Regionalism, Small Version

You would think Californians really like government. The state has 58 counties, 476 cities and nearly 5,000 special districts that deliver water, fight fires, kill mosquitoes, manage airports and run cemeteries. They often duplicate services and compete for tax dollars. The need for streamlining has been obvious for years, but every major attempt has failed because no one will give up turf.

One more defeat is expected soon in Sacramento as the report of the San Diego Regional Government Efficiency Commission goes before the Legislature. The 11-member panel was created last year to craft a regional government with broad authority over transportation, housing and growth and to thus preserve what’s left of the local quality of life. The thought was, if you can’t do it in compact, isolated San Diego County, then where?

The commission produced two proposals. One is to establish a powerful, 15-member regional government, with 12 of those seats directly elected by county voters. The Legislature was to put the plan before San Diego County voters next March, but the county’s delegation in Sacramento is deeply split over the proposal. No action is expected.

The second and narrower proposal, for the creation of a countywide authority to pick a site for a new San Diego airport, deserves legislative approval and a ballot spot next March. Local governments have been deadlocked for years over replacement of the antiquated downtown airport. Airport officials in Los Angeles and Orange counties, tangled in their own airport controversies, should watch with interest.

Fortunately, the demise of the general government plan will not end the quest for better planning in San Diego. Members of the commission and others continue to seek less dramatic ways to make smart-growth decisions. Nick Bollman, the president of the California Center for Regional Leadership, is enthusiastic about the prospects. His concept of the new regionalism is not to “carve up the state into a new pattern or new set of rigid political jurisdictions.” Rather, it is to work with existing governments and organizations on specific problems. One such effort is the 7-year-old Economic Alliance of the San Fernando Valley, a collaborative working to shore up the Valley’s economic base.

This path does not have the political sex appeal of massive government reorganization, but it also does not contain the inherent political conflicts that doom such efforts. Smart growth may not be an oxymoron after all in California.