Counties Come Into Their Own

The nation’s counties, once noted mostly for their dusty back roads and quarrelsome sheriffs, rapidly are evolving into major urban and political centers. Nowhere is this as evident as in Southern California. Figures released by the U.S. Census Bureau this week show that five of the 10 counties with the greatest population growth since the 1980 census are in Southern California. The total gain for the five was 1.8 million.

While the counties are rocketing into the crowded future as major urban centers, however, too many of them struggle to get along with a style of government that was suited for the era of dusty back roads and quarrelsome sheriffs.

The new population figures show that Los Angeles County led the nation in growth between 1980 and 1986 with an increase of 818,700 persons, followed by San Diego, San Bernardino, Orange and Riverside counties. Los Angeles continues to reign as the nation’s most populous county, with 8.3 million residents, and is expected to grow by nearly 2 million more persons in the next 25 years. Second-place Cook County, Ill. (Chicago), has 5.3 million. If current growth trends continue until the 1990 census, San Diego will have passed Harris County, Tex. (Houston), and Brooklyn, N.Y., to rank third in the nation.

Some of the growth, of course, is occurring within cities located in the counties. But much of it is expansion from the old urban centers into unincorporated areas served by county governments. Unfortunately, the outdated structure of county government often is not able to keep up with the demand for city-style services. Of 3,138 counties in the nation, only 100 have a strong elected county executive, the equivalent of a mayor. Most large California counties, including Los Angeles, are run by a five-member board of supervisors that performs both executive and legislative functions.

In California, and in many other states, counties are strictly limited in their ability to raise revenues, usually having to go to state legislatures for additional financial sources. The strictures on county government encourage the proliferation of independent assessment and taxing districts for special purposes like water and sewer facilities, firefighting, flood control and even mosquito control. Overlapping layers of special government on top of back-road-era county government are not efficient, economical or politically responsive.

Past efforts to streamline the structure of county government in California, and particularly in Los Angeles County, have been unsuccessful. But the need does not go away. In fact, the escalation of urbanization in Southern California makes it even more imperative that modernization efforts continue. Officials of all levels of government and groups like the Southern California Assn. of Governments should make this a high priority.