Question about indenpendent cities and consolodations

[bulldog1979]

While not the exact situation in question, when Macon and Bibb County (Ga.) were consolidated in January, the small portion of Macon in Jones County was deliberately de-annexed from Macon to avoid the situation where the consolidated commission would have authority over part of Jones County. (There is an interlocal services agreement now allowing Macon-Bibb to continue trash collection services in the ex-Macon part of Jones.) As far as I know, the idea of changing the county boundary to align with the city boundary in that area was never broached, even though that would be within the legislature's power.

According to List of counties in Michigan on Wikipedia:

There are many cities and villages that span county boundaries in Michigan, including its capital, Lansing. For a few years during the early 1970s, split cities briefly had authority to petition to change the county boundaries to accord with the city boundaries. The only city to take advantage of this brief opportunity was New Baltimore (previously split between Macomb County and St. Clair County; now completely in Macomb). This transfer of territory from St. Clair to Macomb was the only county boundary change in Michigan since the early 20th century.

[Duke87]

Would all the cities and towns in Connecticut be considered independent then?  Remember, CT does not have a county form of government.

Depends on how you define "independent". In the sense that municipal governments in CT have no county government above them, yes. Indeed, counties in CT exist only historically/culturally, they have absolutely zero legal meaning.

But despite having no legal status, CT's counties do still have definite boundaries, and all municipalities are within one geographically. What makes an independent city "independent" from a county clinching perspective is that it is not part of any county and therefore must be visited separately as a county-equivalent in order to clinch.

In this regard, cities such as Philadelphia and San Francisco which are coterminous with their respective counties may be considered de facto independent cities from a county clinching perspective. But legally speaking the meaning will vary from state to state.

[The Nature Boy]

Is Connecticut the only state to have completely abolished county governments? I know that the New England states largely disregard counties, but even Massachusetts maintains county sheriffs whereas Connecticut doesn't.

[kkt]

Is Connecticut the only state to have completely abolished county governments? I know that the New England states largely disregard counties, but even Massachusetts maintains county sheriffs whereas Connecticut doesn't.

That's interesting.  Who serves legal papers, attaches wages per court order, and provides bailiffs for the local courts in Connecticut?

[Duke87]

Is Connecticut the only state to have completely abolished county governments?

Rhode Island abolished county government in 1840, long before Connecticut did (1960).

In Massachusetts some counties have government, but others do not.

Is Connecticut the only state to have completely abolished county governments? I know that the New England states largely disregard counties, but even Massachusetts maintains county sheriffs whereas Connecticut doesn't.

That's interesting.  Who serves legal papers, attaches wages per court order, and provides bailiffs for the local courts in Connecticut?

Connecticut has State Marshals that perform these duties.

[The Nature Boy]

Is Connecticut the only state to have completely abolished county governments? I know that the New England states largely disregard counties, but even Massachusetts maintains county sheriffs whereas Connecticut doesn't.

That's interesting.  Who serves legal papers, attaches wages per court order, and provides bailiffs for the local courts in Connecticut?

Connecticut just created a statewide agency that hires what they call "state marshals" to handle all of that. I'm not sure what Rhode Island did though.

[vdeane]

Rhode Island is so small, the entire state is essentially an independent county.

[The Nature Boy]

Rhode Island is so small, the entire state is essentially an independent county.

I would actually be interested in seeing a list of counties that are bigger than Rhode Island. It would probably be a shockingly long list.

[Roadrunner75]

Rhode Island is so small, the entire state is essentially an independent county.

I would actually be interested in seeing a list of counties that are bigger than Rhode Island. It would probably be a shockingly long list.

It is shockingly long.
Rhode Island:  1,212 sq. mi.
The first 104 that are larger:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_largest_counties_in_the_United_States_by_area

[The Nature Boy]

Rhode Island is so small, the entire state is essentially an independent county.

I would actually be interested in seeing a list of counties that are bigger than Rhode Island. It would probably be a shockingly long list.

It is shockingly long.
Rhode Island:  1,212 sq. mi.
The first 104 that are larger:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_largest_counties_in_the_United_States_by_area

The fact that two Maine counties are larger than Rhode Island is somewhat hilarious.

[Duke87]

The fact that two Maine counties are larger than Rhode Island is somewhat hilarious.

Forget that, two New Hampshire counties are larger than Rhode Island (Grafton and Coos).

Massachusetts even has a county that is larger than Rhode Island (Worcester).

Meanwhile, New York has 16 and Pennsylvania has 7. You could put together a decent list even if you only looked at counties east of the Mississippi!

[woodpusher]

Perhaps no one is interested but Carson City was Ormsby County up until 1969.
St. Louis (City), MO was broken out separately by USCB for the first time in 1880, with a footnote that it had become independent in 1876.

Baltimore (City), MD was broken out separately in the Census of 1860, although it's not clear that it was a separate jurisdiction.
In 1870 it was not broken out.  It was broken out in 1880 and has been ever since.