LA County COGs and Transportation in 3 Minutes
This article discusses the LA County COGs and their role in transportation. It is part of a series that provides short guides to different governmental transportation organizations in LA and CA.
Formal Name: Councils of Government
Budget: Variable, but to cite one example: a total of $10 billion has been carved out of the 2016 transportation sales tax Measure M to be split between the COG’s and spent over several decades.
What COGs Do: Assist in transportation decision-making for specific regions within LA County
The creation of SCAG in 1964 was part of an attempt to move more transportation planning from the state level to the regional level. SCAG itself facilitated the further localization of its regional planning through the creation of 14 sub-regional councils of government, or COGs.
The LA County portion of SCAG, which stands as the largest county in SCAG with a population of over 10 million people, is split into eight different subregions or COGs.
COG’s vary in size, funding, and organizational structure: for example, the Arroyo Verdugo COG is made up of just three cities (340,000 people), while the Gateway Cities COG consists of 28 jurisdictions (over two million people).
Another example: the South Bay COG has a budget of close to $1 million in order to fund the large staff running its many programs, while the Westside Cities Council is run by three part-time staff.
The transportation advocacy group Investing in Place has done fabulous work on this front. You can see a 90-second Youtube explainer on COGs here, and they have some more in-depth overviews of COGs here and here. A quote from the latter link:
COGs represent their associated members in larger planning organizations at the regional, state, and federal level. Within Southern California these (larger organizations) are SCAG, Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro), Air Resources Board and others. COGs often enter in Memorandums of Understanding within these larger agencies to formalize their relationships and goals. (COGs and SubRegions in LA County, page 4)
COGs function as a place for city elected officials and staff to collaborate on solving issues that span cities, but at a smaller “sub-regional” level relative to larger regional organizations like Metro and SCAG.
Perhaps the biggest role that COGs play in transportation is via their relationship with Metro. Metro is where much of the funding for larger transportation infrastructure comes from, whether it be rail lines, busways, or other multi-modal projects. Metro worked with COGs to determine the desired project list that went on the ballot for the recent Measure M sales tax, and Metro continues to work with COGs to implement transportation programs like the Multi-Year Sub-Regional Program (MSP).
In essence, if Metro has the transportation money in LA County, then COGs play a significant role, both formally and informally, in determining where that money goes within their sub-regions. Some COGs have more authority and larger staffs, and they have more influence than other COGs with less formal structures and fewer dedicated staff.
COGs tend to fly below the radar, but they can play an important role influencing the transportation projects and programs that move forward within their geographic areas.
Go here for the main page of this transportation series.
