a state legislator to change it and usually a referendum as it requires a special law. Ordinance is what we call a local law, and it operates within their boundaries.
What is Home rule? This rule was created to reverse Dillon's rule. It is a charter that authorizes a city to exercise all powers not specifically prohibited by law or by charter...Politics in Home rule?? Courts retain local powers - whether the city can pass the law or provide service - The city attorney becomes the key.

In Florida we have  limited home rule based on our constitution, which translates to freedom for local government to structure their governments as they see fit.
There are different types of local government in Florida, such as Counties -rural and urban-, Cities, School Districts -independently in charge of running primary schools- , Special Districts such as the water management district.

The governing body of a county is the County Commissioner who often appoints a manager (administrator) to run the county, then we have elected officials, such as sheriff, judge, property appraiser, tax collector, clerck of the court, etc... The county bureaucracy deals with planing, transportation, health , libraries. The main function of a county is that different offices must work together, as in the Palm Beach County Government. Legally speaking, cities are "municipal corporations."

Nonpartisan elections have candidates name without their party afiliation.

Milton Laene Araujo