The Triad Power Ranking, 3-25-15: The City Departments Edition

3. Greensboro

Cities are complicated, messy things, which is why all city governments create departments to oversee different aspects of city life. Police and fire, waste removal, transportation and engineering are but a few of the 24 departments under the umbrella of the city of Greensboro, the least in the Triad, even though it’s the biggest city on the three. And one of the departments listed at greensboro-nc.gov is the Greensboro Coliseum, a facility unique to the city.

2. High Point

The Third City places second in number of city departments, with a total of 27 departments to serve the needs of the citizenry listed on the city website. Most of them are pretty basic: human resources, purchasing, budget evaluations and the like. But since High Point is an Electric City, so it must regulate and maintain its own grid with an electric utilities department.

1. Winston-Salem

Winston-Salem comes in first this week with a grand total of 29 city departments, according to the city website. They’ve got a department for public assembly facilities, one for stormwater/erosion control, a minority/women’s business enterprise program, and both a planning department and a planning & development services department [Of course, the other two cities have the same functions, but they’re probably consolidated within a smaller number of departments for greater efficiency]. The Camel City lists city council as a department, while the other two do not, but that still leaves them with the biggest list of city departments in the Triad.