Commission Form of Government

The commission form of government is a structure used primarily by U.S. cities in which a small group of elected commissioners—typically three to seven—jointly serve as the legislative body while each individually heads an administrative department such as public safety, finance, or public works. Unlike the mayor-council or council-manager systems, there is no separation between executive and legislative branches: the same officials write the ordinances and run the agencies that enforce them.

The model is generally traced to Galveston, Texas, which adopted a commission charter in 1901 in the aftermath of the 1900 hurricane that devastated the city. Reformers argued that concentrating authority in a few full-time, businesslike commissioners would cut through the corruption and inefficiency associated with large ward-based councils of the Progressive Era. Des Moines, Iowa adopted a refined version in 1907—often called the "Des Moines Plan"—that added nonpartisan elections, the initiative, referendum, and recall.

The form spread quickly: by the late 1910s, several hundred U.S. cities had adopted it. Adoption then declined sharply as critics noted structural weaknesses:

• No single executive is accountable for citywide policy or budget coordination.
• Logrolling is encouraged because each commissioner protects their own department's appropriation.
• Amateur administration: commissioners are chosen for political appeal, not managerial skill.

Most cities that once used the commission form have since migrated to the council-manager system, which preserves elected policy oversight but vests day-to-day administration in a professional city manager. Today the pure commission form survives in only a small number of U.S. municipalities, though Oregon's Portland retained a variant until voters approved a charter overhaul in November 2022, transitioning the city to a council-manager model with a 12-member council elected by ranked-choice voting.

The term is also occasionally used for county-level "board of commissioners" structures, though those typically lack the departmental-head feature that defines the municipal model.