Government
Main article: Government of Oklahoma City See also: List of mayors of Oklahoma CityThe City of Oklahoma City has operated under a council-manager form of city government since 1927. Mick Cornett serves as Mayor, having first been elected in 2004, re-elected in 2006 and then again in 2010. Eight councilpersons represent each of the eight wards of Oklahoma City. City Manager Jim Couch was appointed in late 2000. Couch previously served as assistant city manager, Metropolitan Area Projects director and utilities director prior to his service as city manager.
The city has called on residents to vote for sales tax-based projects to revitalize parts of the city. The Bricktown district is the best example of such a project. In the recent MAPS 3 vote, the city's fraternal order of police criticized the project proposals for not doing enough to expand the police presence to keep up with increased commercial activity.
Most neighborhoods in Oklahoma City lean Republican, but there are a few exceptions. The northeast portion of Oklahoma City and certain neighborhoods in the northwest are generally represented by Democratic state legislators. The Oklahoma City Council is non-partisan.
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Famous quotes containing the word government:
“No Government can be long secure without a formidable Opposition. It reduces their supporters to that tractable number which can be managed by the joint influences of fruition and hope. It offers vengeance to the discontented, and distinction to the ambitious; and employs the energies of aspiring spirits, who otherwise may prove traitors in a division or assassins in a debate.”
—Benjamin Disraeli (18041881)
“A bill of rights is what the people are entitled to against every government on earth, general or particular, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference.”
—Thomas Jefferson (17431826)
“The United States is the only great nation whose government is operated without a budget. The fact is to be the more striking when it is considered that budgets and budget procedures are the outgrowth of democratic doctrines and have an important part in developing the modern constitutional rights.... The constitutional purpose of a budget is to make government responsive to public opinion and responsible for its acts.”
—William Howard Taft (18571930)