Answer:
A municipal charter is a written document that provides a municipality with the authority to exist and function. The charter is a city's fundamental law. In this respect it is similar to a national or state constitution.
Each municipality in Georgia has a charter that establishes its basic governmental structure, form of government, corporate boundaries, and municipal powers. A city's municipal powers may include, but are not limited to, appropriations and expenditures, contracts, emergencies, environmental protection, nuisance abatement, planning and zoning, police and fire protection, public transportation, sanitation collection and disposal, streets and roads, taxes, and water and sewer services.
Forms of Municipal Government
In Georgia most municipalities have one of the following forms of government: the strong mayor–council form, the weak mayor–council form, or the council-manager form. Under both the strong and the weak mayor–council forms, executive and policymaking roles and responsibilities are divided between the mayor and the city council. Under the council-manager form, the city council fills the primary policymaking role, and an appointed city manager is responsible for the primary executive functions. Although several cities in Georgia refer to their legislative bodies as commissions, most, if not all, of these cities actually operate under another form of government and not the commission form in its purest sense.
