Their meetings can drag on long into the night, they have virtually no power and every four years they must subject themselves to the voters' whims. Still, more than 60 Baltimore residents have tossed themselves into races for coveted seats on the City Council.
Though their backgrounds and platforms vary widely, many named crime, especially the city's soaring homicide count, as a chief reason why they are entering the race for one of 14 seats - meaning that the issue is defining down-ballot contests, as well as the mayor's race.
The primary election will be Sept. 11. Virtually all the races will be settled in the Democratic primary because there are only a handful of Republican contenders and voter registration in the city is overwhelmingly Democratic.
In a job that is far from glamorous, members of the City Council have had less and less influence in recent decades over citywide problems such as crime and education. Like the Maryland General Assembly, the council has virtually no power over the budget, and many members spend significant effort on nonbinding resolutions.
But the council has taken stands on issues in the past, such as in 2005 when then-Mayor Martin O'Malley proposed a convention hotel for downtown and, more recently, when it approved a smoking ban for city bars. Individual members are also influential in their districts and can help residents navigate the city bureaucracy.
There are two open seats in this year's election. The 4th District is open because current member Kenneth N. Harris Sr. is running for City Council president. Also open is the 11th District council seat because incumbent Keiffer J. Mitchell Jr. is making a bid for mayor.
And two council members who were appointed to fill vacancies - Sharon Green Middleton of the 6th District and Vernon B. Crider of the 13th - face elections for the first time.
The remaining 10 incumbents running for re-election all face competition except for Councilwoman Rochelle "Rikki" Spector, who represents the 5th District in Northwest Baltimore.
Crime, many of the candidates said, is a key factor in their decision to run.
"As I go door to door in a lot of the areas, crime is just the No. 1 issue," said Ryan M. Coleman, 31, a Northwood resident who is running in the 4th District. "They're worried about this gang problem. They're worried about the numbers of young people just kind of hanging around and loitering."
Nine candidates are vying for the 4th District, which loosely runs between Charles Street and Loch Raven Boulevard in Northeast Baltimore.
Bill Henry, 38, a Radnor-Winston resident who is also running in the 4th, said he intends to be a full-time city councilman so that he can focus on crime, development and other issues.
The current members of the council allowed a pay raise to go into effect next year that will bump pay from $48,000 to $57,000 a year.
"While I'm not saying that the job is not a hard one, the salary for the council is going to be twice what it was 16 years ago," Henry said. "It's enough where we should expect a whole day's work."
Christopher Jack Hill, who at 26 may be the youngest person running for council, also named crime as a top issue. Hill, running in the 4th, said officials need to find a way to build a stronger relationship between the Police Department and communities.
"We need new leadership for that. We need new mediators," said Hill, who lives in Loch Raven. "I understand what the community is going through, and I understand what the Police Department is going through and what they're faced with."
Nine candidates are vying for the 11th District council seat to replace Mitchell and represent an area that runs from portions of Federal Hill in the south to Reservoir Hill in the north.
Eight have stepped up, the most visible of whom are former Del. William Cole; Adam S. Meister, an Internet entrepreneur who helped start the buy-a-block concept in Reservoir Hill; and Fred D. Mason III, an architect who would become the first black, openly gay council member, if elected.
Cole, 34, who lives in Otterbein, represented the former 47th District in the state legislature from 1998 to 2002. He is an administrator at the University of Baltimore and previously worked as a special assistant to Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, who endorsed his candidacy.
Cole said he views education, crime and drugs as the main issues. "No matter where you go, everyone asks the same question - how do you replace the violent crime," said Cole. "In places like Mount Vernon, they deal with a lot of the petty crime that comes from the drug trade."
To improve schools, Cole said, he would work on developing strong principals with management training and encouraging good teachers to stay in the classroom, rather than being promoted out of them.
Cole supports incentives to have police officers live in the city and increased spending on care programs after drug addicts treatment.
Mason, 35, of Reservoir Hill, is also focusing on crime, education and rebuilding neighborhoods, which he said is important in the 11th District, where there are a large number of vacant houses.
Mason says the city should contribute more money to the school system and direct surplus money to capital improvements. To fight crime, he supports building better relationships between police officers and residents, and filling vacant Police Department positions.
Meister, 30, of Reservoir Hill is calling for lower property taxes, selling city property, cleaner streets, better schools and eliminating open-air drug markets.
Meister, who runs an Internet company that provides marketing research for software companies, helped launch Techbalt.com several years ago, in which a loose collective of people bought houses in a concentrated area in Reservoir Hill in the name of urban redevelopment.
"As president of the block, dealing with the frustration of empty houses, the trash situation, the drug situation, I feel that the city is very inefficient with so many things, and I can help," he said.
Meister said the city could offset lower property taxes by selling the houses it owns. He advocates cutting administrative overhead costs in the school system. "Let's get rid of the fat," he said.
In most races with an incumbent, high name recognition and an early fundraising advantage could be enough for sitting council members to retain their seats. However, there are several potentially interesting races.
In the 10th District, which includes most of South Baltimore, incumbent City Councilman Edward L. Reisinger won his 2003 Democratic primary election by 124 votes.
"The major problem is nuisance crimes, quality-of-life crimes, in my district - break-ins, car break-ins. We need more police officers on the street," said Reisinger, 57, a Morrell Park resident. "We've got to come up with the money for salary increases."
Terry F. Hickey, 37, who is running to unseat Reisinger, said one of the best ways to deal with crime is give young people something to do. There have been at least eight homicides in the district this year.
"You can't police against murder when some of our young people have given up valuing human life," said Hickey, who lives in the South Baltimore neighborhood. "If there had been a vision in this city for what we want to do with young people going back five years, I think we wouldn't be where we are now."
In the 2nd District, Councilman Nicholas C. D'Adamo Jr. faces opposition from Lawrence Jamaal Moses, director of human services for Maryland's Office of Community Initiatives.
Moses, 49, of Gardenville, took the job in January after Gov. Martin O'Malley took office. Previously he worked for O'Malley in city government for seven years as executive director of the Mayor's Office of Children, Youth and Families.
D'Adamo, a councilman since 1987, worked for former Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr.'s administration, underscoring a tense relationship he has had with O'Malley.
In the 7th District, Councilwoman Belinda K. Conaway faces former state Del. Marshall T. Goodwin, among others.
Goodwin lost a bid for re-election last year to Conaway's brother, Frank M. Conaway Jr.