Government

Many political entities in the United States can affect you and your motorhome.

United States
The U.S. Federal Government derives its power from the Constitution, created by the people to provide for both international and national affairs.

States and territories
The 50 states and several territories derive their power from the Federal Government. Almost every action taken by these governments is provided for by the national government, which has ultimate authority, largely through controls imposed by the Supreme Court.

State governments may not undertake any governmental action unless such action is permitted by the Federal Government, such as through the Constitution an act of Congress.

Local government
This is a general term and is used regularly as a synonym for counties, boroughs, parishes, cities, towns, townships and so forth. The term is commonly used to describe any unit of government within a state that falls below that state in terms of size and power. All local governments receive their authority to govern from the state.

Counties
In some states, counties are identified as boroughs or parishes. In most states, the county is the largest political subdivision with governmental power given to it by the state. Even where a county (borough or parish) adopts “home rule,” it still can only provide governance within the controls established by the state.

County boards, commissions or “courts” are composed of directly elected officials. Among these officials are those who provide legislative services and other services such as coroner, sheriff, tax collector, assessor. These latter officials usually are referred to as constitutional officers who are elected to distinguish them from officials appointed by the legislative branch.

Some county governments have an elected county administrator or manager, while other counties may have an appointee functioning in that capacity. This official may be identified by a variety of names: judge of the county court, county clerk, chief supervisor. The official depends on professionally trained assistants to help with the day-to-day operations of government.

Most county (borough or parish) governments provide for “land use control.” Usually, a countywide (excluding incorporated areas within the county) land use master plan is developed by professionals and submitted to the legislative branch for adoption. Because these plans are complex, a separate office, with sufficient staff whose tasks are to administer the plan, is created.

Cities
The city is an incorporated government whose boundary is within a county, and the state government provides the powers invested in it. It may, or may not, be home rule; but even then power is obtained from the state constitution or other enabling legislation.

Cities are responsible for providing a wide range of basic public services, most notably public safety, public works and planning and zoning. The services cities provide the taxpayer differ tremendously from one government to another.

The most popular form of city government is the mayor-council. This government can be either a weak mayor-council where the mayor has no authority beyond officiating at meetings and cutting ribbons. Power here is fragmented and held by the council, which sometimes appoints a city manager to carry out day-to-day operations.

The strong mayor-council is where the mayor is elected by the people and given broad administrative duties, including appointing department heads.

A commission form of government still exists in certain areas of the country. In this form of government, commissioners are elected to head a particular branch of government while also acting as a sitting legislative branch to create laws. There are more than 19,200 city governments in the United States.

One of the principal reasons to have city government is to permit local control over land use. Most city governments have a highly defined land use plan administered by a separate staff. To assist the elected officials, a citizen-staffed planning and zoning commission is appointed and a separate citizen-staffed board of review is created.

These latter two “units of government” have detailed ordinances to guide their work, but they do have latitude in the final decisions they make. Frequently, however, the results of their deliberations must be referred to the city’s legislative branch for ordinance authority. Occasionally, final authority may require a vote of the electorate.

Villages
A village is an incorporated area whose powers are defined by state laws. They normally are called statutory forms of government. Generally, their powers and duties are limited compared to the city's. Villages usually exist where the local residents wanted to have closer control over their environment.

Towns and townships
Towns and townships were formed as rural governments to serve settlers during the formation of state governments. They were a direct result of the initial surveys made to determine state boundaries.

Most often a township consisted of an area of land of about six square miles. Within that geographic boundary there was a further subdivision of sections, which served the purpose of identifying any given parcel of property to the surveyor of the day.

Early state legislative bodies recognized the towns or townships as political subdivisions of the state. In certain states, countylike power was provided to assist local people to self-govern where the larger, rural county was incapable or unwilling to provide that service.

Today, these types of government exist only in a small number of states and eventually will die out completely. Motor voter laws and the push toward less fragmentation in government are but two of the reasons townships are on the decline.

Township governments still exist in some smaller states, and provide grassroots levels of self-government. But some of them lack the ability to cross political lines, and they often have a significant lack of financing. Because of land use planning, they usually are not a threat to the property owner.

Special districts
Special districts have come into vogue in recent years where local landowners are willing to pay for services not readily provided by the ordinary unit of government. The oldest of these districts might be fire districts, street lighting districts, school districts, parks and recreation districts and so forth. The names might be different in various states, but the concept is the same.

Community associations
Sometimes there is a condominium arrangement, or in other cases a homeowners association, etc. They usually are created as a planned unit development to avail the developer with an opportunity to intensify development in small areas of his land.

Generally, the promoter files an articles of incorporation with the state using state laws that have been passed for the purposes sought, i.e. land development. Following a closely regulated process, the developer offers land, or improvements to land, to prospective purchasers.

The clients are told that certain “regulations and restrictions” are part and parcel to any sale by the developer. These conditions are generally written into the deeds conveyed with the purchase. Obviously, the developer or promoter composes these restrictions in terms that he believes will please most prospective clients.

At some point in time, the developer will turn control of the system over to an elected board of trustees comprised from the members of the association. This is very similar to a municipal unit of government, although it is purely contractual. Most often these boards are vested with broad authority to administer the covenants and restrictions, and to enact new controls.

Local politics
Municipal governments are dynamic, and employees often change jobs and rise though the ranks rapidly. Many change from department to department with frequency as job opportunities surface. It is not at all uncommon to witness deserving individuals serving in a number of different roles with expertise during their working career.

In recent years, schools of higher education have specialized in providing a curriculum on government services and administration. This activity has grown so popular that the institutes now provide specialized courses in a limited field of endeavor, such as community planning, fire suppression science and public safety.

A similar activity is experienced with municipal elected officials. Many individuals become completely wrapped up in government and often strive to gain a reputation in their first elected office so as to springboard to elected offices in a higher government. It is well known that former presidents of the United States got their beginnings by serving as municipal officials.

Keep in mind, the career employee of municipal government, as well as the officials elected to office, serve at the will of the people, either directly or indirectly. They constantly strive to serve the citizen. How they accomplish this is sometimes a mystery, but a careful study of the government structure that you are dealing with usually will reveal paths to follow to gain your objective.