Since a 1978 constitutional reform, every Tennessee county elects both a County Commission (the legislative body, up to 25 members) and, separately, a County Mayor who serves as the county's constitutional chief executive — two distinct elected offices, not one combined board. A resident would attend County Commission meetings for policy and budget votes but contact the County Mayor's office for day-to-day administrative matters. Tennessee also has three fully consolidated city-county governments (most notably Nashville-Davidson), but that's limited to those specific communities, not the general statewide structure.

Most states combine legislative and executive power into a single small elected county board; Tennessee instead elects a separate county executive (mayor) alongside its county commission, a structural split most states don't have at the county level.