City Government By West Hollywood Elementary Students
Students from West Hollywood Elementary interviewed Hernan Molina, Deputy to Mayor John Duran, to find out how the City works. How does the Mayor get to be Mayor? Mr. Molina: Every year the five City Council members choose who
is going to be the Mayor for a one-year term. It’s a largely ceremonial role. Basically, the Mayor doesn’t have any executive powers or more powers than the other City Council members. Any decision requires a majority vote, a simple majority vote, which is a vote of three. What services does the City provide? Mr. Molina: West Hollywood is a contract city, unlike the City
of Los Angeles, which is a full service city. Instead of having a large bureaucracy (having a lot of people working for the city), we contract the services out. This means the City of West Hollywood pays the County of Los Angeles to provide us with Sheriff’s and Fire Department services. We provide other kinds of regular services, like tree trimming, street pavement, and road maintenance.
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