Most Virginia counties are governed by an elected Board of Supervisors functioning much like a commission, sometimes aided by an appointed administrator or, in a few counties, a stronger county manager or executive. The distinctive feature is Virginia's 38 independent cities, which are legally equal to counties and sit entirely outside any county government, running their own schools, roads, and courts. A resident in an independent city contacts city hall, not a county office; a resident in a county contacts the Board of Supervisors and county clerk or administrator.

In most states, incorporated cities sit inside a county and residents may deal with both city and county government; Virginia instead makes every city legally independent of county government, a structure dating to the 1870s.