On local government: ten years later
It was ten years ago this week that I attended my last meeting as a Redondo Beach City Councilman and filed my first “On Local Government” column for this newspaper. The idea was that, given the paucity of turnout for local elections, usually just barely in the double digits, perhaps people didn’t know how essential local government was to their everyday lives. Over these years, a lot has happened and a lot has not. Elected officials have come and gone, with varying degrees of quality in the footprints they have left. City staffs have undergone similar changes, with similar results. But, what local governments do hasn’t changed, nor has the thin financial thread that provides the engine for those essential day-to-day services. “Baling wire and spit” still defines how some local governments get by, especially for those services that aren’t high profile, such as public safety. Over the 10 years, we have survived externally-generated traumatic events and internally-created petty ones. Sadly, despite them, a few things have not disappeared, including hewing closely to the first rule of government, namely that “You don’t get a crosswalk until a kid gets hit.” Government is a reactive…
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