Political Geography

::  Wayne County is located in Southeastern Michigan, encompassing approximately 623 square miles. Several types of political units have jurisdiction within Wayne County, including 43 municipalities [9 townships, 33 cities, and 1 village]. Other political jurisdictions include State, Federal, special districts, and the County itself.

::  Wayne County is a charter county incorporated under Act No. 293, Public Acts of Michigan, 1967, as amended. It is governed by a Chief Executive Officer known as the County Executive, who is elected on an at-large basis for a four-year term. The County Executive heads the executive branch of government that is responsible for all operations of the County. A County Commission, comprised of 15 members elected on a partisan basis for two-year terms serves as the legislative branch of the County. It is responsible for establishing policy and the County budget.

::  Wayne County provides a variety of services and facilities to enhance the quality of life for its residents. Among those services are health and welfare, libraries, parks, education, economic development and environmental protection. These critical services are offered for smaller communities that cannot afford to operate these programs on their own, or in the case of a multiple community service area, such as the Rouge Park system, that extends through several jurisdictions.

::  Encouraging economic development opportunities in Wayne County improves the quality of life for all constituents of the County. Additionally, the County serves in the role of the federal agent for urban county funds under the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Community Development Block Grant Program [CDBG] for those communities that are considered non-entitlement communities. Communities with a population over 50,000 are considered entitlement communities. Entitlement communities in the County include: Canton Twp., Dearborn, Dearborn Heights, Detroit, Lincoln Park, Livonia, Redford Twp., Taylor, Westland, and Wayne County as an Urban County. The County makes CDBG funds available to non-entitlement communities through the County’s own CDBG program.

::  The State of Michigan Home Rule Legislation provides for a strong mayoral power for cities. The presence of regional government and cooperative relationships is weakened by a tradition of independent governing among the individual cities that make up the county and state. An individual mayor and/or city manager and a city council govern each entity.

::  In recent years, two of Wayne County’s distressed communities have fell into receivership and the State has stepped in to manage the financial affairs of each. An Emergency Financial Manager has been appointed as a directive from the Governor to both Hamtramck and Highland Park. In situations where communities consistently have unbalanced budgets and large deficits, this Emergency Financial Manager resumes full control of the local government diminishing the roles of mayor and city council.

::  Southeast Michigan Council of Governments [SEMCOG] is the Metropolitan Planning Organization serving southeast Michigan. SEMCOG is a non-profit organization representing the regional needs of the seven county areas, which includes Wayne County. SEMCOG's primary function is that of an advisor mostly relating to transportation, environment, demographics, and community development. SEMCOG's greatest influence is in transportation planning and development. SEMCOG provided a great deal of data used in this report, particularly when multi-county data were reported. Table 4 below lists the communities in Wayne County, and the political structure of each.

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