Local Government in Connecticut, Third Edition

2. Forms of Local Government

ChApTEr 2 Forms of Local Government The United States Constitution sets forth the laws covering only the federal and the state governments. Towns and cities are never even mentioned! Towns and cities, commonly referred to as municipalities, exist because the state says they can exist. They receive their powers from the state, and therefore, they frequently are called children of the state. The fact is that more than half of the 169 municipalities in the state of Connecticut were founded well before the United States became the United States! The oldest include Windsor (1633), Wethersfield (1634), Hartford (1635), Deep River (1635), New Haven (1638), Old Saybrook (1654), and many others. Most municipalities are towns rather than cities. There is no rule or formula that determines when a town becomes a city; it is a local choice. Thus we have the city of Ansonia, population 19,249, and the town of West Hartford, population 63,268. Generally speaking however, the larger communities are cities (see appendix G). There are 21 municipalities with the designation of city. Connecticut’s local governments vary considerably in size. It is often asked how and why the small towns even exist. For example, there is Connecticut’s smallest town, Union, established in 1734 and with a current population of 854. It does not even have a bank or a post office! The first Connecticut census in 1756 showed the population of Union at 500. Thus, it has grown by 354 people over a 256-year span, or roughly an increase of 1.4 people per year! Union is followed by Canaan, which was established in 1739. It has a population of 1,234, down considerably from its iron-industry heyday in the 1800s when iron furnaces ran twenty-four hours a day. In 2010, there were 11 towns in the state with a population of less than 2,000 residents, each town with its own government. whAT is ThE purposE oF loCAl govErnmEnT? Local government exists • to deliver services; • to provide responsible fiscal management; • to be responsive to citizen’s problems and issues; • to work with federal and state government; and • to provide education, police, fire, building-safety inspections, record keeping, recreation, public works, and public health services. On the other end is Bridgeport, Connecticut’s largest city. Located on Long Island Sound, it was incorporated in 1836, and has a population of 144,229. Home of the Barnum Museum, it has the only zoo in Connecticut , the Beardsley Zoo. Bridgeport is one of the five cities in the state with a population of more than 100,000. The others are New Haven, Hartford, Stamford, and Waterbury. Home Rule In Connecticut, each municipality has the right to choose to operate under the state’s general laws, called “general statutes,” or to adopt its own charter . A charter is the basic law of the municipality; it is its “constitution.” If a municipality adopts its own charter, then that becomes the governing law. The municipality then operates under its own constitution. If the municipality does not adopt its own charter, then it operates under the state’s home-rule statutes. The Home Rule Act allows a municipality to govern itself by choosing its own form of government, which 112 municipalities have chosen to do. Home rule also allows the city or town to change the form of government it may have adopted if the municipality follows a specific but quite lengthy process. The municipal charter sets forth the structure or organization of the local government and the powers that may be exercised in the name of the town or city. These powers may be executed through ordinances or resolutions adopted by the local governing body. The town or city attorney is responsible for advising and representing the governing body and all of its boards and commissions on legal matters to ensure that there is compliance with the municipality’s own charter as well as with state and federal law. Article I of the Newington town charter illustrates this relationship with the state. Here is the opening section of the charter of Newington (a suburb between the cities of Hartford and New Britain). Notice the reference to its incorporation as a town, as well as the recognition of the powers and privileges conferred to it by the state. Article I. INCORPORATION AND GENERAL POWERS§ C-101. Incorporation. All the inhabitants dwelling within the territorial limits of the Town of Newington, as heretofore constituted, shall continue highlighTs oF homE rulE...