Arden Arcade cityhood proponents picket LAFCO

Ed Dickey wants the Arden Arcade area to become a city, but because a consultant failed to finish an analysis on time, Dickey's wish isn't going to come true any time soon.

So Dickey and about 14 other cityhood advocates protested last week in front of the offices of the government agency that oversees the consultant's work.

As the other pickets continued to march, Dickey looked across the street to an automotive repair business.

"If I paid them to repair my brakes, and they didn't repair my brakes, they would still have to make good on the deal," Dickey said.

"That is what we are asking here today," he said while standing in front of the Sacramento Local Agency Formation Commission at 12th and I streets.

"We are telling LAFCO to make good on the deal. Why is this side of the street any different than across the street?" Dickey said.

Cityhood advocates wanted to put the incorporation issue on the November ballot, but during a March 5 meeting, LAFCO officials decided to push back the target election to June 2010.

Under current state rules, if the Arden Arcade area were incorporated by July 1, 2009, it would collect $6.7 million in state aid in 2010. The aid would decrease annually to $4.5 million in 2017, according to an initial fiscal analysis.

But if the city incorporates after July 1, 2009, it would be eligible only for up to $420,000 annually between 2010 and 2017.

Legislation currently moving through the Legislature would cancel the change, but cityhood advocates are not counting on that.

LAFCO executive director Peter Brundage said there was not enough time to finish the fiscal and environmental studies needed to determine the viability of cityhood, which is needed before the issue could go to the voters.

Brundage told LAFCO commissioners that based on the current progress, the studies were not going to be completed by May. He took responsibility for the problem, saying he should have managed the consultant's contracts better.

Reached last week, Brundage refused to discuss the issue, saying, "No comment is my comment."

According to a report Brundage prepared for the commission that is primarily made up of local elected officials, Burr Consulting, the contractor hired to do the fiscal study, has been paid $10,000 for the study but has barely begun its work.

More than $88,000 has been spent on the environmental study, which is nearly completed, Brundage's report said.

Joel Archer, chairman of the incorporation panel, said the committee has raised $63,189 for the studies from July 2007 through January 2008. With LAFCO's matching share, that brings the total to $126,000.

Another $19,000 was paid by the incorporation committee to the registrar of voters to verify names on petitions that got the process started more than a year ago.

Contributing to the incorporation committee's cause were the cities of Citrus Heights, which gave $15,000; Rancho Cordova, $35,000; Folsom, $15,000; and Elk Grove, $20,000.

Archer accused LAFCO of not living up to its contract with the committee to make "its best efforts" to complete the studies in time for the November election.

At the protest, Archer presented a letter to LAFCO demanding that LAFCO pay for what remains of the studies in order to make this year's election. If that is not possible, LAFCO should then pay for a special election in early 2009, the letter said.

"I have full faith that LAFCO will respond," Archer said.

"I believe that the commissioners believe that this is about a community's right to decide their own future," he said.

Joining Dickey at the march was Mari Farnsworth, who is critical of the county services in the Arden Arcade area.

"I see there are improvements that can be made. I don't think my area is being taken care of," Farnsworth said.

Protester Laura Lavallee accused LAFCO of not living up to its word.

"A lot of people put up money based on their promise," Laval- lee said.

Frank Ramirez, another marcher, is skeptical of what LAFCO is doing.

"It is not every day that a bureaucrat drops the ball and admits it," Ramirez said.

Setting it straight: A story on Page G1 of the March 20 Arden Carmichael section incorrectly characterized the findings of a report. The story, about the failure to get a bid for Arden Arcade cityhood on the November ballot, incorrectly said that a report by the Sacramento Local Agency Formation Commission found that Burr Consulting had "barely begun its work" on a fiscal analysis. What the LAFCO report said was this: "Based on current progress, it is not possible to complete" the fiscal analysis in time for the 2008 ballot. Burr Consulting was paid $10,000 of a $130,000 contract, and completed the work for which it was paid. The company was under no obligation to complete the remaining work.

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