• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Editorial: South County Squabbles: Warring Governments Out for Themselves

Posted on: Monday, 13 February 2006, 15:00 CST

By The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

Feb. 13--The governments in Elk Grove are acting in ways that are eerily similar to warring, power-hungry corporations that have lost track of shareholders' interests.

In this case the shareholders are the everyday citizens who hope that governments behave in the public interest instead of self-interest. In this case, an outside force should encourage a sensible consolidation of local governments in the south county.

Think of the Elk Grove government situation as a hostile takeover, with the Elk Grove Community Services District as the "company" being pursued by the city of Elk Grove. The district is fighting back by becoming too big to swallow.

The district provides park and fire services to the city and surrounding areas. The city, meanwhile, has created its own parks department, a not-so-subtle indication that its future includes running the civic green space. And to eliminate any mystery, one council member outright suggested a takeover of the community services district. Done right, that isn't a bad idea long term, but Elk Grove politicians could use a little diplomacy and tact in raising the issue.

The community services district, in the words of the general manager, is busy "reinventing itself." Reinventing in this case means expanding its territory so the city of Elk Grove can't take it over. The district wants to expand its fire services southward to include the city of Galt. Does the district need to swallow another 56 square miles of the south county? The need isn't obvious.

Rarely do we see governments reinventing themselves by suggesting that they go out of business, but that is precisely the civic-minded thing that many governments in the south county should be considering. There are simply too many independent park, fire and water districts, too much fragmenting of basic services and too many governments for the public to possibly monitor.

Ideally, all the urbanized and urbanizing communities should become part of the existing cities. The cities and the county should be in charge of delivering the major public services. Why? Because people watch the city councils and the county Board of Supervisors. How many Elk Grove residents can name members of the community services district?

There is an outside political force that could help the south county: the Sacramento County Local Agency Formation Commission. It traditionally is a quiet, passive agency that either approves or rejects various government expansion or contraction proposals. But LAFCO could - and should - take the initiative to comprehensively review the delivery of government services in the south county and come up with a consolidation plan. Somebody needs to save the south county from itself.

-----

Copyright (c) 2006, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

Source: The Sacramento Bee

More News in this Category