The county is essentially built the same as the federal government,  Legislative, Executive and Judicial. The Legislative branch is the county commission, the executive branch is the county mayor and the judicial branch are the county courts. All three branches are separate and independent.

In county government, the county mayor is essentially the administrator or CEO of the county. The mayor has no authority over the county commission nor the courts. In fact, except as a member of the budget committee, the mayor doesn't even have a vote on commission. The mayor position is a county wide elected position. The mayor has around 40 employees in 6 departments under his administration. 

The county commission is the legislative body for the county. The commission makes all policy for the county including budgeting, zoning, codes enforcement, etc. The single most important job of the commission is budgeting. The county's annual budget now exceeds one hundred million dollars. Preparing and passing an annual budget takes a large amount of the commission's time. The commission has no authority over the mayor nor the courts. There are 10 county commissioners representing 7 districts. It takes at least 6 commissioners, a majority, to pass any legislative actions.

The county also has a board of education. There are 10 elected school board members distributed the same as county commission. The BOE is entirely independent of the county commission and the county mayor. The 10 BOE members have one employee, the director of schools. All other school employees, around 700, work for the director of schools. The BOE members are the legislative body for the school system.

The county has three courts, General Sessions, Circuit Court and Chancery Court. The two general sessions judges are locally elected and are county employees while the Circuit Court and Chancery Court judges are elected, state employees.

The county also has 7 other county wide elected offices. 

• Trustee
• Property Assessor
• County Clerk
• Register Of Deeds
• General Sessions Court Clerk/Circuit Court, Criminal Court
• Sheriff
• Highway Superintendent

All of these offices are county wide, elected positions. The county commission nor the county mayor have any authority over any of these offices.

There is also the unelected position of Administrator of elections and the election commission which is an independent department and the unelected office of Chancery Court Clerk.

The one thing all the county offices and departments have in common is, the county commission is responsible for funding all the offices and departments.

I think a lot of people, especially those new to Loudon County, and others for that matter, may not know the structure of county government. Hopefully, this will give a little clarity to the workings of Loudon County government.