Explanation: The council-manager and commission styles of city government are very different. Whereas the council-manager style of government has a clear legislative branch (the council) and a clear executive branch (city manager), the commission performs both the executive and legislative functions in the commission style of government. Commissions are composed of elected officials just like the city councils, but in a commission style city government the commissioners are responsible for supervising a a particular area of the city’s operations like public works, safety, finance, etc. In a commission, there is no single person in charge, even though they do elect a chairman or mayor to lead the commission meetings.
In a "strong mayor" mayor council system, the mayor is the chief executive of the government, similar to the role of the executive branch of the federal government. The council acts as the primary legislative body for the city, similar to the legislative branch of the federal government. The "weak mayor" system would not be comparable to the federal government's separation of powers, because in the weak mayor system the mayor has less administrative authority and the council controls the government more fully. The "commission" system is not like the federal government's system because there is no executive officer -- the commission handles both legislative and executive duties. And the "council-manager" system doesn't compare well to the federal system either, because the power is all in the hands of the elected council, and they hire someone with managerial experience to work for them in handling administrative duties. That would be like Congress hiring someone to implement its policies, rather than having an elected president in a separation of powers between the legislative and executive branches.
