Our Mission

We work for and on behalf of regional governments in California.  We serve our regional members so that they can better serve their local cities and counties.

We recognize that each region in California is unique.  But all can learn from the experience of others.  We are dedicated to ensuring the success of our 47 member agencies by facilitating communication and information sharing between our members, local officials, state and federal agencies, involved stakeholders, and the public.

In addition, our work program also includes:

  • A consensus-based advocacy program that targets high priority Legislation in which our members have a common interest.
  • Facilitate member meetings and conferences designed to share information and encourage peer-to-peer learning.
  • Coordinate government-to-government communications between state, regional, and local governments as it relates to implementing policy, including transportation, housing, and climate change.
  • Provide general educational information  to interested stakeholders, governmental partners, and the public the structure, role, constraints, and opportunities for effective regional governance.
  • As the only entity that counts all 18 of the state’s Metropolitan Planning Organizations amongst its membership, focus on SB 375 (requiring regions to achieve a greenhouse gas reduction target within their transportation planning process).
  • Coordinate transportation policy implementation with Caltrans, the California Transportation Commission, and California State Transportation Agency. California is a leader in devolving authority to make decisions at the regional level.  But with that duty comes a responsibility to work with the state to assure that state goals are met.

Regardless of the issue, our members are all public agencies striving to deliver high quality, cost effective services to their own member local governments.  But there are commonalities in their organization responsibilities—like public education related to regional roles and responsibilities, effective board governance, staff, and understanding new developments and technologies.  CALCOG was founded to facilitate these discussions among members so that all could provide better service to their own constituencies.