The League of California Cities is an association of cities within the state of California, founded in 1898. Most of the state's 482 cities are represented in the league. [1] The League publishes Western City, a monthly magazine, and holds an annual conference and exposition [2] [3] The League advocates for cities at the state capitol, including proper distribution of state taxes to the cities. [4] The main office is in Sacramento.
In 1898, Ben Lamborn, the city clerk of Alameda, sent a letter to the then over 100 cities in the state, inquiring about their experience with a newly introduced road roller. He added to the inquiry questions such as their name, population, date of incorporation, names of officials, among others.
Haven A. Mason, a community activist, newspaper publisher, attorney and city clerk of Santa Clara, was one recipient. Mason had read about the 1894 founding of the National Municipal League, a citizens group with a mission to fight corruption in city governments. He visited Lamborn in Alameda to discuss organizing city officials around issues such as public records and tax assessment and the introduction of electric light.
Lamborn and Mason presented the idea to Delos Druffel, the mayor of Santa Clara, who then sent letters to the other mayors in the state asking them to attend a meeting to consider this proposal.
Mason and Lamborn then visited James D. Phelan, the mayor of San Francisco. Phelan was interested in the idea of a League of Municipalities, offered San Francisco as a meeting place, and provided $3,000 of his own monies to pay for expenses. Lamborn bartered an agreement with Southern Pacific for them to provide a 3,000-mile pass, which the railroad would recoup in the anticipated travel expenses of city officials' attending the ongoing league meetings.
Druffel received positive replies from about half the cities in California. An invitation was then sent to all cities and incorporated towns, asking them to send representatives to the first meeting, at Pioneer Hall, on Fourth Street in San Francisco, on December 14, 1898. The date was deliberately set for prior to January 1899, "so that the proposed association could be formed in time to consider such matters of legislation as might be deemed expedient to submit to the Legislature then to assemble."
Thirty cities answered the invitation, with others sending words of encouragement. Thirteen cities, all from the San Francisco Bay Area, sent delegates. Phelan was elected president, Mason was named secretary and Lamborn was chosen for the League's executive committee, along with Mayor Joseph Hutchinson of Palo Alto.
The league campaigned against 2006's Proposition 90, spending $4.1 million against it. [5] The proposition lost. The League campaigned against Proposition 98, and for Proposition 99, in the Proposition 98/99 ballot proposals of 2008, spending $5.8 million on the measures. [6] 98 failed, while 99 passed. The League was an advocate of 2010's Proposition 22, a constitutional amendment that would prevent the state government from taking certain funds, such as transportation funds, from the local governments. They spent $2.8 million towards its passage. [7] It passed with 61% of the vote.
The league sponsors the Helen Putnam Award of Excellence, which is presented annually to city programs that "Improve the quality of life in local communities, implement efficiencies in service delivery and operations, and provide services responsive to the local community." [8]
The award is named after Helen Putnam, a mayor of Petaluma, and Sonoma County supervisor.
Alameda County is a county located in the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 1,682,353, making it the 7th-most populous county in the state and 21st most populous nationally. The county seat is Oakland. Alameda County is in the San Francisco Bay Area, occupying much of the East Bay region.
Hayward is a city located in Alameda County, California, United States, in the East Bay subregion of the San Francisco Bay Area. With a population of 162,954 as of 2020, Hayward is the sixth largest city in the Bay Area, and the third largest in Alameda County. Hayward was ranked as the 36th most populous municipality in California. It is included in the San Francisco–Oakland–San Jose Metropolitan Statistical Area by the US Census. It is located primarily between Castro Valley, San Leandro and Union City, and lies at the eastern terminus of the San Mateo–Hayward Bridge. The city was devastated early in its history by the 1868 Hayward earthquake. From the early 20th century until the beginning of the 1980s, Hayward's economy was dominated by its now defunct food canning and salt production industries.
Union City is a city in Alameda County, California, United States in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is located approximately 19 miles (31 km) south of Oakland, 30 miles (48 km) from San Francisco, and 20 miles (32 km) north of San Jose. It was incorporated in 1959, combining the communities of Alvarado and Decoto. The city has 72,000 residents across a diverse population. Alvarado is a California Historical Landmark (#503). The city celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2009.
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.
Henry Huntly Haight was an American lawyer and politician. He was elected the tenth governor of California from December 5, 1867, to December 8, 1871.
James Duval Phelan was an American politician, civic leader, and banker. He served as nonpartisan Mayor of San Francisco from 1897 to 1902. As mayor he advocated municipally run utilities and tried to protect his constituents from the monopolistic practices of the trusts. He represented California in the United States Senate from 1915 to 1921 as a Democrat. Phelan was a progressive supporter of the policies of Woodrow Wilson and was a leader in the movement to restrict Japanese and Chinese immigration to the United States.
Don Richard Perata is a California lobbyist and former Democratic politician, who was President pro tempore of the California State Senate from 2004 to 2008. He came in second place in the November 2010 election for Mayor of Oakland.
Tirey Lafayette Ford was an American lawyer and Republican politician who served as a California State Senator and the 18th Attorney-General of California. He acted as General Counsel for the United Railroads in San Francisco.
Districts in California geographically divide the U.S. state into overlapping regions for political and administrative purposes.
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Ellen Marie Corbett is an American Democratic politician from the San Francisco Bay Area. She served in the California State Senate, representing the 10th District, which included San Leandro, Hayward, Pleasanton, Union City, Fremont, Newark, Milpitas, and part of San Jose. She was the Senate Majority Leader.
The November 2006 San Francisco general elections were held on November 7, 2006 in San Francisco, California. The elections included five seats to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, positions for San Francisco assessor-recorder and public defender, and eleven San Francisco ballot measures.
Lai Jean Quan is an American politician who was the 49th mayor of Oakland, California from 2011 to 2015. She previously served as City Council member for Oakland's 4th District. Upon inauguration on January 3, 2011, she became Oakland's first female mayor. Quan ran an unsuccessful campaign for reelection in 2014, losing the mayoral race to Libby Schaaf, a member of the Oakland City Council.
The November 2011 San Francisco general elections were held on November 8, 2011, in San Francisco, California. The elections included those for San Francisco mayor, district attorney, and sheriff, and eight ballot measures.
Robert "Bob" Wasserman was an American politician and retired police chief, who served as the Mayor of Fremont, California, from 2004 to 2011. He has been credited with integrating Fremont's economy and workforce into the larger Silicon Valley during his tenures as mayor and a city councilman.
Proposition 39 is a ballot initiative in the state of California that modifies the way out-of-state corporations calculate their income tax burdens. The proposition was approved by voters in the November 6 general election, with 61.1% voting in favor of it.
The Admission Day Monument is an 1897 sculpture by Douglas Tilden, located at the intersection of Market Street and Montgomery Street in San Francisco, California, United States. It commemorates California Admission Day, the date on which the state became part of the Union, following the Mexican–American War of 1848.
Stephen H. Cassidy is an American attorney and politician who served as the mayor of San Leandro from January 1, 2011, to December 31, 2014.
California Proposition 15 was a failed citizen-initiated proposition on the November 3, 2020, ballot. It would have provided $6.5 billion to $11.5 billion in new funding for public schools, community colleges, and local government services by creating a "split roll" system that increased taxes on large commercial properties by assessing them at market value, without changing property taxes for small business owners or residential properties for homeowners or renters. The measure failed by a small margin of about four percentage points.
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