Governing the City. The Rules of the Game.

Reading this post will give you more knowledge of how the City  government functions than most of the city residents possess . The residents of Bloomfield Hills are well informed and intelligent but they don't pay much attention to city government until things  are about to boil over or  appear on the ballot. Studying the charter (just a little) will put you up there with the City Attorney  and actually ahead of some former mayors.Former Mayors as rule are more apt to discuss how they did things rather than how the Charter says they should be done.

City Charter

Written in 1932 during the great depression and months before Franklin  Roosevelt became President, the charter is  the  granddaddy of  municipal government  in Bloomfield Hills. It is a legal document and the most important one in the city's history. It is the document that transformed a village of many previous names into the City of Bloomfield Hills. You will find it on the City's website at City Charter
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The charter is in the left hand column above the city codes.

City Commission

In Chapter three section one , the Charter states " all powers of the city, except as otherwise provided by statue or this charter, shall be vested in a commission of five members elected at large as hereafter provided." All  departments  of city government report to the  powerful City Commission. A detailed explanation of this can be found on the city's web site at Overview of City Government.

The Rights of the People

The rights of the people are addressed only through other provisions in the Charter. These  provisions address the right of the people to elect  commissioners in  annual elections.  In addition The  Charter and the laws of of Michigan  mandates that the Charter can only be amended  or changed by a vote of the electorate.

Rock. Scissors. Paper.

 It is really very simple. Rock breaks scissors but scissors cut paper and paper covers rock.. The Charter gives the city commission all the power unless the Charter says otherwise. The  people elect the commissioners and all changes in the charter us must be approved by the people.

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