Maryland's 23 counties split roughly three ways: 6 use a traditional small elected "county commissioners" board with no separate executive; 6 more are "code home rule" counties that still use an elected Board of County Commissioners but with expanded local law-making power; and 11 are "charter" counties with a separately elected county council, most of which also have a separately elected county executive. Because the charter counties include most of the state's largest, most populous jurisdictions, many Marylanders live under a council-executive system even though a slim majority of counties (by count, not population) still use a commissioners-only board. Check your own county's structure specifically — in commissioner or code counties, the county commissioners are your point of contact; in charter counties, it's typically the county council and, where one exists, the county executive's office.

Most states use one county government structure fairly consistently; Maryland is genuinely mixed, with no single dominant pattern — the right contact depends entirely on which of its 23 counties you live in.