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A town council is a democratically elected form of government for small municipalities or civil parishes. A council may serve as both the representative and executive branch.

Depending upon local laws and regulations, town councils usually self-organize and elect a leader to set the agenda of their governing body. This leader may be granted a title such as chairman, mayor, or president.

Republic of Ireland[link]

Town Councils in the Republic of Ireland form the second tier of local government under counties, and date from 2002, when the existing Urban District Councils and Town Commissioners were redesignated. There are currently 75 such councils.

Belize[link]

There are currently seven town councils in Belize. Each town council consists of a mayor and a number of councillors, who are directly elected in municipal elections every three years. Town councils in Belize are responsible for a range of functions, including street maintenance and lighting, drainage, refuse collection, public cemeteries, infrastructure, parks and playgrounds.

United Kingdom[link]

In England, town councils are civil parish councils, where the civil parish has declared itself to be a town. Civil parishes are the most local level of elected governance, under the district, unitary or county level.

Any parish can decide to describe itself as a town. The chairman of a town council is technically called a town mayor. The term "town mayor" is used as opposed to simply "mayor", which means the mayor of a borough or a city. However, this is often abbreviated simply to mayor, especially where the town was historically a borough or city, such as Lewes or Ely. In Scotland, the term 'provost' is commonly used to designate the leader of the town council.

Historically the term 'town council' was used for the governing body of a municipal borough.

The term 'town council' in England, is today used only for a parish council which has named itself as a town council. If another type of local authority such as a district authority covers a single town (such as Corby or Cheltenham) then the council is often a 'borough council': borough status is however conferred at the discretion of the Crown.

In Wales, where the lowest tier of local government is known as a community, the Community Council may unilaterally declare itself to be a Town Council, but this has the same status as a Community Council.

Canada[link]

Manitoba[link]

Manitoba town council members serve primarily as a policy and direction board for the community. They consist of five to seven members with the head of council being the mayor or reeve.

United States town councils[link]

Indiana[link]

Indiana town council members serve as both the executive and legislative branches for small communities incorporated as towns within the state. They consist of three or five members, depending upon the town's population.

Unlike some states, Indiana councilmembers must declare a political party affiliation, if any, when they file to run for office. Upon election in November, they are sworn in before January 1 of the following year, where they serve a four year term. There are no state term limits affecting how many times a candidate may run for reelection to office.

The first meeting after an election, members of the town council hold an organizing meeting, where they elect a president to set future agendas and act as an official spokesman for the town or as liaison between the town and state and county government.

Indiana town councils work in conjunction with an elected town clerk, who manages the day-to-day business of the municipal government. As an elected official, the town clerk is solely executive in function and operates independently of the town council. But the council has final say on budgets which clerks depend upon to operate.

In addition to a clerk, the council can authorize the hiring of other staff to run the operations of government, including law enforcement officers, utility workers, park and recreation employees and town managers. These employees serve at the pleasure of the council.

Massachusetts[link]

Town councils in Massachusetts are essentially city councils in towns which have adopted a city form of government but prefer to retain the "town of" in their names. In several communities which have adopted such a government, the official name of the community is "The City Known As The Town of..." The legislative body of a legal town in Massachusetts is a town meeting; the executive board is a board of selectmen. The advantage to styling a community's name as a city lies in its ability to enact ordinances. Towns may adopt by-laws, but they are subject to the approval of the Attorney General. City ordinances are presumed to be legal unless challenged and set aside in court. See Massachusetts Government.

New Hampshire[link]

In New Hampshire, the Town Council is an elected body which serves as the legislative and executive body of the town. The town is governed by a charter, which is allowed under the home rule provision of the New Hampshire Constitution (Pt I, Art. 39) and Title III of the New Hampshire Revised Statutes Annotated. The charter for a Town Council must meet the following requirements of RSA 49-D:3 I. (a) - (e) and all other applicable laws. The basic notion of home rule in New Hampshire is that local communities are not allowed to supersede the authority specifically granted to them by the state.

Official Ballot Town Council[link]

The Official Ballot Town Council is a variant form of the Town Council. In the Official Ballot form of government, the town council is vested with the limited authority to vote on all matters not voted on by official ballot. The authority and restrictions on the Official Ballot town council is the same as the Town Council, except with respect to those matters specified to be voted on by official ballot. Also, the council decides what is placed on the ballot, not the registered voters.

The charter of the Official Ballot Town Council is required by law to specify specifically:

• Which budgetary items to be included on the official ballot; and
• A finalization process for the annual budget; and
• Process for public hearings, debate, discussion, and amendment of questions to be placed on the official ballot; and
• Procedures for the transfer of funds among various departments, funds, accounts, and agencies as may be necessary during the year; and
• Applicability of the official ballot procedure to special elections

The charter also must specify whether a 2/3 or 3/5 majority vote is required to approve bonds or notes, with the default being 2/3.

Palestine[link]

The Palestinian National Authority established village councils to serve as local administrations and service providers for Palestinian villages and small towns. Village councils are also referred to as D-level municipalities.

Singapore[link]

In Singapore, town councils are in charge of maintaining the common areas of Housing and Development Board (HDB) flats and estates, such as the common corridors, void decks, lifts, water tanks, external lighting and the open spaces surrounding the estates.

Town councils boundaries are drawn based on electoral districts boundaries. A town council area can consist of a Group Representation Constituency (GRC), a Single Member Constituency (SMC), or a collection of neighbouring GRCs and SMCs controlled by the same political party. The Members of Parliament head the town councils of their constituencies. Town councils boundaries do not correspond to new town boundaries; different parts of the same HDB town may be managed by different town councils.

See also[link]

• City council

Jennifer Jones
in Love is a Many Splendored Thing (1955)
Born	Phylis Lee Isley (1919-03-02)March 2, 1919 Tulsa, Oklahoma
Died	December 17, 2009(2009-12-17) (aged 90) Malibu, California
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1939-1974
Spouse	Robert Walker (m.1939-1945; divorced) David O. Selznick (m.1949-1965; his death) Norton Simon (m.1971-1993; his death)

Jennifer Jones (March 2, 1919 - December 17, 2009) was an American Oscar-winning actress during the Hollywood golden years. Jones, who won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance in the 1943 The Song of Bernadette, was also nominated four-times for Academy Awards. She married three times; most notably to film producer David O. Selznick.

Jones, who starred in more than 20 films over a thirty year career, semi-retired from acting following the death of her husband, David O. Selznick, in 1965. In 1980, she founded the Jennifer Jones Simon Foundation For Mental Health And Education after her daughter's suicide. In later life, Jones withdrew from public life to live in quiet retirement with her son and his family in Malibu, California.

Early life[link]

Jones was born Phylis Lee Isley in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the daughter of Flora Mae (née Suber) and Phillip Ross Isley.^[1] An only child, she was raised Roman Catholic and attended Catholic school.^[2] Her parents toured the Midwest in a traveling tent show that they owned and operated. Jones attended Monte Cassino, a girls' school and junior college in Tulsa and then Northwestern University in Illinois, where she was a member of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority, before transferring to the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City in 1938. It was there that she met and fell in love with fellow acting student Robert Walker. The couple married on January 2, 1939.^[3]

Jones and Walker returned to Tulsa for a 13-week radio program, arranged by Jones' father, and then made their way to Hollywood. Jones landed two small roles, first in a 1939 John Wayne western titled New Frontier, followed by a serial entitled Dick Tracy's G-Men. In these two films, she was billed as 'Phyllis Isley' (Phyllis now spelled with two Ls). However, she failed a screen test for Paramount Pictures and decided to return to New York City.

Career[link]

While Walker found steady work in radio programs, Isley worked part-time modeling hats for the Powers Agency while looking for possible acting jobs. When she learned of auditions for the lead role in Claudia, Rose Franken’s hit play, she presented herself to David O. Selznick’s New York office but fled in tears after what she thought was a bad reading. Selznick, however, overheard her audition and was impressed enough to have his secretary call her back. Following an interview, she was signed to a seven-year contract.

She was carefully groomed for stardom and given a new name: Jennifer Jones. Director Henry King was impressed by her screen test as Bernadette Soubirous for The Song of Bernadette (1943) and she won the coveted role over hundreds of applicants. In 1944, on her 25th birthday, Jones won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her performance as Bernadette Soubirous. That year, Jones' friend, Ingrid Bergman, was also a Best Actress nominee for her work in For Whom the Bell Tolls. Jones apologized to Bergman, who replied, "No, Jennifer, your Bernadette was better than my Maria." Jones presented the Best Actress Oscar the following year to Bergman for Gaslight.^[4]

in Love Letters (1945)

Over the next two decades, Jones appeared in a wide range of roles selected by Selznick. Her dark beauty and sensitive nature appealed to audiences and she projected a variable range. Her initial saintly image — as shown in her first starring role — was a stark contrast three years later when she was cast as a provocative bi-racial woman in Selznick’s controversial film Duel in the Sun (1946). Other notable films included Since You Went Away (1944), Love Letters (1945), Cluny Brown (1946), Portrait of Jennie (1948), Madame Bovary (1949), We Were Strangers (1949), Gone to Earth (1950), Carrie (1952), Ruby Gentry (also 1952), Indiscretion of an American Wife (1953), Beat the Devil (1953), Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955), Good Morning Miss Dove (also 1955), The Man in the Gray Flannel Suit (1956) starring opposite Gregory Peck and A Farewell to Arms (1957). Her leading men during this period included Charles Boyer, Joseph Cotten, Gregory Peck, John Garfield, Charlton Heston, Laurence Olivier, Montgomery Clift, Humphrey Bogart, William Holden, Robert Stack, John Gielgud, Rock Hudson, and Jason Robards. The portrait of Jones for the film Portrait of Jennie was painted by Robert Brackman. She inspired the character Dolores González in Raymond Chandler's novel "The Little Sister" (1949).

Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6429 Hollywood Blvd.

Her last big-screen appearance came in the spectacular disaster film The Towering Inferno (1974), in which she danced with Fred Astaire before a fire threatened partygoers in a new San Francisco skyscraper who were celebrating its official opening as tallest building in the world. Her exit from the picture was also the most sympathetic when, after helping to assist two children to escape the disaster, her character fell 110 stories to her death from a scenic elevator on the outside of the building which was derailed following an explosion. Her touching performance earned her a Golden Globe nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Scenes from early on in the movie showed paintings lent to the production from the Norton Simon art gallery. Simon was her husband at the time the movie was produced.

Personal life[link]

Jones and second husband David O. Selznick in 1957

Jones's first marriage produced two sons, Robert Walker, Jr. (born April 15, 1940; the only one of Jones's children who would not predecease her), and Michael Walker (March 13, 1941 – December 27, 2007). Both later became actors. Jones had an affair with film producer David O. Selznick, which eventually led to her separation from Walker in November 1943 and divorce in June 1945.

Jones married Selznick on July 13, 1949, a union which lasted until his death on June 22, 1965. After his death, she semi-retired from acting. According to media reports, Jones attempted suicide in November 1967 after hearing of the death of close friend Charles Bickford. She was found unconscious at the base of a cliff overlooking Malibu Beach; she was hospitalized in a coma before eventually recovering.^[5][6] Her daughter, Mary Jennifer Selznick (1954–1976), committed suicide by jumping from a 20th-floor window in Los Angeles on May 11, 1976. This led to Jones's interest in mental health issues. In 1980, she founded the Jennifer Jones Simon Foundation For Mental Health And Education. The Foundation pledged $400,000 to be used exclusively for the world renowned Mary Jennifer Selznick Workshop Program, named in honor of Jones's late daughter.

On May 29, 1971, Jones married multi-millionaire industrialist, art collector and philanthropist Norton Simon, whose son Robert had committed suicide in 1969. The marriage took place aboard a tug 5 miles off the English coast, and was conducted by Unitarian minister Eirion Phillips.^[3] Years before, Simon had attempted to buy the portrait of her used in the film Portrait of Jennie. Simon later met Jones at a party hosted by fellow industrialist and art collector Walter Annenberg. Norton Simon died in June 1993. Four years before his death, Simon resigned as President of Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena and Jennifer Jones-Simon was appointed Chairman of the Board of Trustees, President and Executive Officer. In 1996, she began working with architect Frank Gehry and landscape designer Nancy Goslee Power on renovating the museum and gardens. She remained active as the director of the Norton Simon Museum until 2003 when she was given emeritus status.

Jones was a breast cancer survivor. Actress Susan Strasberg, who would die of the disease in 1999 and was then married to actor Christopher Jones, named her own daughter Jennifer Robin Jones in the older actress's honor.

Death[link]

Jones enjoyed a quiet retirement, living with her son Robert Walker, Jr. and his family in Malibu, for the last six years of her life. She granted no interviews and rarely appeared in public. She died of natural causes on Thursday, December 17, 2009, aged 90.^[7] She was cremated at the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Glendale.^[8]

Filmography[link]

Further reading[link]

• Epstein, Edward (1995). Portrait of Jennifer. New York: Simon & Schuster. ISBN 0-671-74056-3. 

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Jennifer Jones

• Jennifer Jones at the Internet Movie Database
• Jennifer Jones - Tribute site
• Jennifer Jones - Daily Telegraph obituary
• Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture - Jones, Jennifer

Sylvia Lim Swee Lian
At a Workers' Party of Singapore rally at Bedok Stadium on 30 April 2011 for the Singaporean general election, 2011
Member of Parliament for Aljunied GRC
Incumbent
Assumed office 7 May 2011
Preceded by	Lim Hwee Hua
Majority	12,333 (9.42%)
Member of Parliament for Non-Constituency
In office 6 May 2006 – 7 May 2011
Preceded by	Steve Chia
Succeeded by	Lina Chiam Yee Jenn Jong Gerald Giam
Personal details
Born	(1965-03-28) 28 March 1965 (age 47) Singapore
Nationality	Singaporean
Political party	Workers' Party
Alma mater	National University of Singapore University College London
Occupation	Politician
Profession	Lawyer, Lecturer at Temasek Polytechnic
Religion	Roman Catholic[1]

Sylvia Lim Swee Lian (simplified Chinese: 林瑞莲; traditional Chinese: 林瑞蓮; pinyin: Lín Ruì Lián; born 28 March 1965) is a politician, lawyer and academic from Singapore. She is currently the Chairman of the opposition Workers' Party and an elected Member of Parliament (MP) representing the constituency of Aljunied GRC. She is in charge of Serangoon division. ^[2]

Lim previously served in the Singapore Police Force, and taught as a law lecturer at Temasek Polytechnic. She is currently a senior associate in Peter Low LLC.

Personal profile[link]

Lim had her early education at CHIJ Our Lady of Good Counsel, CHIJ St Joseph's Convent and National Junior College. She then read Law at the National University of Singapore (NUS), graduating with a Bachelor of Laws (Honours) degree in 1988. She obtained a Master of Laws degree from the University of London (University College London) in 1989^[3], and was called to the Bar in Singapore in 1991.

During her undergraduate and postgraduate studies, Lim did volunteer work with the Spastic Children's Association, Salvation Army Home for the Aged and University College Hospital. She later did voluntary editorial work for the Criminal Legal Aid Scheme of the Law Society.

In 1991, Lim joined the Singapore Police Force for three years as a Police Inspector. She initially did investigation work at the Central Police Division Headquarters, and then became a staff officer under the Director of the Criminal Investigation Department.

Lim joined the law firm M/s Lim & Lim in 1994. She handled both civil and criminal cases in the High Court, Subordinate Courts and Juvenile Court between 1994 and 1998.

Lim joined Temasek Polytechnic in 1998 as a lecturer on the Diploma in Law and Management course. She also became the Manager of Professional Development and Manager of Continuing Education and Training at the polytechnic's School of Business. Her main areas of teaching and research are in civil and criminal procedure, criminal justice and private security. During her time at Temasek Polytechnic, Lim has contributed to the volume on Criminal Procedure for Halsbury's Laws of Singapore (2003), a legal practitioners' reference series, and has also collected and published primary research on private security in Singapore.

In March 2006, Temasek Polytechnic modified its staffing policies to enable Lim to run as a candidate in the general election without having to resign her teaching position at the institution.

Political Career[link]

Lim joined the Workers' Party in 2001 and quickly rose to become the Chairman of the party in 2003.

At the 2006 general election, Lim was a member of the Workers' Party team which contested the Aljunied Group Representation Constituency. The Workers' Party team lost to the team from the governing People's Action Party (PAP) by 58,593 votes (43.9%) to 74,843 (56.1%).^[4] This was the highest percentage of the vote garnered by any losing opposition candidates in the election, and therefore meant that the Workers' Party was entitled to select one of its team members from Ajunied GRC to become a Non-constituency Member of Parliament. The party chose Lim to become its NCMP.^[5]

During her term in Parliament, Lim spoke out against ministers' salaries, and also against means testing in hospitals, which resulted in the PAP deferring a decision on this for a period of two years from 2006 to 2008. In addition, she also called for a reduction in the Goods and Services Tax, arguing that it was a regressive tax, and urged the government to do more to help retrenched workers.

In the 2011 general election, Lim again contested in Aljunied GRC, along with Muhamad Faisal Manap, Pritam Singh, Chen Show Mao and party leader Low Thia Khiang, who vacated his seat of Hougang to lead the charge in Aljunied. Lim was returned as an elected Member of Parliament for Aljunied Group Representation Constituency after her team won 54.71%[2] of the votes (54.72% including overseas votes), the first time that an opposition party won a Group Representation Constituency since the system's introduction on 1 June 1988. In addition, the defeat of the incumbent PAP team marked the first time in Singapore's electoral history that a serving cabinet minister lost his seat. She has been assigned to look after the Serangoon ward previously held by the PAP's Lim Hwee Hua and has also been appointed Chairman of the combined Aljunied-Hougang Town Council.

Lim's victory also made her the first female opposition MP in Singapore's post-independence history.

One week after the election, she announced that she would be resigning from her lecturing job at Temasek Polytechnic after 12 years of service. She said that her political activities had already led to her having to take significant time off from her teaching duties in the past, and that she did not think it would be fair to the Polytechnic if she stayed on seeing as her Parliamentary duties would take up even more of her time.

Since then she has returned to the legal profession and is now a senior associate with Peter Low LLC.

Current posts[link]

• Chairman, Workers' Party of Singapore
• Co-Chairman, Aljunied Constituency Committee (AJCC)
• Chairman, Aljunied-Hougang Town Council

References[link]

External links[link]

• Profile at Parliament of Singapore website

Mike Roth, originally from Northampton Mass., is an award-winning A&R man, notable for discovering and developing numerous famous Canadian bands including Our Lady Peace,^[1] Chantal Kreviazuk,^[1][2] Amanda Marshall,^[1] The Philosopher Kings,^[1] Prozzäk,^[1] Junkhouse,^[1] Hemingway Corner,^[1] and Edwin,^[1] among others.^[1] Formerly a senior VP of the Canadian division of Sony Music Entertainment,^[3][4] Roth has since founded his own music company, "Big Bold Sun Music" in 2003,^[4] and has signed three new bands to his label for development, folk-rock musician Pat Robitaille, singer and dancer Andreja, and the acoustic-folk duo Dala, recently signed to a major label deal by Universal Music.

References[link]