CHAPTER IV TOWN AND COUNTY GOVERNMENT types of local govern Hart, Ac 57. Local Government in the United States. At the The three present time, we have three types of local government in the United States: (1) the town type, (2) the county type, and (3) the compromise type. In the six New England ment. States, the town with its town meetings still looks after all of the important local needs of the inhabitants. In the South, the counties and their officials take full charge of local affairs, for many of the counties are scarcely subdivided even into school districts. But in the majority of the States, the compromise system prevails, each county having townships with a few unimportant duties, while all of the other local public business is transacted by the county officers. ernment. In studying local government, we must not forget that our local governments are but parts of the systems of state govThe local governments derive their authority, not from the people of the localities, but from the people of the whole State. The local governments are, therefore, one set of agents carrying out the wishes of the people of the States; the other set of agents being the central governments of the States. Our local governments are chiefly occupied with the administration of laws made by the state legislature and of ordinances passed by the county and town boards. Few of the local officials are called upon to deal with great questions of public policy, but all are obliged to devote their attention to a multitude of details in caring for the health of the people, in laying out roads and construct tual Gov't, §§ 83, 84. Gov't, 107, Macy, Civil 112-114. Interdependence of state and local govern ments. Local officials have adminis numerous trative duties. Common Bryce, Am. ing bridges, in maintaining public schools, in arresting and punishing law breakers, in keeping records of all public ed., 413–416. business, besides looking after numerous other matters of more or less importance. A political subdivision of a State. Counties are public corporations. Fairlie, Local Gov't, 64-65. The South ern County. Fairlie, Local Gov't, 57-63. County officials in the South. Importance of elective system. COUNTY GOVERNMENT 58. The Character of the County. — Every State is divided into areas called counties, of a size suitable for applying state laws. In a new State the location of county boundary lines is arranged by the legislature. After boundaries have once been fixed and the county seats selected, a legislature cannot arbitrarily move a county seat nor divide a county into two or more counties, as the population becomes more dense, but must first obtain the consent of the voters of the original county to the change. In order that public business may be transacted, power is given the counties as public corporations to acquire land at the county seat for the erection of a courthouse, a county jail, and other necessary buildings, to assess and collect certain kinds of taxes, to collect their debts and enforce demands by bringing suit against individuals or private corporations, and to sustain suits if any one has a claim against them. As townships do not exist in the South, or are of so little importance that they are scarcely worth considering, the county officials are obliged to look after matters left in the other States to both the towns and the counties. This task is made easier by the small size of the Southern county. In Kentucky, for example, the average area of the 119 counties is less than 340 square miles, while in Minnesota the average county is three times as large. Just as in Virginia in colonial times, the chief county officers in some of the Southern States are justices of the peace, who are judges at one time and who form a county board at another. Most of the Southern counties, however, are now governed as in most of the other States by commissioners, aided by sheriffs, county clerks, assessors, tax collectors, treasurers, and others. The duties of officials bearing these names are much the same in the South, the North, and the West, for only in New England, where the counties are overshadowed by the towns, is the work of the county unimportant. 59. The Selection of County Officials. It is difficult for us to realize now that less than a century ago, almost if not quite all of the county officials were appointed by either the governors or the legislatures. Nowadays the important places are filled by popular vote, and the lesser positions through appointment by the people's elected repre- Ashley, Am sentatives. The state government usually decides what county offices Fed. State, there shall be, what duties belong to each, and what salary each carries §§ 467-469. with it, but it cannot interfere with the people's choice of their officials. Because of the administration of practically all of our state and local laws by local officials, our counties have a large degree of freedom in deciding how severely they shall enforce any state laws. This possibility gives them what is usually considered the most vital form of local self-government in existence. This is made possible by the system of local elections with responsibility to the people of the local ity alone. Almost all of the officials mentioned in the following sections are elected by the legal voters of the county for periods of two, three, or four years. Their compensation varies greatly in different parts of the country, but is on the whole more liberal in proportion to the magnitude of their duties than is that of the state officials. Terms and compensation of county officials. tion and duties. 75-94. 60. The County Board. Every county has a supervisory Composibody which makes most of the county ordinances and oversees the actions of the other officials. The members of the county board may be known as commissioners, supervisors, justices of the peace, or by other names. They usually num- Fairlie, ber only three or five, and are elected either from the whole Local Gov't, county, from districts into which the county is divided for the purpose, or in some States from the townships. As a board their chief duties are to divide the county into school and road districts and even into townships, to lay out public highways, to construct bridges, to look after the poor, to erect public buildings, and, most important of all, to determine the amount of money needed by themselves and others to do the work of the county, and to supervise its expenditure. 61. Other County Officials. - There are ordinarily county Judges and judges who are really state officials (§ 93), although elected sheriff. by the voters of each county. The decisions of these judges, 95-100, 106 and of all higher state courts, that must be executed within Fairlie, the county, are carried into effect by the sheriff, who, by Local Gov't, virtue of this duty and the more general one of maintaining 112. peace and order, is the most powerful of the county officials. Financial officials. Fairlic, 119-127. Most of the revenue needed to maintain the government of an American county is derived from the general property tax (§§ 149-152). This is usually assessed by township assessors, but is paid to county tax collectors. When collected, Local Gov't, the tax money is turned over to the treasurer, who places certain amounts in the general fund, in the highway fund, the school fund, and various others, in accordance with instructions from the county board. This is not paid out except upon written order from the auditor, or of the county clerk in some States. If a school janitor is to be paid, he first receives from the school trustees a warrant or demand which will be cashed by the treasurer when the auditor indorses it, or issues for it a new demand. Other county officials. The records of the county board, the proceedings of the courts, and other official papers are preserved by the county clerk. When a suit in which the county is interested, or a criminal case is being tried in the county courts, the inLocal Gov't, terests of the county are represented by the attorney or his Fairlie, 100-106, 112-118, 127-140. Two types of town government. assistants. Upon the county superintendent of schools devolves the task of visiting schools and regulating the county school system, and often of superintending the distribution of school moneys. The coroner, with the aid of a jury, investigates the causes of violent or mysterious deaths. All deeds, mortgages, and other business papers for whose validity a record is necessary, are copied by the recorder. Many States have county surveyors to look after the public lands, separate overseers of the poor, public administrators who take charge of the estates of persons dying without wills, and other officials. TOWN GOVERNMENT 62. General Character of the Town. There are in the United States two distinct kinds of towns. One of these does much or most of the work consigned by the state government to the localities, and is a public corporation, with the right to do business in the courts and outside in a corporate capacity. The other, more often called a town |