The City Council
The City Council is a representative political body elected every five years by the citizens residing in the Municipality. The number of Councillors is proportional to the number of citizens – in Trento the City Council is composed of fifty Councillors.
In the last decades the City Council has been radically reformed, which has significantly altered its function and powers. First of all, its decision-taking power has been reduced: some years ago (the first reform dates back to 1990) it could deliberate on almost anything, from banal expenses to important acts. Today, the City Council is responsible only for taking key decisions affecting the community. The Council has increased its functions of a political-administrative nature by approving the agenda and the operation of the Executive Board and strengthened its monitoring role of activities undertaken by Managers, controlled companies and municipal companies.
The City Council plays a very important role since it is responsible for those decisions which most affect the citizens, from urban planning (town-planning scheme) and business planning (balance sheet and financial plan) to tariffs policy, to public services management and Municipality general management. The Executive Board implements City Council decisions and the relevant specific acts are drawn up by the Managers.
The City Council has a mandate till the next election. Outgoing councillors may anyway work on the implementation of urgent acts which can not be postponed.
In recent years the role of the President of the City Council has increased in importance.
The President is nominated at the first sitting of the newly-elected Council via a bona fide election in which an important role is played by the dynamics of the relationship between the majority and minority political parties elected to the Council.
The Presidential Office is elected at the first meeting of the newly-elected Council.
The City Council may be organised into Commissions, consisting of Councillors, which act as reference points for the main issues addressed by the council. Some Commissions are provided for by the municipal statute, and their composition must reflect the Council’s ratio between majority and minority parties. Other Commissions may be set up by the City Council in compliance with the statute. The powers, organization and information dissemination of their activities are defined in the internal norms of the City Council.
The municipality statute also allows for the setting up of special Council Commissions for in-depth analysis and study of specific issues.
The political parties which have taken part in the election of the new Council and which have placed their representative therein (elected Councillors) merge into coalitions which reflect the lists or allies of their parties, both local and national. Within the same coalition the councillors share the same ideals and political outlook. The coalitions may change both in their name and composition, provided that any new coalition consists of a minimum of two Councillors. The importance of the coalitions is acknowledged when creating both the Council Commissions and the controlling bodies which monitor the Council activities, such as the Coalition Heads Conference.
A fund, proportional to the number of the coalitions components, is allocated for secretarial expenses, research, conferences, mail expenses, training activities.
Each coalition is allocated offices which become its official seat, complete with the technical equipment necessary for carrying out their activities.
