The city of Perris is situated in California, 90 miles south east of Los Angeles. The Perris local government is structured according to the Laws of the Californian state. Under the Californian constitution, Perris city falls under the municipal governments. Majority of the cities in California have plenary powers which are outlined in the California constitution.
Plenary powers are powers which enable a state function independently from the influence of the federal government hence, Perris city has original jurisdiction powers and what it decides remain bidding to all (Eclock, 1968).
The municipal government of Perris is constituted to reflect the population size of the residents of Perris city. Thus the administration of the city is constituted to represent the number of inhabitants it serves. There are several functions that the local government is mandated to provide to the city inhabitants.
They are responsible for the transportation and provision of security services in the city. In addition they construct and maintain the city’s infrastructure while creating recreational zones in the city. The local government also employs city workers as well as provision of dwelling units to cater for the residents (Eclock, 1994).
The city was named in honour of Fred T. Perris who was an engineer of California railroad. The city’s social and economical growth was brought about by the construction of the rail road in the region that resulted in new economic activities thus migration of people into the region from other towns during the 19th century. In addition the discovery of coal and gold in the region boosted the local economy of the region resulting in development of the city’s infrastructure (Hawthorne, 2007).
The city is managed by a council that operates like a form of government. The city manager is directly appointed by the council whose mandate is to run the operations of the city. In addition to the city manager the council appoints the city attorney whose role is to advice the council on the legal matters that affect the administration of the city.
The council members consist of five residents of Perris who apart from making council appointments also oversees the running of two city commissions, planning commission and public safety commission. The city runs as a closed system of administration, whereby the decisions are only made by the council members and not subject to public opinion, therefore the Perris residents do not take part in decisions that the city administration makes (Chalouist, 2008).
Although cities are free from the control and influence of politics and the federal government, they are not entirely absolutely free though the state constitution indicates so. Perris city relies on money from the Federal government to run its operations.
This money is given to Perris city in form of grants, in order for grants to be awarded, there are certain conditions that must be fulfilled by the council of Perris, and therefore the Federal government dictates the terms for those conditions to be fulfilled. The Federal government is run by politicians who oversee the implementations of those conditions and therefore in order for Perris to receive grants, they should fulfil the conditions set by the politicians hence the city of Perris is not entirely autonomous.
Through the influence of politics and the Federal government they promote the development of projects without bias and encourage the residents of Perris to engage in government decision making and implementation process thus overlapping the functions of the Perris local authority with that of the Federal government authority ( wood & Alfred, 2009).
Reference List
Chalouist, C. (2008). Deep California. New York, NY: Routledge.
Eclock, H. (1994). Local government policy and management. New York, NY: Routledge.
Eclock, H. (1968). Local government, politicians, professionals and the public authorities. New York, NY:Roultledge.
Hawthorne, H. (2007). Cities of California. Manhattan, NY: Read Books.
Wood, E. & Alfred, H. (2009). The phantom cities of California. Washington DC: University of Michigan.