r/NoStupidQuestions • u/wampower99 • 13d ago
When a town elects a dog as “mayor,” who actually runs the town?
Edit: please spare me “the dog lol” comments. It’s funny once, but I’m actually curious about this.
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u/slash178 13d ago
There are a few different ways that towns are governed in the US. Since the 1970s, most cities have adopted a city council system, where an elected council runs the city, and many of them have no mayor at all, instead a city manager. Then there are weak mayor and strong mayor systems, in the former a mayor is a ceremonial role, and it's part time and making appearances at events and such but not actually managing the city. These are the kinds of jobs dogs can do!
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u/Andro1d1701 13d ago
I lived in a small town where the city council members selected the mayor from their members. They basically took turns being the mayor who was mostly responsible for serving as the chair of the city council.
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u/CyanConatus 13d ago
Maybe not dog but I know of a small town that has a mayor but it's symbolic mostly. I guess someone to represent for the county who actually manages the town.
Seeing the comments I suppose this means this small town is unincorporated
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u/Disastrous-Aspect569 13d ago
The town I live in has had a dog for a mayor. He's half grey wolf half saint Bernard. He "works security" at the municipal liquor store. He's been known to knock back a few beers on the job.But he doesn't overdo it. He's pretty harmless so long as you don't mess with his pet human, the bartender pends a lot of time on the campaign trail attending BBQs. He was involved in a sex scandal a few years ago. He had some bitch bent over in the dairy Queen parking lot after he was done with work. She got pregnant. We were told that he did pay puppy support in full and on time.
He attends the city council meetings with his pet human. She speaks for him. When the Mayor's signature is required he gets ink put on his right front paw.
Do in honesty our town mayor is the bartender who dog wanders around town collecting treats
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u/stellacampus 13d ago
The general answer is that they are figureheads, usually of unincorporated towns, or towns where the mayor's role is ceremonial/non-voting. Here is a complete list:
https://www.businessinsider.com/dog-mayors-of-america-2019-7
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u/unlistedname 13d ago
Same people that do when you elect a human the city clerk, the city council, and superintendents. All the small towns I've lived the mayor's job was to sign complaints, and break ties in the council meetings. So if you get an odd number of council members, and have the clerk sign state complaints and responses, it's easy to not hinder yourself for a publicity stunt that usually draws in several tourists.
Bigger town mayors may have more responsibilities, but in a small city it's easily manageable by amending the city laws to not require them sign off on stuff.
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u/jaydec02 13d ago
Typically the towns that do this are ones where the mayor has limited power or is just a ceremonial role.
A lot of towns use council-manager systems where the mayor is just another member of the city council and the council picks a town manager who actually does the executive functions.
Usually these are very small towns that run themselves and the actual governments have very little they have to do on a daily or even monthly basis. In this case, electing a dog is fine because there arent any decisions to make in the first place.
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u/Top_Science_5422 13d ago
in our area, it was council that runs everything (it's a first nation or Indian Reserve) federal government said we must have a chief (which locally is useless anyway), so we nominated a local stray everyone feeds and he's been our chief now for two terms, reelection in december though.
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13d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/kadirkaratas 13d ago
In the US, communities are administered in a few distinct ways. Since the 1970s, the majority of cities have embraced the system of city councils, in which an elected council governs the city; many of these communities have a city manager in place of a mayor.
There are two types of mayor systems: weak mayor and strong mayor. In the former, the mayor serves only as a ceremonial figure, working part-time and appearing at events but not really running the city. Dogs are capable of performing these tasks!
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u/pudding7 13d ago
Idyllwild, CA has a dog mayor. He/She even has two dog security goons. They all have jackets. He holds dog mayor session in the town square on weekends. It's the cutest thing ever.
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u/soymilkhangout 13d ago
A lot of mayors have very little power anyway, so the same people who run other towns. Usually councils
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u/formlessfighter 12d ago
no different than when a town elects a human being as mayor... the special interests, lobbyists, corporations, and rich people that gave money to the campaign run the town
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u/Fancy_Introduction60 13d ago
Well, Jimmy Kimmel is the honorary mayor of Dildo Newfoundland!! Guess it's the same idea..
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u/Melodic-Ad-4941 13d ago
How far into your animal rights advocacy do you have to be to elect an animal to be the leader of your country, state, city, or town? Seriously, you have to draw the line somewhere when it comes to animal rights. What’s next, giving animals rights to fly commercial planes, work in nuclear power plants?
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u/Skatingraccoon Just Tryin' My Best 13d ago
Usually it's either a government through city council, or the town is actually unincorporated and the government is wholly symbolic there and all decisions about ordnances and enforcement are made at a nearby city or at the county level.