County commission
Definition
A county commission (also called a board of supervisors or county council in some states) is the elected body that governs a county, combining both legislative and executive roles: passing budgets, setting policy, and overseeing county departments and services.
Why it matters
Because county commissions often blend lawmaking and administration in one small elected body, usually just three to five members, individual commissioners can hold outsized influence over land use, sheriff and jail budgets, and unincorporated-area zoning compared to a city council member representing a similar number of constituents in a larger body.
Seen in the wild
County commission government is the oldest and still one of the most common local government structures in the U.S., typically composed of three to five members serving as both the county's legislature and its executive, a structure the National Association of Counties documents as operating in the large majority of America's more than 3,000 counties.1