1720 North 1st Street
San Jose
California
95112
U.S.A.
Company Perspectives
Looking at California Water Service Group through the eyes of a diverse group of stockholders, it is clear that our company appeals to investors for a variety of reasons. Some like the dividend; others look for long-term growth. Some buy our stock because of their confidence in our management; others are attracted by the reputation our employees have earned for providing excellent customer service. What they share, whether they are customers, retirees, employees, or business professionals, is an appreciation for our stability.
History of California Water Service Group
California Water Service Group (CWSG) is the second largest, investor-owned water utility in the United States, operating as a holding company for five subsidiaries: California Water Service Company, CWS Utility Services, New Mexico Water Service Company, Washington Water Service Company, and Hawaii Water Service Company. Except for CWS Utility Services, which controls non-regulated water operations, CWSG's subsidiaries are regulated by state public utilities commissions and provide water utility services to more than two million customers. The largest and oldest of the subsidiaries is California Water Service Company, a provider of water service to more than 450,000 customers in 75 communities. Washington Water Service Company provides water service to 15,000 customers in Tacoma, Washington, and the state's capital, Olympia. The holding company's New Mexico operations serve nearly 6,500 water and wastewater customers in the Belen, Los Lunas, and Elephant Butte areas of the state. In Hawaii, the company serves nearly 500 customers on the island of Maui. Together, the three subsidiaries operating outside of California account for 4 percent of CWSG's annual revenues. CWSG's non-regulated operations consist of operating water systems owned by other companies, providing meter reading and billing services, brokerage services for water rights, and testing services for water quality.
Origins
The formation of CWSG in 1997 created a corporate structure that facilitated profound changes for a 70-year-old business, a business that for decades had led a somewhat staid existence. The two eras had one common trait, supplying water to residential and commercial customers, but in all other respects glaring differences jumped out to the observer. CWSG was the agent of change, its formation ushering in a period of unprecedented expansion. Within a decade of the holding company's formation, a business that had constrained its activities within northern California spread its influence throughout the western United States, assuming the profile of a utilities giant. The executive who spearheaded the remarkable transformation, Peter C. Nelson, left an indelible imprint on the history of the California Water name, doing more to amplify the business's recognition than the cumulative effect of his predecessors.
The heart of the legacy inherited by Nelson was California Water Service Company. Formed in 1926, the company was based in San Jose, operating as a public utility serving communities surrounding its home base. During its first 60 years in business, the utility expanded across several counties, using a combination of wells and surface water to serve its customers. By the end of the 1980s, California Water Service Company provided water service in 21 water-service districts, a territory that comprised 38 northern California communities and boasted a customer base of slightly more than 335,000 customers. By using surface water for 52 percent of its annual production total of 98 billion gallons of water and wells for the remaining 48 percent, the company served its customers, representing a fundamental component of the infrastructure supporting residents and businesses in communities such as Cupertino, Los Altos Hills, Mountain View, and Sunnyvale, among others. Operating as such, the company concluded its last decade as a one-state utility. The 1990s ushered in a period of transformation, a decade that saw Nelson occupy the symbolic corner office at California Water Serve Company's San Jose headquarters.
In early 1996, California Water Service Company's directors were searching for a new chief executive officer. The criteria for their search, a recruitment effort overseen by the utility's chairman, Robert Foy, were specific. The directors demanded an executive with experience in public utilities, finance and marketing know-how, management expertise with an emphasis on social skills, and the ability to adapt to changing conditions in the water-service market. Their search chewed through candidates and eventually focused on one individual, a former executive at Pacific Gas & Electric Co. "It was a perfect fit," Foy said of Nelson in a September 23, 1996 interview with the Business Journal. "It was too good to be true." Foy was sold, but Nelson had his own stipulations, declining to accept the post before he assessed the companies he was asked to lead. Nelson, without revealing who he was, placed a service call to California Water Service Company to witness its response and he paid a visit to the company's main offices, asking employees what they thought of the company. His incognito research yielded evidence that pointed in the company's favor, encouraging him to accept the title of chief executive officer. The Pacific Gas & Electric Co. executive, with an undergraduate degree in engineering from the University of California's Davis campus and a master's in business administration from the University of Massachusetts, took the helm in mid-1996.
When Nelson took charge, California Water Service Company ranked as the largest private water company in California, serving 1.5 million customers. He soon sought to elevate the company's stature by using the formation of CWSG as his vehicle for expansion. In April 1997, shareholders voted to adopt a holding company structure at the board of directors' urging, agreeing that such a structure, according to an April 6, 1997 filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, "will help the company to respond more effectively and efficiently to competitive changes occurring in the water industry and to new non-regulated business opportunities that may arise from these changes." After receiving regulatory approval from the California Public Utilities Commission, the holding company was formed, making its debut on the last day of 1997. When CWSG was incorporated, it became the parent company of two operating subsidiaries, California Water Service Company, and a newly formed entity, CWS Utility Services, which was created to provide non-regulated water operations and related services.
Nelson announced the first step in his expansion campaign within a year of orchestrating the formation of CWSG. In November 1998, CWSG announced what was believed to be the largest merger of private water utilities in the history of California business, the $53 million, all-stock purchase of Dominguez Services Corp. Dominguez Services Corp. operated Dominguez Water Co., a company formed in 1911 to irrigate the farmlands of one of the first Spanish land grants in California. The company also operated Antelope Valley Water Co., located in northern Los Angeles County, and Kern River Valley Water Co., a northern California water company. Additionally, Dominguez Service Corp. held a 20 percent stake in San Jose-based Chemical Services Co., a supplier of onsite chlorine generation equipment. Nelson explained the significance of the acquisition in a statement quoted in the November 18, 1998 edition of Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News, saying, "The post-merger firm will be well-positioned to play an active role in the growth and consolidation taking place in the water industry." Nelson continued, "In combining our adjacent properties, we will pool our human resources and achieve economies of scale that will not only benefit our shareholders and customers, but also make us a more attractive and viable partner to public and private water providers."
Geographic Expansion with the New Millennium
The Dominguez Services Corp. acquisition was completed in 2000 after receiving regulatory approval, making CWSG the fourth largest, investor-owned water utility in the United States. Nelson's next move put the holding company's structure to use, as he spearheaded the most aggressive geographic expansion in the company's history. For the first time, the California Water Service banner was unfurled outside California after the holding company purchased Harbor Water Company and South Sound Utility in 1999 and merged them to form its third operating subsidiary, Washington Water Service Company, in December 1999. The acquisitions and subsequent merger created the state's largest, investor-owned water utility, an entity that served two water districts with more than 12,000 customers. Several months after the subsidiary was created, its operations were expanded by an acquisition announced in April 2000. The purchase, a $500,000 deal, consisted of 700 metered connections in King County operated by Mirrormount Water Services.
As CWSG established a presence to the north in Washington, it also pressed to the east, adding another operating subsidiary to its holdings. New Mexico Water Service Company was created in 2000 to house the acquisition of Rio Grande Utility Corp., a utility that served 2,265 water and 1,600 wastewater customers in Valencia County, situated 30 miles south of Albuquerque. The acquisition, which was not approved by the New Mexico Public Regulatory Commission until June 2002, was completed for $2.3 million in cash and the assumption of $3.1 million in debt, giving CWSG a total of more than two million customers in 98 communities. The company's New Mexico operations were bolstered later by the acquisition of National Utility Company in 2004. CWSG paid $630,000 to gain 700 customers adjacent to New Mexico Water Service Company's Middle Rio Grande water system and 950 water customers residing 150 miles south of Albuquerque.
CWSG Entering Hawaii in 2003
Nelson's next move represented the greatest geographic leap in the company's history. In August 2002, he signed an agreement to acquire Ka'anapli Water Corp., a water utility serving the island of Maui in Hawaii. The utility, which was acquired from AquaSource Utilities, Inc. for $8 million, gave CWSG approximately 500 customers, including six large resorts and eight condominium complexes. "We are thrilled to be entering our fourth state," Nelson said in an April 30, 2003 statement quoted by Business Wire that coincided with the completion of the acquisition. "This was a great opportunity that fit perfectly into our growth strategy, which is to seek good quality systems in the western United States that will add immediately to stockholder value."
As CWSG neared the end of its first decade in business, its acquisition campaign reflected an industry trend. The water utility industry was undergoing a period of consolidation during Nelson's first years in charge, pursuing a strategy aimed at attracting investors. Conservative investors typically were attracted to investor-owned water utilities, drawn to the sector because of regulated rates, consistent dividends, and the stability of the water business. An acquire-or-be-acquired mentality gripped water utility executives, winnowing the ranks of investor-owned water utilities to only 11 throughout the United States by the time CWSG expanded into Hawaii. Of these 11 utilities, CWSG ranked as the second largest by the mid-2000s, benefiting from Nelson's commitment to be a consolidator in the industry. The financial gains from his expansion campaign were not astounding: During CWSG's acquisition spree, its revenues only increased from $225 million in 1997 to $315 million in 2004, with the company's operations in Washington, New Mexico, and Hawaii generating just 4 percent of total annual sales. Perhaps of greater significance was the geographic diversity the acquisition campaign gave CWSG, enabling it to hold sway as the second largest company of its kind in the country.
In the years ahead, Nelson and his successors were expected to pursue a disciplined growth strategy, endeavoring to give the company's shareholders a low-risk, consistent return on their investment dollars. "After all," he wrote to CWSG's shareholders in the company's 2004 annual report, "we know why stockholders invest in California Water Service Group. They choose our company because of our people and the service they provide, because we are regulated and provide a basic necessity, because we have provided stability and growth over the long term, and because we have declared dividends for 60 consecutive years. In short," he concluded, "they invest in our company because we deliver a return on their investment."
Principal Subsidiaries
California Water Service Company; CWS Utility Services; New Mexico Water Service Company; Washington Water Service Company; Hawaii Water Service Company.
Principal Competitors
American States Water Company; American Water Works Company, Inc.; Southwest Water Company.
Related information about California
pop (2000e) 33 871 600; area
411 033 km²/158 706 sq mi. State in SW
USA, divided into 58 counties; the ‘Golden State’; originally
populated by several Indian tribes; discovered by the Spanish,
1542; colonized mid-18th-c; developed after gold discovered in the
Mother Lode, 1848; ceded to the USA by the treaty of Guadalupe
Hidalgo, 1848; joined the Union as the 31st state, 1850; major US
growth area in the 20th-c; now the most populous US state; capital,
Sacramento; other chief cities, San Francisco, Los Angeles,
Oakland, San Diego; bounded S by Mexico and W by the Pacific Ocean;
mountainous in the N, W and E, with dry, arid depressions in the S
(Mojave and Colorado Deserts) and SE (Death Valley); Klamath Mts in
the N; Coast Ranges in the W run parallel to the Pacific; Sierra
Nevada in the E, rising to 4418 m/14 495 ft at Mt
Whitney (state's highest point); foothills of the Sierra Nevada
contain the Mother Lode, a belt of gold-bearing quartz; the Sierra
Nevada and Coast Ranges are separated by the Central Valley,
drained by the San Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers, a major
fruit-producing area; climate gives a wet and a dry season, with
most rainfall November–March; record heatwave with 136 deaths (Jul
2006); legislation proposed to cut carbon dioxide emissions, 2006;
a zone of faults (the San Andreas Fault) extends S from N
California along the coast; earth tremors commonplace; major
earthquakes in San Francisco, 1906, 1989, and in Los Angeles, 1993;
devastating wildfires in the south, 2003; centre of the US
microelectronics industry in Silicon Valley; oil, natural gas, and
a wide range of minerals; vegetables, grain, livestock; food
processing, machinery, defence industries, transportation
equipment, fabricated metals, cotton, wine (vineyards in over 40
Californian counties); increasing Hispanic and Asian populations; a
major tourist state, with several national monuments and parks
(Yosemite, Kings Canyon, Sequoia, Redwood), the film industry,
Disneyland.
noncompliant
California is a state spanning the southern half of the west
coast of the contiguous United States. With a population of 37 million and an
area of 158,402 square
miles (410,000
km²),
California is the largest
U.S. state in population and the third largest in
area. Spain colonized the coastal areas of
the territory starting in 1769. As a result of the Mexican War of
Independence, California became a part of the Mexican Republic in 1821. It was captured by the United
States in the Mexican-American War (1846-1848) which was concluded
with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. The California Gold
Rush of 1848-1849 brought about 90,000 additional U.S.
immigrants into the state, and California became the 31st state of
the Union in 1850.
Although the state's sunny climate has given it a historic
reputation for being laid back compared to the East
Coast, the $1.55 trillion (as of 2005) California economy is larger than
all but the top 7 national economies in the world www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2006/01/data/dbcoutm.cfm?SD=2005&ED=2005&R1=1&R2=1&CS=3&SS=2&OS=C&DD=0&OUT=1&C=512-941-914-446-612-666-614-672-311-946-213-137-911-962-193-674-122-676-912-548-313-556-419-678-513-181-316-682-913-684-124-273-339-921-638-948-514-686-218-688-963-518-616-728-223-558-516-138-918-353-748-196-618-278-522-692-622-694-156-142-624-449-626-564-628-283-228-853-924-288-233-293-632-566-636-964-634-182-238-453-662-968-960-922-423-714-935-862-128-716-611-456-321-722-243-965-248-718-469-724-253-576-642-936-643-961-939-813-644-199-819-184-172-524-132-361-646-362-648-364-915-732-134-366-652-734-174-144-328-146-258-463-656-528-654-923-336-738-263-578-268-537-532-742-944-866-176-369-534-744-536-186-429-925-178-746-436-926-136-466-343-112-158-111-439-298-916-927-664-846-826-299-542-582-443-474-917-754-544-698&S=NGDPD&CMP=0&x=31&y=8
and is responsible for 13% of the United States' $13 trillion
gross
domestic product (GDP). The state's major predominant
industries include agriculture, entertainment, light manufacturing, and tourism. California is also the home of several
significant economic regions such as Hollywood (entertainment), the California Central
Valley (agriculture), Silicon Valley (computers and high tech), and the Wine Country (wine). The states of Nevada, Utah,
Arizona, and Wyoming, were claimed by Spain
and Mexico but were almost totally undeveloped, with about 100
settlers in Arizona.
The name California is most commonly believed derived from a
storied paradise peopled by black Amazons
and ruled by Queen
Califia. The myth of Califia is recorded in a 1510 work The Exploits of
Esplandian, written as a sequel to Amadís de Gaula
by Spanish
adventure writer García Ordonez Rodriguez de Montalvo.Person-Lynn,
Dr. Kwaku. The island everywhere abounds with gold and precious
stones, and upon it no other metal was found.Person-Lynn,
2004.
It is thought that the myth of Califia later helped fuel Spanish
exploration in the New
World.
Others suggest the word California may come from the early
Spanish explorers who entered California via the hot southern
regions and referred to California as being "hot as an oven" or a
"lime oven" ("cali > hot", "fornus->forno > oven" + ending
"ia" for a place;
Geography
California borders the Pacific Ocean, Oregon, Nevada, Arizona, and the Mexican state of Baja California. With an area of 160,000 square
miles (411,000
km²) it is the
third largest state in the U.S and is larger than Germany in size.
Most major cities are at or near the Pacific coastline, notably
Los
Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose, Long Beach,
Oakland,
Santa
Ana/Orange County, Riverside/Moreno
Valley, San Bernardino and San Diego.
However, the capital,
Sacramento, is in the Central Valley. In the middle of the state lies
the California
Central Valley, a huge, fertile valley bounded by the coastal mountain
ranges in the west, the granite Sierra Nevada to
the east, the volcanic
Cascade Range in
the north
and the Tehachapi Mountains in the south. With
dredging, several rivers have become sufficiently large and deep
that several inland cities (notably Stockton and
Sacramento) are
seaports. The southern
part of the valley, which is part desert, is known as the San
Joaquin Valley (drained by the San Joaquin River), while the northern half is
known as the Sacramento Valley (drained by the Sacramento River). The
Channel Islands are located in the southern part of the
state, stretching from Santa Barbara to Orange County. They and the
largest island, Santa
Catalina Island are attractive to visitors.
In the center and east of the state are the Sierra Nevada (meaning
Snowy Range in Spanish), which include the highest peak in the
contiguous 48 states, Mount Whitney, at 14,505 feet (4421 m). Also located in
the Sierra are the world-famous Yosemite National
Park and a deep freshwater lake, Lake Tahoe, the largest lake in the state by
volume. To the east of the Sierra are Owens Valley and Mono Lake, an essential
seabird habitat. In the
south lay the Transverse Ranges and a large salt lake, the Salton Sea. To the northeast
of the Mojave lies Death Valley, which contains the lowest, hottest point
in North America,
Badwater Flat. Indeed,
almost all of southeastern California is arid, hot desert, with the
Coachella
Valley and Imperial Valley routinely experiencing extreme high
temperatures during the summer. The Coachella Valley in
Riverside
County is famous for its popular tourist destination Palm Springs,
California. Other Coachella Valley communities include Bermuda Dunes, Desert Hot Springs,
Indian Wells,
Palm Desert,
La Quinta, Rancho Mirage, Indio, Coachella and Cathedral City.
Along the densely populated and long California coast are several
major metropolitan areas, including San Jose-San
Francisco-Oakland, Los Angeles-Long Beach,
Santa Ana-Irvine-Anaheim, Riverside-San Bernardino, California and
San
Diego. Winter temperatures seldom reach freezing and summer
temperatures rarely reach above the high 80's Fahrenheit (low 30's
Celsius).
California is famous for earthquakes due to the presence of a number of faults,
in particular the San Andreas Fault. While powerful earthquakes in the
United States have occurred in other states such as Alaska, Washington, Oregon, and Missouri (along the New Madrid fault),
people are more aware of California's earthquakes due to their
frequency and tendency to strike in highly populated areas.
California is also home to several volcanoes, some active such as Mammoth Mountain. Other
volcanoes include Lassen
Peak, which erupted from 1914 and 1921, and Mount Shasta.
Climate
Different regions of California have very different climates,
depending on their latitude, elevation, and proximity to the coast.
Most of the state has a Mediterranean climate, with rainy winters and dry summers. The cool California Current
offshore, enhanced by upwelling of cold sub-surface waters, often creates
summer fog near the coast.
however 4 °F and 35 °F (2 °C and 20 °C) between Santa
Barbara and Death
Valley.
Westerly winds from the ocean also bring moisture, and the northern
parts of the state generally receive higher annual rainfall amounts
than the south. The high mountains, including the Sierra Nevada,
have a mountain
climate with snow in
winter and mild to moderate heat in summer.
On the east side of the mountains is a drier rain shadow. California's
desert climate
regions lie east of the high Sierra Nevada and Southern
California's Transverse Ranges and Peninsular Ranges. The
low deserts east of the southern California mountains, including
the Imperial and Coachella valleys and the lower Colorado
River, are part of the Sonoran Desert, with hot summers and mild winters; the
higher elevation deserts of eastern California, including the Mojave Desert, Owens Valley, and the
Modoc Plateau, are
part of the Great
Basin region, with hot summers and cold winters. During the
summer months, especially from July through early September, the
region is affected by the Mexican Monsoon (also called the "southwest monsoon"),
which drives moisture from the tropical Pacific, Gulf of California,
and/or Gulf of
Mexico into the deserts, setting off brief, but often
torrential thunderstorms, particularly over mountainous
terrain.
In the northern portion of the Mojave Desert on the east side of the state is
Death Valley, which
is the hottest spot on the Western Hemisphere. The highest temperature in the
Western Hemisphere, 134 °F (56.6 °C), was recorded in Death Valley
on July 10, 1913. The State of California is
part of the Nearctic
ecozone, and spans a
number of terrestrial ecoregions, and is perhaps the most
ecologically diverse state in the United States.
California has a rather high percentage of endemic species.
Furthermore, California is home to the largest trees in the world,
the Giant
Sequoias.
California's native grasses were perennials, which stayed green year-round in most of the
state's subclimatesUnited States Department of Agriculturearticle on California's
perennial native grasses.
National Parks and Monuments
-
Main articles: List of areas in the National Park System of the
United States, List of United States national parks by state, and
List of National Monuments of the United
States.
To protect and preserve the state's biological diversity,
natural beauty, and historic heritage, the U.S. National Park
System has acquired control over a huge number of places within
California. The most prominent by far is Yosemite National
Park (which protects Yosemite Valley), followed closely by the Kings
Canyon-Sequoia National Park complex (which protects the most
massive trees in the world) and Redwood National
Park (which protects the tallest trees in the world).
Half Dome, in Yosemite, figures prominently on the reverse side
of the California state quarter.
History
The area was inhabited by more than 70 distinct groups of Native
Americans before European contact. On September 28, 1542, Juan Rodríguez
Cabrillo landed in what is now San Diego Bay claiming it for
Spain. Spanish traders made sporadic visits with the Manila Galleons as early
as 1565. The British
explorer Sir Francis
Drake made contact in 1579. Sebastián Vizcaíno explored and mapped the coast
of California in 1602.
Spain colonized the territory with the
1769 expedition of Gaspar de Portolà
in conjunction with the creation of the system of Military Districts and Spanish
Missions in California between 1769 and 1823.
During the outset of the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), in the town of
Sonoma forty U.S.
settlers revolted and established the California Republic,
an independent republic, June 14, 1846. The California Gold
Rush of 1849 brought a huge population of immigrants into the
area, and California became the 31st state of the United States in
1850.
The entire region originally known as California was composed of
the Mexican peninsula now known as Baja
California and much of the land in the current states of
California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona and Wyoming, known as Alta California.
California groups also were diverse in their political organization
with bands, tribes, tribelets, and on the resource-rich coasts
large chiefdoms, such as the Chumash, Pomo and Salinan. Except for the Mojave Indians living along the
Colorado River no California Indians grew any domesticated
crops.
The first European to explore parts of the coast was the Portuguese João Rodrigues
Cabrilho in 1542
working for the Spanish Hernan Cortes. The first to explore the
entire coast and claim possession of it was the English man
Francis Drake in
1579. San Francisco for St.
Francis of Assisi, San Jose for St. Joseph of Nazareth and San Diego for St. Didacus).
These new arrivals used the Siskiyou Trail, California Trail, and Old Spanish Trail to
cross the rugged mountains and harsh deserts surrounding
California.
In this period, some nobles of Imperial Russia made brief attempts to explore and
claim parts of California, particularly at Fort Ross, but these were
limited by a lack of Imperial interest.
California was poorly settled until modern public health eliminated
the endemic outbreaks of yellow fever, malaria and plague, caused from the area?s lack of frosts, which
kills mosquitoes and fleas.
In 1846, at the outset of the Mexican-American War (1846-1848), the
California
Republic was founded and the Bear Flag was flown, which
featured a golden bear and a star. Citrus was widely grown
(especially in the form of oranges), and the foundation was laid
for the state's prodigious agricultural production of today.
During the early 20th century, migration to California accelerated
with the completion of major transcontinental highways like the
Lincoln Highway
and Route 66. It
is one of four majority-minority states.
The largest named ancestries in California are Mexican (25%), Filipino, German,
Irish, and Asian citation needed. Mexican Americans and Chicanos predominate in Southern California
such as the Imperial
Valley, the Central Valley, Salinas, and parts of the San Francisco Bay
Area. San Francisco has the greatest concentration of Asian Americans in the
continental United States, with Chinese Americans numerous in San Francisco, Alameda,
San
Mateo, and Santa Clara counties. Southern California has
perhaps the largest Taiwanese American community in the United States
particularly in San Gabriel Valley, and communities such as Cerritos,
Irvine (in
Orange County), and some in the South Bay, Los
Angeles Area. Filipino Americans are particularly numerous in
San
Mateo and Solano counties, and in communities such as Baldwin Park,
Covina,
West
Covina, and the community of Eagle Rock in Los Angeles. There are large
Korean American
communities in Koreatown of Los Angeles as well as East San Gabriel Valley,
Cerritos, South Bay, Los Angeles, and in North Orange County.
South Bay,
Los Angeles also has a large Japanese American
community too. The City of Long Beach has
one of the largest Cambodian American communities in the United States.
Westminster has one of the largest Vietnamese American
communities and is often dubbed "Little Saigon". The community of Artesia and nearby
Cerritos,
as well as Fremont in the Bay Area have a large Asian Indian/South Asian
American community. California also has one of the largest
numbers of Armenian Americans and Persian Americans,
with estimates of up to 500,000 persons in Southern California,
and 20% of Beverly
Hills being of Persian descent.
Languages
As of 2000, 60.5% of California residents age 5 and older speak
English at home
and 25.8% speak Spanish. Chinese is the third most spoken language at 2.6%,
followed by Tagalog at 2.5% and Vietnamese at
1.3%.
The indigenous languages of California number more than one
hundred and show great diversity making California one of the most
linguistically diverse areas in the world. All of California's
indigenous languages are endangered, although there are now efforts toward
language
revitalization.
Since 1986, the California Constitution has specified that English is
the common and official language of the state. 19%
The majority of California's Roman Catholic membership are of Irish and Hispanic ancestry.
As with many other western states, the percentage of
California's population identifying themselves as "non-religious"
is comparatively high in relation to the rest of the U.S.fact
Economy
As of 2005, California's economy is larger than all but seven
national economies in the world. www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/weo/2006/01/data/dbcoutm.cfm?SD=2005&ED=2005&R1=1&R2=1&CS=3&SS=2&OS=C&DD=0&OUT=1&C=512-941-914-446-612-666-614-672-311-946-213-137-911-962-193-674-122-676-912-548-313-556-419-678-513-181-316-682-913-684-124-273-339-921-638-948-514-686-218-688-963-518-616-728-223-558-516-138-918-353-748-196-618-278-522-692-622-694-156-142-624-449-626-564-628-283-228-853-924-288-233-293-632-566-636-964-634-182-238-453-662-968-960-922-423-714-935-862-128-716-611-456-321-722-243-965-248-718-469-724-253-576-642-936-643-961-939-813-644-199-819-184-172-524-132-361-646-362-648-364-915-732-134-366-652-734-174-144-328-146-258-463-656-528-654-923-336-738-263-578-268-537-532-742-944-866-176-369-534-744-536-186-429-925-178-746-436-926-136-466-343-112-158-111-439-298-916-927-664-846-826-299-542-582-443-474-917-754-544-698&S=NGDPD&CMP=0&x=31&y=8
California is responsible for 13% of the United States gross domestic
product (GDP), while the state population constitute only 12%
of the United States population. The gross state product
(GSP) is about $1.55 trillion ($1,550,000,000,000, as of 2004), making it
greater than that of every other U.S. state, and most countries in the
world (by Purchasing Power Parity).
California is also the home of several significant economic regions
such as Hollywood (entertainment), the California Central
Valley (agriculture), Silicon Valley (computers and high tech), and wine producing regions such as Santa Barbara and
Northern California's Wine Country.
The predominant industry, more than twice as large as the next, is
agriculture,
(including fruit, vegetables, dairy, and wine). entertainment, primarily television by dollar volume, although many
movies are still made in
California; light manufacturing, including computer hardware and
software; and the
mining of borax.
Per capita personal income was $33,403 as of 2003, ranking
12th in the nation. The Central Valley has the most
extreme contrasts of income, with migrant farm workers making less than minimum wage. Recently, the
San Joaquin Valley was characterized www.centralvalleybusinesstimes.com/links/CRS%20San%20Joaquin%20Valley%20Report.pdf
as one of the most economically depressed regions in the U.S., on
par with the region of Appalachia.
Many coastal cities include some of the wealthiest per-capita areas
in the U.S., notably San Francisco and Marin County.
The high-technology sectors in Northern California, specifically
Silicon Valley,
in Santa Clara and San Mateo
counties, are currently emerging from economic downturn caused
by the dot.com
bust, which caused the loss of over 250,000 jobs in Northern
California alone. The international boom in housing prices has been
most pronounced in California, with the median property price in
the state rising to about the half-million dollar mark in April
2005.
California levies a 9.3% maximum variable rate income tax, with 6 tax brackets.
As for air travel, Los
Angeles International Airport and San
Francisco International Airport are major hubs for
trans-Pacific and transcontinental traffic. There are about a dozen
important commercial airports and many more general aviation
airports throughout the state's 58 counties.
California also has several important seaports. The giant seaport complex formed by the
Port of Los
Angeles and the Port of Long Beach in Southern California is the
largest in the country and responsible for handling about a fourth
of all container cargo traffic in the United States. The Port of Oakland handles
most of the ocean containers passing through Northern
California.
Intercity rail travel is provided by Amtrak. Los Angeles and San Francisco both have
subway networks,
in addition to light
rail. Metrolink commuter rail serves much of Southern California, and
Caltrain commuter rail
connects San Jose and Gilroy (commute hour only) to San Francisco. Altamont Commuter
Express (ACE) connects Tracy, Livermore and other edge cities with San Jose. the
North
Bay and South
Bay regions are not currently included in the system. San Diego has Trolley light rail and
Coaster
commuter rail services. Nearly all counties operate bus lines, and many cities operate
their own bus lines as well.
Both Greyhound
and Amtrak provide intercity travel services.
The rapidly growing population of the state is straining all of its
transportation networks. If built, the system would provide a
TGV-style high-speed link
between the state's four major cities, and would allow travel
between Los Angeles' Union
Station and San Francisco's Transbay Terminal in two and one half hours.
Law and government
California is governed as a republic, with three branches of
government: the executive branch consisting of the Governor of
California and the other independently elected constitutional
officers; the legislative branch consisting of the Assembly and
Senate;
and the judicial
branch consisting of the Supreme Court of
California and lower courts. The state also allows direct
participation of the electorate by initiative, referendum, recall, and ratification.
The Governor
of California and the other state constitutional officers serve
four-year terms and may be re-elected only once. The California
State Legislature consists of a 40 member Senate and 80
member Assembly. Members of the Assembly are subject to
term limits of 3
terms, and members of the Senate are subject to term limits of 2
terms.
For the 2005–2006 session, there are 48 Democrats
and 32 Republicans in the Assembly. Schwarzenegger was only the
second governor in the history of the United States to be put into
office by a recall of a sitting governor (the first was the 1921
recall of North
Dakota Governor Lynn J. Schwarzenegger replaced Governor Gray Davis (1999–2003), who
was removed from office by the October 2003 California
recall election.
The state's capital is Sacramento. During California's early history
under European control, the capital was successively located in
Monterey
(1775–1849), San Jose (1849–1851), Vallejo
(1852–1853), Benicia (1853–1854), and San
Francisco (1862). The capital's final move to Sacramento was on
February 25,
1854 where it has been
located since, except for a four-month temporary move in 1862 to
San Francisco, which was due to severe flooding in
Sacramento.
California's judiciary
is the largest in the United States (with a total of 1,600 judges,
while the state's federal system has only about 840). font-size:
95%;">
Presidential elections results
Year
|
Republican
|
Democratic
|
| 2004 |
44.36%
5,509,826
|
54.31%6,745,485
|
| 2000 |
41.65%
4,567,429
|
53.45%5,861,203
|
| 1996 |
38.21%
3,828,380
|
51.10%5,119,835
|
| 1992 |
32.61%
3,630,574
|
46.01%
5,121,325
|
| 1988 |
51.13%5,054,917
|
47.56%
4,702,233
|
| 1984 |
57.51%5,467,009
|
41.27%
3,922,519
|
| 1980 |
52.69%4,524,858
|
35.91%
3,083,661
|
| 1976 |
49.35%3,882,244
|
47.57%
3,742,284
|
| 1972 |
55.00%4,602,096
|
41.54%
3,475,847
|
| 1968 |
47.82%3,467,664
|
44.74%
3,244,318
|
| 1964 |
40.79%
2,879,108
|
59.11%4,171,877
|
| 1960 |
50.10%3,259,722
|
49.55%
3,224,099
|
California's legal system, like all other states (except
Louisiana), is explicitly based on English common law but carries a few
features from Spanish civil law,
such as community
property. Capital punishment is a legal form of punishment
and the state has the largest "Death Row" population in the country (though Texas is far more active in
carrying out executions).
At the national level, California is represented by two senators
and 53 representatives, as of 2005. (Since California is the most
populous state in the Union, its counts of Congressmen and
Presidential Electors are also the largest.) The two U.S. Senators from
California are Democrats Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer. 33 Democrats and 20 Republicans
represent the state in the U.S.
House of Representatives.
California is considered a reliably Democratic state. Once very conservative, having elected
conservatives such as Ronald Reagan as governor and William Knowland as
senator, California has flipped sides in recent decades and became
a Democrat voting state, having elected statewide liberals such as
Dianne
Feinstein and Barbara Boxer to the Senate.
Even some recent Republican politicians elected statewide, such as
Governors Pete
Wilson and Arnold Schwarzenegger are considered members of the more
moderate wing of the national party. California's Republican
dominance in the mid-20th century had to do with strong GOP support
outside San
Francisco, San Jose and Los Angeles; Bush received a majority of votes in more
than half the state's 58 counties, but still lost California's 55
electoral votes to John Kerry, who won 54.3% of the popular vote,
by a margin of 9 percentage points due to Kerry's overwhelming
totals in the Bay Area and Los Angeles.
In August 2006 Governor Schwarzenegger went against the Bush
administration, in passing the strictest anti-pollution laws
anywhere in the world.citation needed
Ballot qualified political parties
- American Independent Party: link
- Democratic Party: link
- Green Party: link
- Libertarian Party: link
- Peace and Freedom Party:link
- Republican Party: link
Important cities and towns
Image:Sacramento from Riverwalk.jpg|Sacramento
Image:DowntownLosAngeles.jpg|Los
Angeles
Image:Sandiego_1_bg_071302.jpg|San
Diego
Image:Lightmatter sanfrancisco.jpg|San
Francisco
Image:SanJoseDowntownIMG016elf wb.jpg|San Jose
Image:Long Beach, CA at night.jpg|Long
Beach
Image:La2-oakland.jpg|Oakland
Image:Anaheimdland.jpg|Anaheim
The state of California has 478 cities, the majority of which are
within one of the large metropolitan areas. Sixty-eight percent of California's
population lives in its two largest metropolitan areas, Greater Los
Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area.
Los Angeles
| 10,245,572 |
4,061 |
2,344 |
Los Angeles
|
| 2 |
Orange |
3,072,336 |
789 |
3,606 |
Santa Ana
|
| 3 |
San
Diego |
3,066,820 |
4,200 |
670 |
San Diego
|
| 4 |
San Bernardino |
1,991,829 |
20,052 |
85 |
San Bernardino
|
| 5 |
Riverside |
1,953,330 |
7,207 |
214 |
Riverside
|
| 6 |
Santa Clara |
1,773,258 |
1,291 |
1,304 |
San Jose
|
| 7 |
Alameda |
1,510,303 |
738 |
732 |
Oakland
|
| 8 |
Sacramento |
1,385,607 |
966 |
1,267 |
Sacramento
|
| 9 |
Contra Costa |
1,029,377 |
720 |
492 |
Concord
|
| 10 |
Fresno |
899,514 |
5,963 |
134 |
Fresno
|
Note: table was compiled using California State
estimates from 2006 for population
and Census 2000 for area and density
For a list of important suburbs within the above areas, see
List of urbanized areas in California (by
population).
|
25 wealthiest places in California
Thanks to the state's powerful economy, certain California
cities are among the wealthiest on the planet. The following list
is ranked by per
capita income:
- Belvedere, California – Riverside
County $76,187
- Malibu,
California – $66,776
Note: Marin County ranks as the wealthiest county in the United States based on per
capita personal income.
30 poorest places in California
Many California communities rank among the poorest in the
western world according to the measure of per capita income. The
following list is ranked by increasing per capita income,
first number is state ranking:
1076 Tobin,
California - Plumas County - $2,584
1075 Belden,
California - Plumas County - $3,141
1074 East
Orosi, California - Tulare County - $4,984
1073 London,
California - Tulare County - $5,632
1072 Cantua Creek, California - Fresno County -
$5,693
1071 Indian Falls, California - Plumas County -
$5,936
1070 Westley,
California - Stanislaus County - $6,137
1069 Cutler,
California - Tulare County - $6,254
1068 Mecca,
California - Riverside County - $6,389
1067 Richgrove, California - Tulare County - $6,415
1066 San
Joaquin, California - Fresno County - $6,607
1065 Woodville, California - Tulare County - $6,824
1064 Kennedy,
California - San Joaquin County $6,876
1063 Mettler,
California - Kern
County - $6,919
1062 Mendota,
California - Fresno County - $6,967
1061 Terra
Bella, California - Tulare County - $7,034
1060 Parlier,
California - Fresno County -$7,078
1059 Orange Cove, California - Fresno County -
$7,126
1058 Parksdale, California - Madera County - $7,129
1057 Earlimart, California - Tulare County - $7,169
1056 South Dos Palos, California - Merced County -
$7,170
1055 Winterhaven, California - Imperial County -
$7,220
1054 Shackelford, California - Stanislaus County -
$7,250
1053 Palo
Verde, California - Imperial County - $7,275
1052 Biola,
California - Fresno County - $7,375
1051 Kettleman City, California - Kings County
- $7,389
1050 Arvin,
California - Kern
County - $7,408
1049 Coachella, California - Riverside County -
$7,416
1048 Bret
Harte, California - Stanislaus County - $7,481
1047 Traver,
California - Tulare County - $7,642
Education
Image:Berkeley glade afternoon.jpg|UC
Berkeley
Image:Stanford campus aerial photo.jpg|Stanford
Image:RHall.JPG|UCLA
Image:USC Bovard Auditorium enh.jpg|USC
California's public educational system is supported by a unique
constitutional amendment that requires 40% of state revenues to be
spent on education.
The elementary
schools are of varying effectiveness. Mandatory full-time
instruction begins at age 6.
The preeminent state research university is the University of
California, which employs more Nobel Prize winners than any other institution in
the world and is considered the world's finest public university
system. The nine general UC cam
This web site and associated pages are not associated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by California Water Service Group and has no official or unofficial affiliation with California Water Service Group.