1992 CENSUS OF GOVERNMENTS DIRECTORY SURVEY DATA FILE (Draft Copy, July 1995) The file is in flat ASCII text format and is divided into three sub-files. These consist of GPDATA.TXT (contains all county, municipal and township governments), SPECDATA.TXT (contains all special district governments), and SCHLDATA.TXT (contains all school district governments and dependent school systems). EXPLANATION OF FIELDS GOVERNMENTS ID: The governments ID consists of four separate components, namely a state number, type code, county code and unit code. State number: This number is assigned to the states on an alphabetical basis with Alabama represented by "01", Alaska by "02" and so forth. The District of Columbia is coded as "09" bringing the total number of codes to 51. Type code: This number indicates the type of government or agency. The specific codes are as follows: 1 = County Governments 2 = Municipal Governments 3 = Township Governments 4 = Special District Governments 5 = School District Governments 7 = County Dependent School Systems 8 = Municipal Dependent School Systems 9 = Township Dependent School System 0 = State Dependent School Systems County Code: This is a unique three digit code assigned to each county in a particular state in roughly alphabetical order. Unit Code: This is a unique three digit code assigned to each government of the same type within the same state and county area. FISCAL YEAR END: The fiscal year ending date of the government in MMDD format. RESPONSE CODE: This code indicates whether a government responded to the survey. A "1" in this field indicates that the government did respond. A "2" in this field indicates that the government did not respond. A "3" in this field for a special district government indicates that the government did not respond to the survey, but did respond to a follow-up letter asking for confirmation of the existence of the government. POPULATION: This field contains the 1990 Decennial populations for counties, municipalities and townships. ENROLLMENT: This field contains the 1990-1991 school year enrollment for school districts and dependent school systems. Enrollment figures were provided by the National Center for Education Statistics. FUNCTION CODE: This is a two-digit code indicating the function(s) performed by a special district government. See the attachment for the meanings of individual codes. HOMERULE: A code of 1 in this field indicates that the respondent government reported having a homerule charter. A "2" in this field indicates that the government reported having no homerule charter. DATE OF HOMERULE: Governments adopting homerule charters after 1986 were asked to specify the year in which their charter was adopted. FORM OF GOVERNMENT: Counties, municipalities and townships were asked to provide information on their form of government according to the following codes: Counties: 1 = Council-Commission (elected governing body, but with no chief county executive) 2 = Council-Administrator (elected governing body and appointed county administrator or manager) 3 = Council-Elected Executive (elected governing body and elected chief executive) Municipalities and Townships 4 = Mayor-Council (elected mayor and elected governing body) 5 = Council-Manager (elected governing body and appointed manager) 6 = Commission (elected board of commissioners, with each commissioner responsible for one or more departments) 7 = Selectmen or Supervisors (elected body responsible for day-to-day administration) 9 = Other PUBLIC SERVICES: Each county, municipality and township was asked if it provided any of 17 specific public services. The governments were further asked to indicate how each service was provided according to the following codes: 1 = The government owns and directly operates the service 2 = The government owns the facilities associated with the service, but contracts out for the actual operation 3 = The government neither owns nor operates the service, but does contract out for its provision 0 = The government does not provide the service JOINT SERVICES: Each county, municipality and township was asked if it provided any public services jointly with another government. A "1" indicated that it provided joint services and a "2" indicated that it did not. TOWNSHIP MEETING: Townships were asked if the basic policy for their government was decided by a town meeting. A "1" indicated yes and a "2" indicated no. TYPE OF MEETING: Townships that responded "yes" to the township meeting question were asked what type of meeting they conducted 1 = A "direct" town meeting consisting of the voters served by the government 2 = A "representative" town meeting consisting of elected representatives of the voters served by the government. GOVERNING BODY EMPLOYMENT STATUS: Governments were asked whether the members of their governing bodies served full (30 or more hours per week) or part time. A "1" indicates full time and a "2" indicates part time. GOVERNING BODY TYPE OF COMPENSATION: Governments were asked what type of compensation was paid to their governing bodies. 1 = Salary 2 = Per Diem (Per day or per meeting) 3 = Expenses (travel, etc.) 4 = None SCHOOL LEVEL CODE: This code represents the grade coverage of each individual school district or school system. This code was obtained from data provided by the National Center for Education Statistics. 01 = Elementary Grades Only 02 = Secondary Grades Only 03 = Elementary and Secondary Grades 04 = Higher Education (Postsecondary) 05 = Special or Vocational Education 06 = Non-Operating ( the system did not operate schools directly, but sent its students to other school systems) AREA SERVED: School districts, school systems and special districts were asked what specific geographic area they served according to the following scheme: 1 = A specific County 2 = A specific municipality or township 3 = Two or more entire counties 4 = Parts of two or more counties 5 = Wholly within a single county, but not coterminous with another governmental unit MULTI-COUNTY CODES: School districts, school systems and special districts that indicated that they served at least part of two or more counties were asked to specify those counties. Each county served is indicated using the governments state number followed by the governments county code. (the same codes used in the governments ID) Governments that indicated serving more than six counties contain a "999" in the county number of the sixth field. This field is actually a conglomeration of six separate five character fields, each containing a governments state number and county code. BIG CITY CODE: School districts, school systems and special districts were asked if they served a city of 50,000 or more population. A "1" indicated that they did serve all or part of such a city and a "2" indicated that they did not. ADVISORY SCHOOL COUNCILS: School districts and school systems were asked if they had advisory school councils. A "1" indicated that they did have such councils, and a "2" indicated that they did not. TYPE OF SCHOOL COUNCILS: School districts and school systems that indicated having an advisory school council were asked what type of council they had according to the following: 1 = Composed entirely of elected members 2 = Composed entirely of appointed or ex officio members 3 = Consisting of both elected and appointed members INCORPORATION DATE: Special districts which had incorporated after 1986 were asked for the year that they had become incorporated. REVENUE POWERS: Special districts were asked if they possessed the following revenue powers: Property Tax Levies Other Tax Levies Special Assessments Service Charges and Sales Grants A number other than "0" in any of these fields indicates that the government possessed that particular revenue power. FUNCTIONS PERFORMED: Special districts were asked to list all of the functions that they performed (up to 5) and the percentage of financial effort that they spent on each function. (See attachment for explanation of function codes) ELECTED OFFICIALS Demographic data were collected for elected officials of respondent governments in the following three categories: 1. Governing Body: The principal policymaking board for a government. 2. Other Boards: Boards that perform a specialized function within a particular local government. 3. Other Elected Officials: All other officials that were directly elected by the voters. These categories are shown in the attached record layouts. It should be noted that there is item nonresponse for the elected officials classification data. Imputation for the elected officials was made only in cases where the number of elected officials was known. There was no imputation or estimation made for racial/ethnic/gender counts where item nonresponse existed. Demographic data was also collected for appointed governing bodies of school districts, school systems and special districts. EX OFFICIO BOARD MEMBERS: Special districts were asked to indicate the number of governing body members which served ex officio. GENERAL NOTES The reference date of the census was January 1, 1992. Any responses of "0" in individual data items generally indicate that the question was not answered by the respondent, or that the question was not applicable.