Councils of Governments

Councils of governments (COGs) are regional planning bodies that exist throughout the United States. Councils of governments (also called regional councils) are associations that consist of elected public officials that come from the major local governments within an urban or metropolitan area. They were developed during the 1970s and the 1980s as an appropriate tenet of public governance concerning local/regional issues. Their purpose is to establish a consensus between the needs of the concerning area and actions in order to solve local and interlocal problems.

COGs constitute voluntary associations that represent governments, but they are not governments themselves. They are voluntary because local units cannot be forced to join these associations and they can resign at any time. The council membership is drawn from the county, city, and other government bodies within its area. Councils of governments lack general government authority in that they are not directly elected, they do not have direct taxation powers, and they do not have police powers or regulatory authority.

COGs were created in order to develop consensus regarding metropolitan or regional needs and actions to be taken in solving area problems. COGs benefit the state by planning, coordinating, and overseeing the administration of the state and federal programs, assisting local governments in handling tasks set by [Page 182]the state regulations, providing a flexible network for effective regional action and fostering cooperation that helps avoid duplication of efforts and thus helps take advantage of economies scale. A typical council is defined to serve an area of several counties and addresses issues such as regional planning, water use, pollution control, and transportation. Nevertheless, the nature and extent of the programs vary, depending on local needs and the priorities of the board that governs the operation of the individual council.

In 1960, there were only a half-dozen voluntary regional councils of elected officials. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, emphasis was increasingly placed on the need for long-range planning and closer coordination of program activities by governments at all levels. Federal requirements for planning in areas such as transportation, the environment, and human services furthered this need. The establishment of COGs emerged as the preferred approach to this need in many areas. Therefore, the number of COGs soared to over 660 by 1980 as a result of federal requirements and massive increases in federal aid to state and local governments between 1957 and 1977. Most regional planning commissions were converted to COGs during this period. With the advent of the Reagan administration and, over time, the reduction in federal aid to local governments, the number of COGs decreased to approximately 530.

To conclude, these councils consist of elected officials drawn from the local governments in metropolitan areas, or, in some cases, for more rural areas, they constitute a public attempt of local/regional governance developed in the United States in order to efficiently resolve local problems and to satisfy the regional needs increase in the 1970s. They are multicounty planning and development agencies serving different areas of the state. However, these regional bodies have provided a small measure of regional political leadership and policy-making authority.

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