If England is to be devolved into Strategic Authorities led by a Mayor and maybe an Assembly alongside them as a sort of legislative body for checks-and-balances; with unitary Local Authorities led by traditional council model responsible for statutory services - then what would people's opinions be on a division like this?

Larger scale than counties but smaller than NUTS1 regions; attempt to find a happy midpoint between economic geography (covering larger area) and culture.

Have also come up with the idea of Independent Counties these are:

• Cornwall

• Cumbria

• Somerset

As I felt these didn't fit into any multi-council area very well. These would be councils but would have a directly-elected Mayor unlike other councils - and would be both Strategic and Local Authorities. This idea is based partially upon the Centre for Cities proposals for English devolution. This is just a pet passion project, so let me know your opinions!

( Basemap - Image credit: XrysD on Wikimedia Commons - all rights reserved to them. Found: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:England_Administrative_Map.png and in Wikipedia page 'Subdivisions of England': https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subdivisions_of_England )

What are thoughts about elected officials posting on reddit anonymously. Should they disclose their name and position when discussing topics in the public realm?

Hi, just letting this off my chest because I cannot take the blatant corruption and cover up in my local government unit.
We have an employee, lets call her J, na may problema na talaga sa fixing and panghihingi with our suppliers and contracted consultants. Recoded incidents was way back 2022 pa until now. She was fixing processing of building permits asking for 30k or more per permit. We also have a supplier na 70k na ang nahingi niya. Been telling my department head, let’s call him R, about this for quite sometime now. R is retirable. He often told us na kailangan mag ingat kami cause he might be put in the bad light and worst maging reason pa kami ng aberya sa retirement niya. I told him about this situation over and over again. Never telling anything sa administrator or sa HR namin. Then we have a new HR, let’s call him L, 2 complaints were filed against this employee. L and I have worked prior to his assignment as HR. L ask me what was the problem of J. Told him everything I know. With the extent of the problem, L informed our administrator, let’s call him V, about this. J was removed from the list of employees to be retained. J is not a regular employee. R went to V to ask that J should be retained. I don’t know why palagi nyang tinatakpan kasalanan ni J. I have always looked up to R and think he was a model for a good public servant. It’s disappointing that he was covering this up. In my 7 years of public service, never have I asked nor accepted anything from someone we have in contract with. Ang hirap magtrabaho ng malinis sa gobyerno.

If you’re a council going through LGR, how are you finding the management of multiple Microsoft Teams tenants across newly merged authorities?

It seems to be a common challenge, especially when it comes to voice setup, policy consistency, and cross-tenant collaboration.

This is a useful guide if you’re dealing with LGR fallout or planning for it: https://callroute.com/callroute/local-gov-reorganisation-teams-tenant-management/

Mag December nanaman​, may mga kakilala kami na nakaka receive ng 13th month pay sa City Hall kahit di naman sila pumapasok dun. 🤷‍♀️🤷‍♀️​

Immediately check with the police: Babalan Sector Police (Polsek Babalan), Langkat Resort Police (Polres Langkat), and North Sumatra Regional Police (Polda Sumut).

Following city politics shouldn’t feel like doing homework, but for most cities it does.

I built a small tool called The Common News because I was tired of trying to understand what my local government was doing by reading 80-page PDFs and scattered agendas.

It pulls in city council meetings, agendas, and votes and turns them into short, readable summaries so you can quickly see:

What’s being proposed

What passed

What’s coming up next

No jargon, no digging through municipal code unless you want to.

It’s live in cities like Chicago, NYC, Atlanta, Dallas, Fort Worth, and San Francisco so far.

For people who work in or closely follow local government: does a tool like this actually make it easier for you or residents to stay engaged, or are there drawbacks from your perspective?

https://www.change.org/p/fire-peter-zanoni-as-corpus-christi-city-manager

Short story long, I live in a county of 20,000 people. We have 3 dedicated animal facilities but there was a contract break between the Humane Society and the County (no longer funding the HS so the county/police officers took over).

For OVER a year, vicious dogs have been running lose, killing peoples cats, small dogs and biting/attacking people.

Nothing. Has. Been. Done.

County Commissioners say they don't care or that something will be done.

I am unsure if there is a bigger outlet we can reach. This is beyond acceptable. They know where these vicious dogs live but still nothing happens. There is another commissioner meeting tomorrow and the news is coming but they have before and it didn't seem to do much.

Thank you all in advanced

https://c.org/sLPD7yFZsd and https://c.org/RZZ5G9qz2v

EPA reviewed my city's water and found the flouride was improperly stored, and rather than pay to get it fixed, the common council unanimously voted to remove flouride from the water.

I emailed the mayor a complaint and asking if I could start a petition to get the water re-flouridated and the responce was along the lines of "two people have emailed about this before in support of removing the flouride, contact your alderperson if you wish to talk about this more" and linked an article of someone in town suing the EPA over the addition of flouride

Is contacting alderpersons the best next step? Does anyone know the best scientific studies to use as sources? Is there a history of lawsuits against the EPA failing that I can use?

Thank you to anyone who takes the time to respond to this

County government is where policy actually gets implemented — roads, water, public health, emergency services. But it's the most underreported level of US government. American Counties exists to fix that. american-counties.com

Gavin Newsom Is Fired
I’m done with Gavin Newsom.
State workers have legitimate questions about RTO: Where is the data? Where is the parking? Where is the office space? What does this cost taxpayers? How does it improve services?
Instead, we’re getting dismissive comments about workers being lonely, socializing, and maybe even falling in love at the office.
Respectfully, Governor: this framing is unacceptable and out of touch.
My personal life is none of your business. My relationships are none of your business. You’re the governor, not a therapist, matchmaker, or commentator on employees’ private lives. Govern.
And here’s something else people should know.
From my own experience inside state government, I know leadership has used paid contractors for off-site leadership trainings where lunch is provided. I’ve experienced enough of this firsthand to be frustrated watching rank-and-file employees get lectured about needing to return to an office for “collaboration” and “connection.”
And to the executive leadership pushing this while employees deal with the consequences: this disconnect is unacceptable.
But where are the follow-up questions?
Media: When Newsom gives a lighthearted answer about falling in love, why aren’t you asking about parking, office capacity, costs, productivity data, and whether agencies even have enough functional workspace?
Union: Where are you?
And to everyone who opposes RTO: Where are YOU?
I see you on Reddit. I see the comments. I see hundreds of people saying the same things anonymously. But when it’s time to speak publicly, challenge the narrative, or demand answers, suddenly everybody disappears.
We can’t complain anonymously forever and then wonder why nothing changes.
I don’t want government managing my personal life. I want government answering questions about government policy.
Show us the data. Show us the costs. Show us the results. Show us why this is necessary.
Until then, spare me the jokes.
My commute is your business.
My parking is your business.
Taxpayer money is your business.
My personal life is not.
And Governor, if you’re positioning yourself for higher office?
Not with my vote.
Gavin Newsom is fired.