As the highest decision-making body of the City of Salzgitter, the Council decides on important self-administration matters or matters within its delegated sphere of influence. As municipal policy extends to all areas of life, the catalog of tasks is complex. The Lower Saxony Municipal Constitution Act precisely defines the responsibilities of the council. The most important right of the council is to decide on the budget, i.e. on the city's income and expenditure, as this sets the course of municipal policy for the coming year or years. In many cases, the initiatives that ultimately lead to council resolutions come from the administration. However, applications and questions also come from the political level.

Anyone who is at least 18 years old on election day, has been resident in Salzgitter for at least 6 months and is German within the meaning of the Basic Law or a national of another member state of the European Union can be elected to the council. Anyone who is at least 16 years old on election day, has been resident in Salzgitter for at least 3 months and is a German within the meaning of the Basic Law or a national of another Member State of the European Union is entitled to vote. The number of council members to be elected is based on the number of inhabitants. The Salzgitter City Council has 46 councillors. The Lord Mayor is also a voting member of the Council by virtue of his office.

Alongside the council, the administrative committee is the city's most important body. The administrative committee is a central body for steering and coordinating all municipal activities. It is not comparable with the specialist committees of the Council, as it has more extensive rights.

The formation of committees is a matter for the council as a whole. From the point of view of democratic legitimacy and proper preparation of the resolutions of the council or the administrative committee, the committee deliberations are of central importance for intra-municipal decision-making. The purpose of the committees' activities is to relieve the Council, which is all the more effective the more unnecessary discussions and explanations are at Council meetings. In these specialist committees, the pros and cons of a project are presented, ideas and proposals are discussed and debates are held, which usually end with a recommendation for a resolution.

The tasks of the seven local councils of the City of Salzgitter relate exclusively to matters concerning the localities. The local councils must be consulted in good time on all important issues relating to their own and delegated areas of responsibility that affect the locality in a particular way. Further responsibilities are regulated in the Lower Saxony Municipal Constitution Act and the main statutes of the City of Salzgitter. In local councils, the chairperson is known as the local mayor. They also perform representative tasks within the locality.