It depends on the church. In some protestant churches, the council functions as a board of directors and even hires the pastor. They can have broad decision making powers.
In Catholic parishes, the parish council is an advisory group. They help the pastor with decision making and adminstrative work. The pastor determine what “power”, if any, the council has and can always override anything the council “decides”. The pastor never reports to the council, as they sometimes do in Protestant churches, but always to the Bishop.
