Political Science

The United States is a federal government, which has devolved units of governance. City and municipal councils represent the units of decentralized government. They are empowered through their state statues to implement the federal agendas within their communities and they act as links between the federal and state government and the local citizens. The Honolulu city council is an empowered city council mandated by the local citizens through election and the state laws to serve the community around. Citizens of Honolulu elect their officials from local counties who represent them on the city council. The powers the city council has in making decisions is closely monitored and determined by the residents making them integral participants in implementing all policies and agendas in the council.

Honolulu city council, like other city councils across the country represents the United States Federal government and the state of Hawaii. Honolulu city council often and regularly conducts meetings with the local residents who had elected the council representatives to take note of their opinions and suggestions regarding implementation of different policies within the city council. The city council meetings are important and necessary in Honolulu before any decision gets to the level of legislative agenda. Any enactment of any agenda within the council should get a nod from the electorate. That is why the citizens play the decisive role in formulating policies affecting Honolulu. The Honolulu community forms a group known as Neighborhood Planning Council that is supposed to discuss all the issues affecting their respective localities (City of Battle Creek, 2010). This is a typical requirement for most of the city and county councils in the U.S government where citizens form their own platforms to enable them participate fully in their council meetings. These views from the platforms organized by the citizens are later presented to the council meeting which is open to all residents who live or operate businesses within the councils area of jurisdiction for debate. These meetings are supposed to be convened at least once per month and last between two and three hours. The location of these meetings is in neighborhood schools or other areas that the council considers appropriate. Participation of local residents in Honolulu city council meetings is in line with the democratic principles of governance within the city, state, and federal levels. The analysis below tries to explain the importance of the local council meetings in Honolulu and the wider role the council meetings play within the community and at the federal government level.

Section I
The city council of Honolulu does not have a specific mission statement for the city council in general however, each department in the council has a specific mission statement. This includes the police, fire, ocean safety and safe group, medical department and other different departments. We, the men and women of the Honolulu Police Department, are dedicated to providing excellent service through partnerships that build trust, reduce crime, create a safe environment, and enhance the quality of life in our community(County and City of Honolulu, 2010). This is an example of the police department mission and the others are similar in the mission statement content. The purpose of the mission statements in different departments is to give adequate information to the public, to assist and advice them on how to access their rights, accessing quality services and enabling them to have a high life quality every day. It would have been easier to segment the mission statements in each department to enable the residents have an easy understanding of the roles and tasks expected from their council departments.
 
The council derives its authority from the by laws and charters which are passed by the city and county council members. Each activity handled by the council is authorized through these charters and by laws. An example is the revised Charter of Honolulu (RCH) 1973, which provides the authority to conduct audits (City  Council of Honolulu, 2002). The council members pass these laws, which later are enacted. Ordinary the position of the city from the legal point of view, on of complete subordination of the state (Goodnow, 1994, p. 25). Despite the legislative powers the council has it should also be noted that all the decisions made must be in tandem with the state statues. This example indicated the position of the Councils in US which the Honolulu city council was not an exception because it needs to implement policies which would not conflict with those of the State even if they are mandated by the local residents. 

Nine council members are elected one from each district of Oahu. This makes the number of council members nine, since there are nine districts in Oahu (Honolulu Gov, 2010). Therefore, there is a team of nine members in the city council of Honolulu who have been directly elected by the local residents through universal suffrage. These elected members act as official representatives of the citizens in the city council chamber.

The council holds its meetings once in a month. However, any meeting may be called in between as a special meeting anytime the majority of members, the council chair, or even the mayor may find necessary (Honolulu Gov ,2010). This gives the mayor the power to call meetings whenever he deems it necessary, and at his point it shows the powers the mayor in the city council. Although in certain circumstances the residents can mobilize their representatives to assemble meetings when they have thorny issues to be discussed.

The council meetings are usually held in the council chamber, Honolulu Hale, third floor (Honolulu Gov, 2010). This is a specific and traditional area where meetings have been held since the founding of the council although the meetings sometimes are held in other public areas like in institutions as long as the citizens can have easy accessibility to that place. Anyone can attend most of the council meetings except from the executive sessions (Honolulu Gov 2010). This shows that there are meetings meant for the public while others are only for special people who happen to be the executive comprising mostly of the senior officials of the city council and elected officials. Forums for public are also known, so this prevents conflicts arising from arranging and discussing issues between the public and the executive. Issues likely to be discussed are general about the financial, budgetary allocations and expenditure as citizens need to understand how their finances have been managed.

A follow up of the last meeting minutes is also essential for the public to know if there was any progress made. Public opinions and suggestions as well as presentation of reports by several departments and agents are also likely to be discussed (Honolulu Gov, 2010). Citizens are also given a platform to address their issues before the elected officials and other officials are given time to air their issues. Its a normal protocol in Honolulu city council.

When the members are all seated, the lectern proceeds to take the roll call. The agenda of the meeting is then tabled (Honolulu Gov, 2010).  In this case, those lined up to contribute are called by the order they registered and given three minutes each to contribute. Their views and proposals are then debated by the participants and appropriate measures taken pertaining to the issues.
 
Controversial issues are solved by voting through a nay or aye vote. The quorum required for a vote to take place is majority among the nine members (Honolulu Gov, 2010).This is a democratic process practiced not only in Honolulu city council but across the country. The public views are very important in implementation of these motions. This is all done in public meetings. As members who elected the council officials, they have the mandate to sanction any policy or issue affecting the council or them.

Section II
Council Meeting, 20th of March 2010 from 2p.m. at Capital elementary school grounds.
The Council initiates, discusses, implements and finances development projects in the city such as roads, railways and other transport systems. In the US system, it represents the democratic process of the participation of the public and elected officials to find solutions of their respective areas. The council derives its authority from council charters and by laws, passed by the council members or from the state government.

In the council meeting, I observed an organized and planned method through which all problems of the city are channeled. Both the council and the community took the meeting seriously through contributions and constructive arguments. All the participants arrived early enough before the meeting kicked off. The community was well aware of the role of the council judging from their contributions and questions to the council members. The meeting was a development forum with most agendas focusing on the required or intended development projects.  Specific time was allocated for each person contributing. The council members as well as the community had a lot of respect to every opinion made and everyone had time to listen to the other. The behavior in the meeting created a lot of harmony and corporation between the parties involved to fast track the development agendas in place.
         
Normally before any serious decision was reached such as replacing city council board members or passing proposed project budgets, citizens were required to vote. There was an open forum reserved for the community members with questions or proposals. Citizens in this case voiced out their views in supporting, correcting, or contributing to the council policies. The council took these proposals and corrections serious enough and they were assured that the opinions would be implemented in future. Some of the areas that citizens took the council to task were areas of security in the city and traffic jams on the roads which generated a lot of emotions. During elections, citizens endorsed those officials elected by the council members .The meeting was adjourned after every community member was satisfied with the agenda, an indication of the immense control that the citizens had in their council.

The council proceedings fully conformed to their expected role in the U.S government. The public meeting is a requirement for all the councils in the United States as a forum to get the community suggestions and implement them. The suggestions of the community are supposed to be shared with city officials who later work with councils to bring the required changes (City of Battle Creek, 2010). This was exactly what happened in the meeting. Residents are required to make suggestions on how the council should carry out its operations in sectors concerning them. The meeting of the council was also aimed at discussing development projects in the city. Councils main role is to collect taxes in the city, foster development, ensure security of the citizens (Honolulu county council, 2010). These roles are all in line with the federal policies and the expected roles of councils.
     
The important thing I learned is the community influence in decision-making. The community was the cornerstone in making final decisions within the council. The City council played its part in implementing policies but the citizens were crucial in formulating them. The corporation between the City council members and citizen enabled the council to operate in good harmony and efficient delivery of services to the community was guaranteed.

Conclusion
City and county councils form the government at the local level in the towns and cities. The councils have a great role to play in developing projects, security issues as well as other social issues. Their main mission it to improve the service delivery to their communities. Their operations are further enhanced through the public participation in major council decisions. This brings about high success levels due to corporation of all stakeholders involved. There are different roles given to different councils depending on the state government that varies widely from state to state. All the same, the jurisdiction of the council is to improve the city or town where it is based. The city is a political subdivision of the state (Martin, 1990, p. 13). This aspects depicts the interrelationship between the city council and state which in turn is accountable to people and the federal government. As the lowest unit of devolution it is also the most critical one as the views of citizens are channeled through the councils all the way to the top in Washington. Any development cannot be made without the participation of the citizens in those meetings. Transparency accountability and responsibility of those elected officials can only be done when the citizens participate in city council meetings.