You can certainly understand the concern when the rules of the game you entered keep changing as you get closer to winning; not real good sportsmanship, nor public policy in an America where fairness is so highly valued and cheating on one side usually just deepens the commitment of the other.
Let's hope so.
Cityhood bid blasts added fee for studies
LAFCO orders a look at benefits, liabilities of annexation.
By Ramon Coronado - Bee Staff Writer
Published 12:00 am PDT Thursday, September 20, 2007
Advocates who want Arden Arcade turned into a city are crying foul over a recent requirement that they pay an extra $40,000 for an additional study.
"We don't believe in it. We don't accept it, but we have to pay for it," said Joel Archer, leader of the incorporation effort.
The additional fees are to pay for a study of the benefits and drawbacks of annexing Arden Arcade into the city of Sacramento.
The Arden Arcade committee is already struggling to make monthly payments on consultant studies of the environmental and fiscal impacts of incorporating the 13-square-mile area that is now being serviced by the county.
As Archer sees it, the Arden Arcade committee is being impeded by unfairly having the rules changed.
The Local Agency Formation Commission, which governs the incorporation process, has changed the payment rules since other cities formed, forcing the Arden Arcade committee to come up with money faster than other cityhood efforts.
LAFCO has threatened to shut down the studies, which began last month, if the Arden Arcade committee fails to keep the money flowing.
LAFCO officials have said they can't guarantee that the studies will be completed in time for the November 2008 election.
That posture is a departure from LAFCO's handling of the cityhood efforts of Citrus Heights, Elk Grove and Rancho Cordova, which were allowed to pay when the studies were done.
"It's not fair. We made our application. We were in the middle of a process, and to have your expectations change is tough to swallow," Archer said.
