Legislative Policymaking

The Board of Supervisors works to influence the outcome of State and federal policies that affect the County's ability to serve our customers. The Board does this by sponsoring, identifying, monitoring, and commenting on State and federal legislation, regulations and administrative actions. The County of Kern is prohibited by law from contributing to political campaigns.

In order to present a single coherent position on County issues, Administrative Bulletin 16 specifies that only the Board of Supervisors and other elected County officials may establish the legislative policies that the Board members and County staff advocate in Sacramento and Washington.

The Policy Analysis Division of the County Administrative Office works closely with Board members, County departments and community members in managing the County's legislative program. The Legislative Analyst gathers and evaluates information on legislative policies that the County Administrative Office recommends to the Board of Supervisors for adoption, then coordinates advocacy of those issues in the proper forums by Board members, County staff and legislative consultants in Sacramento and Washington, D.C. For more information, contact Thomas Brown at (661) 868-3159.

Platforms

• Federal & State Legislative Platform (PDF—updated 3/26/24)

Finding Bill Information on the Web

To track information on a State legislative bill (e.g., status, summary, full text, legislative history, and individual votes) visit http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/ and select Bill Information.

If you're looking for legislation dealing with a specific topic or a section of State Code, visit http://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/ and click on the "Legislative Publications" button, then find either the "Legislative Index" or the "Table of Sections Affected". The index provides a cumulative subject matter index of all legislative measures for the current legislative session. It indicates the subject of each measure as introduced and as amended. The table provides an index of each section of the Constitution, codes and uncodified laws affected by measures introduced.

Legislative Links

• California Legislation - State Legislature's official information site maintained by the Office of Legislative Counsel
• U.S. Legislation - Congress' official legislative information site maintained by the Library of Congress
• State Agencies - Alphabetical index of State agency website links
• County Issues - Important legislative issues to Counties, as identified by the California State Association of Counties