The California Department of General Services (DGS) is a state government agency in the California Government Operations Agency of the executive branch of the government of California in the United States. It provides a large number of services to other agencies in the government of California, playing a role that is similar to that played by the General Services Administration for the federal government of the United States.
In 1951, the California State Assembly's Interim Committee on Governmental Reorganization began to study a proposal to consolidate purchasing, printing, records management, traffic management, building maintenance, grounds maintenance, and information services into a single agency, to be called the Department of General Services. The purpose of this proposal was "to reduce the staggering overhead involved in the present practice of maintaining these functions separately in each State administrative agency". [1]
This proposal was one of several long-running reform ideas floating around Sacramento since the late 1930s which were consolidated by Governor Pat Brown in 1961 into a plan for a dramatic reorganization of the state government. Brown's massive plan touched off an equally massive uproar, and he was unable to get his plan enacted all at once as a single package. [2] That year, the California State Legislature enacted only part of the first part of Brown's plan, to create four so-called "super-agencies" (of eight then planned) headed by secretaries to reduce the number of Cabinet-level direct reports to the governor. [3] [4] (The hyphen was later dropped and they are now called superagencies.) In 1963, after the Little Hoover Commission filed a report recommending the creation of a Department of General Services, Governor Brown formally asked the state legislature to create such a department, and in March, Milton Marks introduced an bill to that effect in the state assembly. [2] By June, the bill had cleared the California State Senate and went back to the assembly for a vote to concur in the senate's minor amendments to the bill, which Marks indicated would follow in due course. [5] By September, Governor Brown had signed the bill into state law and had started to appoint officials to positions in the new department. [6]
Since 2001, DGS headquarters has been located at The Ziggurat in West Sacramento. [7]
The California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) is an executive department of the U.S. state of California. The department is part of the cabinet-level California State Transportation Agency (CalSTA). Caltrans is headquartered in Sacramento.
The government of California is the governmental structure of the U.S. state of California as established by the California Constitution. California uses the separation of powers system to structure its government. It is composed of three branches: the executive, consisting of the governor of California and the other constitutionally elected and appointed officers and offices; the legislative, consisting of the California State Legislature, which includes the Assembly and the Senate; and the judicial, consisting of the Supreme Court of California and lower courts. There is also local government, consisting of counties, cities, special districts, and school districts, as well as government entities and offices that operate independently on a constitutional, statutory, or common law basis. The state also allows direct participation of the electorate by initiative, referendum, recall and ratification.
Edmund Gerald Brown Jr. is an American lawyer, author, and politician who served as the 34th and 39th governor of California from 1975 to 1983 and 2011 to 2019. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected Secretary of State of California in 1970; Brown later served as Mayor of Oakland from 1999 to 2007 and Attorney General of California from 2007 to 2011. He was both the oldest and sixth-youngest governor of California due to the 28-year gap between his second and third terms. Upon completing his fourth term in office, Brown became the fourth longest-serving governor in U.S. history, serving 16 years and 5 days in office.
Edmund Gerald "Pat" Brown was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 32nd governor of California from 1959 to 1967. His first elected office was as district attorney for San Francisco, and he was later elected Attorney General of California in 1950, before becoming the state's governor after the 1958 California gubernatorial election.
Peter Barton Wilson is an American attorney and politician who served as a United States senator from California from 1983 to 1991 and as the 36th governor of California from 1991 to 1999. A member of the Republican Party, he also served as the 29th mayor of San Diego from 1971 to 1983.
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William Westwood Lockyer is a retired American politician from California, who held elective office from 1973 to 2015, as State Treasurer of California, California Attorney General, and President Pro Tempore of the California State Senate.
Richard Alatorre is an American politician who was a member of the California State Assembly from 1973 to 1985 and the Los Angeles City Council from 1985 to 1999, the second Latino to serve on the council in the 20th century. Now a lobbyist, he has been called "one of the most influential Latino politicians in the state".
Robert S. Huff is an American businessman and politician who was the California State Senate minority leader and Senate Republican leader from January 5, 2012, until August 27, 2015. He represented the Senate's 29th District, which includes portions of Los Angeles, Orange, and San Bernardino counties.
Dean Raymond Florez is a former California State Senator from the 16th Senate District, who served from 2002 until the end of his second term in November 2010.
The Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority was a public agency formed in 1951. Originally tasked with planning for rapid transit in Los Angeles, California, the agency would come to operate the vestiges of defunct private transit companies in the city.
The Victim Compensation Board (CalVCB) is a state agency of the U.S. state of California that oversees the provision of compensation to victims of violent crime and the collection of restitution from criminal offenders. CalVCB is part of the California Government Operations Agency (CalGovOps). The board consists of three members: the Secretary of CalGovOps, who serves as the chair; the California State Controller; and a member appointed by the Governor, currently vacant.
The Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment, commonly referred to as OEHHA, is a specialized department within the cabinet-level California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) with responsibility for evaluating health risks from environmental chemical contaminants.
Michael Anthony Gatto, is an American public official. After being elected to the California State Assembly in a special election, he served as Assistant Speaker Pro Tempore, Chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Chairman of the Consumer Protection & Privacy Committee, and Chairman of the Utilities & Commerce Committee, and was the author of several pieces of notable legislation. He served four terms, representing Los Angeles, Glendale, and Burbank.
Sunland-Tujunga is a Los Angeles city neighborhood within the Crescenta Valley and Verdugo Mountains. Sunland and Tujunga began as separate settlements and today are linked through a single police station, branch library, neighborhood council, chamber of commerce, city council district, and high school. The merging of these communities under a hyphenated name goes back as far as 1928. Sunland-Tujunga contains the highest point of the city, Mount Lukens.
Charles Hugh Warren was an American lawyer and Democratic politician who served in the California State Assembly from 1963 to 1977 and held a Cabinet-level position as chairman of the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) under U.S. President Jimmy Carter from 1977 to 1979.
The Government of Los Angeles County is defined and authorized under the California Constitution, California law, and the Charter of the County of Los Angeles. Much of the Government of California is in practice the responsibility of county governments, such as the Government of Los Angeles County. The County government provides countywide services such as elections and voter registration, law enforcement, jails, vital records, property records, tax collection, public health, health care, and social services. In addition the County serves as the local government for all unincorporated areas.
This article summarizes healthcare in California.
Patricia "Pat" Carmody Bates is an American Republican politician who served in the California State Senate, representing the 36th Senate district, which encompasses parts of Orange and San Diego counties. She left office on December 5, 2022. She served as the Senate's minority leader from 2017 to 2019. She previously served as a member of the Orange County Board of Supervisors from 2007 to 2014, and the California State Assembly from 1998 to 2004. She also served as the first mayor of Laguna Niguel, California following its incorporation in 1989, and continued to serve on the city council until 1998. Before serving as mayor, she had been employed as a social worker in Los Angeles County.
Steven Mitchell Glazer is an American politician and former political advisor serving as a member of the California State Senate from the 7th Senate District, which includes most of Contra Costa County and eastern portions of Alameda County in the East Bay.