As with all Christote's urban areas, each of the Cities' day-to-day and specific interests are run by a Town Council; popularly elected officials, who in turn cast a number of votes for the Dorlaf Baron (Jalkin has 6 votes, the others 5 each). Main offices of the Councils are: The Town Hall, Vellers Square (Jalkin), Masterson Hall, St Ostian Street (Yaleth) and Farlindale House, Ainder Square (Forgar). Farlingdale House is the newest building, constructed in 1324; Forgar Council had previously met in the crumbling Walteshalle in Maple Square. As with elsewhere, a set amount of Councillors are voted in en masse every ten years, then choose their Chairman themselves. The rest then take one specialist post each, which vary, but standard ones being Trade & Industry, Justice & Welfare, Finance, Highways & Amenities, Housing and Education. Again common to most towns, it is customary to hold elections every five years rather than just waiting for the decadal ones. As well as appeasing the more politically involved population, this gives Chairmen a chance to remove dead wood from their chambers. Deselection by the voters in between the main elections can be made of the whole Council or of specific Councillors. The Chairman, as well as leading the Council, also administers the praetors, officials elected for each district in the town.
As befits the nature of the places they rule, the three Councils have long had their own character, with a strong rivalry existing between them. The biggest punch-ups tend to be between Forgar & Jalkin, boiling over most recently in the late 1200's when Reltheo Brianden & Molan Fletcher were respective Chairmen. Despite the mass elections, Forgar Council is traditionally dominated by wealthy merchants, bankers & businessmen, staid characters who have made (or inherited) their pile and are now trying to bring "common sense" back to politics. Though traditionalist & cautious, the Council is usually fairly active in developing trade & industry and strengthen the Guardsman presence - all as long as taxes are kept low, of course. The banker Margat Weanson, currently in the Chair, is a typical character, despite being untypically female - elderly, rather haughty, stinking rich and from a long-established family of merchant bankers. The closest the Forgar Council has to a maverick is Marcas Prianto, a self-made interior designer. In charge of Housing, he is constantly floating ambitious new plans for the redevelopment of Forgar's poorer districts, though his recent energies have been taken up by an epic ongoing legal action against The Herald, of all people, which got hold of one batch of his plans and wrote a stinker about them. A more serious scandal has recently begun when it appeared hundreds of gold raised for a prospective Garreday Uprising memorial went missing. The full situation has yet to emerge but the Highway & Amenities and Fiscal Councillors (Ellernin Mankel and Piers Assha respectivly) were accused of misappropiation of funds by Molan Grist in the pre-Garreday parliament in 1334.
Forgar Councillors can often win elections through their economic dominance of the voters; but less clear lines of dependence exist in Jalkin. The wealthy district is largely owned by landed aristocrats, and merchants who own property & businesses are more peripatetic travelling traders; neither of whom officially reside in Jalkin to any great extent. This, together with the rather more iconoclastic nature of the place, helps create a more left-leaning Council in Jalkin. Though two of the Griegsons sit on it (Elak, Chairman & Falcan, his cousin, running Trade & Industry), both chivy constantly for more money for poor relief & public amenities, and Falcan is a strong supporter of the wannabe rabble rouser Molan Grist. The other Councillors are a rag-bag of professional politicians, landed gentry and out & out outsiders. The latter group include Tomas Brantelin (Highways & Ameneties), a clergyman in the Garrath Church, Csaba Cultig (Housing), a former Jakks Lane shopkeeper, and her predessor at Housing who died in 1332, Stefan Keln, an intellectual-cum-architect who had an important part in forming Chela Tatel's recent Residencies & Hospitalities Ordinances. Jastac Miers, a political veteran though only on Jalkin's Council since 1328 is Education Councillor, also heads of Petitions Office in Huwdone House. (A third role is that of Elak Griegson's wife). A more traditional figure on the Council is Jerich Antonjan, who runs Civic Welfare. A somewhat colourless character elected in 1328 largely through the efforts of his more celebrated mother, Csaba Silenzi, Antonjan favours secret arrangements with orthodox pressure groups and concilliating Jalkin's merchants. Saerith Enzo (Fiscal) rose through the ranks of praetorship and first joined the Council in 1223. She is popular but rather unkindly said to be a typical Fiscal Councillor, knowing nothing about finance, relying heavily on her staff and devoting her energies to playing politics. More dangerously, she is known to have an eye on Elak Griegson's job and he unsucessfully schemed to get her voted out in 1333. During that vote Griegson did manage to get Hellender Minsk the Justice seat, replacing the disasterously gaffe-prone incumbent. A soldier, lawyer and farmer in earlier incarnations, Minsk has done nothing of note to date.
Yaleth Council is currently less dominated than usual by lawyers using it as a backdoor entrance into Huwdone House, since Molan Grist's & Allark Liarno's rise by other means. Current Chairman is one of the Fortraine boys, Ellernin, a big figure in Guards Central Command. The Guards influence has remained strong despite a major scandal 50-odd years ago when the Council was found guilty of covering up major offences - including a murder - by troops in the XIth Regiment. Other figures on Yaleth Council include Kendil Tatel, elder daughter of the Chancellor (Coun. Highways & Amenities) recently elected at an indecently early age, Allark Liarno's able, unassuming and lethal deputy Casp Sharsaw (Tachlan) and Stefan Anders (Fiscal), former Chairman of both Yaleth and the Combined Councils, on a slow and surprisingly graceful slide down the ladder.
The Combined Councils is a sort of higher unitary body established to encourage co-ordination between the three Cities and try and limit rivalries. It has a very vague existence, staffed only by those who sit on the three Councils, meeting erratically and with no legislative force behind its mandates. The only real duties of its small executive, beyond occasional bouts of feud-mending, are controlling affairs in Rykes Gardens, whose ground is owned by Huwdone House but given over to municipal control. That in turn is in practice partitioned between the three Councils (the Ruarn Arena by Jalkin, most of the allotments by Forgar etc.) and only big Rand Park festivities see any co-ordinated effort. Chela Tatel, in her brief stint as Chairwoman of the Combined Councils, used it effectivly to create some and combined projects. Elak Griegson, the current Chairman, primarily uses it as a device to build a coalition of all left-wing Councillors across the Cities; beyond that, he has little interest in it.
Jalkin Council composition
In terms of its strucutre at least, Jalkin is a fairly typical town council. It is broken into eight main departments, the head of all eight together with its Chairman being elected posts.
Chairman - Obviously, leads all eight departments, lisases between them and arbitrates in times of dispute. Organises Council meetings via his secretariat, gives a casting vote if a decision is split though no right of veto. Also liases with other councils, with praetors, the local Baron, the church councils etc. - the public face of the Council who can drift into just being a figurehead at times. Also has final say in budgetary decisions, decides when elections are to be held (aside from the compulsory decadal ones) and is responsible for what little censorship of local arts exists.
Fiscal - 2 main roles. One is drawing up, controlling and assessing the Council's own budget, how it is split between the departments and how much is to be passed down to the praetors. More importantly, the Fiscal Councillor is responsible for the collection of purchase, inheritance and income tax. This involves keeping accurate records of the names, incomes profits, sizes, dependents and payment status of each person, faimly and business in Jalkin; ensuring regular payment is made, resorting to prosecution when necessary; and monitoring the economy, the effects of taxation and any future trends to be submitted to the taxation-setting regional assemblies. The importance and huge scale of this task makes the Fiscal Councillor probably the most important one, and the department has gained a semi-autonomous status with a sizeable staff list. The Baron appoints a special man to help run the fiscal department, who generally has rather more power than the elected head.
Trade & Industry - Responsible for initatives to boost trade and industry in Jalkin. Like Fiscal, monitors and studies the trends in the economy, often working closely with other departments. Responsible for ensuring the various amenities acts are being obeyed, and supervises any local amenities and private monolpy companies. Runs the licensing systems for trades and professions controlled by them, with the exception of herbalism. Responsiblity for protecting workers in the city and ensuring the assorted protective legislation is adhered to. Giving grants to aid new/ailing companies. Also collects the small tolls at the city gates, and runs the municipal markets.
Justice - Goes by various names and with various functions in different cities - Justice & Welfare being a more common one. The Justice Councillor is responsible for keeping the peace, keeping crime levels down and ensuring the security of the city's residents. He monitors and keeps a watch on the local Guards, deals with any complaints brought to the government about their behaviour and collects information on whether the number, deposition etc. of Guards is correct, to submit to the Baron. Also carries out construction/maintenance on any defences (deemed to be Jalkin's city walls and gates, for want of anything better) and controls the weapons licensing system. Sometimes organises prosecutions brought by other departments.
Housing - Har har har. Supposed to do something, anything, to deal with Jalkin's chronic overpopulation problems. Responsible for building of new Council housing wherever they can find a spare lot, and running the various temporary homeless shelters (though not the church-run destitute centres, which it just donates to). Supposed to ensure all the various construction, ownership, occupancy and leasing laws are adhered to. Also grants permission for new buildings to be privately constructed, extended, converted etc. Reckoned to be the worst civic job in Jalkin after the Dung Dusters.
Highways & Amenities - Responsible for cleaning and maintenance work on Jalkin's streets, alleys and bridges, including construction of any new ones, together with features like statues, arches, clocks etc. In charge of maintenance, construction etc. of any goverment (non-Federal) buildings and any public ones - libraries, stables and so forth. Also responsible for public hygene - the Dung Dusters and other disposal systems, the street drains and gutters and the cleaning of the rivers, together with ensuring fresh water supplies from the assorted wells, pumps, viaducts and other supplies. The last functions are done by other departments in many town councils.
Education - Responsible for running the schools which give children their primary and secondary education. Give advice to children and parents making their choices on tertiary education, monitor the tutors who run this, sometimes supplying grants etc. to either side who need them. Helps to organise the examinations and records the results. Sometimes gives grants to help with college education. Manages/creates etc. cultural centres like libraires, literacy centres, supervising them when, as with Jalkin Library, they are private companies. Also some responsibility for encouraging and funding local arts - something of a minor function in Jalkin where art flourishes privately and is rarely "managed" (i.e. censored) by govenment.
Civic Welfare - Runs the voucher system for poor relief and the specific ones helping the elderly, sick or disabled - a mojor operation which, as with tax collection, requires exhaustive records to be kept (the two generally have a single ledger system). Distributes the vouchers, deals with the many complaints stemming from them, runs the complicated system of reimburses the various businesses. Runs the licensing of the private herbalists, and gives series of regular donations to the church sick hostels. Also special powers for dealing with crises such as epidemics, the casualties of floods & other natural disasters.
Tachlan - An odd post, deriving its name from Ferent Tachlan, the great post-Uprisings political reformer. The Tachlan Councillor is supposed to act as the conscience of the council, to ensure that it is always acting in the interests of the electorate, that it is keeping its promises and remaining open and accessible and that the rights and freedoms of the people are protected from all threats. Traditionally the Tachlan Councillor is some people's champion who will berate the rest of the council. In Jalkin, which tries to get radical upstarts in as many key positions as possible and which is obsessivly monitored by all levels of society, it is a somewhat negible post. Elak Greigson, for example, handles all disclosure of information and slick PR personally and tries to keep his subordinates tightly accountable. The Tachlan is left somewhat oddjobbing for when other departments are overloaded; the main permanent responsibility is mutual bullying sessions with Jalkin's praetors. Also organises Council activity for the big festivals and other public events (e.g. the distribution of street lanterns around Garreday).
A post, sometimes elected, which is present in most Councils but absent in the Cities ones is that of representative to Parliament. This official is sent by the remoter councils to vote in Parliament assemblies and, less officially, to make sure the town is represented on the various committees, lobbies and conversations which represent political sheninigins. Stationed semi-permanently in the Cities the post is a simple product of logistics, the impracticality of riding hundreds of miles up and down the country.
A number of Council jobs are checking that laws made are being enforced. On a routine basis this is strictly a job for the Guards, as is the punishment which follows, but as it has a bearing on the effectiveness of their rule it is in council interests to take a hand. Often a Guardsman, if discovering a minor regulation is being infringed (e.g. unlicensed trading, hygene regulations) he will simply report it to the Council and not bother doing anything aabout it himself; most of the council departments also have inspecting teams to detect infringements themselves. In specific instances the Councillor will first warn and if necessary prosecute the offendor, using the federally-approved list of lawyers; the Baron is involved in rare cases. If the problem is more endemic then the common chain of events is that the e.g. Housing councillor becomes aware of the problem, (s)he will kick the Security/Justice Councillor, (s)he will kick the local Guards captian and instructions will be passed down to the Guards patrols to be extra tough on e.g. fire exits this month.
Current Town Councillors
Jalkin
Chairman Elak Griegson
Fiscal Saerith Enzo
Trade & Industry Falcan Griegson
Justice Hellender Minsk
Housing Csaba Cultig
Highways & Amenities Tomas Brantelin
Education Jastac Miers
Civic Welfare Jerich Antonjan
Tachal Brianda Maltin
Yaleth
Chair Ellernin Fortraine
Fiscal Stefan Anders
Trade & Industry Alib Cecci
Justice Myers Rulloco
Housing Yrvon Farson
Highways & Amenities Kendil Tatel
Education Myrella Preski
Civic Welfare Gasel Dydes
Tachlan Casp Sharsaw
Forgar
Chair Margat Weanson
Fiscal Piers Assha
Trade & Industry Tomas Callido
Justice Piers Laclo
Housing Marcas Prianto
Highways & Amenities Ellernin Mankel
Education Montenue Brex (Erish desc. 2nd gen. settler)
Civic Welfare Elzerbeth Solson
Tachlan Hellender Misreich
Past
Jalkin chairs: 1315-16 Csaba Silenzi
1316-21 Myca Laclo
1321-2 Elak Griegson
1322
1322- Elak Griegson
Yaleth chairs: 1318-22 Chela Tatel
1322-30 Stefan Anders
1330- Ellernin Fortraine
United Council 1321-2 Chela Tatel
1322-9 Stefan Anders
1329- Elak Griegson