County, 10 Cities to Form New Association : Government: The decision is a response to legislation that might force unwanted ties with other jurisdictions.

County officials and representatives of the 10 cities in Ventura County agreed Thursday to form a countywide group in response to proposed state legislation that would tie the county into a regional organization with Los Angeles.

Most Ventura County cities are already members of the Southern California Assn. of Governments, a regional advisory group that includes Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and several other counties in the Southland.

In recent months, however, concern has grown among local officials who fear that the state legislation would give the association taxing power and authority to decide such local issues as where roads and dumps would be placed.

Local officials have opposed the link with Los Angeles and other counties to the south because Ventura County cities would be in a minority in deciding crucial regional issues, such as how much housing to provide. But they have been unsuccessful in efforts to form a tri-county organization with Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.

The group formed Thursday could provide the structure for a regional government body in place of SCAG that would act as an advisory board on such regional issues as air quality, land development and transportation, said Supervisor Maggie Erickson Kildee, who led the meeting in Ventura.

The organization is seen as a preemptive move to state legislation that, if approved, would form regional government agencies throughout the state and give them more power than SCAG has had in influencing local issues.

A bill submitted in December by Assembly Speaker Willie Brown (D-San Francisco) would link Ventura County in a regional government with Los Angeles, Orange and several other counties to the south.

“We want to be in position to have as much strength as possible to say these are the ways Ventura County is addressing regional issues so we won’t be at the mercy of the state,” Kildee said.

The countywide group will be called the Ventura County Council of Governments. Membership will require formal approval by the county and each city. Officials said they expect that approval before the end of the year.

However, it remains unclear whether Brown’s legislation would consider the Ventura County Council of Governments, which would be representing only one county, a regional government.

Brown spokesman Michael Reese said the bill would allow the cities and county of San Diego to form a regional agency for San Diego County because that group has addressed many regional issues, such as transportation and growth.

However, he said Ventura County is much smaller in population and may have to be linked to neighboring counties.

Kildee conceded that Ventura County ultimately could be required to link with neighboring counties.

“I don’t know if we are big enough geographically for them to consider us an independent region or not,” she said.

However, Kildee was optimistic. “We are a long way toward an answer,” she said. “It’s certainly a step in the right direction.”

A steering committee, which includes two county supervisors, three mayors, two city managers and the county chief administrator, has been assigned to study some of these questions.

Reese rejected criticism from local officials who said Brown’s bill would usurp their power.

“The attempt is for the state to finally have rational growth policies,” he said. “The attempt is not for regionalism.”

Ventura County cities that join the Council of Governments can continue to participate in SCAG.

However, Camarillo Councilwoman Charlotte Craven, who co-chaired the meeting, said she would prefer that the cities withdraw from SCAG. Last year, Camarillo pulled out of SCAG and has urged other cities to do the same.

Camarillo officials have said they fear that Brown’s legislation would form a powerful regional government under SCAG’s structure.

The city and county representatives who gathered in Ventura on Thursday have met four times since Brown first unveiled his regional government bill a year ago.

Penny Bohannon, the county’s legislative affairs manager, said four bills are before the Legislature that would establish regional governments throughout the state.

However, because lawmakers are concentrating on the state’s budget deficit and a term-limit proposition, Bohannon said the Legislature will probably not address the regional government bills during this legislative term.

The agreement to form a Council of Governments follows several unsuccessful efforts by local officials to form a tri-county regional government with the cities and counties of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo.

Officials in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties have said they oppose such a plan because they have little in common with Ventura County and see it as an urban giant with strong ties to Los Angeles.

“They said no but not hell no,” said Kildee, who has met informally with representatives from both counties.