Leadership Tomorrow Workshop #9

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Local Government Of the People, For the
People and By the People

Thursday, May 20, 1999

Coordinator: Kevin J. Murphy, Phase II Systems

Location: Newport Beach Central Library

"My experience in government is that when things are non-controversial, beautifully coordinated, and all the rest, it must be that there is not much going on."
John F. Kennedy

"Policy starts in the General plan; implementation comes from the Municipal Code."   Kevin Murphy

Every city is required by the state to have  General Plan. The General Plan consists of Land Use, Circulation Element, Housing Element, Recreation and Open Space Element and a Noise Element. The General Plan is how the City will utilize its resources to serve the citizens that live within its limits. The budget that Newport Beach has to accomplish this task is approximately 120 million. California has 9000 different units of government in 480 cities.

Services for citizens on either a Charter City or a General Law City are provided for by different levels of government. Each of these different levels of government has different sources of revenue. Of course, Orange County has several cities. Here are five of those and the services that they provide.

The Local Government Panel (click here for photo) was made up of several reporters who cover city government from local newspapers. The first question the Panel was asked to address was why the media may have lost interest in local government. Jeff Light from the Orange County Register responded rhetorically, Is local government still part of the "fabric" of the community? The inference was made clear as he brought two recent examples of what seems to be troubling the community that perhaps local governments are not addressing. Those were kids and the violent crimes that some our youth are involved in, and the citizenry protesting in Westminster over the display of the North Vietnamese flag in a local store. Local government does not seem to be addressing these or other issues dominating the public's minds right now.

Tina Bogata's question was somewhat different Do elected officials do a good job with public services, public policy and decision-making? Her response seemed to contrast with that of Jeff Light's; "Local political figures tend to focus on the issue of the day." Bogata illustrated her remark by pointing out the infrastructure is deteriorating in many cities, yet local political figures seem to be ignoring that fact.

"Cosmetically, local officials do a good job, but who wants to talk about sewers, streets and storm drains?"   Tina Bogata

Bogata also believes that the media acts as the public's "watchdog" for local political officials. She finds it refreshing when a city council takes a more global look at how to make city government an easier "machine" to operate.

Jenifer Ragland from Mission Viejo's Our Times chose to respond to the same question. Her response was as follows: public service...yes; policy...sometimes; decision-making...often not. Jenifer mentioned the media is particularly concerned with the Brown Act which addresses the issue of doing the public's business in front of the public.

"The public often sees through the heavy-handedness of special interest."   Jenifer Ragland

Jonathan Volze from Capistrano Valley News,addressing the same question, feels that one set of rules can not apply to all local governments. He also pointed out  that since proposition 13 sales tax revenue has been coveted by local governments. However, local government has not come up with creative ways to generate it. There is a lot of public resistance to having "Walmarts on every street corner".

"If the public is not attending City Council meetings, then the City Council needs to 'take their show on the road' in the form of 'Town Meetings'."   Jonathan Volze

Don Webb, Public Works Director from the City of Newport Beach was next to speak. He presented a case study on the Arches Bridge (click here for photo) onto the peninsula in Newport Beach. It was an opportunity for to see an application of the Circulation Element within the General Land Use Plan mentioned earlier by Kevin Murphy.

"Community Members tend not to be long-sited. Community Leaders must be good salesmen to get them to see what is going to happen five to ten years down the road."   Don Webb

During an extended lunch, for invited recruits for the Class of 2000, there was a Panel discussion focusing on the Life of an Elected Official: The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (click here for photo). There were three City Council Members and one Mayor on the panel. Representing the city of Laguna Hills was Councilman R. Craig Scott, from Laguna Beach was Councilman Paul Freeman, from the city of Santa Ana was Councilman Brett Franklin and from Tustin was the mayor, Tracy Wills Worley. All four broached the issue of the Good, Bad and Ugly. The "Good" seemed to be focused on the opportunity to serve, meet people and affect change.

The "Bad" was the amount of time it takes to be a public servant at the local level. A City Council Seat is not a full-time job. City Council members, particularly men, have regular jobs and careers that whose demands must also be met. Time away from spouses and children seemed to be troublesome for all the panelists.

The "Ugly" to this group was term limits, campaign financing and negative campaigning. The dominant feeling amongst the panelists that term limits forces a lot of qualified and experienced people out of office. Most term limits are eight years, and that seems like a long time, but in the life of a city it is a very short time. All seemed to feel that term limits are best left in the hands of the voters. All complained about raising money. There are now limits to the size of the campaign contribution one individual or entity can make. This makes it very difficult on the candidates, whether an incumbent or not, because they have to spend the majority of their time raising money in small amounts rather than governing. The negative personal attacks waged on candidates by their political opponents was difficult for all the panelists.

The Ugly seemed to be dominate the discussion, but all of the panelists wanted to encourage us to get into local government. All seemed glad that  they had and would do it again.

Annexation is a very controversial issue in Orange County because there has been so much development of the Irvine ranch Property in the last 20 years. There are many unincorporated areas such as Newport Coast whose community services such as police and fire are being provided for by the County. That would be fine except that the County Government structure was not designed to provide services such as these, but rather to provide regional services such as health and public education.

"Cities are much more responsive to citizens than are counties."  Dana Smith LAFCO

The next panel discussion was focused on that very issue (click here for photo). The panelists were from LAFCO which must approve such annexations, an administrator from the Irvine Company and a property owner from Newport Coast. The discussion moderator was Dave Kiff, Assistant City Manager from the City of Newport Beach whose sphere of influence includes Newport Coast.

The discussion began with Dana Smith from LAFCO. She began by explaining the composition of LAFCO which many feel has way too much power. It is made up of two County Supervisors, two City Council Members appointed from the various City Councils throughout the County, one Public Member at Large (some counties elect these representatives), and two members appointed from various agencies such as water or power. In addition to annexation, this committee oversees areas who which to incorporate and boundary changes. There is no appeal; process to LAFCO decisions.

The committee never initiates action, but rather notifies the affected parties, does the analysis, holds the public hearings, and makes the determination. There is ultimately an election held on the issue unless there is a protest filed on behalf of over 50% of the residents, in which case, the issue is "killed".

Carol Hoffman is a Vice President with the Irvine Company which is one of the largest landholders in Orange County. She opened her talk with the statement that over 75 per cent of the 9000 acre Irvine Ranch was given away and the remaining 25% will be protected from development by the establishment of Regional Parks, State Parks, Open Space Passive recreation Use, or Recreational Area such as a golf course.

Developments were concentrated on hilltop areas to protect the natural habitat of the canyon slopes and floors. All developments were built with in a sphere of influence of an existing city in order to encourage annexation rather create "county islands or enclaves." There was a Development Agreement with the County on the lands provided by the Irvine Company for construction..."if you do this...we will do that". Both parties must agree to any modifications in that agreement.

Al Willinger was next to speak and he is a current resident of the Newport Coast. Mr. Willinger's primary concern about the annexation was that Newport Coast residents, if annexed by the City of Newport Beach, world receive the same benefits as other Newport Beach residents. He pointed the example of trash collection. Many long time Newport Residents do not pay for trash collection services because of agreements in place at the time they became residents. Mr. Willinger is wondering whether that same benefit will be extended to Newport Coast residents if and when they are annexed. Another issue is City Council representation. Would they have their own seat on the Council? He was quick to point out that the tax revenues for the City of Newport Beach would be greatly increased if Newport Coast become part of the city. This is their argument for the City of Newport Beach to retire some or all of the bonds issued to develop the infrastructure of the Newport Coast development now being paid by property taxes assessed to Newport Coast residents..

Mr. Willinger sees the residents of Newport Coast as having a number of options. One they could remain a County enclave. Two, they could incorporate, although Ms. Smith was quick to disagree staing that incorporation was really an option because legislation in-acted in 1992 has made increasingly difficult for county "islands" to become independent cities unless that have an enormous sales tax base. Third, is being annexed by Newport Beach which, again, is the city with the sphere of influence.

Finally, Newport Coast residents have some problems with the  Irvine Company and how it has handled some of the development in the region. Many of the lots in the development were marketed as "view lots" and subsequently sold. Now according to Mr. Willinger structures are being built that obstruct those views. Another problem is that, again according to Mr. Willinger, apartments are being built on land that had been designated for commercial use only. Third, Mr. Willinger said that residents were promised access to McArthur Blvd and now because of the new toll road that access is not possible.

This panel discussion was most interesting in that it illustrated the complexities involved in planning. There are no easy answers to many of these issues. It is very difficult to please everyone and perhaps those of us interested in local government need to think about how we might approach problems such as these. It seems to me that compromise is often the way agreements on complex issues are constructed because it is expedient. But, compromise at best is a win-lose for the parties involved. Consensus building can occur if time is taken to recognize the interests of all the parties involved and the crafting of   an agreement that addresses all of those interests can be a win-win. It takes longer, it is certainly more difficult, but the end result may mean greater "buy in" by all concerned.

This was our last workshop. It has been truly a remarkable experience. We were given the opportunity to reflect on the previous nine months for the last hour of this workshop. It was an emotional time for many of us, because last September, I don't think anyone in the class really understood what we were going to be exposed to and how it would effect our lives or more importantly how we would effect each others lives.