If I Were Mayor Student Contest

The Mayor and the Oregon Mayors Association invite you to enter the "If I Were Mayor..." Contest each year to share your creative ideas about what you would do as mayor. Albany winners win local prizes and are entered into the state contest for a chance to win a prize worth $500!

How to enter:

Review the contest rules: English | Spanish
Create your submission (4-5th grades: poster, 6-8th grades: essay, 9-12th grades: video)
Download and complete an official entry form
Submit your completed entry:

Submit your entry

Apply next year! Contest details will be available in Fall 2025.

Do your research:

Learn more about what a Mayor does...English | Spanish
Learn what typical services Oregon cities provide... English | Spanish
Get inspiration from winning entries from previous years at oregonmayors.org

Judging:

Judging of the local contest will be conducted by city officials or other persons appointed by the mayor. Albany winners will be announced in April and statewide winners will be announced by OMA in May. oregonmayorsassoc A panel of Oregon mayors judges the statewide entries. First place statewide winners and their family will be recognized at the OMA Summer Conference in August.

Questions? This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Past winners

2024-2025

In our fourth year of our local contest, Ashmi was our Albany middle school winner for her essay, and our elementary winner, Alice, won for her poster.

2023-2024

Albany students continued their winning ways in the 2023-2024 school year. Chelsey was our Albany middle school winner for her essay. Our elementary winner Reagan won 3rd place statewide for her poster and Hadley won 1st place statewide for her video.

2022-2023

In addition to being the local Albany winners for the 2022-2023 school year, Noah won 1st place statewide for his poster and Jacella won 2nd place statewide for her video.

mikayla1

2021-2022

For our first Albany contest in the 2021-2022 school year, 4th and 5th grade students from all nine Albany elementary schools and eleven essays were submitted. Brynlee was the winner of our Albany poster contest and our local middle school winner, Mikayla, went on to win 3rd place statewide!

Details: Last Updated: May 12, 2025

About City Council

The City Council is the legislative branch of our local government. It is composed of a mayor and six councilors with two councilors elected from each ward. The councilors serve for a term of four years, and the mayor serves for a term of two years. The Council adopts laws called ordinances, passes resolutions, sets policies, adopts the budget, levies taxes, and conducts public meetings.

The current Albany City Charter became effective on January 1, 1957. By Charter, the City of Albany adopted a council-manager form of government. The Charter provides that the City Manager is the administrative head of the City, and the manager serves at the pleasure of the Council.

Council Member Manual

The manual includes protocols that were developed at an Albany City Council training session held on January 19, 2018, and endorsed by council on February 26, 2018. They are intended to set expectations for the conduct and working relationships of council members.

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