NACo researcher briefs St. Tammany charter panel on county government forms and trends

Jonathan Harris, associate director for research at the National Association of Counties (NACo), briefed the St. Tammany Parish Home Rule Charter Review Committee by Zoom on March 27 about national patterns in county governance, including council sizes, executive structures and legal frameworks that shape local authority.

Harris said most U.S. counties are small by population (more than two‑thirds with fewer than 50,000 residents), but most residents live in larger counties. He placed St. Tammany Parish in the "medium‑size" category by population (50,000–500,000) and noted its geographic area is roughly average for U.S. counties. Using a set of about 31 comparison counties with roughly similar population density, Harris described trends in council size, election format and the growing use of appointed administrators.

Key points from NACo's preliminary research, as presented by Harris, included:

- Council size: Nationally, most county legislative bodies have three or five members; Saint Tammany Parish is an outlier with 14 members among U.S. counties. In the NACo comparison set the average council size was about eight members; among home‑rule counties it was slightly higher. - Election format: Most counties elect commissioners by district; counties that elect by district tended to have larger councils in NACo's sample. - Executive/administration: About 43% of U.S. counties have an appointed administrator; fewer counties have an elected executive. NACo identified a decades‑long trend toward appointing professional administrators for day‑to‑day management. - Term limits and compensation: Term limits at the county level remain rare; statewide compensation surveys exist, but NACo does not maintain a comprehensive national database on local elected official salaries.

Harris said NACo’s ongoing research also looks at intergovernmental authority and that states vary widely in how much latitude they grant county or parish governments to change structure or fiscal authority. He pointed the committee to NACo tools including county profile pages and a county explorer mapping tool for comparative data.

Committee members asked Harris about trends over the past five to 10 years (he said analysis was ongoing but that the longer trend favored appointed administrators) and whether NACo compiles compensation rankings or success metrics linking governance form to measurable outcomes (NACo does not publish formal county rankings). Harris offered to provide follow‑up materials and state‑level compensation survey sources.

Ending

Committee members said NACo’s national perspective helped frame local decisions the committee will take up in Article 2 (council composition) and other sections of the charter review.