The countywide Local Agency Formation Commission will consider limited oversight of Santa Cruz County’s special districts to ensure public access to their governing documents, as recommended two weeks ago by the county civil grand jury.
Commissioners will review the jury report at their Aug. 5 meeting, according to Pat McCormick, commission executive officer. LAFCo meets at 9:30 a.m. in Room 525 of the County Government Center, 701 Ocean St., in Santa Cruz.
The grand jury, after an investigation of one small special district that wasn’t identified, recommended that LAFCo become a repository for mission statements, bylaws and parliamentary procedures of the county’s 92 special districts. State law requires districts to have and operate under the documents.
While McCormick said he won’t make a recommendation to the commission before August, he said it “seems like a positive suggestion.”
A special district is an independent government agency with a single function, such as fire protection, recreation, water service or cemetery operation. Special districts are overseen by governing boards but otherwise are not accountable to anyone except voters, who elect the board members.
The grand jury found that some smaller districts, often with minimal or no paid staff, sometimes don’t abide by all legal requirements.
The jury’s investigation found that the unidentified district “had no written bylaws and to have only recently adopted parliamentary procedures (to) guide their meetings and operations,” jurors reported.
“The combination of lack of formal procedures, bylaws and a mission statement led to ongoing problems and resulted in a breeding ground for hostility among the public and some members of the board.”
Jurors urged LAFCo to expand its routine duties “to include submission and retention of special district governing documents,” plus compliance enforcement.
LAFCo — which usually confines itself to ruling on creation and dissolution of agencies and changes to their boundaries — consists of seven members and four alternates. Two members are special district board members, two are city council members, two are county supervisors and one represents the public.
The commission may continue the August discussion to its Sept. 2 meeting. It has until late September to respond to the grand jury.

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