Sierra Madre Won’t Pay SCAG Membership Dues
By Sameea Kamal
Published: Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009
Councilman Don Watts strongly opposed paying the SCAG membership dues. - Photo by Terry Miller
A heated discussion at Tuesday’s City Council meeting regarding the payment of dues to the Southern California Association of Governments ended with the council’s decision not to pay the membership fee
“This problem is that all us little towns are being mandated to do things by Sacramento and Northern California, and they have no understanding of the issues that we have here for development, considering especially that water resources are slowly disappearing,” said Councilman Don Watts.
According to Watts, mandates for increased housing density require an increased water supply that is difficult for Sierra Madre to provide.
The water supply in Sierra Madre currently comes from the mountains and a number of wells, but the amount of water available is decreasing. Last year, one of the city’s water pumps burned out, he said.
“We’re having a harder and harder time meeting the demand … and if we have to do increased building and density suddenly everyone will have to ration water,” Watts said. “We’re at a point where those resources have to be balanced against how much population we can take in those areas.”
The state of California has a water system that supplies 18 million people, while the population is approaching 31 million people according to a statement by the governor, he said.
“Until that problem is resolved I think there has to be a moratorium on this sort of stuff to reduce the density or maintain it the way it is,” Watts said. “The coalition of cities were supposed to have a say, but they don’t push back. They don’t say to the people in Sacramento, hey- this is getting ridiculous, we don’t have those resources.”
By not continuing membership, the city hopes to send the message that it is not the membership fee of $1,000, but that they don’t feel the organization is doing it’s job.
According to Executive Director of SCAG Hasan Ikhrata, the mandates come from the state and not SCAG, which means the organization is not responsible for any city who decides not to enter into it.
“The penalty would be to the cities, said Ikhrata. “If (the city) does not submit the housing element and housing needs assessment to the state – if we just decide not to enforce it, it’s penalizing the city. The city cannot access housing funding and if we don’t enforce it, the court would.”
The association includes 171 cities out of the total 189 in the southern California region, and was created by the state and Congress.
Benefits include access to data and information, as well as representation.
Some residents also oppose the withdrawal because it will eliminate any representation at all.
“This is not something we just go and make cities do, it’s something we have to do and something we’re doing a good job at and we’re trying to make an impact,” Ikhrata said. “SCAG has voluntary membership – no city has to belong if they don’t want to.”
However, Ikhrata said he would appreciate Sierra Madre being a part of the association.
“Whether it’s a small or big city we love their membership we have a lot of benefits to offer,” he said. “But it’s a volunteer organization. I personally think the city would lose much more than $1,000.”
Aside from Sierra Madre, the only other surrounding city that is not a part of the Association of Governments is Temple City, which they say is due to budgeting decisions.
“For budget reasons, we have to pick and choose what associations we are part of and which we believe will better assist us and our citizens,” said Temple City Councilmember Tom Chavez.
Said Watts, “We’ve fired the first shot. We’re tired of being ignored and hopefully they’ll say, hey why is this little tiny town saying these things and why are they so upset – maybe they’ll sit up and take notice.”
At a meeting last night, Sierra Madre Councilmember Joe Mosca was removed from his position as the representative to the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments, a subregional organization in SCAG. Resident blogs report that it was due to his poor attendance at meetings.
By Sameea Kamal
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