and districts' ability to provide services outside their jurisdictional boundaries by contract or agreement. LAFCOs also must approve requests by districts to either expand their service powers and/or divest existing service powers. Authority LAFCOs have both regulatory and planning authority: As a regulatory agency, they are for "discouraging urban sprawl and encouraging the orderly formation and development of local agencies" based on "local circumstances and conditions." Key regulatory responsibilities include establishing (formations and incorporations), expanding (annexations), decreasing (detachments), combining (mergers and consolidations), and eliminating (dissolutions and disincorporations) cities and special districts as well as authorizing outside service contracts. As a planning agency, it is charged to determine and update, at least every five years, the sphere of influence of each city and special district. In updating spheres of influence, it must prepare Municipal Service Reviews of relevant local agencies and services. It may initiate proposals to consolidate special districts, merge a special district with a city, dissolve a special district, establish a subsidiary district, or any combination of them. Under the agency, no community within an incorporated city has ever been granted city status. That is partially because the Cortese-Knox-Hertzberg Local Government Reorganization Act of 2000 makes it difficult for communities to break away from their original cities, as the community must gain approval from the city from which it is detaching, and it requires two thirds of the entire community and re-affected city to agree. The only community within a city ever to be brought before a vote by LAFCO was the San Fernando Valley in the early 2000s, which was denied. No detachments from a city have been successful in the state since 1947. LAFCOs are governed by a commission consisting of appointed elected officials representing the county board of supervisors, city councils, and - at least for most - special district directors. (Not all LAFCOs have special district representation). The appointed elected officials on LAFCO also appoint members from the general public to serve on the commission. LAFCO funding is provided by local agencies and divided in one-third apportionments between the county, cities, and special districts with the latter amounts further divided among the individual agencies based on tax revenues. Types According to the Committee on Local Government of the California Senate, LAFCOs regulate all city and most special district boundaries, including these: Airport districts California water districts Community services districts County sanitation districts County service areas