City of Pattaya
• Pattaya is a tourist city on the east coast of the Gulf of Thailand.
• The Government of this city takes the form of a council-manager.
• This form of local government has only been experimented with in Pattaya.
• The City Council has 17 members, 9 of them are elected while 8 are appointed.
• A manager is hired by the City Council on a 4-year contract to govern the city and may hire 2 deputy managers.
• The City of Pattaya was established in 1978, has a population of more than 29,000 and covers 22 square kilometres of urban community and 186 square kilometres of rural districts on 3 islands.
• The manager responses to the City Council and manages the city according to policy guidelines given by the Council.
Provincial Administrative Organization (PAO)
• The structure of a Provincial Administrative Organization is similar to that of a municipality.
• The organization comprises an elected provincial council that functions as a legislative branch and an executive board.
• Until 1997 the provincial governor was by law the chief executive of a PAO.
• The amendment of the Provincial Administrative Organization Act in 1997 allows a chief executive to be elected by the councilors.
• There are 76 councils in the country and thus 76 provincial administrative organizations.
(Bangkok is not included)
• The Provincial Administrative Organization represents all rural areas of a province.
Subdistrict Administrative Organization (SAO)
• A Subdistrict or Tambon is a rural administrative division at a subdistrict level compromising of a few villages.
• Since 1972, every Subdistrict (Tambon) in the country has a Tambon council, a consultative body that gives advice to the chief of a Tambon.
• The chief and the Tambon council are part of the provincial administration under the supervision of a district officer and the provincial governor.
• In 1994 the latest TAO was established.
• By 1997 there were 2,761 TAOs throughout the country.
• The organization also takes the council-executive form of government.
• Since 2001, all of the Tambon Councils have been upgraded to Tambon Administrative Organizations.
• The TAO council consist of two representatives from each administrative village in the subdistrict, and one directly elected chief.
• Within one subdistrict, the area which belongs to a municipality is administered by the municipal council. And only part of the subdistrict is within a municipality, the remaining part is administrated by a SAO.
• Adjoining subdistricts of a single district can also have a joint SAO.
• Members of a Tambon council are partly elected by voters and partly appointed by the provincial governor.
• The area of jurisdiction of a Subdistrict administrative organization (SAO) overlaps with that of the provincial administrative organization (PAO)
• since a Subdistrict is a smaller division of a district and the district is a smaller division of a province.
• The districts and subdistricts are the administrative areas under the jurisdiction of PAO.