Williams’ State of County Address Urges Improvement

After a year of working to improve the image of county government, San Diego County officials now should move forward with programs and policies aimed at improving the product, Board of Supervisors Chairman Leon Williams said Tuesday in his State of the County address.

“We need to foster not just the image, but create the reality, of a Board of Supervisors which is a deliberative, thoughtful, unified lawmaking and policy setting body,” Williams told his colleagues and an overflow crowd in the board’s chambers. “Our responsibility is to govern, not to win plaudits at the expense of each other, the staff or the public.”

Williams said the county could make progress by implementing and improving on changes endorsed by the board and county voters in 1984.

Chief among them is Proposition A, a voter-approved initiative that limits the board members’ involvement in day-to-day county management and instead gives more power, and responsibility, to the chief administrative officer.

In his speech, Williams offered mostly general goals for the county, presenting no bold initiatives of his own except to reiterate his support for the formation of a human relations commission to act as a clearinghouse for complaints about civil rights violations and racism.

Stark Terms

Williams spoke in stark terms about the county’s need to curtail drug abuse and juvenile delinquency, which he said are closely related.

“In a land of opportunity, too many young people have given up on their lives,” Williams said. “This malaise, fostered by drugs, the inattention of frightened and sometimes abusive or absent parents and peer pressure, leads to frustration and hopelessness. And when a young person loses a sense of his or her own value, he or she may place very little value on the lives and property of others, making robbery, assault and murder a way of life.”

Although Williams offered no solutions to the delinquency problem, he urged that the county put more emphasis on eliminating drug abuse, child abuse and learning difficulties.

Williams, the first black to give a State of the County address in San Diego, said the experience was made “more poignant and meaningful” to him because it came on the anniversary of the birth of Martin Luther King Jr., the late civil rights leader.