Editorial: Municipal Corporations

By the Fullerton Sentinel Editorial Board

In a recent Orange County Register article, staff columnist Teri Sforza questions the necessity of having 34 individually incorporated cities in Orange County.  "In OC, seven cities serve half the county’s population  — 1.5 million people." writes Sforza, "So…does it really require another 27 cities to serve the other 1.5 million people?"

Simply stated, no, OC does not require another 27 cities to serve the other 1.5 million residents.  In fact, you could have Los Angeles County annex all of Orange County and then we wouldn't have to worry about any of it, right?  Of course not!  Unfortunately, Teri Sforza and Fred Smoller, director of Brandman University’s public administration graduate program, believe that bigger is better and translates to more efficient.  Smoller even concludes that we need a "LAFCO on steroids" to fix the problem.  What Smoller fails to point out is that each and every municipality, special district, and joint powers authority went through a lengthy vetting process and were all approved by LAFCO as well as the State.  Smoller's idea that bigger is better, isn't.

The fact that there are so many special districts and JPAs indicates a broken or insufficient system, however.  The City of Fullerton relies heavily on other agencies and districts for water, sanitation, public transit, electricity, gas, telephone, cable TV, planning, hazmat, specialized investigation units, police helicopter services, etc.  Yet to be mentioned are the various private organizations with which Fullerton has partnered or contracted with for services rather than hiring fulltime employees to perform, such as ambulance and tow services. 

It could also be argued that this system of outsourcing, albeit for public services, may be a smarter way in which to serve taxpayers.  The only real concern should be from taxpayers who see funding these special districts and agencies as taxation without representation.  When the services provided are by a private entity under a contract, the taxpayers are somewhat shielded from the long-term overhead usually associated with public employees. 

Of the utmost importance is that municipal corporations have nearly the greatest local control, second only to the infamous home owners associations.  HOAs are just miniature municipalities that are approved of by the city and/or county and operated by the property owners.  Local agencies have the greatest day-to-day influence on our lives and it stands to reason that local control is better than out-of-touch and far-off governance by disinterested parties.