I am interested in identifying the best local governments in the US. There are lots of opinions as the worst, but I want to find solutions. To do that I need to learn from the best. So, Dopers, you have lived all over, which county governments in the US do you think do the best job? Not necessarily the best county to live in, though that should be correlated, but the best local government. Here we have our share of studies and plans, but they rarely accomplish much. Local leaders that have the trust of the electorate and who can work with larger government entities seem to be more effective. What says the Dope?
I’ve lived in multiple counties in three different states… and I got nothing.
I doubt that any one county government is the best at doing everything. Shouldn’t you be identifying what service or program you’re interested in and identifying which are good at delivering that?
Good government comes from good leadership. As an example, here and here are some news stories on (former - RIP) Mississauga, Canada Mayor “Hurricane” Hazel McCallion. I believe Mississauga was debt-free during her tenure.
I can’t imagine this is a question that can be answered.
Maybe someone has lived someplace where they liked the local government but chances are neighbor hated it.
Not sure what criteria could be used to answer this.
I can definitively say that the answer is not Cook County, Illinois. Eternally on the verge of bankruptcy, and home to far too many officials who’ve wound up going to prison.
Beyond that, I’ve got nothing.
I live in Cook County and I 100% agree with you.
I think you would have to define your criteria, maybe social/health outcomes that you find desirable and that are impacted by county government.
Well, Connecticut has no government at the county level, so by some measures, that’s the best of all.
The county is a weird type of government unit for which there were very good reasons to set up the way the were when created 150 years ago or so on average [the very limited transportation and communications structure then–for example you wanted people to be able to drive to the county seat and back home via horse and buggy on dirt roads within a day]–but which have survived because of inertia, and is not the type of government structure you would generally set up today. Today you would have many of the functions just performed by the state, and other functions by the cities or metropolitan governments.
That’s what Connecticut and a few other states do.
I don’t see any way someone could answer this question. You would need to define what is meant by “best” , and then account for the fact that “county government” is very different in different places - some places have no county government at all , in others, there is a combined city-county so that city government can’t be separated from county government , in some places cities are not part of the county that surrounds them.
But even after you account for all that, there are over 3000 counties or county-equivalents* in the US. How many of them would any one person have experienced within a close enough time span to say one is the best? The county that was the “best” when I lived in it 40 years ago may no longer be the best today.
*“parish” in Louisiana or “borough” in Alaska. Connecticut has Councils of Governments that might be county-equivalents
Places where all the land is incorporated into cities and towns can do that. Places that have swaths of unincorporated land probably want some government presence below the level of the state.
I grew up in an area where all land is incorporated, and i remember a driving trip as a child, where i asked my parents what town we were in, and the answer was, “none”. That completely blew my mind.
You could expand the boundaries of cities/towns to include the whole state.
Right now in most county seats you have a city police department to provide police protection to residents of the city and a few blocks away a county sheriff’s department to provide police protection to the unincorporated areas; a city public works department and a few blocks away a county secondary roads department. This kind of duplication leads to inefficiency/waste.
Other functions should go the state, such as the things the county recorder does (land use records, etc)… County jails should be integrated with the state prison system.
There might be other functions you set up special districts for.
Fair enough. I tried to limit the answers to just the local government and its functions. I should have been clearer. My question refers to local governments (counties or their equivalent. I live in Louisiana so I fully understand the concept of a Parish. I figured most people might not.) I am interested in examples of local governments where the organization performs its functions well and gains the respect of the public. I do not wish to limit, or expand, the functions list. Whatever ever the local government does: road maintenance, planning, police, parks, whatever tasks the county performs. Clearly different counties will have different assigned functions. Great. Whatever the list is, are they good at it. My question includes gaining the respect of the public-presumably from doing a good job. Why a county? It is a particularly challenging form of government. It has, usually, a large area to deal with and a diverse population to serve. It has to deal intimately with both smaller units (towns, villages, subdivisions, economic zones, etc) and deal with larger state and federal governments. So they have a real challenge. Hence my question. Has any county really succeeded? It is easy to find failures. My question is what about successes. Are there any?
Massachusetts is almost in the same boat, but a few counties still exist in a limited form. The most populous counties governments were abolished.
Again, I think you have to define your criteria. Is it increased school performance? More homeless housed? Fire department response times? Something else?
I’m pretty happy with Lancaster County, Nebraska. We call it the good life for a reason.
What would that reason be?
Decent public education, excellent library system, nice system of parks and recreation, stellar public health dept that orchestrated top notch Covid response unequaled in the Midwest. Affordable community college system. Making progress in public transit, supportive system of senior centers, working class and middle class citizens can and do get elected to public service like the school board, natural resource districts, county commissioners, city mayor. Infrastructure like public utilities and streets are attended to, excellent professional fire and rescue coverage. Less impressed with our police dept but that is at least acknowledged and concerted efforts to improve are being made.
Far more transparency and information access to decision makers than I’ve known elsewhere like Missouri or Massachusetts. Turns out transparency and citizen access to the seats of local power really matter and drive all the rest. Toes get held to the fire.