Mayor (France)

There is, in each Commune Frenchwoman, a mayor and one or more assistants, elected among the members of the Municipal council.

The election of the mayor

Term of the office of the mayor

The term of the office of the mayor is equal to that of the municipal council (6 years). It is re-eligible.

The mayor has a clean mandate: he can resign freely, and be replaced in the event of death, or of revocation of his functions of mayor per court order, without causing new municipal elections.

The law on the office plurality of the mandates makes it possible a mayor to have only one personal electoral mandate (Député, Senator, regional adviser, General adviser), in addition to its municipal load. The function of City council man is not regarded as a personal mandate.

The current use, even if no legal text provides it, request that he resigns of his function of mayor in order to exert a ministerial responsibility. Generally, it then remains city council man.

Functions of the mayor

The mayor is at the same time agent of the State and agent of the commune as a territorial collectivity.

The capacities and duties of the mayor are in particular defined by the general Code of the territorial collectivities (CGCT), that is to say:

like agent of the State :

Under the authority of the prefect, it fills of the administrative offices, in particular:

publication of the laws and payments;
the organization of the elections;
the legalization of the Signature S.
the mayor is charged, under the authority of the representative of the State in the department, of the carrying out of the measures of general security and of the special functions which are allotted to him by the laws, for example of the application of the law n° 79-1150 of December 29th, 1979 on publicity, the enseignes.
In the event of urgency, or to reinforce with an aim of local law and order, the measurement taken by the higher authority as regards police force, the mayor can be invited to intervene under its general administrative policing powers, in complement of the official special police forces (for example the special police force of the historic buildings and natural sites).
It exerts also functions in the legal field under the authority of the Public prosecutor: he is Officier of civil statue and famous for example the civil weddings and Judiciary police officer.
For this reason, it contributes by its policing powers to the exercise of the missions of safety publique.
Il can, in particular on the instructions of the Public prosecutor or of the Examining magistrate, being brought to diligenter of the investigations on the personality of the people continued like on their material, family situation or sociale.
In practice, these missions are especially entrusted to the mayors of the communes where there do not exist other judiciary police officers.
the mayor also lays out of a civil legal function, which confers the right to him to receive notarial acts in the name of the French Republic.

like agent of the Commune:

It chairs the Municipal council, thus decides of about a day of the Municipal council and prepares his work. For this reason, it is the Mayor (and municipal services) who prepares the budget.
the mayor is the chief of the municipal authorities. He is the hierarchically superior of the agents of the commune and has a capacity of organization of the services.
He is the director of the expenditure and of the receipts of the commune
the mayor contributes by his policing powers to the exercise of the missions of public safety and has a broad competence as regards municipal police , since it is in particular charged to ensure the good order, safety, safety and the public health, the freedom of the public highway, the prevention and the organization of the helps against the catastrophes
For this reason, it is the person in charge of the service of the Municipal police and the rural policemen;
Les policing powers of the mayor, in their current form, primarily dates from the laws of the 16 and August 24th 1790 (see the article Municipal police ).

As regards administrative Police force special, it has important capacities in varied fields, such as:

the police force of the buildings threatening ruin
protection against the panic and fire hazards in the buildings receiving of the public;
regulation of circulation and the parking in agglomeration or on the communal ways;
the internment of emergency office of the dangerous alienated people
the police force of the Funérailles and the Cimetière S, the transport of the bodies, and must provide urgently so that any person deceased is buried and buried decently without reference to worship nor of belief if the close relations do not undertake any.

As regards town planning, it delivers in the name of the commune the Permis to build and other authorizations of town planning in the communes equipped with a Document of town planning, like a Local plan of town planning

It publishes for this purpose of the local by-law , for, for example, to regulate circulation, the parking, the bathe and navigation on its commune, to authorize the opening of the establishments receiving from the public (ERP), to prescribe work in the event of setting in danger of the population or the environment…

like executive agent of the Municipal council :

it is in charge of the execution of the decisions of the Municipal council, and acts under the control of this last. Its missions in particular consist to represent the commune in justice, to sign the markets, to sign contracts, to carry out the budget, to manage the inheritance…
it exerts the competences delegated by the municipal council (assignment of the communal properties, realization of the loans, creation of classes in the schools…) and must then give an account of its acts to him. The delegations are revocable constantly. The law of the August 13rd 2004 relating to local freedoms and responsibilities authorizes the mayor to be subdelegated, with an assistant or a city council man, attributions which were entrusted to him by delegation.

The roles and responsibilities for the mayors are juridically independent of the importance of the commune and its services. It is an important limit of this mode, since it is seen well that the mayor of a small rural district of a few tens of inhabitants is completely crushed by his spots, and hardly has the concrêts means of exerting them. It is one of the causes of the " grogne" town councilors.

The allowances of the mayors are defined in the article L 2123-23 of the CGCT according to the size of the commune, expressed as a percentage of the index gross final of the indicial scale of the public office.

The costume of the mayors

At the time of the public ceremonies, the mayor and the assistants must carry an official costume obligatorily.

Since 1790, with the creation of the common , the mayors had as a distinctive sign the tri-colored scarf with fringe, the Décret of the National Assembly of the March 20th 1790 expect that “ when the municipal officers are in function, they will carry for distinctive mark a scarf to the three colors of the nation: blue, red and white . ” Two Stopped S of the 8 messidor and the 17 floréal Year VIII (1799), modified on several occasions and in particular by article 2 of the Decree of March 1st 1852 relating to the costume of the civils servant and employees depending on the ministry for the interior, always into force, but fallen in disuse, determine the official costume of the mayors, thus composed:

blue dress, silver embroidery, connects olive-tree with the collet, facings and size, rod at the edge of the dress,
white waistcoat,
French hat with black feathers, ganse embroidered out of money,
sword silver plated with mother-of-pearl handle,
tri-colored scarf with nipples with gold fringes;
small behavior: even embroidery with the collet and facings.

For the assistants of the mayor:

corners embroidered with the collet, facing, size and rod,
tri-colored scarf with money fringes;
small behavior: corners with the collet and facings.

Nowadays, the port of the scarf is governed by the provisions of article D. 2122-4 of the general Code of the territorial collectivities which stipulates:

the mayors carry the tri-colored scarf with nipples to gold fringes in the public ceremonies and all the times that the performance of their duties can make necessary this distinctive sign of their authority. the assistants carry the tri-colored scarf with nipples to money fringes in the performance of their duties of officer of civil statue and judiciary police officer, and when they replace or represent the mayor pursuant to the articles L. 2122-17 and L. 2122-18. the city council men carry the tri-colored scarf with nipples to money fringes when they replace the mayor pursuant to the article L. 2122-17 or when they are led to celebrate marriages by delegation of the mayor under the conditions fixed by the article L. 2122-18. the tri-colored scarf can go either out of belt or of the right shoulder to the left side. When it is carried out of belt, the order of the colors makes appear blue in top. When it is carried in scarf, the order of the colors makes appear blue close to the collar, by differentiation with the members of Parliament.

Under the empire of the Law of the June 7th 1848, the port of the scarf was obligatory for the authority which proceeded to the summations before the dispersion of the assemblies. Today still, in accordance with article 431-3 of the penal code, the mayor or one of his assistants, when it proceeds to the known as summations, must be carrying the badges of its function.

The badge of the mayors

Created by a Decree of the November 22nd 1951, the official badge of the mayors to the national colors is in conformity hereafter with the model: “ On a blue, white enamel bottom and bearing red " MAIRE" on the white and " R.F." on blue; surrounded by two branches of sinople, olive-tree to dextral and oak to sinistral, the whole stitching on a beam of money lictor summoned of a head of cock of gold bored and crested of mouths. ”

The port of the official badge of the mayors to the national colors, of which the use is optional, is reserved to the mayors in the performance of their duties and does not exempt a port of the scarf when this one is prescribed by the texts in force.

The indentity card

Article 5 of the Decree of the December 31st 1921 and the Circulaire of the March 17th 1931 authorized the Préfet S to deliver with the mayors an indentity card to enable them to justify of their quality, in particular when they act like Judiciary police officer.

The rosette of vehicle

The affixing of a tricolor rosette or a badge to the national colors on their vehicle is strictly prohibited for the authorities other than those mentioned by the decree of September 13rd, 1989 (President of the Republic, members of the government, members of the Parliament, president of the Constitutional council, vice-president of the Council of State, president of the Economic and Social Council, prefects, Sous-préfet S, representatives of the State in the Overseas territories). This list is strictly restrictive. Non-observance is liable to sanction penal.

On the other hand, the vehicles of the town councilors can be equipped with distinctive badges, of stamps, seals or blazons of their commune, department or area, supplemented by the mention of their mandate. However only the label and the certificate of insurance can be put on the windshield.

Sources, notes and references

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