Government of Detroit
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Government of Detroit

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Government of Detroit

The government of Detroit, Michigan mayor, the nine-member Detroit City Council, the eleven-member Board of Police Commissioners, and a clerk. All of these officers are elected on a nonpartisan ballot, with the exception of four of the police commissioners, who are appointed by the mayor. Detroit has a "strong mayoral" system, with the mayor approving departmental appointments. The council approves budgets, but the mayor is not obligated to adhere to any earmarking. The city clerk supervises elections and is formally charged with the maintenance of municipal records. City ordinances and substantially large contracts must be approved by the council.

The 2012 Charter added political bodies to council districts called Community Advisory Councils. They are created by the circulation of petitions by residents. In March 2014 The Detroit City Council passed an ordinance that formalized the directive given in the City Charter. Members of the Seventh District CAC were elected in the 2016 general election on November 8. In October 2019 a local activist submitted petitions to make District 4 Detroit's second CAC. Members were elected to it in the 2020 general election. In 2022 District 5 residents elected their first Community Advisory Council as well.

Municipal elections for Mayor, City Council, City Clerk and Community Advisory Council Members are held in years following presidential elections (such as 2013, 2017 and 2021).

In 2018 the people of Detroit voted to revise the city charter, and elected a Charter Commission for that purpose. The revised charter could have substantially changed the structure of the government of Detroit if it was approved. However voters rejected the revisions in the 2021 primary election.

City departments include:

Detroit's courts are all state-administered and elections are nonpartisan. The Circuit and Probate Courts for Wayne County are located in the Coleman A. Young Municipal Center (formerly the "City-County Building"). Circuit and probate judges are elected county-wide, with circuit judges handling all cases where more than $25,000 is in dispute, felonies, divorce/custody actions, and matters of general equitable jurisdictions. Probate Court is responsible for estate administration, guardianships, conservatorships and juvenile matters. The divorce/family court docket is run jointly with the Circuit Court.

The 36th District Court, with judges elected citywide, handles civil disputes where less than $25,000 is in dispute, landlord-tenant matters, misdemeanors, and preliminary examinations of criminal defendants charged with felonies prior to being bound over to circuit court. The 36th District Court incorporated the city's common pleas, traffic court, and misdemeanor prosecutions.

In addition to these trial courts, Detroit hosts the 1st District of the Michigan Court of Appeals, located at Cadillac Place, and the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan located in the Theodore Levin Federal Courthouse building in Downtown Detroit.

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