California Association of Councils of Governments

What are COGs?

• CALCOG Information Brochure
• What Does CALCOG do for and on Behalf of Its Members?
• CALCOG Functional Responsibility Chart

• Excerpt from the California Planner’s Book of Lists 2008.  Includes COG Map and contact information.

The California Association of Councils of Governments represents California’s Regional Councils of city councilmembers and county supervisors. In many areas there are also board members representing the state and other local and regional agencies.

Nearly every-urban and suburban county, as well as many rural counties in which there is one or more cities, has entered into dozens of joint powers agreements to carry out specific regional programs. Generally these joint powers agreement are for a single purpose and oriented towards the delivery of a specific service.

Regional Councils of Governments differ in that they are primarily policy making and not service delivery organizations. In addition, the joint powers agreements creating Councils of Governments are multipurpose, enabling Councils to analyze the relationship between policies in one subject area and its impact upon other regional issues.

In addition to the authority that is created through their member cities and counties, Councils of Governments also carry out state and federal statutory duties. While the exact combination of duties varies from region to region, the two most prevalent are to serve as the regional transportation planning agency under state law and as the federal metropolitan (transportation) planning organization (MPO). This involves preparation of long range transportation plans and (in nearly all instances) also development and adoption of transportation improvement programs which allocate state and federal funds for highway, transit and other surface transportation projects.

In addition, state law provides that where there is a Council of Governments, it provides the allocations of regional housing needs to all cities and counties within its boundaries. (Where there is no Councils of Governments that duty is carried out by the State Department of Housing and Community Development).

If a regional council has statutory transportation planning or transportation improvement responsibilities but is not organized as a Council of Governments or a federally designated metropolitan planning organization, both of which provide broader planning authority, generally the organization is considered an associate member rather than a full member of CALCOG.

CALCOG’s two primary activities are to provide public policy advocacy and intergovernmental coordination with the state legislature, state agencies, the

League of California Cities, California State Association of Counties, California’s Congressional Delegation and federal officials.

In addition to public policy advocacy, like its member councils, CALCOG serves as a convenor, bringing together its member Councils of Governments to share information on successful regional programs and serve to assist each Council of Governments in developing to its fullest potential to serve its members needs for regional coordination, policies and services, where it is most appropriate to have these carried out in a multi-purpose regional forum governed by elected city councilmembers and county supervisors. CALCOG’s member Councils of Governments serve a wide variety of functions. Available from CALCOG is a chart showing the different functional responsibilities of each CALCOG member.

In general, these services fall under several categories:

Carrying out state or federal policy setting responsibilities.

Developing programs or allocating funds on a countywide basis based upon the approval of a countywide ballot measure designating the Council as the governing board.

Coordinating and/or consolidating the policymaking or service delivery by agreement among member cities or counties or serving as a management services organization to offer specific services to individual member cities or counties.

Serving as a regional convenor of public and/or private interests to facilitate discussion and the development of regional programs or policies likely to be carried out by other institutions or leading to the establishment of new institutions.

Providing input in coordination with other regional policies and programs such as air quality or water quality - sometimes combined with specific statutory approval requirements.

Councils of Governments lack general government authority in that they are not directly elected, they do not have direct taxation powers and do not have police powers or regulatory authority.

The Southern California Region with 6 counties and 200 cities, and the San Francisco Bay Area with 9 counties and nearly 100 cities, California’s two largest multi-county regions are also the second and fourth largest metropolitan areas in the nation. In most of Southern California and parts of the Bay Area there are also subregional councils. These councils enable more local governments to directly participate in developing policy and programs and provide subregional analysis of regional policies where more detail is necessary in these very large regions.

For more information, call our Sacramento office.