Printed in the Monterey County Herald 10/29/06

Guest commentary

Let residents decide incorporation fate
Incorporation process not in residents' hands
By GLENN E. ROBINSON

I study the Arab world for a living, so I was in Washington, D.C., earlier this week briefing American officials on government corruption in Yemen. Yet I was blindsided by our own local officials who, on a pretext, voted to deny the people of Carmel Valley the right to vote on incorporation. I would have thought that repudiating the people's right to vote in 21st century America was simply inconceivable. Welcome to Monterey County.

In December 1999, George Boehlert asked me to serve on a committee of the Carmel Valley Association, exploring whether incorporation was right for Carmel Valley. After county approvals of the Rancho San Carlos and September Ranch subdivisions, we knew that we needed local control of land-use decisions.

Our committee met for the first time in March 2000. In addition to George and me, our committee consisted of two former presidents of the Big Sur Land Trust and the CEO of Doctors on Duty. Over time, many other volunteers stepped forward to help research the pros and cons of incorporation.

When an initial fiscal study in 2001 proved that a town of Carmel Valley was financially feasible, we launched an independent group that would ultimately become the Carmel Valley Forum. The forum had one overarching goal: to make it possible for an informed electorate to vote on creating a town of Carmel Valley.

During the winter of 2002-03, dozens of volunteers from all over the valley collected 2,500 signatures on the petition that formed the basis of our application. The registrar of voters certified that 27 percent of all registered voters had signed. It was a magnificent achievement for grassroots democracy. Voters everywhere in the valley signed that petition. Contrary to popular myth, the three neighborhoods with the highest signature rate -- more than 50 percent each -- came from the mouth of Carmel Valley.

With the petition complete, the independent studies began. A comprehensive fiscal analysis from California's leading firm demonstrated what common sense indicates: a town of Carmel Valley would be on sound fiscal footing. A financial pact to help the county adjust over a decade's transition was hammered out. A successful municipal services review was completed. An environmental study concluded the obvious: incorporation was an administrative change that would have no impact on the environment.

In December, the Local Agency Formation Commission voted unanimously to adopt the recommended "negative declaration," meaning a full environmental impact report would not be needed before incorporation, although one would be required with the town's first general plan.

We went to Sacramento and, with bipartisan leadership from Assemblyman John Laird and Sen. Abel Maldonado, got AB 1602 signed into law. This law corrects a technical error in California's budget, sending hundreds of thousands of dollars every year to the Town -- but only if we incorporate before 2009.

More than six years after we started, LAFCO'S executive officer completed her official report. It meticulously covered every aspect of the application and California law, and recommended that Carmel Valley voters decide this issue in June 2007.

Never before in California's history had a county's LAFCO rejected an executive officer's recommendation that incorporation be sent to the voters. Setting a new standard for arrogance, Monterey County LAFCO, led by supervisors Lou Calcagno and Jerry Smith, and former Supervisor Tom Perkins, rejected the staff report and told us to start all over again: a new environmental study, a new financial study, a new pact with the county, new borders -- everything.

Monterey County LAFCO set two other ignoble state records in its handling of Carmel Valley incorporation: the longest time ever to process an incorporation application, and the highest fees ever collected from proponents.

On what new evidence or expert testimony was this anti-democratic decision taken? None -- only a desperate letter submitted the day before by the law firm of Lombardo and Gilles. I understand why Tony Lombardo doesn't want to see a town of Carmel Valley: he has a 300-house subdivision proposal for Carmel Valley up for approval by the county, something a town council would never do.

If this were Yemen, I'd write it up as governmental corruption.

Glenn E. Robinson is a professor at the Naval Postgraduate School and president of the Carmel Valley Association.

link to The Monterey County Herald article online