Plan: What is the home rule?

History of self-government. On July 16, 1790, the Residence Act provided for a new permanent capital to be located on the Potomac River, the exact area to be selected by President Washington. As permitted by the U.S. Constitution, the initial shape of the federal district was a square, measuring 10 miles (16 km) on each side, totaling 100 square miles (260 km2). The Residence Act also provided for the selection of a three-member board of commissioners, appointed by the President, charged with overseeing the construction of the new capital.
Two other incorporated cities that predated the establishment of the District were also included within the new federal territory: Georgetown, founded in 1751, and the City of Alexandria, Virginia, founded in 1749. A new "federal city" called the City of Washington was under construction, partly habitable, on the north bank of the Potomac, to the east of the established settlement at Georgetown.
The Organic Act of 1801 officially organized the District of Columbia and placed the entire federal territory under the exclusive control of Congress.

At its formation, the District consisted of five political subdivisions: the three cities of Washington, Georgetown, and Alexandria, and the unincorporated rural sections organized into two counties: Washington County, D.C. to the east of the Potomac and the Alexandria County, D.C. to the west. It included all of the present Arlington County plus part of what is now the independent city of Alexandria. The respective laws of Maryland and Virginia were declared still in force.

In 1802, the board of commissioners was disbanded, and the City of Washington was officially incorporated. The city's incorporation allowed for a local municipal government consisting of a mayor appointed by the President and two branches of a city council, popularly elected. The local colonial-era governments of Georgetown and Alexandria were also left intact. As such, the citizens of Georgetown retained their popularly elected mayor, as did the City of Alexandria. In 1812, the council was given the power to elect the mayor of the City of Washington. In 1820, the Congress granted the City of Washington a new charter, which allowed for a mayor popularly elected by voters.
The disputes became more political in 1840 when the city elected a member of the anti-Jackson Whig Party as mayor. Two weeks after the election, members of Congress submitted legislation to alter the charter of the City of Washington to remove the city's elected government. However, the bill was unable to pass the Congress due to disputes among members about the status of slavery in the District. The election of President William Henry Harrison, who was favorable to residents of the District, assured that the proposed bill would not become law.
In the years preceding and during the American Civil War, the District developed a complicated, piecemeal government. Three distinct authorities over Washington County and the two cities, Washington and Georgetown, remained intact. In 1861, as the first step toward political consolidation, those three bodies were granted shared authority over the new Metropolitan Police Department, founded to enforce the law throughout the District. Its oversight board of five commissioners named by the President included one representing Georgetown, one from the county of Washington, and three from the city of Washington.
During the Civil War, the city experienced a large increase in its population; by 1870, the District's population had grown to nearly 132,000. Despite the city's growth, Washington still had dirt roads and lacked basic sanitation; the situation was so bad that some members of Congress proposed moving the capital elsewhere.
Each of the city's eight wards is further divided into local Advisory Neighborhood Commissions.
To facilitate infrastructure improvements and make the city's government operate more efficiently, Congress passed the Organic Act of 1871, which created a new government for the entire federal territory. This Act effectively combined the City of Washington, Georgetown, and the unincorporated area known then as Washington County into a single municipal government for the whole District of Columbia. In the same Organic Act, Congress created a territorial government which consisted of a legislative assembly with an upper house composed of eleven council members appointed by the President and a 22-member house of delegates elected by the people, as well as an appointed Board of Public Works charged with modernizing the city. In 1873, President Ulysses S. Grant appointed the board's most influential member, Alexander Robey Shepherd, to the new post of governor. Shepherd authorized large-scale projects to modernize Washington but spent three times the approved budget, bankrupting the city. In 1874, Congress abolished the District's local government in favor of direct rule.
The territorial government was replaced by a three-member Board of Commissioners, consisting of two members appointed by the President with the approval of the Senate, and a third member selected from the United States Army Corps of Engineers, with one of the three members selected to act as President of the Board. This form of government continued for nearly a century. Between 1948 and 1966, six bills were introduced in Congress to provide some form of home rule, but none ever passed.
In 1967, President Lyndon Johnson presented to Congress a plan to reorganize the District's government designed by David Carliner. The three-commissioner system was replaced by a government headed by a single mayor-commissioner, an assistant mayor-commissioner, and a nine-member city council, all appointed by the president. The mayor-commissioner and his assistant served four-year terms, while the council served three-year terms. While the council was officially nonpartisan, no more than six council members could be of the same political party. Council members were expected to work part-time. All council members, and either the mayor-commissioner or his assistant, were required to have been residents of the District of Columbia for the three years preceding appointment. All were required to be District residents while serving their terms in office.
Council members had the quasi-legislative powers of the former Board of Commissioners, approving the budget and setting real estate tax rates. The mayor-commissioner could, without any Congressional approval, consolidate District agencies and transfer money between agencies, powers the preceding Board of Commissioners had not possessed. The mayor-commissioner could veto ordinances passed by the Council, but the Council could override the veto with a three-fourths vote.
Despite a push by many Republicans and conservative Democrats in the House of Representatives to reject Johnson's plan, the House of Representatives accepted the new form of government for the District by a vote of 244 to 160. Johnson said that the new District government would be more effective and efficient.
Walter E. Washington was appointed the first mayor-commissioner, with Thomas W. Fletcher as his assistant. The first Council appointments were Chairman John W. Hechinger, Vice Chairman Walter E. Fauntroy, Stanley J. Anderson, Margaret A. Haywood, John A. Nevius, William S. Thompson, J.C. Turner, Polly Shackleton, and Joseph P. Yeldell.