Government of Indianapolis

The Government of Indianapolis—officially the Consolidated City of Indianapolis and Marion County—is a strong-mayor form of mayor-council government system. Local government is headquartered downtown at the City-County Building.

Since 1970, Indianapolis and Marion County have operated as a consolidated city-county government called Unigov. The executive branch is headed by the mayor who serves as the chief executive and administrative officer for both the city and county. The Indianapolis City-County Council is a unicameral legislative body consisting of 25 members, each elected from a geographic district. The mayor and council members are elected to unlimited four-year terms. The judicial branch consists of the Marion Circuit and Superior Courts. The municipal budget for 2024 is nearly $1.6 billion. The city-county government employs about 8,000 full-time employees.

Marion County contains nine civil townships that function independently from the city-county government under Indiana Code. Each township consists of an elected township trustee, a three-member board, an assessor, and a constable and small claims court judge, all of whom serve four-year terms.

Citizens Energy Group is responsible for city water, wastewater, and stormwater systems. These were previously operated by the City's Department of Waterworks through a contract with Veolia. However, the transfer of the water and wastewater systems to Citizens Energy Group was approved by the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission on July 13, 2011. The transfer of the systems to Citizens Energy Group was completed on August 26, 2011. Citizens is a public charitable trust that is operated for the benefit of its customers; it was acquired by the city of Indianapolis in 1933.

Despite the nature of a unified city-county government, several bureaucratic functions remain separate. For example, Marion County's nine civil townships retained autonomy under Unigov. This resulted in maintaining separate public services, such as independent school districts or fire departments, that would have otherwise been consolidated into single entities.

The Mayor of Indianapolis is the chief executive and administrative officer of both the city and county. The mayor's chief duties include ensuring city-county ordinances are executed and enforced in accordance with applicable state and local law; appointing department heads and one or more deputy mayors, subject to City-County Council approval; and supervising the work of the city-county's departments, special taxing districts, and special service districts.^{[citation needed]} The mayor is directly elected by popular vote for four-year, unlimited terms.

Heads of county offices are elected by the citizens of both Indianapolis and Marion County.

The city-county contains seven independent municipal corporations established by Indiana Code.