Administrative Divisions of Michigan - County

County

See also: List of counties in Michigan

Michigan is divided into 83 counties, the primary administrative division of Michigan. This local government division has its greatest effect on unincorporated lands within the county, and can provide service which can include law enforcement, justice administration, health care, among other basic services. Where places within the county are incorporated, and thus granted home rule, the power of the county government is greatly diminished.

The government of the state's counties is largely structured as county board of commissioners, which function as the legislative body of the county with some executive powers with several elected executives from the County Clerk to the County Treasurer. However, four Michigan counties (Bay County, Oakland County, Wayne County, and Macomb County) function under a county executive form of government, where the executive powers are removed from the county commission and turned over to a County Executive.

Wayne and Macomb Counties are the only counties in the state to have adopted a Home Rule Charter. All other counties are structured according to state law.

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Famous quotes containing the word county:

    “Don’t you know there are 200 temperance women in this county who control 200 votes. Why does a woman work for temperance? Because she’s tired of liftin’ that besotted mate of hers off the floor every Saturday night and puttin’ him on the sofa so he won’t catch cold. Tonight we’re for temperance. Help yourself to them cloves and chew them, chew them hard. We’re goin’ to that festival tonight smelling like a hot mince pie.”
    —Laurence Stallings (1894–1968)

    “I believe the citizens of Marion County and the United States want to have judges who have feelings and who are human beings.”
    —Paula Lopossa, U.S. judge. As quoted in the New York Times, p. B9 (May 21, 1993)

    “I could draw Bloom County with my nose and pay my cleaning lady to write it, and I’d bet I wouldn’t lose 10% of my papers over the next twenty years. Such is the nature of comic-strips. Once established, their half-life is usually more than nuclear waste.”
    —Berkeley Breathed (b. 1957)