chrissoria/ca-county-boards

California County Boards of Supervisors

What came before the boards of supervisors of 55 California counties, what each board did with it, and how each supervisor voted: 2,418,739 votes by member on 1,263,380 agenda lines at 72,291 meetings, from 1998-08-03 to 2026-10-20. Every county is in the same tables with the same columns, to be filtered by county.

from datasets import load_dataset

votes = load_dataset("chrissoria/ca-county-boards", "votes", split="train")
fresno = votes.filter(lambda row: row["county"] == "Fresno")

counties = load_dataset("chrissoria/ca-county-boards", "counties", split="train")  # read this first

One county alone is one file: data/votes/fresno.parquet.

Read the counties table first

The counties are not alike, and two should not be set side by side without knowing how each was read. One row a county says:

Column
county, county_fips	The county and its Census code.
system	Where the county keeps its record.
read_from	How its votes came to be here. See below.
site	The county's own page for it.
first_meeting, last_meeting	The first and last meeting with an agenda here.
first_vote, last_vote	The first and last vote by member. Agendas often go back further than votes.
items, meetings, agenda_items, votes, members	Rows in each table.
serving	Supervisors now on the board, as the tables have it.
kept_current, read_on	Whether the county is read again each day or by hand, and the day it was last read.
room	Its room in Capitol World, where there is one.
builder	The script in cat-pol-datasets that reads it.
note	What to know of this county in particular.

How a vote was read (read_from, on every vote)

system	The clerk entered each supervisor's vote in the county's meeting system, and it is read from there. Nothing is worked out.
minutes page	Read from the words of minutes the county publishes as a web page ("AYES: ... NOES: ...").
minutes text	Read from the text of a PDF of the minutes. A vote block is read whole or not at all: where it could not be, the agenda line has votes_read false, a problem, and no rows in votes. No document is read by OCR.
margin code	Read from a row of digits printed in the margin of the minutes, by the key each set of minutes prints (a digit is a supervisor; a letter under it is a no, an abstention or an absence).
count	Worked out. The minutes give a count, or say "Majority", and name only who was not an aye ("(4-1) (Olsen opposed)", "Approval: Majority NOES: Tryon"); the ayes are the rest of the board as the minutes have it that day.
unanimous	Worked out. The minutes say "unan." and name nobody; an aye is given to each supervisor the minutes have on the board and in the room. Merced's "AYES: ALL" is of this kind.

The first is a record. The next three are readings of a document, checked against the documents by hand in samples and not line by line. The last two put a vote beside a name the document did not print: leave them out to keep only what a county printed or entered.

The counties

County	Read from	Votes	Votes from	to	Room
Alameda	Granicus listing, minutes as PDF	100,261	2014-07-29	2026-10-06	open
Alpine	CivicClerk	1,631	2024-07-02	2026-10-20	open
Amador	Granicus, draft minutes as PDF	0
Butte	CivicClerk, and Granicus (minutes pages) before	1,357	2021-06-22	2024-09-10
Calaveras	IQM2 portal, minutes as PDF	42,334	2000-05-15	2026-06-09	open
Colusa	CivicClerk	1,166	2025-12-16	2026-10-20	open
Contra Costa	Legistar	57,631	2023-09-11	2026-10-20	open
Del Norte	CivicClerk	3,259	2022-10-25	2026-10-13	open
El Dorado	Legistar	129,995	2006-01-05	2026-10-20	open
Fresno	Legistar	60,050	2015-01-06	2026-10-06	open
Glenn	Granicus (minutes pages)	2,849	2006-01-04	2026-06-09	open
Humboldt	Legistar	63,477	2014-06-19	2026-10-20	open
Imperial	Granicus (minutes pages)	0
Inyo	CivicClerk	133	2019-08-13	2019-08-27
Kern	Granicus video archive, Summaries of Proceedings as PDF	290,755	2006-09-19	2026-10-13	open
Lake	Legistar	8,544	2014-05-13	2026-06-09	open
Lassen	Legistar	24,006	2014-10-14	2026-10-20	open
Los Angeles	Statements of Proceedings (PDF)	204,970	2009-02-17	2026-10-06	open
Marin	Granicus (minutes pages)	9,965	2005-12-06	2026-07-07	open
Mariposa	CivicClerk	12,849	2023-06-06	2026-10-20	open
Mendocino	Legistar	21,972	2016-06-21	2026-10-06	open
Merced	The County's agenda pages, minutes as PDF	12,575	2022-01-11	2026-09-29	open
Modoc	CivicClerk	3,368	2025-09-02	2026-10-14	open
Mono	CivicClerk	5	2026-03-10	2026-03-10
Monterey	Legistar	20,421	2012-05-15	2026-10-13	open
Napa	Legistar	2,167	2021-05-04	2026-03-24	open
Nevada	Legistar	36,443	2015-02-10	2026-04-14	open
Orange	Agenda system, minutes as PDF	74,248	2007-05-08	2026-10-13	open
Placer	Legistar	265	2026-07-14	2026-07-14	open
Plumas	CivicClerk	8,805	2022-10-04	2026-10-13	open
Riverside	IQM2	0
Sacramento	AgendaNet, action summaries as PDF	40,935	2006-01-11	2026-09-15	open
San Benito	Granicus, minutes as PDF	5,535	2022-08-09	2026-09-01	open
San Bernardino	Legistar	65,491	2019-07-23	2026-10-20	open
San Diego	Legistar	26,718	2017-06-20	2026-10-07	open
San Francisco	Legistar (pages)	520,464	1998-08-03	2026-09-29	open
San Joaquin	IQM2	46,491	2015-10-06	2026-07-15	open
San Luis Obispo	Granicus and the County's agenda portal, minutes as pages and PDF	27,188	2006-07-25	2026-09-29	open
San Mateo	Legistar	37,173	2017-05-02	2026-10-20	open
Santa Barbara	Legistar	109,424	2000-10-24	2026-10-20	open
Santa Clara	IQM2	155,525	2012-08-01	2026-10-06	open
Santa Cruz	IQM2	50,865	2016-01-12	2024-12-27
Shasta	PrimeGov	0
Sierra	AgendaCenter, minutes as PDF	15,124	2013-06-18	2026-09-15	open
Solano	Legistar	188	2011-08-09	2026-03-10	open
Sonoma	Legistar	28,488	2019-03-12	2026-10-13	open
Stanislaus	The County's site, minutes as PDF	18,698	2004-02-03	2026-09-29	open
Sutter	IQM2	21,979	2018-08-28	2026-09-08	open
Tehama	Legistar	19,439	2023-12-19	2026-10-20	open
Trinity	CivicClerk	790	2024-05-07	2024-09-03
Tulare	PrimeGov	5,506	2020-10-13	2026-10-13	open
Tuolumne	CivicClerk	588	2026-02-10	2026-10-20	open
Ventura	PrimeGov	0
Yolo	Destiny Hosted	18,829	2007-01-08	2026-10-06	open
Yuba	AgendaSuite portal, minutes as PDF	7,800	2017-07-11	2026-10-13	open

• Alameda. Votes are read from two rows of digits in the margin of the minutes, by the key each set prints; from 2025 some minutes give the vote in words as well, and where both do they agree. A consent calendar's vote is printed again beside each consent item. A margin of 12345 over 12345 is not read (769 motions): it is the form's row before anyone fills it in, and also what a vote would be with the first supervisor moving and all in favor, and the two cannot be told apart.
• Alpine, Colusa, Del Norte, Mariposa, Modoc, Plumas, Tuolumne. Votes begin the month the clerk began entering them in this system; earlier years are in PDF minutes, not read.
• Amador. Agendas and what was done, from September 2023, read from draft minutes: the draft attached to the agenda of the meeting that approved them, the approved copy being on a site that refuses readers. Votes are held back for now: two motions in three say only "carried unanimously". Only meetings whose draft minutes were found have their agenda lines here. Regular items have no agenda number.
• Butte. Two records, both thin. Partial, and not a fair picture of what the Board did. The minutes are pages typed by hand that mostly say a motion carried unanimously and name nobody; a vote is here only where they list names, about 27% of motions from June 2021 to May 2024, and those lean to the divided ones. From July 2024 the County's record is in CivicClerk, where the clerk entered votes by member in August and September 2024 only.
• Calaveras. Read from the minutes document of each meeting, printed three ways over the years. From September 2014 every supervisor is named on each motion. Before then most votes say only "Unanimous" or "Majority" with the exceptions named, and the ayes are those the minutes have present, so an aye there is wrong for a supervisor who stepped out without the Clerk noting it. Minutes are published about four months after a meeting, and about one meeting in ten has none.
• Contra Costa. The County took up this system in September 2023; earlier years are not in it.
• Glenn. Partial, and not a fair picture of what the Board did. The minutes are pages typed by hand that mostly say a motion carried unanimously and name nobody; a vote is here only where they list names, about 7% of motions, and those lean to the divided ones.
• Imperial. Meetings only, with a link to each agenda and recording: the County publishes no minutes there.
• Inyo. Agendas from 2016. The clerk entered votes by member for two weeks of August 2019 only.
• Kern. Read from the Summary of Proceedings of each meeting, which prints a vote under every item ("Perez-Flores: All Ayes", "3 Ayes; 2 Noes - Maben, Maggard"). Three vote rows in four rest on "All Ayes" with the roll call and the clerk's notes on who came and went (read_from unanimous). The consent agenda's one vote is printed under every consent item. Supervisors are named by surname, as the minutes print them. 34 sets of minutes, most from 2025 and 2026, are scans and are not read.
• Lake. Votes by member are entered for May 2014 to 2021, and rarely since.
• Los Angeles. Votes are read from the text of each statement. A vote block is read whole or not at all: where it could not be, votes_read is false and the line has no votes.
• Marin. Partial, and not a fair picture of what the Board did. The minutes are pages typed by hand that mostly say a motion carried unanimously and name nobody; a vote is here only where they list names, about 28% of motions, and those lean to the divided ones.
• Merced. Agendas from July 2008; votes from January 2022 only. The minutes print a vote by district number ("AYES: 2, 3, 4 NOES: 1, 5"), read by the roster at the head of the same minutes, or as "AYES: ALL", which is five ayes and read_from unanimous here. Minutes of September 2019 to November 2020 are scans and are not read; earlier ones are on a site of the County's that refuses this reader.
• Mono. The County took up this system in December 2025. Five votes by member so far.
• Monterey. The clerk enters a vote by member for some years only: few before 2017, most items of 2020 to 2022, few in 2023 and 2024, more since 2025. Its Legistar holds every body of the County's; only the Board's own meetings are here.
• Napa. Thin: the clerk enters an action and a vote for about one agenda line in ten, in 2021 to 2024 and again from March 2026, and for almost none in 2025.
• Nevada. The clerk enters what was done, and the votes, some months after a meeting.
• Orange. Until April 2026 the minutes print a vote as five digits in the margin, read by the key each set of minutes prints (read_from is margin code); a mark typed by hand under the wrong digit would name the wrong supervisor. Since then votes are printed by name.
• Placer. The County took up this system in July 2026. What it holds from before is practice entered while it was set up, and is left out.
• Riverside. Agendas and meetings only, from 2019: the County's IQM2 portal shows no vote by member, and its Legistar holds only practice entries.
• Sacramento. Votes are read from the text of each action summary; about 92% of vote blocks could be read whole, and the rest are marked votes_read false.
• San Benito. Votes from August 2022, where the minutes name every supervisor under every motion; a motion is read only if its names are exactly the Board printed at the head and agree with the printed count (1,110 of 1,163). Uneven: the County lists no minutes here for 2020 and 2021 and few before 2022, and 35 sets, 14 of them from 2026, are scans that are not read. The minutes print a count and no outcome, so result is empty.
• San Bernardino. Meetings are listed from 1980 and agendas from 1996; votes by member begin in July 2019.
• San Diego. Its own dataset, sd-county-ordinances, has these tables and the text of each ordinance and resolution besides; they are copied here from it each day.
• San Francisco. City and county are one, and the Board is the legislature of both. Its Legistar has no working API, so the pages of its site are read; they hold the same record. The Board's committees are not read. Every item of a consent agenda has the roll call on its own line.
• San Luis Obispo. Read from the Clerk's minutes, which name every supervisor on every motion: a list of names on a web page until 2011, a grid of marks in a PDF since. Most business passes on one consent motion, whose vote is on its own line with the items pointing to it; an item has votes of its own only if it was voted on apart, or a supervisor voted no, abstained or stood aside on it alone. Six sets of minutes of January to April 2019 print one supervisor twice and another not at all, so 2019 is 81% read. result is Fail only where the minutes say a motion failed.
• San Mateo. The list of items goes back to the 1880s; agendas and votes begin in 2017.
• Santa Clara. The County's portal withholds its regular meetings of January to May 2024, which have no lines and no votes here.
• Santa Cruz. Ends in December 2024, when the County left this system.
• Shasta, Ventura. Agendas and meetings only, with no votes: the County publishes its minutes as PDFs, which are not read here.
• Sierra. From June 2013. The minutes never list the ayes: a motion gives the mover, the seconder, a count and the names of those who voted no, were absent or abstained. Those named are minutes text; every aye is the rest of the roll printed at the head of the same minutes, checked against the count, and is count. About 4% of motions are not read (no count, or one the roll contradicts), and 19 sets of minutes could not be read at all.
• Solano. Thin: the clerk entered a vote by member for 38 items only (2011, 2013, and a few in 2025 and 2026). For the rest the minutes give a count ("5-0", "ALL AYES") and name nobody. Only the Board's own meetings are here, not the other bodies its Legistar holds.
• Stanislaus. The minutes print no roll and never list the ayes: a motion's line says "(4-1) (Olsen opposed)" or only "unan." Who sat on the Board each day is worked out from whom the minutes name before and after. A supervisor the minutes name is minutes text; the ayes behind a count are count; and a vote for each supervisor behind "unan.", with nobody away, is unanimous, which is 77% of the votes. Leave out the last, or the last two, to keep only what is printed.
• Tehama. Meetings are listed from 1964 and agendas from 2013; votes by member begin in December 2023.
• Trinity. Agendas from April 2024. The clerk entered votes by member from May to September 2024 only.
• Tulare. Votes are read from the minutes the County publishes as pages, from October 2020.
• Yolo. Votes are read from the words of the minutes: pages from 2016, the text of PDF minutes before.
• Yuba. From July 2017. Read from the Clerk's Summary of Proceedings, which names every supervisor on every motion; a motion whose names are not exactly that meeting's roll call is left unread (29 of 1,589). The consent agenda's vote is on its heading's line. Sixteen meetings have no minutes on the portal.

Tables

county and county_fips are on every row. An id (meeting_id, item_id, matter_id) is a county's own: join on it together with county.

Config	One row per	Rows
default (items)	item that came before a board	1,044,384
meetings	meeting	72,291
agenda_items	line of a meeting's agenda	1,263,380
votes	supervisor and motion voted on	2,418,739
members	time a person sat on a board	561
counties	county	55

The tables and their first columns are those of every council and board dataset made this way (ca-city-councils, California's city councils, is made the same way, with city and city_fips where these say county and county_fips), so a city's can be set beside a county's.

items

date, agenda_date, matter_id, matter_file, doc_type (ordinance, resolution or other), title, body, status, subject, year; the last thing done with it (last_action, last_action_date, result, ayes, noes, mover, seconder); passed_date; times_on_agenda; url. Then item_id, meeting_id and section for a county whose system has no record of an item apart from its line on an agenda (the item is then here once for each agenda it was on); action_on (item or section: whether the action is the item's own or that of the consent calendar it sat under); the number an ordinance or resolution was given; and attachments, the papers filed with it, as a JSON list of names and addresses.

meetings

meeting_id, date, time, body, location, url, agenda_url, minutes_url, items; then the meeting's name, and its packet_url and video_url where the county gives them. Committees and commissions are included for counties whose system holds them; body says which.

agenda_items

item_id, meeting_id, date, body, agenda_number, sequence, matter_id, matter_file, title, action, result, mover, seconder, ayes, noes, not_voting; then heading (true for a heading such as "Consent Calendar", which is not an item), the section a line sits under and that heading's section_id, how many motions were entered on the line, doc_type, subject, description, status, number, attachments, and votes_read and problem (see minutes text above; empty for a county whose votes come from a system).

votes

item_id, meeting_id, date, matter_id, matter_file, member, vote; then vote_kind, motion and motion_text where a line had more than one motion, and read_from.

vote is AYE or NO, spelled one way in every county; any other word is the county's own, in capitals (ABSTAINED, NOT PRESENT, AWAY, ...). vote_kind puts those words in one of a few kinds, the same in every county: AYE, NO, ABSTAIN, ABSENT (absent, excused, away, not present, late), RECUSED, and OTHER for a word that is none of these, such as a vacant seat or a vote the clerk left blank.

members

name, district, role, start, end, serving, first_vote, last_vote, votes. A person who left and came back has a row for each time.

What to know

• A count of votes is not a count of roll calls. A consent calendar is voted on once; some clerks enter that vote on the calendar's own line and some on every item under it. To count roll calls, count distinct county, item_id and motion among lines where heading is true or action_on is not section, and expect the counties to differ still.
• result is the clerk's mark where the system has one, and empty where it has none. It is never worked out from a count of names: what number carries a motion depends on the motion.
• passed_date is empty except for San Diego County. A motion that carried may have been one to deny an item or put it off.
• A vote is here only where the record names who voted. A line that says "unanimous" and names nobody has an action and no rows in votes. The exceptions are a few counties whose minutes never list the ayes and do print who sat that day: their votes worked out from a count or from "unanimous" are marked count and unanimous in read_from.
• Some counties have agendas and few votes or none. Ventura and Shasta have no votes; Inyo, Trinity, Mono and Butte have them for a few months; Marin, Glenn and Butte have them only for the motions whose minutes list names, which lean to the divided ones. The notes above say which, and votes, first_vote and last_vote in counties show it.
• A supervisor with no row for a motion was absent, or the record does not say; only some counties enter an absence.
• district is empty for many supervisors, where a county's system does not give it.
• A name is as the clerk typed it. One person may be under two spellings within a county.
• Each county starts where its record does, not on a common day, and some end: see first_vote and last_vote in counties.
• Meetings to come are listed, with nothing done yet.

Each reader's own tables

raw/<county>/ has the five tables as the county's reader wrote them, with the columns only that reader has: the clerk's marks and codes, the text of a motion as the minutes have it, which pages were read and when. The files under data/ are made from these and lose nothing but those columns.

How it is made

A reader for each system the counties use, and build_ca_county_boards.py to put what they read in one shape, in cat-pol-datasets. The records are public records of each county; this compilation is released under CC0.