Inside Victorville

Come June, residents will be asked to vote on whether Victorville should become a charter city. This change in status will give the City more local control, allowing the Council to essentially draft their own constitution.

There are many advantages to this autonomy, particularly in light of the current state budget situation. Mayor Caldwell has said that one of the biggest factors motivating the move to a charter is to protect the city’s budget from Sacramento (see archived story). Sounds noble enough.

Since that time, I’ve gotten numerous phone calls and e-mails suggesting more sinister motivations — some by the conspiracy theorists and some by anonymous insiders. I’ve heard everything from the charter allowing limitless pay raises to allowing the City to restrict access to public documents, such as those used in the recent story I did on the Foxborough plant.

If you haven’t reviewed the proposed charter yet, I encourage you to click here and check it out. The words are weighty, but the document isn’t. Rather than being hundreds of pages, like charters in San Bernardino and other cities, Victorville’s version is a mere 773 words. This allows the council to enact the charter through a vote of the people, but to add specifics through council motions down the road.

Here’s a partial list of areas currently governed by state law, according to the League of California Cities, where Victorville would gain control through a charter: election procedures, councilmember qualifications, campaign financing, council members’ salaries, procedures for enacting local ordinances, quorom and voting requirements, bidding procedures for public projects and zoning ordinances.

Now’s the time to brainstorm: Will Victorville benefit or lose by going charter? What do you think is the true motivation behind the change? What would you like to see included in the city constitution?

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 20th, 2008 at 4:43 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.