Governance Evolution

The Erie County home rule charter in Pennsylvania was approved by voters in 1976 and took effect on January 1, 1978. It replaced the commissioner system with an elected County…

For nearly 150 years, a three-member board ran Salt Lake County. Territorial Utah called them selectmen, sitting alongside an appointed probate judge. Statehood in 1896 turned them into county commissioners.…

In 1952, King County voters rejected a plan to modernize their government by nearly two to one. Sixteen years later, voters approved a strikingly similar reform, and the county has…

Two county officials walk into the same room to decide how the local government responds to a flooding emergency. One has full executive authority to direct resources, sign contracts, and…

In 1998, voters in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, did something most counties never dare to attempt. They scrapped their entire governing structure. The three-commissioner system that had governed the county since…