Kings County to use kingscounty.ca.gov for .gov transition, board approves shorter domain

Kings County’s Board of Supervisors voted Nov. 18 to adopt kingscounty.ca.gov as the county’s preferred .gov domain name to comply with federal and state guidance requiring government entities to transition to .gov domains.

John Devlin of the Information Technology Department reviewed the background: the county earlier procured countyofkingsca.gov to satisfy the federal registrar and state requirements, but staff sought a shorter address and obtained kingscounty.ca.gov with state approval. Devlin explained inbound email to existing addresses will continue to reach users, but each user can only have a single outbound domain suffix; departments that frequently apply for federal grants may convert sooner so grant submissions carry a .gov sender address.

Devlin cited federal and state direction behind the move, noting federal grant portals and certain federal processes are phased to accept inputs tied to .gov addresses. He said the state’s AB 1637 requires California local governments to transition to a .gov domain by Jan. 1, 2029, and recommended starting the changeover with a shorter countyname format that matches the state’s naming guidance.

Supervisors asked about social media and the potential for public confusion with other jurisdictions named Kings County; Devlin and other speakers said existing URLs and addresses will redirect to the new domain and implementation can be staged to allow departments time to update letterhead, business cards and outreach materials. The board approved the recommendation unanimously.

The board did not appropriate new funds at this session; staff said continued redirection of legacy addresses preserves email delivery while departments control when to change outbound suffixes.