No one ever identifies themselves as being from service district no. 5. Everyone wants to have a hometown. A local official's job is to make sure this happens. The last of the purposes, local control, is in my mind the least important but most over emphasized. They have invested local officials with a lot of power.
Local government is can be the most intrusive government and the most heavy-handed.
Since most local officials are part time volunteers, it is really neighbors telling neighbors what they can and can not do. This can and does lead to abuses and hard feelings. If it is used for other than these purposes it is probably power being abused. Every once in a while a local official needs to take inventory of him or her self and evaluate how he or she is doing. One good way of doing this is to examine what you are spending your time doing.