Backers, Foes Debate Need for Regional Council

Elected officials from across Ventura County are establishing an advisory group that they say will give them greater control over regional issues, but critics contend that the Ventura Council of Governments is an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy and a waste of taxpayer dollars.

The council is a preemptive move to proposed state legislation that would strengthen the existing Southern California Assn. of Governments or form a new regional multi-county entity.

“It would keep local control,” said Thousand Oaks Councilman Frank Schillo, who heads the council’s steering committee.

Although the council does not have any real power yet, it will promote greater cooperation between city and county officials and show a united front to SCAG on air quality, land development and transportation issues, Supervisor Maggie Kildee said.

“Without (the association), we were unable to speak with any single voice to SCAG,” Kildee said. “It’s absolutely necessary for the future of Ventura County. We have to talk together, and we have to act together.”

Most Ventura County cities are members of SCAG, along with cities in Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties.

But Ventura County officials say SCAG is too large to respond to their needs. “They’re too big and we’re too small,” Schillo said. “They don’t really worry about us.”

The Ventura Council of Governments will be a subregion of SCAG, which is the distributing agency for state and federal planning grants and oversees its members’ conformity with regional transportation, housing and environmental policies.

Eight of Ventura County’s 10 cities have already joined the council. Only Oxnard and Simi Valley have not.

Beginning this month, the group will meet monthly. The governing board will be made up of the county Board of Supervisors and one elected official from each city. Agoura Hills and Westlake Village, which have also joined, will be entitled to vote only on issues that directly affect them.

Earlier this month, the Santa Paula City Council voted 3 to 2 to join after failing to approve the action at two previous meetings.

Santa Paula council members had been hesitant to pay thousands of dollars in dues to an advisory group in which the small city may have little influence.

Councilman John Melton, who voted against it, said he thinks that the group is unnecessary. Cities already cooperate with each other, and city officials throughout the county meet informally about once a month to discuss issues, he said. “What are we going to do that we’re not doing already?”

Furthermore, the dues are a waste of money, he said. “All this money is going for another layer of government. Government is too big already.”

But the majority of the council decided that it would be better for the city to take part in the regional decision.

“I don’t want to sit out here alone,” Mayor Alfonso Urias said earlier this year. “We can either do it now or have the state force it on us.”

SCAG Executive Director Mark Pisano said the council would perform a valuable service.

“The subregion does the basic planning in their own area,” he said. “They’re determining their own destiny, and we’re helping them do that so it’s consistent with what their neighboring jurisdiction wants to do.”

The Ventura Council of Governments has already received a grant from SCAG to formulate a regional plan for transportation, air quality and land management, Schillo said.

The state Legislature has grappled for several sessions with how to deal with the problems created by California’s explosive growth. Last year, four bills were considered that would have established strong regional planning agencies for improving statewide coordination of local planning. Some proposals also called for eliminating some special districts, air quality control districts and water quality control boards.

None of them passed, but new legislation is expected to be introduced in January, said Mike Sedell, assistant city manager in Simi Valley, which has not yet voted to join.

“Regional governance is coming,” said Sedell, adding that state officials feel that city and county officials are too parochial to deal with some issues. “We just want to have something in place so we don’t get swallowed up. . . . The state is saying (that) the locals aren’t making the decisions. Nobody wants a landfill in their community. They want it in the other community, so no one is going to make any decisions.”

State officials say regional governance will make things more efficient, not add another layer of bureaucracy.

Richard Sybert, the governor’s director of policy and research, said: “There are a lot of issues that already escaped local control. The idea is to make the existing regional bodies more efficient, more responsive.”

Elected officials throughout the county agree that many issues--such as traffic and air quality--spill over city and county boundaries, and that some degree of cooperation is necessary.

Critics, however, fear that the Ventura Council of Governments may take power away from cities.

“I think cities should work together,” Oxnard City Councilman Michael Plisky said. “We can’t live in an island all by ourselves, but I think it’s an unnecessary layer of government. Officials at the regional level won’t be elected by the people except indirectly. People are not going to be able to say, ‘We don’t want a shopping center here.’ We are going to lose control.”

Even cities that have signed onto the panel have some reservations.

Earlier this month, the city of Port Hueneme joined, but on condition that it would not pay dues at this time. It has not been decided yet how much each city will pay in dues, but one proposal calls for a $200,000 maximum for the group. Dues will be partly based on population.

According to Port Hueneme Councilman Dorill Wright, “We are so deep into reserves at the moment that committing the level of funding that was being indicated for an organization that does not really say what it is going to do and what authority it will have doesn’t make sense.”

The Oxnard City Council, which is scheduled to reconsider the issue soon, has also balked at joining because council members say they want the largest city in the county to have more of a vote in the association.

Cities will have a weighted vote on the regional body’s budget if it exceeds $200,000. On all other matters, each city and supervisor will have one vote each.

Oxnard Mayor-elect Manuel Lopez said that despite the council’s concerns about the weighted vote, he felt sure that the city would eventually join the group.

“Regional governance is a coming thing,” he said. “We cannot avoid it. The only thing we have to decide is to set it up in a way that is equitable.”

Correspondent Patrick McCartney contributed to this report.