County Issue / Regional Government

A bill before the state Legislature would set up regional governments throughout California to handle planning and development issues. Ventura County would be part

of the Los Angeles region. County officials fear losing political clout and prefer to align with Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. What do you think?

David M. Smith, Camarillo mayor I agree that it would not be in the best interest of Ventura County to be aligned with Los Angeles, Orange, Imperial and a couple of other counties. I think we would be swallowed up by the immensity of such a region. Because of the attitude regarding limiting growth for most of Ventura County, philosophically we are closer to Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo in terms of what we’d like to see happen in our county in the future. I think we have more in common with Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo. My backup position will be to argue for Ventura County being a region of its own. I think it is large enough. The major concern of local officials with regional government is that land-use decisions will be taken out of the community. For example, if we’re in a region with Los Angeles County, that region may say, “The city of Ventura or Camarillo needs more houses to help our region, and we’re going to tell you how many houses are allowable and should be built.” I am not necessarily opposed to improving regional cooperation, but I am opposed to having choices taken away from officials elected by the local population.

Maria K. VanderKolk, Ventura County supervisor I absolutely agree that we should be aligned with our neighbors up north. I have no desire to be aligned with Los Angeles County. I feel their planning standards have been abysmal. I feel they’re looking to us now to help with their planning. We’ve had these wonderful planning standards for 25 years, and that’s all going to be for naught if we align ourselves with them. We’re going to be the dumping ground for all the population, landfills, etc. I will do everything I can to promote our relationship with our north neighbors. We’re a buffer zone between agricultural and urban development and it might be appropriate for Ventura to be a region in itself, but that may be asking too much. Psychologically, philosophically, etc., we are in tune with those counties in terms of slow growth, environmental awareness and desire to keep agricultural land intact. One of the problems I have with SCAG (Southern California Assn. of Governments) is they have a population projection by a certain date. They get their number and it’s prophecy. If we’re in that region, where is that growth going to occur? That growth will occur here!

Cathy F. Bean, Ventura city councilwoman My first choice would be not to do anything. My second choice would be for Ventura County to become its own region. We already have a countywide transportation committee, an air quality committee, an open space and agricultural land preservation committee, and we’re working very diligently on more cooperation. Actually, we’re doing a good job on landfills. I just see us as our own region. If I have to make a choice, the two northern counties would be it. We are already working with them in an organization promoting beach sustainability. It meets once a month. We are all more similar since we are all beach counties. I’m really opposed to going in with the southern counties. I’m afraid we would end up being the fly on the ceiling of a very large room. I think we’re doing a pretty good job just in our own county. If we need to move ahead I think we have much more in common with the two counties north of us. I certainly wouldn’t want to do to them what Los Angeles County could do to us and that is control all the votes. I personally feel we would have to operate as equals.

Vicky Howard, Ventura County supervisor I’ve been involved in the Southern California Assn. of Governments for a number of years on a cooperative and volunteer basis. The thing I think we’re concerned about is that we would no longer be voluntary members of the organization, but it would be mandatory. My approach to regional government is that we cooperate on a regional basis but that we still have local control. We’re very concerned about having land-use issues taken away from local government. My approach would be to stay in a cooperative association. We have to maintain control of our area. I think my concern is that we would have to be on an equal playing field, no matter which direction we went. We would not want to be swallowed up and would want to make sure, if we go south, that we are on an even footing with them. I think SCAG has been very successful in some areas. It has come up with good transportation programs. The regional mobility plan is the outcome of long periods of input into transportation issues. I am very wary of being forced into a mandatory situation where we would lose the ability to govern our own destiny.

Grant R. Brimhall, Thousand Oaks city manager Our council has expressed strong opposition to Assembly Bill 4242. To the extent that Assembly Bill 3, which is the legislation introduced this year by Speaker Willie Brown as a substitute, is so similar, I’m confident our City Council would oppose it. Regarding the issue of identifying more with the Central Coast, there are many things we have in common with the Central Coast but there are many more things that this part of Ventura County has in common with a portion of Los Angeles County--transportation, air quality and a variety of other things. Any regional efforts should be done on a cooperative basis, with the local jurisdictions being the basic building unit of those regional plans. It should be a bottom-up rather than the top-down approach and there must be additional resources that are made available to achieve regional facilities. You cannot bleed other essential services that are now barely being financed, in some cases, to pay for the regional facilities. So there are going to be bullets to bite on the part of citizens if we’re to have regional governments address regional issues that may not be fully addressed now.