Albany County, New York
The city of Albany was the first municipality within this large county, founded as the village (dorp in Dutch) of Beverwyck by the Director-General of New Amsterdam, Pieter Stuyvesant, who also established the first court in Albany. Albany was established as a city in 1686 by Governor Dongan through the Dongan Charter after the English took over the colony. Schenectady to the west was given a patent with some municipal rights in 1684 and became a borough in 1765.
Albany, New York
Albany has a mayor-council form of government, which functions under the Dongan Charter, adopted in 1686 when Albany was incorporated as a city. A revised charter was adopted by referendum in 1998, but was applied strictly as an amendment to "Dongan". This gives Albany the distinction of having the oldest active city charter in the United States and "arguably the longest-running instrument of municipal government in the Western Hemisphere." The mayor, who is elected every four years, heads the executive branch of city government. The current mayor, Kathy Sheehan, was first elected in 2013. She replaced former mayor Gerald Jennings who was mayor for 20 years from 1994 to 2013. The Common Council represents the legislative branch of city government and is made up of fifteen council members (each elected from one ward) and an at-large Common Council President. The current president is Corey Ellis; he began his term in January 2018.