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09/27/2005: "Guest Editorial by Steve Ludwig"

Firstly, as a Freeholder myself, I apologize for not sounding the alarm sooner. From December to July, the charter-writing process seemed to be going OK. Then, quite suddenly, a majority group solidified; and a wholly inadequate Charter resulted.

San Juan County desperately needs a good Home Rule Charter. Our present governmental structure is a horrible anachronism that simply doesn't provide the basic fundamentals required of any modern government structure: the rule of law, representation, protection from urbanization, from corruption, and abuse of power. Unfortunately, the new charter doesn't provide these things either.


It's not all bad. It does have an administrative-legislative split which should help reduce the workload of Commissioners. The "alternate" charter has a six-member council which can act as a deliberative body (a three-person council can't). The alternate also meets the requirements of the U. S. Constitution for equal representation and does away with the curse of at-large elections. But this is not nearly enough.
A charter county has far more power to tax, spend and regulate than a code county (which we are now). It can permit anything that is not specifically prohibited by the State and prohibit anything that is not permitted. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but any charter should have strong checks in place to insure strict compliance with the intent of all applicable laws, codes procedures, etc. If SJC had had this all along, it would now be a far happier, safer and fiscally healthy place. Society can tolerate illegal activity by individuals or even by organizations, but when governments ignore the intent of the law, everything important is put at risk: our rights, freedoms, and even our property.

Direct democracy is best, but failing that, a charter needs to restrict elected representatives to discovering and obeying the will of the majority. Without this, we have merely created another privileged aristocracy that reduces citizens to the level of subjects.

The new charter also creates whole new areas of conflict within County government. How will the County Administrator manage when the Auditor, Assessor, Clerk, Treasurer and Sheriff are separately elected and therefore essentially independent of the Administrator's authority?

History and daily life supply us with many examples of why electing representatives does not give people sufficient control over government. We also need the right of initiative and referendum. Sadly, the charter makes it almost impossible to get either initiatives or referenda on the ballot. . San Juan County is a difficult place to gather signatures with its sparse population, its lack of political involvement and where almost everyone moves about in motor vehicles. Political activity is actually banned in most of the best places to get signatures.

Other basic protections for ordinary citizens that a good charter should have are a code of conduct for elected and appointed officials, campaign finance reform, restrictions on the ways the County incurs indebtedness and a swift, efficient transition--all this is fundamental, badly needed in SJC and absent.

Again, SJC needs a good charter; that means fixing the one written by the Freeholders or starting over again. Getting and maintaining political freedom, as a rule, needs steady and long-term effort. Quick fixes, revolutions, riots, demonstrations, etc. don't work. Whether this Charter passes or fails at the polls, we all have much more work to do.

If you decide to vote yes, at least vote for the six-council member "alternate." That requires a yes vote on both the "basic charter" and on the "alternate." It might be easier in the long run to vote no and start the process over again and do it right. It only takes the signatures of 10% of the number of voters in the last general election to restart the freeholder process. To fix the charter requires 15% of the number of voters in the governor/presidential election, a much larger number - and we will need to collect all those signatures for every change!

Steve Ludwig
Lopez

(Mr. Ludwig is a former Freeholder, and is currently running on the Green Party ticket for County Commissioner, District 3)