JPA Overview

Regional Government Services and Local Government Services are governmental agencies established in 2001 to provide administrative, support and staffing services to other California public agencies.  RGS and LGS are joint powers authorities (JPAs) and have provided consulting and staffing services to cities, special districts, counties, other JPAs and special consortiums of government agencies throughout California.

Regional Government Services Authority (RGS) and Local Government Services Authority (LGS) were formed to meet two growing pressures on local governments: increasing demand for services without corresponding funding; and increasing difficulty recruiting and retaining highly qualified employees.  ‘Doing more with less’ only goes so far.

• Increasing Demand without Increasing Revenues: Constituents, Boards, Councils, and Supervisors all look to their local public agencies to provide more and better services, while maintaining or reducing costs.  These two conflicting demands can be met by sharing costs and resources among public agencies to meet the needs for service while minimizing the added costs.  RGS and LGS provide a platform for sharing both talent and costs across multiple agencies, independent from any one jurisdiction.  Whether it is performing administrative functions such as staffing, payroll and benefits/HR administration, or staffing workload spikes, projects or on-going or interim assignments, the JPAs offer highly skilled support.  The cost savings come from sharing the administrative expenses among all client agencies and from each agency only purchasing the level of services it needs, when needed.  The JPAs can quickly ramp up or ramp down service levels, depending on the client’s needs.

• Increasing Difficulty Recruiting and Retaining Highly Qualified Employees: Governments no longer can offer the level of job security they once were viewed as providing, thus private companies can compete more effectively for talent.  Enhanced retirement packages in government agencies have resulted in talented senior employees leaving government employment at the peak of their productivity.  The JPAs offer help on both ends of the employment spectrum, offering competitive salaries and benefits; great public-sector projects, variety, and an RGS 401(a) retirement plan.  With varied and interesting assignments and excellent retirement options, we are able to keep highly qualified public services employees in the public sector.