The Board of Supervisors may provide for the formation of road districts for the care, maintenance, repair and supervision of roads, highways and bridges; and for the formation of highway construction divisions for the construction of roads, highways and bridges,⁸⁵ for the inclusion in any such district or division of the whole or any part of any incorporated city or town upon ordinance passed by such incorporated city or town authorizing the same, and upon the assent to such inclusion by a majority of the qualified electors of such incorporated city or town or portion thereof proposed to be so included at an election held for that purpose; for the organization, government, powers and jurisdiction of such district or division, for raising revenue therein for such purposes, by taxation, upon the assent of a majority of the qualified electors of such district or division, voting at an election held for that purpose; for the incurring of indebtedness therefore by the county, district or division for such purposes, respectively, by the issuance and sale, by the County, of bonds of the County, district or division, and the expenditure of the proceeds of the sale of such bonds, and for levying and collecting taxes against the property of the County, district or division, as the case may be, for the payment of the principal and interest of such indebtedness at maturity; provided that any such indebtedness shall not be incurred without the assent of two-thirds of the qualified electors of the County, district or division, as the case may be, voting at an election held for that purpose, nor unless before or at the time of incurring such indebtedness, provision shall be made for the collection of an annual tax sufficient to pay the interest on such indebtedness as it falls due, and also for a sinking fund for the payment of the principal thereof on or before maturity, which shall not exceed forty years from the time of contracting the same; and the procedure for voting, issuing and selling such bonds, except insofar as the same shall be otherwise prescribed in this Charter, shall conform to general laws for the authorizing and incurring of bonded indebtedness by counties, so far as applicable; provided, further, that the construction, care, maintenance, repair and supervision of roads, highways and bridges for which aid from the State is granted shall be subject to such regulations and conditions as may be imposed by the legislature.

⁸⁵ This Section, which follows the language of former Sec. 71/2 of Article XI of the Constitution, subdivision 6, was permissive and did not prescribe the only method for the formation of road districts which the Board of Supervisors may use. The Road District Improvement Act of 1907 (Act 3276 Derring’s General Laws, Stats. 1907, Chap. 442 P. 806) was neither repealed nor superseded by the Constitution or charter, and, prior to its repeal (except for Sec. 26a), by Stats. 1933 Chap. 735, P. 1793 could be followed in the formation of road districts. Thomas v. Pridham, 171 Cal. 98, 153 P. 933 (1915). The above provision for road districts probably are obsolete. Sec. 4 which replaced Sec. 71/2 of Article XI of the State Constitution makes no provision for road districts. Sec. 1020 of the Streets and Highways Code seems to be the only extant provision for road districts.

The Road Commissioner, subject to such rules and regulations as shall be prescribed by the Board of Supervisors, shall have direction and control over all work of construction, maintenance and repair of roads, highways and bridges, other than work done under contract, and it shall be his duty to examine and inspect contract work as the same progresses and to see that the same is properly performed, and when completed to file his written approval thereof with the Board of Supervisors. He shall also have the control and management of all County rock quarries and gravel pits, and of all other materials, property and instrumentalities necessary for and connected with the construction, maintenance and repair of roads, highways and bridges.<sup>86

86</sup> Under this Section the supervisors are relieved from caring for the roads in their respective districts. When the supervisors have by appropriate general rules, regulations and directions, provided for the maintenance and repair of the highways by the road commissioner, in the absence of specific knowledge of his failure to perform his duty in some particular case, they are relieved from responsibility for the results of his negligence. Ham v. County of Los Angeles, 46 Cal. App. 148, 189 P. 462 (1920).