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.

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.

[1][2][3] 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.

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.

[10] (In San Francisco, there is an eleven-member Board of Supervisors,[10] 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.

All counties elect their treasurers except Los Angeles, Sacramento, Santa Clara, and Glenn.

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.

A LAFCO regulates the creation of special districts and the annexation of unincorporated land to cities within the county.

[21] They are responsible for providing police service, zoning, issuing building permits, and maintaining public streets.

[22] Residents of a sufficiently large piece of unincorporated county land can incorporate a city.

[23] Public education of children is provided by school districts, which are governed independently from cities.

[25] There are also county special service schools and regional occupational programs provide vocational and technical education.

[26] Through legislation enacted in 1907, high schools were allowed to create "junior colleges" to provide a general undergraduate education to local students, approximating the first two years of university courses.

[26] In the early 1920s, the Legislature authorized the creation of separate colleges, in addition to the programs offered in high schools.

All counties have a corresponding Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) that regulates the creation of special districts.

Enterprise districts operate as a business, and obtain most of their revenue from user fees or sales of a product or service.

Enterprise districts include those that provide water, waste disposal, electric power, hospitals, public transit, and similar services.

Another very common type of special district is the transit agency, which provides public transportation.