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California has an extensive and complicated system of local government that manages public functions throughout the state. Like most states, California is divided into counties; of which there are 58 including San Francisco;〔San Francisco is a consolidated city–county, and its government has the powers of both.〕 municipal areas are incorporated as cities,〔Twenty-two cities in California style themselves "town" but this distinction has no legal significance.〕 though not all California is within the boundaries of a city. School districts, which are independent of cities and counties, handle public education. Many other functions, especially in unincorporated areas, are handled by special districts, which include municipal utility districts, transit districts, vector control districts, and geologic hazard abatement districts. Due to geographical variations in property tax and sales tax revenue (the primary revenue source for cities and counties) and differing attitudes towards priorities, there are variations in the levels of various services from one city to the next. ==Counties== The basic political subdivision of California are the 58 counties. The county government provides countywide services such as law enforcement, jails, elections and voter registration, vital records, property assessment and records, tax collection, public health, health care, social services, libraries, flood control, fire protection, animal control, agricultural regulations, building inspections, ambulance services, and education departments in charge of maintaining statewide standards. In addition the county serves as the local government for all unincorporated areas (those areas not within any incorporated city), providing services such as police, parks, street maintenance, land use regulations, zoning, and waste disposal. Counties have taxing and police powers. Counties may promulgate ordinances which are usually codified in a county code, and violations of the ordinances are misdemeanor crimes unless otherwise specified as an infraction.〔California Government Code § 25132〕 Thirteen counties are "charter" counties while the rest are "general law" counties. Other than San Francisco, which is a consolidated city-county, California's counties are governed by an elected five-member Board of Supervisors, who appoint executive officers to manage the various functions of the county. In San Francisco, there is an eleven-member Board of Supervisors, but the executive branch of the government is headed by an elected mayor, department heads are responsible to the mayor, and there is both a city police department and a county sheriff, the latter mostly responsible for operating the county jail and for most jail bookings. Most counties elect all of their supervisors by district except San Francisco, San Mateo, and Tehama. All counties elect their treasurers except Los Angeles, Sacramento, Santa Clara, and Glenn. Forty-seven counties have an appointed county administrative officer, while five counties have a more powerful official such as a county manager, chief executive officer, or county mayor, and five rural counties do not have a full-time county administrative officer. California's judicial system is organized along county lines, but the county courts are a part of the state court system, and are not part of the county government. Historically, counties were responsible for providing courthouses and courthouse security for the Superior Courts of California (there is one superior court for each county), even though the superior courts were actually divisions of the state government, not the county governments. This unfunded mandate was a perennial source of frustration for both the superior courts and the counties. The Legislature finally responded by enacting the Trial Court Funding Act of 1997 and then the Trial Court Facilities Act of 2002 to transfer all courthouses to the state government and to relieve the counties of the burden of providing facilities to state courts. However, because the state government was not prepared to assume the burden of developing its own statewide courthouse security force, the superior courts were allowed to establish agreements with county sheriffs by which the courts would reimburse counties for continuing to provide deputy sheriffs to serve as bailiffs in the courthouses. Because of historical problems with fragmentation of local government as a result of the formation of too many special districts by enthusiastic local officials, all counties currently have a corresponding Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO), one for each county. A LAFCO regulates the creation of special districts and annexation of unincorporated land to cities within the county. No incorporated city may cross county boundaries, and special districts that span county lines must be specially approved by the state Legislature. California also uses grand juries, with at least one per county. These county-level grand juries are often called ''civil grand juries'' because their primary focus is on oversight of government institutions at the county level and lower. They meet at least once per year. On January 4, 1850, the California constitutional committee recommended the formation of 18 counties. They were Benicia, Butte, Fremont, Los Angeles, Mariposa, Monterey, Mount Diablo, Oro, Redding, Sacramento, San Diego, San Francisco, San Joaquin, San Jose, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Sonoma, and Sutter. On April 22, the counties of Branciforte, Calaveras, Coloma, Colusi, Marin, Mendocino, Napa, Trinity, and Yuba were added. Benicia was renamed Solano, Coloma to El Dorado, Fremont to Yolo, Mt. Diablo to Contra Costa, San Jose to Santa Clara, Oro to Tuolumne, and Redding to Shasta. One of the first state legislative acts regarding counties was to rename Branciforte County to Santa Cruz, Colusi to Colusa, and Yola to Yolo. The last county in California to be established is Imperial County on August 7, 1907. Since 1911, counties in California have been allowed limited home rule, with the Government of Los Angeles County the first in the nation to be granted home rule by charter in 1912. The county governments were originally molded around property recording and assessment, law enforcement, judicial administration, and tax collection, but more recently other functions have been added by the state such as public welfare, public health, water conservation, and flood protection.〔 In 1933, county supervisors gained authority to fix salaries for all county officers other than themselves. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Local government in California」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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