The way I thought it would work is that all of the founders meet somewhere and decide to start a city. Everyone suggests areas to set up the city (with costs and special conditions in the area, like temperature, high criminal activity, etc.) We roll to see which we go with. We do the same with the name of the city. We loan it money, which it pays back when it has an excess in revenue (half to the bank, have split up among us proportional to how much it owes us). We can set up businesses in the area, with each business proposal being voted on by the founders, to earn more personal wealth, help the city, increase population, etc. We do the same for laws, only we have to roll to see if the law is accepted (to simulate a vote).
Basically, it's mostly strategy. each of us has a political view, but we have to work together to build our city.