Vantage Point: Cities, counties, schools: Partners in progress

Is it possible that a partnership could become the most powerful coalition in California politics?

The Cities, Counties and Schools Partnership is a joint effort of CSBA, the League of California Cities and the California State Association of Counties. This Partnership was established in 1997 to promote the development of public policies that preserve and enhance communities by encouraging local collaborative efforts among California’s 478 cities, 58 counties and more than 1,000 school districts and county offices of education. Over the years, the Partnership has supported collaborative joint-use projects such as parks, libraries and recreation facilities. It’s done some of its best work in identifying remedies for such critical issues as childhood obesity and the abrupt curtailment of services for foster youth after they turn 18.

During a joint meeting of the Partnership’s boards of directors in Burlingame June 12-13, each association’s leaders spoke very candidly about the challenges they face in providing services to their constituents. There were some common issues that came up during each association president’s presentation. The heart of those shared problems can best be characterized as Sacramento’s interference with local governments’ ability to carry out the wishes of the people they serve. Collectively, we are feeling the combined pressures of legislative mandates to provide services and a lack of funding to fulfill
those mandates.

Chris McKenzie, executive director of the League of California Cities, had pointed out in an earlier presentation that the combined membership of the three organizations was about 7,500 strong. That’s 7,500 people like you and me, who face the public every day—and deal with members of the public who attend our meetings, demanding services we don’t always have the ability to provide. Compare that to the 126 elected officials in Sacramento (40 members of the California Senate, 80 members in the Assembly and six statewide elected officers), and you get a sense of our potential.

It was clear to each association represented at the Partnership meeting that we share many common frustrations with Sacramento’s lack of vision for the needs of California, and with Sacramento’s unwillingness to fund the programs that it is responsible for. We are tired of the shell game that the state plays each year, moving the shells around and pretending there is a pea under one of them. We all know that the state’s financial stability is so bad that it lost the pea years ago, and the state officials just won’t own up to it.

The three associations in the CCS Partnership will focus on forming a coalition that will bring together those 7,500 local elected officials with the goal of returning decision-making and funding authority to local governments. I believe we are in the process of placing another piece of the education puzzle on the table, and hopefully we will be able to put it in place soon.