It is also a way to delegate responsibility. While, there are various ways to distinguish between a city and a county, the easiest is to remember that a county is geographically larger than a city.
Usually, the boundaries of a county contain various cities, villages, towns, townships or other municipal corporations. A city is a large and permanent settlement. It covers a significant area of land that has a shared historical background.
Cities may have a particular administrative, legal, or historical status based on local law. Counties on the other hand, are responsible for a broad array of issues. Also, counties are typically arms of the state and therefore differ by state in terms of what they must respond to. While I worked at a county, I never knew what odd issue might pop up that day.
For example, I might walk in and be presented with an apiary with sick bees, jail overcrowding, or a need for additional case workers. You never really knew what might percolate. So, the next time that you have to work with your local county or city, I hope that you will now have some addition insight into the inherent complexities of each organization.
While something may seem simple for a county to execute, it may take a lot of political capital and working an informal network. On the flipside, if you are asking something of a city, there are likely a number of local voices that need to be taken into consideration. Audio menu. Learning English Broadcast. Previous Next. Ask a Teacher. May 21, See comments Print. Embed share The code has been copied to your clipboard. The URL has been copied to your clipboard. No media source currently available.
These include adopting a budget, passing county resolutions, and hiring and firing county officials. Under the council-administrator system , the voters elect council members to serve for a specified period of time, and the council in turn appoints an administrator to oversee the operation of the government.
The administrator serves at the directive of the council and can be terminated by the council. The goal of this arrangement is to divide administrative and policymaking responsibilities between the elected council and the appointed administrator. The executive performs functions similar to those of the state governor. For instance, he or she can veto the actions of the council, draft a budget, and provide suggestions regarding public policy.
Although the tasks they perform can vary from state to state, most counties have a courthouse that houses county officials, such as the sheriff, the county clerk, the assessor, the treasurer, the coroner, and the engineer. These officials carry out a variety of important functions and oversee the responsibilities of running a county government. For instance, the county coroner investigates the cause of death when suspicious circumstances are present.
The county clerk oversees the registration of voters and also certifies election results for the county. In addition, this officeholder typically keeps the official birth, death, and marriage records. The county treasurer oversees the collection and distribution of funds within the county, while the county assessor conducts property tax evaluations and informs individual citizens or business owners of their right to contest the appraised value of their property.
Finally, a county engineer will oversee the maintenance and construction of county infrastructure. Municipal governments oversee the operation and functions of cities and towns. Census estimates for show just over 19, municipal governments and nearly 16, township governments in the United States. Under the mayor-council system voters elect both a mayor and members of the city council.
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