You hate to hope, but it can't be helped. Could the Riverside County Local Agency Formation Commission's present predicament actually give the much-beleaguered taxpayer a two-fer?
That being the preservation of not just of a way of life but life itself by forcing a "do-over" of Temecula's original annexation request and the statewide dismantling of the LAFCO concept or at the very least the stripping of the agencies' power.
The latter is unlikely in the immediate future; the former, however, is closer at hand today than any time since the beginning of annexation hearings with the disclosure of meetings between the Riverside LAFCO's then-Chairman Russell Kitahara and Granite Construction's executive in charge of making sure the much-opposed hole gets dug.
The whole mess got stranger when LAFCO member Phil Williams, also a director on the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District board, got all in a tizzy after remarks made by council members who scolded the commission with one council member calling for a grand jury probe of the hearings and another suggesting plans to open the area to hikers.
Apparently Williams believes that one councilman decides for everyone and launched into a rather silly tirade accusing the city of lying to the commission about its plans to "preserve" the open space.
In the end, he demanded LAFCO withdraw approval of the annexation and said he would file an application for reconsideration to do just that. He later decided against doing so.
But Nelson Mamey, who owns land within the parcel annexed by the city, did file Monday seeking a rehearing. The commission is expected to consider his request in September.
He claims trails and other public use would make it more difficult for him to develop his 40 acres. Apparently open pit blasting quarries don't.
Look, here's what. Until a county grand jury makes a report, all consideration of a quarry must stop. And if the commission is found to have acted unfairly, the whole process must start afresh.
The process, too, must stop at the county level because if indeed the city has been wronged and in the end is allowed to annex all the property it originally sought; any determination as to the future of the proposed quarry then would be a matter for the city council not the county supervisors.
As was pointed out by a colleague, the operative word is local. Not county, not region, not state. Local.
But the bottom line here is LAFCO has outgrown its britches and outlived whatever usefulness it had.
LAFCO is just another needless level of government that best serves itself on the taxpayers' dimes and we need to rectify that.
PHIL STRICKLAND writes from Temecula. Contact him at philipestrickland@yahoo.com.
