Charter Change Still a Bad Idea

For the last 30 years or so the idea of changing the Orange County government structure periodically keeps cropping up. Study groups and commissions have been formed to look into abandoning the general law form of local government used by most counties (in which the Legislature adopts the laws) for a charter form of government.

But the conclusion always has been the same: Don’t do it.

That was the outcome of countywide studies in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1996 the issue even got on the ballot. Voters emphatically said no.

Here we are in a new decade and the suggestion is back. This time it comes from county Supervisor Todd Spitzer. And it’s also ill-conceived.

The idea is to adopt a charter identical to a general law government structure--except for a lone provision. He wants the board to put a proposal on the ballot that would require an election to fill vacancies on the county board instead of having the governor, as provided by general law, make the appointment.

Spitzer, who must leave the board in 2004 because of term limits, announced his candidacy in next year’s election to replace outgoing Assemblyman Bill Campbell (R-Villa Park) in the 71st District. If he’s successful, he doesn’t want Democratic Gov. Gray Davis to be able to fill the vacant seat on the all-Republican county board, fearful that a Democrat would be named. Campbell, however, aware of past history, doubts that Davis would appoint someone unacceptable to the community, whatever his or her party. We agree.

Back in 1911, then-Gov. Hiram Johnson had a better idea. Among his political reforms was cleaner local government by instituting nonpartisan local elections. That approach has served local government well.

Spitzer’s suggestion seeks a major structural change for a purely political reason. Blatant partisanship should have no place in local government. The other four supervisors, although Republicans like Spitzer, should reject the charter change proposal just as voters did so strongly five years ago.