City of Des Moines careers

Des Moines runs on the council-manager model, an arrangement its government pages note is used by roughly 59 percent of U.S. cities. Voters elect a mayor, two at-large council members, and one council member from each of four wards; the council then selects a city manager to oversee day-to-day operations, draft budgets, and carry out policy. City operations work from the TM Franklin Cownie City Administration Building at 1200 Locust Street. Day to day, that means departments answer to a professional administrator, with the elected side setting direction, worth knowing before you apply to Iowa's capital city.