Ross, Russell M

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Masthead Logo The Palimpsest
Volume 46 | Number 11 Article 7
11-1-1965
Municipal Government in Iowa
Russell M. Ross
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Ross, Russell M. "Municipal Government in Iowa." The Palimpsest 46 (1965), 595-604.
Available at: https://ir.uiowa.edu/palimpsest/vol46/iss11/7
Municipal Government in Iowa
Iowa has an official count of 944 incorporated 
municipalities. This means that Iowa has more 
towns and cities per thousand people than any 
state in the union. Only two states, Illinois with 
1,251 and Pennsylvania with 1,003, have more in­
corporated cities and towns than does the State of 
Iowa.
Municipalities in Iowa are classified by the state 
legislature into three basic categories: first, cities 
of more than 15,000 people; second, cities of more 
than 2,000, but less than 15,000 population; third, 
towns are incorporated municipalities with less 
than 2,000 people. (Villages are areas that have 
been platted but have never been incorporated.)
Four cities in Iowa still operate under charters 
granted them by the Iowa General Assembly prior 
to 1857. These four, usually called the special 
charter cities since each charter was granted in­
dividually by the legislature, are Davenport, Mus­
catine, Camanche, and Wapello. All other cities, 
that were granted charters before the Constitution 
of 1857, determined that incorporation under gen­
eral law rather than by special charter was to be 
followed. They have been reconstituted and re­
turned their charters.
595
596 THE PALIMPSEST
The 940 municipalities incorporated under the 
general law provisions are subject to plenary con­
trol of the Iowa General Assembly. This means 
that the legislature has the power to create and the 
power to abolish municipalities. It should be im­
mediately added that the Iowa legislature has not 
abused this authority, and no municipality has ar­
bitrarily been abolished in Iowa even though some 
list a population of less than 20 people.
CITIES OF IOWA OF MORE THAN 15,000
POPULATION
City
1 9 4 0
Population
1 9 5 0 1 9 6 0
Des Moines 159,819 176,954 208,982
Cedar Rapids 62,120 72,149 92,035
Sioux City 82,364 84,035 89,159
Davenport 66,039 73,640 88,981
Waterloo 51,743 64,354 71,755
Dubuque 43,892 49,528 56,606
Council Bluffs 41,439 45,184 55,641
Ottumwa 31,570 33,640 33,871
Clinton 26,270 30,379 33,589
Iowa City 17,182 27,018 33,443
Mason City 27,080 27,593 30,642
Fort Dodge 22,904 25,025 29,399
Ames 12,555 23,105 27,003
Marshalltown 19,240 19,750 22,521
Muscatine 18,286 19,483 20,997
Keokuk 15,076 16,144 16,316
Fifty-three percent of the total population of 
Iowa reside in the cities and towns of more than
MUNICIPAL GO VERNM ENT IN IO W A  597
2,500 population, according to the 1960 United 
States Census. It should be noted that more than 
half of the citizens of Iowa now live in the 15 
most populous counties.
The municipal home rule statute which was 
passed by the Iowa General Assembly in 1963 has 
been interpreted by the Iowa Supreme Court as 
being legal but did not grant any powers to the 
municipalities other than those granted by state 
statute. In spite of the lack of “home rule" the 
people of Iowa’s municipalities have been permit­
ted a great deal of latitude in determining for 
themselves the form of municipal government they 
desire. Iowa statutes permit four forms of munic­
ipal government: mayor-council, commission,
council-manager by referendum, and council-man­
ager by ordinance. (In addition, the four special 
charter cities are all using the mayor-council gov­
ernment even though technically their charters 
could be amended to utilize one of the other forms 
if their citizens should desire.)
FORMS OF GOVERNMENT IN IOWA CITIES
AND TOWNS 
as of January 1966
Special Charter Cities (Mayor-council) 
Commission governed cities 
Council-Manager by Referendum 
Council-Manager by Ordinance 
Weak Mayor-Council 916
4
4
7
13
944 Total
598 THE PALIMPSEST
Mayor-Council Government 
The 916 Iowa municipalities that use the may- 
or-council system of government concentrate the 
policy making and administrative supervision in 
the council. The ordinances of the municipal cor­
poration are enacted by the popularly elected 
members of the council by a majority vote. In 
those municipalities with fewer than two thous­
and residents, the council is composed of five mem­
bers elected at large on a non-partisan basis, us­
ually for a two year term. (The state statutes per­
mit four year terms if by a popular referendum 
such an ordinance has been authorized.) In those 
municipalities of more than two thousand using 
the mayor-council system, the city may be divided 
into as many wards as the council may determine, 
with one councilman elected from each ward and 
two elected at large. Most of the eligible cities 
employ this alternative rather than electing the 
council at large. In addition to the policy making 
duties the councils also supervise through commit­
tees the various municipal functions, i.e. public 
safety, street department, public health, et cetera. 
The council members receive a stipulated fee for 
each council meeting but receive no pay for their 
administrative supervisory tasks. One of the ma­
jor policy making powers of the council is to set 
the property tax rate for municipal taxes. The 
maximum permitted for operating funds is thirty 
mills. Only with special permission from the state
comptroller may the thirty mill municipal property 
tax limit be exceeded.
The mayor, in the mayor-council municipalities, 
is elected separately from the councilmen. He, 
like the members of the council, is elected for a 
two year or four year term, on a non-partisan 
basis (although local parties may occasionally 
nominate slates for the ballot these are considered 
to be non-partisan). The salary received by the 
mayor is whatever is established by the council. It 
usually is a token amount as the post is considered 
to be a part-time one just as are the council po­
sitions. The mayor does not have a vote on sub­
stantive matters, ordinances, and resolutions, but 
does have the veto power. However, the veto may 
be over-ridden by a two-thirds vote of the council. 
The mayor is usually considered a “figure head“ 
and ceremonial post, although he does preside at 
council meetings and may be authorized to per­
form certain administrative functions. His ap­
pointive powers are limited and most appointments 
must be approved by the council.
If the municipality does not have a police court 
or a municipal court, the mayor is empowered to 
serve as a magistrate, serving as the judge in may­
or’s court. The jurisdiction is limited to the area 
included in the municipality and to the enforce­
ment of ordinances of the municipal corporation. 
Maximum fines that may be levied are 30 days in 
jail and/or $100 fines.
MUNICIPAL G O VERN M EN T IN IO W A  599
600 THE PALIMPSEST
Commission Cities
The “Des Moines Plan” of municipal govern­
ment centers all of the administrative powers and 
the policy making authority in five commissioners 
who are elected at large, on a non-partisan basis 
for two year terms. One is elected to the post of 
Mayor (Superintendent of Public Affairs), a sec­
ond elected Commissioner of Finance, a third 
elected Commissioner of Public Safety, a fourth is 
the Commissioner of Public Works, and the fifth 
elected commissioner is head of the park and re­
creation department. As of January 1966, only 
Cedar Rapids, Burlington, Ottumwa and Fort 
Dodge of all the Iowa municipalities use the plan 
that bears the name of the State’s capitol city. 
(Des Moines used the system from 1907 to 1950 
and made several improvments in the plan orig­
inally made famous in Galveston, Texas. These 
improvements earned it the title—“The Des 
Moines Plan.”)
The commissioners are full time municipal em­
ployees, receiving a salary as stipulated in the 
Iowa statutes. The larger the population of the 
city the higher the pay authorized for the commis­
sioners. Each heads the department that his title 
would indicate but collectively each week the com­
missioners meet, with the mayor presiding, to en­
act ordinances and establish the over-all policies 
of the city.
Iowa cities that have abandoned the plan in-
elude Mason City, Sioux City, Des Moines, and 
Keokuk. Nationally the system is losing favor 
with most cities and they leave the plan in favor 
of council-manager government.
CounciPManager Cities
Two forms of council-manager government are 
permitted by the Iowa Code. A municipality may 
by popular referendum adopt the council-manag­
er form of government, which requires election of 
five councilmen at large, for four year terms, on 
a staggered basis. The council names the city 
manager who has 20 administrative powers as del­
egated in the Iowa statutes. The council members 
concentrate on policy making and turn over all of 
the administrative operation of the city govern­
ment to the appointed city manager, who has no 
set tenure but serves as long as his services are 
satisfactory to a majority of the council members. 
This professional administrator need not be a resi­
dent of the community in which he serves as the 
chief administrative official. His salary is set by 
the council with no limitations by state law. It 
usually is quite similar to the salary received by 
the school superintendent in the city, thus varying 
from more than $20,000 a year in Des Moines to 
about $10,000 in the smaller municipalities with 
council-manager systems.
The 20 duties of manager empower him to com­
pletely control virtually every aspect of municipal 
administration. He has control of personnel, pur-
MUNICIPAL GO VERNM EN T IN IOIVA  601
602 THE PALIMPSEST
chasing, finance including budgeting and account­
ing, public safety, public health, public works, 
planning, parks and recreation, and any public 
utilities owned by the city unless special boards 
have been established to control the latter activ­
ities. The success of the council-manager plan de­
pends upon the quality of both the council, who 
names and fires the manager, and the city manager. 
The final authority of course resides in the hands 
of the city council.
Seven Iowa Cities using the plan by referen­
dum and the dates it was first effective in these 
cities are: Webster City (1916), Dubuque
(1920), Council Bluffs (1950), Des Moines 
(1950), Iowa City (1951), Sioux City (1954), 
and Chariton (1966). Two cities in Iowa have 
adopted the plan by vote of the people and then 
after a period of years abandoned it; they are Ma­
son City, which used the plan from 1927 until dis­
carded in 1944, and Ottumwa (1954 to 1960).
Council-M anager by Ordinance
The second manager plan, that is allowed under 
Iowa law, enables the city council in any munic­
ipality, other than those using the commission plan 
or manager plan by referendum, to enact an ordi­
nance providing for the establishment of the posi­
tion of city manager. The administrative authority 
granted to the city manager may be as great or as 
little as the council shall decree in the ordinance 
creating the post. In some instances, such as
Marion, the council has given the manager nearly 
the same powers as he has under the referendum 
plan. In other cities, the manager has been merely 
a title given to the man in charge of the municipal 
water plant or in other so-called manager cities to 
the head of the street department.
Since Clarinda in 1915 became one of the first, 
if not the first, city west of the Mississippi River 
to employ a manager, more than thirty Iowa munic­
ipalities have used this council-manager plan by 
ordinance. However, only thirteen Iowa munic­
ipalities are currently listed by the International 
City Managers’ Association as council-manager 
by ordinance cities. By far the largest in this cate­
gory of Iowa cities is Ames which first initiated 
the program in 1920 and has left it basically un­
changed since that time.
In these cities the mayor is elected independ­
ently of the council, while in the manager plan by 
referendum the mayor is selected each year by the 
council members from their own number. The 
duties of the mayor are to preside at the council 
sessions, exercise a limited veto, make a few minor 
appointments, and act as the ceremonial and com­
munity leader. Both the mayor and members of 
the council devote only part-time to their respec­
tive positions just as they do in the council-manag­
er by referendum cities.
The manager plan is drawing new converts 
throughout the United States every year with more
MUNICIPAL G O VERN M EN T IN IO W A  603
604 THE PALIMPSEST
than two thousand cities now having city man­
agers in charge of their municipal affairs. This is 
not to imply, however, that the mayor-council plan 
will ever completely disappear as both the smallest 
municipalities and the largest metropolitan cities 
appear to continue to adhere to this system.


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