County Municipality (Norway)

County Municipality (Norway)

A county municipality (Norwegian: Fylkeskommune) is a Norwegian public elected body that is responsible for certain public administrative and service tasks within a county. Each county consists of county municipality, with the exception of Oslo, which is both a municipality and a county municipality. The main responsibility of the county municipalities are upper secondary schools, dental care, public transport, county roads, culture, cultural heritage management, land use planning and business development.

Each county council main body is the county council (fylkesting), elected by direct election by all legal residents every fourth year. The next election will be held on Monday September 12, 2011. The county councils typically have 30-50 members and meet about six times a year. They are divided into standing committees and an executive board (fylkesutvalg), that meet considerably more often. Both the council and executive board are led by the Chairman of the County Council or County Mayor (fylkesordfører).

Some counties, including Nord-Trøndelag and Nordland, have chosen to create a county cabinet (fylkesråd) that functions as the head of the executive branch of the county municipalities duties. The cabinet is led by the Chairman of the County Cabinet (fylkesrådsleder). The head if the administration is the County Executive (fylkesrådmann).