Pringle Pushes for Bureaucracy

* AB 2109 (the Pringle Bill) is the ultimate of “government knows best.” Curt Pringle is obviously a wolf in sheep’s clothing (read a big-government liberal in conservative clothing). He has targeted only Orange County for his big-government proposal. This tells me that he thinks that only Orange County needs his type of reform, that the rest of the State Special Districts operated in a manner that he feels is acceptable. Not only does his bill ram his liberal thinking down our throats, he also tells us that even if we voted 100% to retain our district in its present form we may not do so. He “knows best.”

His bill passed the Assembly unanimously. Sure it did: The Republicans want all the favors he can bestow and the Democrats are laughing up their sleeves.

One of the guiding principles of the Republican Party has been local control. This bill totally destroys local control. My local district now has at least two long meetings per month; all of the local residents have easy access to our elected representatives. This situation is probably typical for most of the districts in the county. To be able to give the same attention to all local matters, a county super agency would have to hold meetings eight hours per day, five days per week. What would the cost of that be?

The smaller the government agency the better. The people can express their concerns and make demands directly to their representatives. They can easily remove those officials if they do not respond.

I hope that state Sen. Ross Johnson (R-Irvine) will give serious consideration to this situation when it comes before our state Senate.

DONN HALL

Costa Mesa

* The Midway City Sanitary District Board of Directors wishes to express its opposition to AB 2109. This ill-considered legislation proposes to combine all Orange County water and sanitation districts under a new massive central bureaucracy. In effect, it would create a new agency similar to the existing county government. The proposed legislation would lead to a costly, unresponsive and highly politicized agency totally inappropriate for the needs of the public.

The Orange County Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) in fact already provides a democratic forum to improve governance through mergers, consolidations or dissolutions of special districts and other agencies. AB 2109 would replace LAFCO decisions with a heavy-handed imposed bureaucracy without the consent of the governed.

We believe that local utility service is best provided close to home by local agencies responsive to residents’ needs. You are urged to give democracy a chance and oppose AB 2109.

JOY L. NEUGEBAUER

President

Midway City Sanitary District

Westminster