COUNTYWIDE : County to Consider Advisory Board
The Ventura County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday will consider a proposal to form a countywide advisory board on such regional issues as air quality, land development and transportation.
The group, which has been in the planning stages since March, would be called the Ventura County Council of Governments. Membership would include a representative from each of the 10 cities and from the Board of Supervisors.
Several months ago, the Assn. of Ventura County Cities and the Board of Supervisors formed a steering committee to identify and recommend alternatives for the formation of a regional organization.
At first, committee members suggested forming a regional board with Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. But after an icy response from the two counties, Ventura County officials decided to form their own group.
The Council of Governments is seen as a preemptive move to state legislation that, if approved, would lump Ventura County into a regional government agency with Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and several other counties.
By uniting officials in the cities and the county, officials say, Ventura County would be better able to fight state officials’ plans to place the county in with more urban areas to the south. Also, they say, it would increase countywide cooperation on regional issues.
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