Too many districts hurt participation

Appointing members to boards could also help.
10/29/07 17:55:42

It's no secret that California has way too many special districts that supply local services to many Golden State residents. The services must be provided, but the inefficient boards that oversee districts surely have passed their time of civic need.

There has a been a move in recent years to do away with the hodge-podge of districts that are not needed and consolidate others to make them more efficient. But there hasn't been a lot of success, as some board members have been able to win this turf battle. A story in The Bee on Monday points out that elections for the boards that run special districts don't have much competition. That happens at every election, and it is wasteful to go through the motions of conducting elections for tiny districts that seldom have candidates.

For example, there could have been elections in 28 special districts in Fresno County next Tuesday, but only four will be held. The vast majority of districts only have only one candidate running for each open seat.

It's time for the state to make a major reform in the special district system. In this era of declining government resources, this change would save money and supply services to residents more efficiently.

In many cases, the districts could be consolidated under one community services district in an area. The boards now oversee a variety of services -- water systems, police and fire protection, hospitals, public utilities and parks and recreation programs. One board could easily handle most of these functions.

In districts that don't generate enough candidates, the Board of Supervisors could appoint board members. The board does that now when no one files for a vacancy. Let's formalize the appointment process.

Fresno County Clerk Victor Salazar is disappointed in the candidate turnout. "The bottom line is all these positions are a call to public service. It's unfortunate that we don't have an adequate number of people to meet this calling."

Salazar is right to a point. But we think there would be more people running if there were fewer districts.

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