 Four council members are elected on a nonpartisan basis for 4 year terms, and each represents one of the four wards that make up the city.Legislative authority is placed in the city council, wherein each member is afforded one vote; the mayor oversees the deliberations of the council and is only entitled to a vote in the case of a tie.For much of the 2000s, College Park – along with the other so-called Tri-Cites, East Point and Hapeville – has been popularly associated with crime; for example, a comedy/travel book originally published in 2005 describes College Park as "a nightmarish southern ghetto."