Editing County (United States) (section)

==County government==

=== Organization ===
The structure and powers of a county government may be defined by the general law of the state or by a [[charter]] specific to that county. States may allow only general-law counties, only charter counties, or both. Generally, general-law local governments have less autonomy than chartered local governments.<ref>[https://ballotpedia.org/General_law_local_government#Total_charter_counties_by_state General law local government], from [[Ballotpedia]]</ref>

Counties are usually governed by an elected body, variously called the [[county commission]], [[board of supervisors]], [[commissioners' court]], [[county council]], [[county court]], or [[Administrative divisions of New York#County|county legislature]]. In cases in which a [[consolidated city-county]] or [[Independent city (United States)|independent city]] exists, a [[city council]] usually governs city/county or city affairs. In some counties, day-to-day operations are overseen by an elected [[county executive]] or by a chief administrative officer or [[county administrator]] who reports to the board, the mayor, or both.

In many states, the board in charge of a county holds powers that transcend all three traditional branches of government. It has the legislative power to enact laws for the county; it has the executive power to oversee the executive operations of county government; and it has quasi-judicial power with regard to certain limited matters (such as hearing appeals from the planning commission if one exists).

In many states, several important officials are elected separately from the board of commissioners or supervisors and cannot be fired by the board. These positions may include [[Clerk (municipal official)|county clerk]], county [[treasurer]], county surrogate, [[Sheriffs in the United States|sheriff]], and others.

[[District attorney]]s or state attorneys are usually state-level as opposed to county-level officials, but in many states, counties and state judicial districts have coterminous boundaries.

The site of a county's administration, and often the county [[courthouse]], is generally called the [[county seat]] ("parish seat" in Louisiana, "borough seat" in Alaska, or "[[shire town]]" in several New England counties). The county seat usually resides in a municipality. However, some counties may have multiple seats or no seat. In some counties with no incorporated municipalities, a large settlement may serve as the county seat.

===Scope of power===
The power of county governments varies widely from state to state, as does the relationship between counties and incorporated cities.

The powers of counties arise from state law and vary widely.<ref>{{cite book|title=Handbook of Local Government Law|last=Reynolds| first=Osborne M. Jr. |publisher=West Group|year=2001|edition=2nd|location=St. Paul|page=26}}</ref>
In [[List of counties in Connecticut|Connecticut]] and [[List of counties in Rhode Island|Rhode Island]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ct.gov/sots/cwp/view.asp?a=3188&q=392376|title=Connecticut State Register and Manual, Section VI: Counties|publisher=[[Secretary of the State of Connecticut|Connecticut Secretary of the State]]|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111127033757/http://www.ct.gov/sots/cwp/view.asp?a=3188&q=392376|archive-date=November 27, 2011|access-date=January 23, 2010|quote=There are no county seats in Connecticut. County government was abolished effective October 1, 1960; counties function only as geographical subdivisions.|df=mdy-all}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ri.gov/facts/trivia.php|title=Facts & History|access-date=January 23, 2010|quote=Rhode Island has no county government. It is divided into 39 municipalities each having its own form of local government.}}</ref>
counties are geographic entities, but not governmental jurisdictions. At the other extreme, [[List of counties in Maryland|Maryland counties]] and the county equivalent [[Baltimore|City of Baltimore]] handle almost all services, including [[public education]], although the state retains an active oversight authority with many of these services.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.msde.maryland.gov/MSDE/schoolsystems/|title=Direct links to all 24 Maryland Local Education Agencies' web sites|access-date=January 22, 2011}}</ref> [[List of counties in Hawaii|Counties in Hawaii]] also handle almost all services since there is no formal level of government (municipality, public education, or otherwise) existing below that of the county in the state.<ref name="osman">{{cite web|url=http://osman1.com/hi-facts.html|title=Hawaii State: Facts & Figures – Des Osman Realty|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121218185321/http://osman1.com/hi-facts.html|archive-date=December 18, 2012|url-status=dead|df=mdy-all}}</ref>

In most Midwestern and Northeastern states, counties are further subdivided into [[Civil township|townships]] or [[New England town|towns]], which sometimes exercise local powers or administration. Throughout the United States, counties may contain other independent, self-governing [[municipality|municipalities]].

====Minimal scope====
In New England, counties function at most as judicial court districts and [[Sheriffs in the United States|sheriff's departments]] (presently, in [[Connecticut]] only as judicial court districts—and in [[Rhode Island]], they have lost both those functions and most others but they are still used by the [[United States Census Bureau]] and some other federal agencies for some federal functions), and most of the governmental authority below the state level is in the hands of [[New England town|towns and cities]]. In several of Maine's sparsely populated counties, small towns rely on the county for law enforcement, and in [[New Hampshire]] several social programs are administered at the state level. In Connecticut, Rhode Island, and parts of Massachusetts, counties are now only geographic designations, and they do not have any governmental powers. All government is either done at the state level or at the municipal level. In Connecticut and parts of Massachusetts, regional councils have been established to partially fill the void left behind by the abolished county governments.<ref group=lower-alpha>Unlike in Massachusetts, [[Councils of governments in Connecticut|Connecticut's regional councils]] do not conform to the old county lines, but rather, they are composed of towns that share the same geographic area and have similar demographics.</ref> The regional councils' authority is limited compared with a county government—they have authority only over infrastructure and [[land use planning]], distribution of state and federal funds for infrastructure projects, emergency preparedness, and limited law enforcement duties.

====Moderate scope====
In the [[Mid-Atlantic states|Mid-Atlantic]] and [[Midwest]], counties typically provide, at a minimum, courts, [[public utility|public utilities]], libraries, hospitals, [[public health]] services, parks, roads, law enforcement, and jails. There is usually a county registrar, recorder, or clerk (the exact title varies) who collects [[Vital statistics (government records)|vital statistics]], holds elections (sometimes in coordination with a separate elections office or commission), and prepares or processes certificates of births, deaths, marriages, and dissolutions (divorce decrees). The county recorder normally maintains the official record of all real estate transactions. Other key county officials include the [[coroner]]/[[medical examiner]], [[treasurer]], [[assessor (property)|assessor]], [[auditor]], [[comptroller]], and [[district attorney]].

In most states, the [[Sheriffs in the United States|county sheriff]] is the chief law enforcement officer in the county. However, except in major emergencies where clear chains of command are essential, the county sheriff normally does not directly control the police departments of city governments, but merely cooperates with them (e.g., under [[Mutual aid (emergency services)|mutual aid]] pacts). Thus, the most common interaction between county and city law enforcement personnel is when city police officers deliver suspects to sheriff's deputies for detention or incarceration in the county jail.

In most states, the [[State court (United States)|state courts]] and local law enforcement are organized and implemented along county boundaries, but nearly all of the substantive and procedural law adjudicated in state trial courts originates from the state legislature and state appellate courts. In other words, most criminal defendants are prosecuted for violations of state law, not local ordinances, and if they, the district attorney, or police seek reforms to the criminal justice system, they will usually have to direct their efforts towards the state legislature rather than the county (which merely implements state law).

A typical criminal defendant will be arraigned and subsequently indicted or held over for trial before a trial court in and for a particular county where the crime occurred, kept in the county jail (if he is not granted bail or cannot make bail), prosecuted by the county's district attorney, and tried before a jury selected from that county. But long-term incarceration is rarely a county responsibility, execution of [[Capital punishment in the United States|capital punishment]] is never a county responsibility, and the state's responses to prisoners' appeals are the responsibility of the [[state attorney general]], who has to defend before the state appellate courts the prosecutions conducted by locally elected district attorneys in the name of the state. Furthermore, county-level trial court judges are officers of the judicial branch of the state government rather than county governments.

In many states, the county controls all [[unincorporated area|unincorporated lands]] within its boundaries. In states with a township tier, unincorporated land is controlled by the townships. Residents of unincorporated land who are dissatisfied with county-level or township-level resource allocation decisions can attempt to vote to incorporate as a [[city]], [[town]], or [[village (United States)|village]].

A few counties directly provide [[public transport]]ation themselves, usually in the form of a simple bus system. However, in most counties, public transportation is provided by one of the following: a [[Special district (United States)|special district]] that is coterminous with the county (but exists separately from the county government), a multi-county regional transit authority, or a state agency.

====Broad scope====
In [[Western United States|western]] and [[Southern United States|southern]] states, more populated counties provide many facilities, such as airports, [[convention center]]s, museums, [[Community centre|recreation centers]],
beaches, harbors, zoos, clinics, [[law library|law libraries]], and [[public housing]]. They provide services such as child and family services, elder services, mental health services, welfare services, veterans assistance services, [[Animal control officer|animal control]], [[probation]] supervision, historic preservation, food safety regulation, and environmental health services. They have many additional officials like [[public defender]]s, arts commissioners, human rights commissioners, and planning commissioners.

There may be a county fire department and a county police department – as distinguished from fire and police departments operated by individual cities, special districts, or the state government. For example, [[Gwinnett County, Georgia]], and its county seat, the city of [[Lawrenceville, Georgia|Lawrenceville]], each have their own police departments. (A separate county sheriff's department is responsible for security of the county courts and administration of the county jail.) In several southern states, [[Public school (government funded)|public school]] systems are organized and administered at the county level.