Two open seats on LAFCo

Public invited to apply for positions

Individuals who want to be at the forefront of shaping the future of Plumas County have an opportunity. There are two openings to serve on Plumas County LAFCo and the public is invited to apply.

LAFCo, the Local Agency Formation Commission, is comprised of two county supervisors, two city councilmen and one member of the public, as well as an alternate in each category. Currently both the public member and the public alternate need to be filled effective May 5.

LAFCo routinely meets the second Monday at 10 a.m. in February, April, June, August, October and December. The meetings are open to the public, but for the most part, the commission operates in relative obscurity. But that changed last year when some of the commissioners mentioned health care district consolidation.

Then the boardroom filled with the health care districts’ leadership all voicing strong opposition to the idea.

The public board member who advocated for consolidation resigned, and he was replaced by public alternate Jeff Greening. Greening, whose term expires in May, plans to submit an application.

Advertisement

“I do [plan to submit application] and I hope many more applicants from the private sector/public do so as well,” he said. “For a commission that is to represent the public interest, the tax and fee paying citizen, it is an ‘independent’ public member that is crucial to the process.”

Greening added, “We have many serious challenges ahead, as do all rural counties.”

Interested individuals are asked to write a letter describing their background and reasons for wanting to become the public member no later than Friday, March 31.

The letter of interest should be sent to: LAFCo of Plumas County, P.O. Box 2694, Granite Bay, CA 95746 or emailed to [email protected]. Questions may be sent to the same email address or call John Benoit at 283-7069.

Any officer or employee of the county or any city or independent special district whose boundaries include any territory within Plumas County, is not allowed to sit as a public member on the commission. LAFCo public members are required to file an annual statement of economic interest and complete mandated ethics training as a public official.

Advertisement

A meeting stipend and mileage is available through LAFCo.

LAFCo Commissioners

Kevin Goss, county member and chair

Sherrie Thrall, county member

John Larrieu, City Member

Bill Powers, city member

Vacant, public member

LAFCo Alternates

Mike Sanchez, county alternate

Pat Morton, city alternate

Jeff Greening, public alternate

What is LAFCo

An abundance of information can be found on the Calafco website at calafco.org.

Local Agency Formation Commissions are local agencies mandated by the state legislature to: encourage the orderly formation of local governmental agencies to preserve agricultural land resources to discourage urban sprawl.

History

After World War II, California experienced dramatic growth in population and economic development. With this boom came a demand for housing, jobs and public services. To accommodate this demand, the state approved the formation of many new local government agencies, often with little forethought as to the ultimate governance structures in a given region.

The lack of coordination and adequate planning led to a multitude of overlapping, inefficient jurisdictional and service boundaries, and the premature conversion/loss of California’s agricultural and open-space lands.

Recognizing this problem, in 1959 Governor Edmund G. Brown, Sr. appointed the Commission on Metropolitan Area Problems. The Commission’s charge was to study and make recommendations on the “misuse of land resources” and the growing complexity of local governmental jurisdictions.

The Commission’s recommendations on local governmental reorganization were introduced in the Legislature in 1963, resulting in the creation of Local Agency Formation Commissions.

Advertisement

Responsibilities

LAFCos are responsible for coordinating logical and timely changes in local governmental boundaries, conducting special studies that review ways to reorganize, simplify and streamline governmental structure and preparing a sphere of influence for each city and special district within each county.

The Commission’s efforts are directed toward seeing that services are provided efficiently and economically while agricultural and open-space lands are protected.

To better inform itself and the community as it seeks to exercise its charge, each LAFCo must conduct service reviews to evaluate the provision of municipal services within each county.