re: What does a city councilman actually do?

I work closely with the ones in my city. Basically they are the ones that decide on "major"-ish issues affecting the city and vote on things. No it's not just about trash pickup. Many of the issues ours vote on deal with land development and deciding on whether certain companies can build in our city. Technically each one represents their district within our city (they are voted by the public) but for the most post it is more large scale and city-centric rather than their district. They vote on contracts different departments in the city present. We have 2 council meetings a month, preceeded that same day by work sessions. They work very closely with the mayor.

It is "part time" in that they have other jobs but there's a good bit of time involved. Most of the time people just bitch at them and complain about stuff, it doesn't seem like a very cool job to me.