The word diversity immediately suggests differences in gender, race, ethnicity, age, religion, etc. However, there is also a great deal of diversity in forms of local government. Shortly after making the transition from city to county government, we noticed our colleagues speaking to us very loudly and slowly, while our new county administration colleagues viewed us with some suspicion.

In all seriousness, increasing numbers of professional managers are transitioning between cities, villages, townships, and counties. This transition was the major impetus behind the decision of Michigan’s ICMA affiliate to change its name in 2001 to the Michigan Local Government Management Association (which evolved into the Michigan Municipal Executives in 2016).

As former city managers turned county administrators, we (like many of our colleagues who have done the same) are in a unique position to provide commentary on the similarities and differences in the varying forms of local government.

Back to Basics

In many cases, cities rarely interact with counties and seem to think them to be like large cities. Of course, the old saying, “where you stand depends on where you sit” is applicable; we have found that city and county roles and operations can be both similar and significantly different.

Historically, the county was the basic unit of government. Thomas Jefferson wrote that the best method of maintaining a republican government is to establish counties, divided into wards (townships). Virginia and Massachusetts were divided into counties early in their respective histories, and most other colonies followed suit. Development of county government and the subdivision of townships into six-square-mile units in Michigan can be traced to the Northwest Ordinances adopted in 1785 and 1787.

In 1796, Wayne County was established as the first Michigan county by the acting governor of the territory and included almost all of what eventually became Michigan and portions of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin. As lands were settled, additional counties were established.

There are three possible configurations of county government in Michigan:

• County commission.
• County commission with a controller.
• County commission with an elected county executive.

Counties that use the first configuration may choose to appoint a county administrator, controller, or administrator/controller to perform administrative duties. In the county controller form of governance, state law delegates certain accounting functions from the county clerk and treasurer to a controller.

Like cities, villages, and townships, counties are enabled constitutionally and statutorily to carry out a variety of functions and tasks, which allows the local government to reflect the values and policies of its residents. Accordingly, many governments provide different discretionary services depending upon the composition of the governing body, past practice, and tradition.

In some instances, constitutional or statutory language authorizing an action is permissive; it merely allows counties to do something if the governing body elects to do so. In other cases, the language is stricter, requiring or mandating a county to perform or fund a certain activity. Occasionally, there is an element of delegation: a state department is authorized to perform a function, which it delegates to a county through contract or administrative rule.

Cities were formed where large numbers of houses were built and inhabitants united through incorporation to make public improvements. Cities in Michigan get their authority from charters adopted per the provisions of the Home Rule Cities Act, while Wayne County is the only county in Michigan with a charter. However, like cities, counties are creatures of the state, struggling with the some of the same issues: unfunded mandates, collective bargaining and Act 312 arbitration, loss of state shared revenues, and of course, competition for limited resources.

Operational Differences

Nonetheless, there are differences in what counties and cities are and what they do. City services are often physical and visible and serve all the residents within the corporate limits of the city. Water filtration and distribution, sewer collection and treatment, street maintenance, leaf pickup, and garbage collection are examples of this. Counties serve in many ways as administrative arms of the state.

The two functional areas that generally receive the bulk of county financial resources and staffing are human services (health and community mental health, in particular) and justice (including corrections, adjudication, and enforcement). Due to the nature of these services, many residents do not receive direct aid from large portions of a county’s budget. For instance, in Kent County, these two functional areas receive $481.7 million of the $654.6 million 2026 operating budget, or 73.59%.

Correctional facilities and court systems (district court, family court, probate court, and circuit court) also serve small subsets of the population in any given year. Thus, counties are not large cities or, as some might suggest, big townships. Counties are designed to deliver statutorily defined, mandated services and have the option to provide other services at the countywide level.

Perhaps the largest misconception about counties in Michigan is that county road commissions are part of county government. In many counties, road commissions are separate organizations with their own funding mechanism (Act 5l), financial and accounting mechanisms, and human resources systems, and are not part of the broad county organization.

What is surprising to many of our colleagues in local government is that the roles of county commission chair and county administrator differ significantly from those of mayor and city manager. While in cities it is the mayor or manager that serves as the chief administrative or executive officer, in counties without a county executive, the roles of the commission chair and administrator are somewhat limited. (In Michigan, only Bay, Oakland, and Wayne counties have elected county executives.)

In many cities, the norm for most is that the mayor is elected on an at-large basis and represents the broader constituency of the community. In counties, the commission chair and vice chair are selected by their peers on the board of commissioners, so in terms of constituency, the commission chair represents the district from which he/she was elected, not the entire county.

But the effectiveness of any individual is based upon the strengths that individual brings to office. Leaders in any form of government may be either effective or ineffective based upon their individual skills and personalities. When considering the size and complexity of a county organization, county administrators have a rather limited sphere of control. County administrators have less interaction with the public than their city counterparts. Our “constituencies” in many instances are the line departments and agencies of the county. We are responsible for appointed finance, human resources, information technology, and facilities management directors, who in turn provide services to other county departments.

In some instances, the health department director, public works director, and parks director report to the administrator, and in other instances, they report to a board or commission, which may have policy-making powers. Elected officers (clerk, register of deeds, treasurer, sheriff, drain commissioner, prosecutor) are held accountable to the electorate. Thus, counties can be viewed as more of a confederation of governments and as such, the county administrator often functions more as a facilitator/leader than the traditional “directive” leader.

This isn’t to suggest that leadership and management isn’t a function of the county administrator. As managers or administrators, we all deal with people. We are still leaders. Our primary goal is to ensure that services are delivered to our constituencies—whether other departments or the public—in a professional, effective, and efficient manner. Our experience in city management supports the concept that successful managers typically manage more by facilitation and collaboration than by the exercise of raw power. Due to the prescribed administrative structure, these facilitation and collaboration skills are drawn on more heavily at the county level.

The political makeup of county government is quite different than most city governments. In Michigan, county officials, including the board of commissioners and countywide elected officers, are elected on a partisan basis. District, probate, and circuit court judges are elected on a nonpartisan basis. This is true in all 83 counties in Michigan. Michigan townships are also governed by a partisan board. However, less than a handful of the 276 cities in Michigan hold partisan elections; they are generally governed by nonpartisan elected boards.

The concept of partisan politics conjures negative images for some. There are examples of communities where nonpartisan elected councils and commissions behave in a much more partisan manner than partisan councils and commissions. The particulars of local political situations seem to dictate the degree of partisan behavior much more than the label of a body being “partisan” or “nonpartisan.” In our experience, the voting of Kent County’s 21-member board of commissioners has been based more on shared values than political party affiliation most of the time.

Understanding differences and similarities promotes appreciation and cooperation. As county officials we have worked much more closely with township governments and have learned more about this form of government as well. Though we remain committed to professional local government management, we strongly support the notion that managers of different forms of local government should learn about the structure of governments that they are not familiar with. All too often, we put up fences instead of developing greater understanding and cooperation. Each type of government has its purpose and adds to the diversity of our governmental structures.

DARYL DELABBIO, ICMA-CM, spent 40 years in local government, most recently as county administrator/controller for Kent County, Michigan, from 1998 until 2017. (djdelabbio@gmail.com)

AL VANDERBERG, ICMA-CM, is county administrator/controller for Kent County, Michigan. He serves as Midwest vice president on the National Association of County Administrators Board of Directors. (al.vanderberg@kentcountymi.gov)