Hackensack operates under the 1923 Municipal Manager Law form of New Jersey municipal government. The city is one of seven municipalities (of the 565) statewide that use this form of government. The City Council is comprised of five members who are elected to four-year terms on a concurrent basis in a non-partisan election held every four years in May. This form of government separates policy making (the work of the mayor and city council) from the execution of policy (the work of the city manager). This maintains professional management and a Citywide perspective through: nonpartisan election, at-large representation, concentration of executive responsibility in the hands of a professional manager accountable to the Mayor and Council, concentration of policy making power in one body: a five-person Mayor and Council. In the several decades in which the City has used the Municipal Manager form of government, Hackensack has had only nine City Managers.