The California Association of Councils of Governments (CALCOG) is a statewide association representing 35 regional planning agencies and it was established in 1977. Most were formed as councils of governments, meaning that they represent joint powers agreements of cities and counties. The others were created as transportation commissions by the State Legislature. All have mandated state planning responsibilities. All councils of governments are responsible for identifying the share of the region’s housing needs for each community. Nearly all transportation commissions and councils of governments have transportation planning responsibility under both state and federal law.
All councils of governments and transportation commissions are governed by city council members and county supervisors chosen by their peers.
While most of our members are single-county organizations, those representing three of the four largest metropolitan regions - Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG), Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG)/Metropolitan Transportation Commission (MTC) in the Bay Area and Sacramento Area Councils of Governments (SACOG), as well as Monterey/Santa Cruz area (Association of Monterey Bay Area Governments (AMBAG) - are multi-county. In these multi-county regions there are also sub-regional organizations in transportation. In the Southern California region there are also 14 sub-regions for all regional planning, not just transportation but also including housing and other non-mandated regional planning issues.
With a few exceptions in specific transportation operations, our member agencies do not have service delivery responsibility. Their role with regard to transportation funds (and limited other funds that they distribute) is as a policy planning body that guides allocations of funds to other organizations without regulatory or service delivery authority or responsibility.
The CALCOG Executive Director is Rusty Selix.