Cities Villages and Towns

Units of municipal government include cities, villages, towns, and special districts. Each of these units of local government is created by the state of Wisconsin Constitution and is governed by statutes that are passed through the state legislature and signed into law by the governor. As such the ability for local units of government to exercise independent authority is extremely limited. That is to say that they are expressly limited in their role to only those matters authorized by state statute. Each of these units of government has an elected body of individuals who serve as the governing board. These elected officials must reside within the area that they represent, and their terms of office are limited by statute and/or local ordinance. Our seminar will explore the roles, duties, responsibilities and most importantly limitations that are inherent to the role as an elected official in these organizations.