Help me understand the levels of local government in Ohio and eslewhere

Factual Questions
1

Time for a long and rambling series of questions…

I ask specifically about Ohio because it’s where I live and thus the place I am most familiar with. There are various levels of government that affect me. In Ohio, there is the state, a county, a township, and a city or village. Basically what I want to know is what each of those levels does in terms of government that the others do not. As an example, Columbus is mostly in Franklin County but also has bits in Delaware and Fairfield counties. What will be different for Columbus residents in different counties and what will be the same? I’ve never really been able to find a clear and concise list of what services, etc. come from what level, and I’m not far enough into the real world to have much first-hand experience, so I’m hoping someone here knows how it all works. I can name a few things (like sales tax), but I can’t come up with enough to satisfy myself.

And I have some more, semi-related questions. They deal with incorporated places vs. non-incorporated places:
In Ohio you are either a resident of an incorporated place or not. In the latter case you’d call yourself a resident of some township, I suppose. What is the difference to a resident? If I moved to an unicorporated area of my township, how would my life be different in terms of government and services? Is it just a matter of a city or village having its own different rules, or do they actually have different types of authority than a township? Do township things (by that I mean whatever it is townships do) apply within an incorporated place? I think I recall that I get to vote for township trustees or something even though I am in a city, but local elections are rather forgettable. Also, in the larger cities that have grown beyond the boundaries of townships, do the townships matter or even exist anymore?

And finally, how does this differ from state to state, or from country to country if anyone wants to expand it that far? I know there’s a lot of variation (such as Massachusetts with its meaningless counties).

I know I have asked a lot, and these things could be answered by reading all the way through state constitutions and such, but I’m not looking for the dirtiest of details… just the basics.

2

I’m only familiar with New York State, so you can check this against Ohio.

In NY, the state is divided into counties, and the counties into townships and cities. Thus, you usually have three levels of government: state, county, and township/city.

Areas within townships (but not cities) can decide to incorporate as villages. There seems to be no rules as to the size required to be an incorporated village (The Incorporated Village of Dering Harbor, for instance, has a population of less than 50*).

Cities can add land from townships, but not from incorporated villages. The village of Green Island, for instance, is contiguous with the township of Green Island. It was incorporated to keep the city of Troy from annexing it.

New York City is an exception. The city is made up of five counties; each county is also a borough. Thus, the boroughs of NYC are Manhattan, the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island. However the counties are New York County, Bronx County, Kings County, Queens County, and Richmond County, respectively. I believe there are both county and borough governments.

An incorporated village has its own services. They also have an additional level of taxes to support the services. It depends on the village: some might have a paid fire department instead of a volunteer one, their own police, etc.

*It’s a small community of very rich people who wanted to remove themselves from being regulated by the town government, especially on zoning issues.

3

Addendum: I overstated the population of Dering Harbor. According to the 2000 census, it has a population of 13.

4

Here’s some info about New York. (Note that New York City is an exception to all of this.)

All counties in New York are divided into Towns and Cities. Most cities, so far as I have been able to tell, exist independantly of towns. Inside towns, you may find zero or more Villages and Hamlets.

Cities, towns and villages are all incorporated; that is, they exist as a legal entity, have precisely defined boundaries, and they have an elected government of some sort. Hamlets are unincorporated administrative districts of a town, and often don’t even have precisely drawn boundaries. The Town of Bedford in Westchester County has three Hamlets: Katonah, Bedford Hills and the confusingly named Bedford Village which is in fact not a Village at all. Because Bedford contains no incorporated sub-parts, all government is handled at the town level.

If you’re outside of a city or a village, then you’re in the “unincorporated” part of a town. (The town itself is an incorporated part of the county, of course.) So when one speaks of “unincorporated Mamaroneck,” he is speaking of the area in the Town of Mamaroneck which is outside the two villages in the town: Mamaroneck and Larchmont. (Lots of Villages have the same name as their surrounding Town.)

To make matters more confusing, some villages are parts of two towns. I have no idea why. A small chunk of the Village of Mamaroneck is in the Town of Rye, for instance.

Some villages have grown to become coterminous with their town. For example, Scarsdale is a combined village/town government. (Compare San Francisco, CA, a combined city/county government.)

Cities are allowed to have higher sales taxes, create police forces bigger than a certain size, create professional fire and EMS services (as opposed to volunteer) and other assorted powers, especially dealing with zoning. Cities are run by a mayor and city council and have some legislative autonomy from the state. Towns have very little autonomy, and are administered by an elected Town Supervisor. Villages within towns have an elected mayor and may have small police forces, arrange garbage and sewer service, and that sort of thing. Villages often make deals with their towns and subling villages for providing municipal services.

Counties may have their own police forces with jurisdiction of the unincorporated areas of towns that are not populous enough to maintain their own police force. (Cities always have their own.) Westchester County has such a force.

Clear as mud, eh?

5

To nitpick RealityChuck’s excellent simulpost: New York has towns, not townships.

6

Illinois is much the same as the above description of New York. Unincorporated areas generally have a lower level of services than incorporated municipalities. There may not be sewer or water connections available. (Wells and septic systems would be the alternative.) Emergency coverage is at the county level, and generally not as good as the municipal departments. (Fewer police patrols, no nearby fire station, etc.) Often, though, an unincorporated area will contract with a nearby town for these services.

Townships have less of a role than counties. Some county services apply in munipalities and some do not. Courts and public hospitals are funded and administered at the county level, even in cities. County police, on the other hand, generally only patrol unincorporated areas. County zoning applies only in unincorporated areas. Otherwise, it’s done at the municipal level, and is generally more restrictive and tailored to the area in question. Townships run some roads, but typically don’t provide much more to the average person. (There are also state and municipal roads.)

There are also other units of government (and taxation) like school districts, sanitary districts and mosquito abatement districts.

7

Here in Ohio, the situation is slightly less confusing than in New York, but not as clear and concise as in, say, California.

Partly obscuring the issue is the fact that towns and cities can be part of townships, or can opt out of the township if they prefer. They often opt out, because it helps avoid overlapping of services, but some smaller communities prefer to remain part of the township so as to have a synergy of services.

Counties in Ohio are much weaker than in many states. This is because of the existence of the township, with its usual police force, fire service, etc. Lucas County, in which Toledo can be found, has only three County Commissioners. By comparison, counties in California have either five or seven supervisors, depending on the type of county government, which reflects the more important nature of the county government.

It would be impossible to answer all the questions posed by the OP in the sort of length we prefer to keep posts on this board. I’d recommend the poster obtain a basic primer on civics in Ohio, which can undoubtedly be purchased at a good sized local book store. To get a good idea about what services the local city, township and county provide, try looking through their websites. :slight_smile:

8

In Ohio, all counties (save one) have three commissioners. (Portage County amended its charter so that it has a county executive and a larger county board of supervisors.) I am not sure why California counties would be “more important,” they simply have a different governing structure.

We’ve tackled similar questions in the past:

town? village? township? borough?

City and Village Annexation?

Corp. Limit ?

Basically, (nearly?) all states are organized into basic governmental subunits that are intended to provide for roads, law enforcement (sheriffs), health (hospitals, water treatment, etc.), and other basic services. In most states, these are called counties, although they are sometimes called boroughs and Louisiana calls theirs parishes.

In the states created under the Northwest Ordinance of 1787, the counties, themselves, are allowed to be divided into smaller subunits with similar responsibilities to counties, but with far less power to tax or regulate businesses. (Originally, the townships were charged with raising money to support education, but with the greatschool consolidation of the late 1940s, few townships are involved with education which is now handled by the city, village, or consolidated school boards with their own limited powers.

Cities are special cases that are allowed to organize under a charter and are permitted to usurp the powers previously held by the townships (and, to a certain degree, the counties). Villages (in Ohio–the terms differ from state to state) have more power than townships and less power than cities.

Counties and townships were established by the federal/territorial/state governments and are not permited to annex land to themselves. Townships may shrink as cities nibble way at them, but they cannot expand and they cannot invade adjacent lands and sieze them. Cities (and, to a lesser extent, villages) are permitted to sieze land from adjacent, less powerful governmental entities.

9

Virginia is easy:

Counties
Cities
Towns

That’s it. All are independent political subdivisions of the Commonwealth. Cities are completely separate entities from counties here (that always throws people).

10

In most of New England, it’s much easier: All of Massachusetts belongs to a city or town (even the rural areas are part of a geographically large, spread-out town). Counties, in the modern era, are just administrative subdivisions of the state with no real independent activities. There may be county sherrifs, but that’s about it. (The only time you need to know your county is filling out real estate forms, typically).
This situation is similar in Connecticut and Rhode Island, and I believe Vermont and New Hampshire, though I’m not absolutely sure.
Maine does have big chunks of virtually unihabited woods that are not incorporated into any municipality. I’m not sure how services typically provided by towns are provided in these areas, but since nobody lives there anyway, it’s not a big deal.