US local government

As I mentioned in the previous post, we'll each be posting about our vocational time. We've actually had two sessions so far, the first in Cooperstown on Wednesday afternoon, and all day today in Oneonta. I've learnt an incredible amount so far about how things run in the US and here are some of the key things:

• 'Localness' - it seems so much more local than in the UK. Cooperstown (population 2,500) has its own Village 'Board' which looks after the roads, parks and water/sewage plants. Oneonta (population 20,000 of which 10,000 are students) has its own City Council which again provides similar services.
• Freedom - the local authorities seem to have much more power to do what they like. For example Oneonta is revising its City Charter and part of that includes looking at the boundaries of wards within the city and whether they should be changed - something that is the role of a central government body in the UK. Likewise in Cooperstown I attended a Planning Board meeting and they were revising some of the planning rules - again most of which are defined centrally in the UK.
• Duplication/efficiency - with the 'localness', there does seem to be more duplication. Cooperstown has its own Police Department of 7 officers (in addition to the County service). There is a Schools Board which runs the schools and in Oneonta the City has a vehicle maintenance depot just 100m down the road from the vehicle maintenance depot for the Schools Board! And does every village and town need to have its own water and sewage plants?
• Local involvement and accountability - every Village and City has an elected mayor who is well known within the community. In Cooperstown the residents vote annually on the budget for the town (all residents vote on the schools budget), and in Cooperstown the Planning Board is made up of local residents appointed by the Mayor.
• Finances - perhaps the most surprising of all, most local authorities don't plan more than a year in advance. Oneonta has a $18m budget, of which $3m comes from the state and $3m from their share of Sales Tax. Despite the fact we've started the new financial year, they don't know how much they will get from the state (and probably won't until mid-June), and they receive their share of Sales Tax every month but two months in arrears.