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City Council
is the legislative branch of government. It carries out duties
in accordance with the
Home Rule Charter and the laws of the
state, and is primarily responsible for making laws which govern
the City of Pittsburgh. City Council proposes, debates, and votes
on legislation governing and/or affecting the city.
This body also approves appointments as provided by the Charter,
regulates revenues and expenditures, incurs debt, and approves the
final operating and capital budgets for the city. Council
is responsible for the introduction of legislation generated by
the administrative branch of city government. Council may
also introduce legislation generated by individual Council Members
or Council as a body.
Pittsburgh's
City Council is composed of nine
members. Each member represents
one council district, and is appointed to be the chairperson of
a committee which corresponds to a city department. A one
council representative per district system has not always been the
electoral procedure for this legislative body. Formerly members
were elected to Pittsburgh's City Council by way of at large elections
where no particular member represented any specific district, but
instead the entire council represented the whole City of Pittsburgh.
In 1989, this form of representation was changed in order to insure
that all Pittsburghers receive adequate representation that they
could choose individually. This electoral process has proven
to be more effective than that of the past in terms of fair and
equal representation.
- View the Home
Rule Charter and the Pittsburgh City Code.
- Also available are transcipts of legislative
meetings, copies of agendas,
and public
hearing petition forms.
- Visit the
Commonwealth of Pennsylvania's homepage
to learn about state laws.
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