City, County, or Other: 6 Basic Forms

The authority of the board, how library funding works, the relationship between the board, the director, and local government are influenced by the form of government of the entity that created the library.

We will review the types of local government found in Montana in this section, but it will be helpful to do some reading from the Resource Library first. 

To learn more about the different forms of government please review Chapter 1.3 of the Montana Municipal Officials’ Handbook created by the Local Government Center at Montana State University.

• 1.301 Forms of Government Defined
• 1.302 Permitted Forms of Municipal Government
• 1.303 Methods to Alter the Form of Municipal Government
• 1.304 Principal Statutes Related to the Forms of Government 
• Table 1.3 Forms of Municipal Government in Montana 

Although the handbook focuses on municipal government, the Commission and Commission-Manager form of government are the primary structures found in county government.

You can use the copy of the Handbook  found in the Resource Library or visit the  Montana Local Government Center website.

Plan to spend about 15 minutes on this reading and then come back to the course to move forward..