Countywide : County, Camarillo Resist New Agencies

Ventura County has joined the city of Camarillo in opposing a proposed state law that would create seven “super agencies” statewide to manage regional issues such as growth, transportation and pollution.

The Board of Supervisors voted this week to oppose the bill, sponsored by Assembly Speaker Willie Brown.

However, board members said they were interested in managing such important regional issues better and directed Chairwoman Madge L. Schaefer to ask Brown to form a commission to explore the issues in more depth.

Brown, on Wednesday, delayed action by the Assembly Local Government Committee because of concerns raised by local officials about the legislation’s impact. He acknowledged that he did not have the votes to pass the bill out of committee.

Last month, shortly after the Brown bill was introduced, the Camarillo City Council declared its opposition to the measure.

The bill is “the death knell for local control and governance, representative government as we know it, and a blatant violation of the one-man, one-vote principle!” Mayor Charlotte Craven said in a letter to the supervisors.

The bill is an outgrowth of a recent study by the Assembly Office of Research, which found that changes are necessary if local government is to adequately cope with a projected population increase of 7 million people by the year 2000.

Under the bill, Ventura County would be part of a region that includes the counties of Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino and Imperial. Ventura County would make up only 4% of the population within the boundaries of the regional agency and would lack influence, county administrators have said.