League of Cities Ineffectual for Garden Grove

* I would like to respond to the article on the League of California Cities (“Gaining Political Clout in Numbers,” March 18).

Garden Grove’s decision to withdraw from the League of California Cities was long overdue. The $27,000-plus it costs the citizens of Garden Grove to belong to this organization every year can be spent much more effectively.

In the last three years, the state of California has taken away more than $700 million in revenue from its cities to help finance the state government’s deficit. According to Rhonda McCune (president of the Orange County division of the League of California Cities), this amount could have been substantially higher. I disagree. I believe it could have and should have been much less. If the league’s lobbying services had been more effective, it would have been.

The league’s lobbying endeavor has the reputation in Sacramento of being very fragmented in direction and less than adequate in effort. Some believe that it is because of the league’s inability to stand up to the state that we have $4.35 million less in Garden Grove’s treasury than we should have.

One of our city councilmen authored a resolution that the league support an initiative to keep the state from making its annual raid on cities’ coffers. This resolution was not met with much support and eventually died in one of the league’s many committees.

Santa Ana authored a resolution and presented it to the league asking them to request that the state Legislature pass legislation that would limit the number of individuals who could reside in one dwelling. This is an important issue for cities in Orange County. The League of California Cities has traditionally opposed this type of legislation and only recently began to lend any help.

My personal pet peeve with the league is that the cities pay dues on a per capita basis yet vote on an equal basis. This makes the vote of a citizen of Garden Grove worth about one-fifth the value of the vote of a citizen of Los Alamitos or La Palma. When we addressed this issue to the league, they sent us a letter simply saying they had no desire to change the bylaws.

Right now there is a battle royal building over the disposition of the El Toro Marine base.

The League of California Cities should be involved in this matter up to its ears; but, of course, it’s too controversial for the league to get involved with. Maybe the city of Garden Grove should apply for membership in the Lincoln Club.

We didn’t leave for any one reason, but for all of the reasons mentioned. However, I do believe the straw that broke the camel’s back was the league passing up an opportunity to reform the job-killing AQMD by replacing our member on the board with a pro-business, pro-jobs representative.

I believe that the league has consistently continued to fail us. It may be a very good deal for the very small cities, but they are financing this good deal on the backs of the citizens of the larger cities.

BRUCE A. BROADWATER

Councilman

Garden Grove