Who is LAFCO working for anyway?

Bill Turner

The Orange County Local Agency Formation Commission was scheduled to

meet Wednesday morning to possibly reconsider its previous approval

to annex the former El Toro Marine base to the city of Irvine.

Who really knows what the Local Agency Formation Commission --

more commonly known as LAFCO -- is supposed to be about?

Some people think that the Orange County Local Agency Formation

Commission is a state-mandated local agency whose jurisdiction is all

of Orange County. The California state Legislature directs the

commission to promote orderly growth and development; discourage

urban sprawl while preserving open space and agricultural lands; and

encourage efficient service areas for local governments.

Some people think the commission’s mission is to effectively serve

the citizens of Orange County by facilitating constructive changes to

public agencies, encouraging orderly growth, promoting strong,

vibrant local governments and leading with an eye toward the future.

Some others think that Local Agency Formation Commission is a

political arm of the South Orange County, since 70% of the Orange

County population resides in North Orange County but are represented

by only 29% of the commission. The other 30% of the Orange County

population resides in South Orange County and they are represented by

a whopping 71% of the commission.

Others still think that the commission’s mission is to protect the

people from the developers. Others that the mission is protect

developers from the people.

I think the Local Agency Formation Commission’s mission should be

to reach beyond the political jargon, ferret out all of the

misinformation, expose corruption, discern the true needs of the

county and make decisions based on what is in the best interest of

all of the people in Orange County.

If an election was unfairly administered, the commission should

wait until the discrepancies of that election are brought to light

and a solution found before acting on it. If a board was stacked by

some rich, unscrupulous people by spending more money than is legally

allowed on county elections and hiring an equally unscrupulous public

relations firm to destroy an honest politician and replace them with

a person who will vote the way they want, this to should be

considered and a solution found before the commission acts.

I still cannot understand why the commission is supporting a

situation where, even though the entire Southern California region is

in desperate need for new commercial airports and runways, some local

officials are going to take an existing marvelous airport and turn it

into a park for a city that already has 52 parks and a region that

already has over 100,000 acres of parks and real open space.

All of this in light of the fact that Orange County has 3 million

people and only one commercial airport, with one runway, that is only

5,700 feet long -- the shortest commercial runway in the country.

There was an election to help decide all of this but only one side

was able to get its message out, and there were aspects of the

measure that the public was not fully informed about.

But who knows, that may be the way that the developers want it. We

need to keep our developers happy. After all, in Orange County,

California, we have government that is of the developers, by the

developers and for the developers. And we all know that is the way it

should be. We like our developers to very rich and powerful and

immune from public scrutiny.

* BILL TURNER is a Costa Mesa resident.