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HomeMy WebLinkAbout07/21/2009, COMMUNICATIONS - �'tric cater / �r!liYt RE® FILE _ couNCIL 3 CDD DIR MEETING AaEH. �°"�'"G2 L7rFIN DIR RAT o ITEM #,1f+/>!^ o uSCI �, p� 2TIRE CHIEF CTPW DIR [3`CLERK/ORIG Z'POLICE CHF Local Authority, Local Control E3 DEPT HEADS CTREC DIR Pi F' ErUTIL DIR by Andrew Carter, 07/21/09 I�— -B- Zf HR DIR 595 words Nc�.J r�ry1Fs p�,u "We're mad as hell, and we're not going to take it anymore!" That was the sentiment WiC- expressed by city council members, county supervisors, and school board members from across the state who met in Sacramento on the 17`h and 18`s to discuss the mess that is California state government. There were 500 local elected officials in attendance at the first-ever joint conference of the three statewide organizations which represent California cities, counties, and schools. Attendees from San Luis Obispo County included Supervisor Bruce Gibson, Mayor John Shoals of Grover Beach, Mayor Tony Ferrara of Arroyo Grande, San Luis Coastal School Board Member Chris Ungar, and San Luis Obispo City Council Members Allan Settle, John Ashbaugh, and Andrew Carter. The conference was billed as a"summit on state governance and fiscal reform." The overall theme was `rebuilding California from the ground up." Like most citizens, local officials throughout California have lost all confidence in state government, in particular its ability to deal effectively with the current budget crisis. What's more, local officials are painfully aware that Sacramento's efforts to deal with this mess rely primarily on diverting(read, stealing) or borrowing(perhaps never paying back) revenues which are either legally obligated or traditionally obligated to local government—cities, counties, and schools. The impact is cuts to local services like education, police and fire protection,parks and recreation, and street maintenance—the very services that local residents count on the most and believe in the most. What can we do about the mess in Sacramento? That was the key focus of the cities- counties-schools summit. As many are aware, there's been discussion lately about the possibility of holding a convention to rewrite the state constitution. A key proponent for such action is the San Francisco-based Bay Area Council. That council's CEO,Jim Wunderman, attended the summit to make his pitch. Because some of the measures such a convention might propose are controversial, another suggestion is to draft individual initiatives which California citizens could vote on. A statewide organization called California Forward is the major proponent of this approach. That organization's executive director, James Mayer, also spoke to conference attendees. What became clear over the two days of meetings,however, is that most local officials believe they need to act independently of such broad-based reform efforts. That's not because we necessarily disagree with the need for broad-based reform. It's because we realize that broad-based reform may not have the support of a majority of voters. More importantly, it's because we recognize our responsibility to local residents demands that i we take direct action now against state raids on local revenues and the local services those revenues support. The plan coming out of the cities-counties-schools summit is for our three statewide organizations to work together to draft initiatives which will fundamentally change the current balance of power between state government and local government. Most importantly, we need to make it unconstitutional for the state to divert or borrow local revenue. We also need to make it much more difficult for state government to pass along unfunded state mandates to local government entities. What is needed, in essence, is a local government bill of rights. Local government has an enviable track record of acting responsibly even when times are tough. That's not the case with Sacramento. Statewide polling shows that citizens tend to trust their local elected officials. Almost no one trusts our statewide leaders. Citizens also believe they can impact local government. They've given up hope on changing Sacramento. For all our sakes, it's time for local authority and local control.