The Mayor-Council government system, is one of two variations of government used for the most part in modern representative municipal governments. The Mayor-Council variant can be broken down into two main variations depending on the relationship between the legislative and executive branches.

In the weak-mayor form of the mayor-council government, the council possesses both legislative and executive authority. The council may appoint officials and must approve of mayoral nominations. The council also exercises primary control over the municipal budget. The mayor, though elected, has little real political power and less independence under this form, serves largely ceremonial duties, and may even be a member of the council. The weak-mayor plan comes from the belief that if politicians have few powers and many checks, then they can do relatively little damage. This form of government is ours now and most commonly used in small towns.

The strong-mayor form of mayor-council government consists of a popularly elected city mayor and city council respectively. In the strong-mayor form the mayor is given almost* total administrative authority and a clear, wide range of political independence, with the power to appoint and dismiss department heads without council approval and little public input. In this system, the strong mayor prepares and administers the city budget, although that budget often must be approved by the city council. In some strong-mayor governments, the mayor will appoint a CAO, sometimes called a city manager, who will supervise department heads, prepare the budget, and coordinate departments. This CAO is responsible only to the mayor. *If the City of Santa Clarita had an elected mayor, Ken Pulskamp would be CAO.