WampaGate

What IS County Government?

 This little-understood bureaucracy has a huge effect on our lives

The editors at capecodtoday.com have correctly surmised that many people are not sure what Barnstable County Government is or, more to the point, who it is. This is a brief tour of the structure we call Barnstable County:

Barnstable County exists as a result of a home rule petition passed in 1988. Go to Google and enter Barnstable County for a full view of the county's web information.

The county government consists of fifteen departments. The Cape Cod Commission is the county's planning department and its executive director and staff are all county employees. Although technically under the umbrella of Barnstable County, the county jail is operated by the sheriff's department with an elected sheriff (six-year term). The jail is funded primarily by the state.

The actual county government structure is as follows:

• Three county commissioners, elected to staggered four-year terms. There may be only one county commissioner from any single town. The county commissioners are the county's executive body.
• Fifteen members of the Assembly of Delegates, one from each town, elected by general election. The Assembly of Delegates serves as the county's legislative body.
• One county administrator is appointed by the county commissioners. The administrator's function is to manage the day-to-day operations of the county overall. There is also a deputy county administrator.

The Cape Cod Commission
Current staffing for the Cape Cod Commission stands at 41, with two vacancies. The Commission has a dedicated revenue stream; a tax collected in each town and paid semi-annually into the county environmental trust. For the past three years the county has supplemented the commission's budget. This extra funding will not appear in this year's county budget. The commission staff reports to the executive director and to the nineteen appointed commission members. Each town appoints one person to serve as its representative (three-year term) and there are also one governor's appointee, one minority appointee, one Native American appointee and one county commissioner for a total of nineteen. The minority appointee, selected by the governor, is a non-voting member.

Members of the Cape Cod Commission are unpaid, as are the members of the Assembly of Delegates. The three county commissioners are paid $14,000+ annually.