Town council

A town council is a form of local government for small municipalities.

Usage of the term varies under different jurisdictions.

Republic of Ireland

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. The Local Government Reform Act 2014 Abolished them

Belize

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.

England and Wales

In England, since the Local Government Act 1972, town councils are the specific name given to a civil parish councils, where the civil parish council has declared itself by resolution to be a town council. Civil parishes are the lowest level in the local government system. The higher levels are district, unitary or county. However town councils are not subordinate in democratic accountability to those higher levels, but to the electorate of their civil parish area.

Impractical Jokers

Impractical Jokers is an American hidden camera-practical joke reality series filmed mainly in New York City and New Jersey that premiered on TruTV on December 15, 2011. It follows Joseph "Joe" Gatto, James "Murr" Murray, Brian "Q" Quinn and Salvatore "Sal" Vulcano, the four members of the comedy troupe The Tenderloins as they coerce one another into doing public pranks while being filmed by hidden cameras. The show differs from other prank television programs in that the stars of Impractical Jokers do not know the details of the prank until the moment they are performing it on strangers. While one or two cast-member(s) performs the prank, the other comedians in the troupe are behind the scenes feeding lines to their friend(s) via microphone (with an earpiece). The lines fed to the prankster(s) are meant to create a humorous and awkward exchange between the prankster(s) and the stranger being pranked. In some instances, the jokers create PowerPoint presentations for each other, creating the same kind of humorous effect to trip each other up They also sometimes have to present ridiculous books and products invented by the other jokers. The show holds a TV-14 rating due to strong language (although some of the words are bleeped out), suggestive dialogue/content, and crude humor.

Town

A town is a human settlement larger than a village but smaller than a city. The size definition for what constitutes a "town" varies considerably in different parts of the world.

Origin and use

The word town shares an origin with the German word Stadt, the Dutch word tuin, and the Old Norse tun. The German word Zaun comes closest to the original meaning of the word: a fence of any material. An early borrowing from Celtic *dunom (cf. Old Irish dun, Welsh din "fortress, fortified place, camp," dinas "city;"

In English and Dutch, the meaning of the word took on the sense of the space which these fences enclosed. In England, a town was a small community that could not afford or was not allowed to build walls or other larger fortifications, and built a palisade or stockade instead. In the Netherlands, this space was a garden, more specifically those of the wealthy, which had a high fence or a wall around them (like the garden of palace Het Loo in Apeldoorn, which was the example for the privy garden of William and Mary at Hampton Court). In Old Norse tun means a (grassy) place between farmhouses, and is still used in a similar meaning in modern Norwegian.

Council

A council is a group of people who come together to consult, deliberate, or make decisions. A council may function as a legislature, especially at a town, city or county level, but most legislative bodies at the state or national level are not considered councils. At such levels, there may be no separate executive branch, and the council may effectively represent the entire government. A board of directors might also be denoted as a council. A committee might also be denoted as a council, though a committee is generally a subordinate body composed of members of a larger body, while a council may not be. Because many schools have a student council, the council is the form of governance with which many people are likely to have their first experience as electors or participants.

A member of a council may be referred to as a councillor, or by the gender-specific titles of councilman and councilwoman.

In politics

Notable examples of types of councils encountered in politics include: