The one thing you will find with those small departments is that everyone in the city knows your name, including the Mayor, and will make direct contact with you. In other words, you don't have one boss, you have the Mayor, the entire City Council AND every citizen trying to tell you what to do and how to do it. If you so much as spit on the sidewalk, the Mayor will be calling the chief in the middle of the night to yell about it.