"Coulda-Shoulda"

[GRAHAM_RANCH]

"Coulda-Shoulda"

From the history files: The Missing County

It was twenty years ago when 15,000 petition signatures were certified by the Registrar of Voters in San Bernardino County requesting the formation of a new country in our area called Mojave County. Soon there was a bill analysis, headed by Senator William Craven and then State Bill 2022 was introduced by Senator William Pete Knight.

There were months full of legal technicalities, and sharing it all will do nothing but confuse the reader. It was safe to say that the petition for Mojave County finally got some feet.

Basically, to make a county takes this: California is divided into 58 counties. To form a new county, state law sets up a three step procedure: 1) petition, 2) review commission, and 3) election. To initiate a new county formation, a petition must be signed by 25% of the voters in the proposed county; if the proposed county is less than 5% of the counties' total population, then the petition must be signed by 25% of the voters in the proposed county and 10% in the affected county. Sounds simple enough.

After certification of the signatures, the Governor creates a five-member county formation review commission comprised of some people: two residents of the proposed new county, two residents that live in the affected county, and one resident of neither area. The commission studies the economic viability, fiscal impact, and final boundaries of the proposed county. They then establishes a schedule for transferring services and responsibilities. The commission must hear protests to the new county and have the ability to alter its boundaries. The commission then makes findings and can impose terms and conditions for the formation. The new county must then be approved by 50% of the voters in each affected county and the proposed county. Whew...that's it! After jumping through the normal hoops, Mojave County was on its way.

In November of 1987, a survey in our direct area was conducted to see who was in favor of establishing a new county. The new county would include the entire high desert area of the first district of San Bernardino County, with the addition of a portion of the second district, which was Wrightwood and east through Cajon Junction.

When the election was finally held, the vote in the Tri-community was:
Baldy Mesa 65% for
Phelan 68 % for
Oak Hills 67% for
Pinon Hills 50% for
Wrightwood 42% for

All together, the new Mojave County idea had a a working committee of less than 40 individuals. The opposition was tough, it included city of San Bernardino interest, the County Board of Supervisors, the county administration, and the Sheriff of San Bernardino County. Not all of "down below" were against Mojave County; Ontario and Chino interests, including their newspapers, were favorable to a new county movement as they had serious issues with the existing power base in San Bernardino.

The argument against State Bill 2022, or for the formation of Mojave County, seemed to have focused on two things: If there was a county split, it would impact San Bernardino if county jobs were lost due to forming this new county. The formation of a new county would result in "surplus government" in San Bernardino County. That argument seemed very logical compared to the next one. A Wrightwood resident shared, "They're not trying to form two new counties. They're trying to steal our county."

Tom Pinard, owner and editor of the old Wrightwood Mountaineer, remembers that "surplus" argument: "The county surplus" was a sham.....it was actually a "county liability" that the old county assumed that if we cut out the Mojave County portion..... they couldn't handle the bills they had run up and it was the wealth of new Mojave County that was being split out by the Gov Commission and that blew the old county's minds. One example was the Sheriff's Department: the Sheriff had purchased a gaggle of helicopters based on use in the rural regions of the county (aka Mojave County)..... he would have lost most of them if a new county was formed. A good share of the county employees in the new county area were neutral or positive about the new county as they knew they would have their jobs and in fact have better promotion opportunities in a new environment."

When the governor's commission report came out with a favorable recommendation, San Bernardino County shook in its boots! If approved by the voters, San Bernardino County would be required to pay the new one $13.7 million over a three year time! Things were more hopeful on the north side of the mountains. Hardly anyone seemed to care that the proposed area called Mojave County already paid $141, 130,000 in revenues to San Bernardino, and received $126, 879,000 back in services. The small county to-be had been allocated $8.9 million for salaries for more than 500 additional county employees, which would have been more of a service to the small area than San Bernardino ever was. It would of also provided improved law enforcement coverage. Remember, local and state government are never in the business to create a profit. However, this New Mojave County had all their bills paid in the first year and actually made a whopping $88,000 profit. Beat dat, Governor Arnold!

To get the scope on what happened, I refer to Mr. Tom Pinard's written statement to me: "You could say I was promoting it...... that's an understatement. I missed the first public meeting of the "New County Movement," but was there for the second and was elected to the new board of directors.(One to the west, a city council from Needles on the east, and Victor Valley to round it out) City council persons from Adelanto, Victorville and Needs were on the first board, along with community activists from Phelan, Lucerne Valley, Hesperia and Apple Valley. A few meetings later, the VP quit so they named me Vice President."

            

[GRAHAM_RANCH]

[Leftfield]

This is another case of wanting a more "responsive" government vs having "less" government.   You have to decide which one you want.  San Bernardino County is so vast that its bigger than a lot of States.  Needles wants to leave the County so bad that its willing to join up with Nevada.   So what our County decided to do is to allow Needles to have an "Indian" Casino figuring that will fix their problems.  Lets see how that pans out.  BTW, Alaska has no county governments.

[GRAHAM_RANCH]

Thanks for the remarks, ya ol' skier you. I just report about history in our area, most of the info comes from our files. In regards to what I believe in, I, like you, like less government. No matter how the government tries to help us out (including building an Indian Casino-which seems to be ran by a tribe that was not native of the area), they always seem to mess things up. I think that Alaska has no county government because of the population. Is there another reason for it? Is it because Alaskans just don't want county governments?

[pinetrees]

Yeah!  Maybe we can put a "less government interference" measure on the next ballot?  I'm from AZ where drivers licenses last 10 years and less government works well there.

[RennMan]

This is along the lines of "the Free State of Jefferson".

http://www.jeffersonstate.com/

Concieved in the 1850's through th 1940's, Jefferson was to be a new State consisting of parts of Northern California, and Southern Oregon.  The idea was pushed for various reasons, not the least of which was due to the isolation of the area, the residents felt they weren't getting enough recognition in the state capitols of Sacramento and Salem.

In certain areas of far northwestern California, you still see references to the "State of Jefferson".

[Leftfield]

I rest my case.   Food for thought....perhaps California should get together with Arizona and Nevada and collapse all three into a super-state....Sumner State....or is that too corny?   It would certainly change the political climate regionally and nationally. 

[The_Mtneer]

Terry did a good job bringing to light our Mojave County effort of 20 years ago. BTW, counties are sub-divisions of the state, in other words are set up to handle the state responsibilities of governance at a local level since it might be too involved to do it from the state capital. County borders can be changed at the will/whim of the state government as well as actual counties..... but in the case of California, they (the legislature) couldn't stand the "heat" and kicked the process down to the people, thus the "governor's commission" and vote of the people, including those of the surviving county (a no brainer to keep counties from being set up). There hasn't been a new county in California since Riverside was split off from San Bernardino County... about 100 years ago. Regarding Alaska, with fewer people and with most of them living in municipalities that have local control (townships or cities), the state can easily provide the services for the people.
In reality, communities like Wrightwood should not have county services, they are big enough to be provided by township/city municipal control.  A county in the classic sense provides a sheriff to handle the jail, flood control, and general land use.... everything else should be decided and funded locally when enough people are bundled together in a geographic area constituting a community.
But the facts of life have made all the county governments in our state into HUGE governmental monsters... they have taken over everything relating to municipal services (fire services, police services, roads, planning, park & rec and even a county schools overlapping our local school districts...
Could go on but this will give Wrightwood.Calif folks some food to chew on....
The_Mtneer
PS I'll try to get Terry to add the full color Mojave County seal in his excellent write-up.... it shows how we planned to represent our new county from skiing in Wrightwood, to sailing on the lakes of the Colorado River and the quality living across the high desert.

[GRAHAM_RANCH]

This is the Mojave County seal that was introduced in the history subject "Coulda-Shoulda." I thank Mr. Pinard with his great input, without it, the story of Mojave County would not be complete. This seal was also attached to the plaque that the group presented him with; "recognition of his steadfast leadership and his continued devotion to the new county effort."

[GRAHAM_RANCH]

To kinda end the sage of the Mojave County, here is a reply fromTown Councilman/former Mayor of Apple Valley, Bob Sagona. Bob was an important part of the Mojave County movement. It was provided to me by Wrightwood Mountaneer owner and editor  Tom Pinard. To complete the picture of history, you have to, well, complete it...

Probably the most important thing we overlooked was the absolute necessity of concentrating on votes for a separate county down the hill, so as to have achieved the necessary votes of both the proposed county and the original county..  I now believe that we now realize that we had to have the 50% + one vote in the bag up here, but didn't bear down hard enough to win the required 50% + one vote throughout the county.  The necessary votes to succeed votes needed to come from new "new" San Bernardino County.  As I recall, we achieved a 62% vote up here but only 34% down there.
.
I remember writing two separate radio  spots: one to be played up here, and other on radio stations down the hill..  In the commercial broadcast there I remember to this date that the point I made to attract voters there was that they would have a smaller, more manageable county because their "new" San Bernardino County would have only 22% of unincorporated area.
 
Another area where if we had it to do over again, would have been to more effectively respond to the ridiculous charge that keeping the County retirement fund intact "cost"  all county taxpayers some 200 million $.  Actually the retirement fund was and is the property of the San Bernardino County EMPLOYEES and NOT the tax payers.  The County Reformation Commisson was right in deciding to keep the retirement fund intact.
 
Lastly, and this point was made by John Husing, who, at the time was hired by the County to do campaign work opposing Mojave County.  He made an interesting point which was that our solutions lied in INCORPORATION, so as to achieve the local control we were seeking with a separate Mojave County.  I realize that those of us in unincorporated areas wanted a separate, more locally controlled county for obvious reasons, and that incorporation of such areas of Wrightwood, Phelan, etc was not practicable at that, or for that matter, probably this time.  Ironically, you will remember that during the same year that we voted on Mojave County that Hesperia voted to successfully incorporate in the June 1988 election and that Apple Valley voted to successfully incorporate in the November 1988 election.
 
In terms of trying to form a new county in the First District now, I believe that when economic times are right, and considering the present population of the First District, that our chances of succeeding now are better  than they were back then.  The question is, would the public have the will now that they had in 1986-88 to go for a new county?  Maybe a better solution now would be to carve out an additional supervisiorial district in the High Desert and one more district elsewhere in the County (ie, 29 Palms; Yucca Valley, etc)., for a total of seven supervisorial districts.  Would this give us an improvement in our quest for improved local government, in our unincorporated areas?
 
Hope my comments make sense and are worthwhile in compiling a history of our efforts to form Mojave County twenty to twenty-two years ago.
 
Bob