Editing Government of California (section)

==Executive branch==
{{Main|California executive branch}}
California's elected executive officers are:

<gallery mode="nolines">
File:Gavin Newsom by Gage Skidmore.jpg|'''[[Gavin Newsom]] (D)''' <br /> [[Governor of California|Governor]]
File:Eleni Kounalakis in 2021.jpg|'''[[Eleni Kounalakis]] (D)'''  <br /> [[Lieutenant Governor of California|Lieutenant Governor]]
File:Shirley Weber.jpg|'''[[Shirley Weber]] (D)''' <br /> [[Secretary of State of California|Secretary of State]]
File:AG Rob Bonta official (cropped).jpg|'''[[Rob Bonta]] (D)''' <br /> [[California Attorney General|Attorney General]]
File:Fiona Ma official1.jpg|'''[[Fiona Ma]] (D)''' <br /> [[California State Treasurer|State Treasurer]]
File:SupervisorMaliaCohen.jpg|'''[[Malia Cohen]] (D)''' <br /> [[California State Controller|State Controller]]
File:Assemblymember Tony Thurmond (cropped).jpg|'''[[Tony Thurmond]] (D)''' <br /> [[California State Superintendent of Public Instruction|State Superintendent of Public Instruction]]
File:Ricardo Lara official portrait (cropped).png|'''[[Ricardo Lara]] (D)''' <br /> [[California Insurance Commissioner|Insurance Commissioner]]
</gallery>
[[File: Stanford_Mansion_(Sacramento,_California).jpg|thumb|right|[[Leland Stanford Mansion|Stanford Mansion]] is the official reception center for the California government and one of the workplaces of the [[governor of California]].]]
All offices are elected separately to concurrent four-year terms, and each officer may be elected to an office a maximum of two times.<ref>{{cite news|title=Jerry Brown defies intent of California term limits|first=Joe|last=Alfieri|date=18 October 2010|work=Contra Costa County Conservative Examiner|publisher=[[Examiner.com]]}}</ref><ref>Constitution of California, article 5, section 2</ref> The governor has the powers and responsibilities to: [[signature|sign]] or [[veto]] [[law]]s passed by the [[Legislature]], including a [[line item veto]]; appoint judges, subject to [[ratification]] by the [[Constituency|electorate]]; propose a [[state budget]]; give the annual [[State of the State address]]; command the state [[militia]]; and grant [[pardon]]s for any crime, except cases involving [[Impeachment in California|impeachment by the Legislature]].<ref>{{cite book|chapter=Roles, Functions, and Powers of the Governors|title=The Executive Branch of State Government: People, Process and Politics|editor-first=Margaret R.|editor-last=Ferguson|year=2006|publisher=[[ABC-CLIO]]|chapter-url=http://governors.rutgers.edu/usgov/gov_intro_chpt2.php|access-date=2014-03-13|archive-date=2013-10-23|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131023060049/http://governors.rutgers.edu/usgov/gov_intro_chpt2.php|url-status=dead}}</ref> The lieutenant governor is the president of the California Senate and acts as the governor when the governor is unable to execute the office, including whenever the governor leaves the state.<ref>{{cite court |litigants=In re Governorship|vol=26 |reporter=Cal.3d |opinion=110 |pinpoint=401 |court=Supreme Court of California |date=1979 |url=http://login.findlaw.com/scripts/callaw?dest=ca/cal3d/26/110.html |quote=we conclude that the Lieutenant Governor has authority to exercise all gubernatorial powers of appointment while the Governor is physically absent from the state and that the Governor has authority to withdraw the appointment until the confirmation of appointment becomes effective.}}</ref> The governor and lieutenant governor also serve as ''[[ex officio]]'' members of the [[University of California]] [[Board of Regents]] and of the [[California State University]] Board of Trustees.<ref>{{cite web|title=Overview, Board of Trustees|url=http://www.calstate.edu/bot/overview.shtml|publisher=[[California State University]]|access-date=15 June 2011|archive-date=1 February 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100201220238/http://www.calstate.edu/bot/overview.shtml|url-status=dead}}</ref> Regulatory activity is published in the ''[[California Regulatory Notice Register]]'' and the general and permanent rules and regulations are codified in the ''[[California Code of Regulations]]''.<ref>{{cite book | title= Concise Legal Research | first1= Robert | last1= Watt | first2= Francis | last2= Johns | publisher= Federation Press | year= 2009 | page= 223 | isbn= 978-1-862-87723-8 | url= https://books.google.com/books?id=EqpxHgFtrt4C&pg=PA223}}</ref>

=== State agencies ===
{{See also|List of California state agencies}}
[[File:Ziggurat Building.jpg|thumb|[[California Department of General Services]]]]
[[File:California Department of Health Care Services 4.jpg|thumb|[[California Department of Health Care Services]]]]
[[File:Cal EPA Building (cropped).jpg|thumb|[[California Environmental Protection Agency]]]]
State government is organized into many departments, of which most have been grouped together into several huge Cabinet-level agencies since the administration of Governor [[Pat Brown]]. These agencies are sometimes informally referred to as ''superagencies'', especially by government officials, to distinguish them from the general usage of the term "government agency".<ref name="Van Vechten">{{cite book |last1=Van Vechten |first1=Renée B. |title=California Politics: A Primer |date=2011 |publisher=SAGE |location=Los Angeles |isbn=9781452203065 |page=63 |edition=2nd |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=tatzWQscKmcC&pg=PA63 |access-date=25 February 2019}}</ref><ref name="Lawrence">{{cite book |last1=Lawrence |first1=David G. |last2=Cummins |first2=Jeffrey |title=California: The Politics of Diversity |date=2019 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |location=Lanham |isbn=9781538129302|page=167 |edition=10th |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FwmkDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA167}}</ref> When Brown took office, he was dismayed to discover that under [[Law of California|California law]], approximately 360 boards, commissions, and agencies all reported directly to the governor, and proposed his "super-agency" plan (then spelled with a hyphen) in February 1961 to impose order on such chaos.<ref name="Blanchard">{{cite news |last1=Blanchard |first1=Robert |title=Brown Criticized for His Super-Agency Proposal |work=Los Angeles Times |date=February 14, 1961 |page=1}}  Available through [[ProQuest]] Historical Newspapers.</ref> Brown appointed the secretaries of the first four superagencies (of eight then planned) in September 1961.<ref name="Gillam">{{cite news |last1=Gillam |first1=Jerry |title=Brown Picks 8-Member Cabinet: Four Named to Head New State Super-Agencies |work=Los Angeles Times |date=October 1, 1961 |page=1}} Available through [[ProQuest]] Historical Newspapers.</ref> 

The superagencies operate as "umbrella organizations"<ref name="Van Vechten" /> or "semiautonomous fiefdoms," but their Cabinet-level secretaries are not quite as powerful as they may appear at first glance.<ref name="Lawrence_Page_168">{{cite book |last1=Lawrence |first1=David G. |last2=Cummins |first2=Jeffrey |title=California: The Politics of Diversity |date=2019 |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |location=Lanham |isbn=9781538129302|page=168 |edition=10th |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FwmkDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA168}}</ref> The governor continues to directly appoint the leaders of superagency components.  The appointments are announced by the governor rather than by the secretaries, who are merely a layer of management installed to ensure that the components of their respective superagencies can stay outside of the governor's "routine attention span" (unless something goes wrong).<ref name="Lawrence_Page_168" />  Today, the Cabinet-level agencies (superagencies) are the:<ref>{{cite web|title=Governor Brown's Government Reorganization Plan Becomes Law|publisher=Office of the [[Governor of California]]|url=http://gov.ca.gov/news.php?id=17617|date=3 July 2012|access-date=26 July 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121018073028/http://www.gov.ca.gov/news.php?id=17617|archive-date=18 October 2012|url-status=dead}}</ref>

* [[California Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency]] (BCSH)
* [[California Government Operations Agency]] (CalGovOps)
* [[California Environmental Protection Agency]] (CalEPA)
* [[California Health and Human Services Agency]] (CalHHS)
* [[California Labor and Workforce Development Agency]] (LWDA)
* [[California Natural Resources Agency]] (CNRA)
* [[California State Transportation Agency]] (CalSTA)

The independently elected officers run separate departments not grouped within the superagencies, and there are other Cabinet-level departments:

* [[California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation|Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation]] (CDCR)
* [[California Department of Education|Department of Education]] (CDE)
* [[California Department of Finance|Department of Finance]] (DOF)
* [[California Department of Food and Agriculture|Department of Food and Agriculture]] (CDFA)
* [[California Department of Insurance|Department of Insurance]] (CDI)
* [[California Department of Justice|Department of Justice]] (DOJ)
* [[California Military Department|Military Department]]

=== Independent entities ===
Most (but not all) of the leaders of these entities are normally appointed by the governor and confirmed by the state Senate. Despite their independence, the governor can exert influence on them over time by waiting for incumbent leaders to reach the ends of their terms and appointing new ones who support the governor's current agenda.<ref name="ClarkKerr_Page301">{{cite book|last1=Kerr|first1=Clark|title=The Gold and the Blue: A Personal Memoir of the University of California, 1949-1967, Volume 2|date=2001|publisher=University of California Press|location=Berkeley|isbn=9780520925014|page=301|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SuQlDQAAQBAJ&pg=PA301|access-date=3 July 2020}}</ref>

Examples include the:

*[[Regents of the University of California]]
*[[California State University|California State University Board of Trustees]]
*[[California Community Colleges|California Community Colleges Board of Governors]]
*[[California Public Utilities Commission]]
*[[California State Auditor]]
*[[California Fair Political Practices Commission|Fair Political Practices Commission]]