The county over both townships

ROSTERS AS OF NOVEMBER 11, 2026 · SUCCESSIONS FROM JANUARY 1, 2027

Above the townships, St. Joseph County governs the designated place whole, and in a single district at each level: the county's executive is its three-member Board of Commissioners (Indiana Code 36-2-2), and the whole of the designated place — all of Clay, German, and Harris townships, with the far-north sides of South Bend and Mishawaka — lies in Commissioner District 1, the northern district. The seat's modern line runs: Andy Kostielney, placed by Republican caucus in 2009 in succession to Mark Dobson and long the board's president, retired at the end of 2022; Carl H. Baxmeyer (R) has held the district through 2026, as president of the board. On November 3, 2026, Baxmeyer was defeated by Bill Redman (D), 16,735 votes to 11,924 — 58.4 percent — and Redman takes the District 1 seat, and with it Granger's commissionership, on January 1, 2027. The full board as it sat in 2025–26 was Baxmeyer (District 1, president), Rafael Morton (District 2), and Anthony "Tony" Hazen (District 3, vice-president) — Morton and Hazen holding from January 1, 2025, in succession to Derek D. Dieter and Deborah A. Fleming; with Redman's election the board stands 2–1 Democratic from 2027. The county's legislative and fiscal body is the nine-member County Council (Indiana Code 36-2-3), and the designated place is split between two of its districts. District C covers all of Harris Township, including its Granger ground, together with four Clay Township precincts and three Mishawaka precincts; the balance of Clay Township's precincts falls in District A on the county's district geography, the exact precinct composition of District A being carried as a named gap below. District C's line runs: Jamie O'Brien, who held the seat from 2012 until resigning in 2018; then Daniel J. Schaetzle, the holder through 2026 and the council's president in 2025. Schaetzle lost the Republican primary of May 5, 2026, to the seat's earlier holder, Jamie (James) O'Brien, and on November 3, 2026, Jan Cervelli (D) defeated O'Brien for the seat, 5,521 votes to 5,145; Cervelli holds District C — and with it the council seat of every Harris Township Granger address — from January 1, 2027. In District A, the incumbent Joe Thomas (R) was defeated on November 3, 2026, by Mike Hamann (D), 5,572 votes to 4,476; Hamann, who served two terms as county auditor from 2015 to 2022, takes the seat January 1, 2027. The council as seated in 2025 stood: A, Joseph G. Thomas; B, Amy Drake; C, Daniel J. Schaetzle; D, Jennifer Shabazz; E, Diana L. Hess; F, Randall Figg; G, Mark A. Catanzarite; H, Bryan Tanner; I, Andy Rutten — with Tanner elected the council's president in January 2026 on a bipartisan 6–3 vote. The 2026 election also turned District B (Rohatgi (D) over the incumbent Drake) and the open District E (Lori A. Camp (D), unopposed in the general election) and returned Tanner unopposed, taking the council from a 5–4 Republican majority to 7–2 Democratic. The countywide officers Granger answers to were likewise all replaced or returned on the Democratic line on November 3, 2026, each taking office January 1, 2027: Prosecutor Amy Cressy (45,438 votes), Clerk of the Circuit Court Stephanie Ball (43,737, defeating the incumbent Amy Rolfes), Auditor Autumn Kaylor (43,708), Sheriff Scott Ruszkowski (47,951), and Assessor Victor Cummings (42,936) — the Tribune's summary is that Democrats won every county race. What the county does on this ground is the unincorporated resident's daily state: the sheriff's patrol in place of a police department; the county highway and drainage apparatus — it was the county Drainage Board whose dewatering order touched the Microsoft campus construction on Cleveland Road in November 2026, as the Story of Granger section's campus entry records; the county's courts, none of which sits in the designated place — Granger ground answers to the county's circuit and superior courts in South Bend; and the county council's fiscal authority over the appointed boards, the library district among them, that the entries below describe.

Sources:

1. Congressional Record, December 2, 2021 (the tribute to Commissioner Kostielney: District 1 as the northern district, including Granger, all of Clay, German and Harris townships and parts of the far-north sides of South Bend and Mishawaka; the 2009 caucus succession to Mark Dobson; retirement at the end of 2022).
2. St. Joseph County official agendas, minutes, and the county council-districts map (October 2025) (the 2023 board — Baxmeyer, Dieter, Fleming; the 2025–26 board — Baxmeyer, president; Morton; Hazen, vice-president; the 2025 council roster A–I as printed).
3. St. Joe Current, October 31, 2026 (District C's composition: all of Harris Township, four Clay Township precincts, three Mishawaka precincts; the Schaetzle–O'Brien primary) and November 2026 results coverage (Cervelli 5,521, O'Brien 5,145); January 6, 2026 (Tanner elected council president, 6–3).
4. WNDU election results, November 3, 2026 (Commissioner District 1: Redman 16,735, Baxmeyer 11,924; Council District A: Hamann 5,572, Thomas 4,476; District C as above; the countywide officers' figures as printed).
5. South Bend Tribune, November 9, 2026 (Democrats won every county race; the council's turn from 5–4 to 7–2; turnout 77,909, 40.17 percent).