The surprising defeat of the “fee” proposed to be levied on North Bay property owners was due in part to the convoluted and opaque election process used by the Marin/Sonoma Mosquito and Vector Control District.
Following its consultant’s advice, the two-county agency elected to conduct the vote pursuant to 1996’s Proposition 218.
Voting was limited to property owners. It oddly included school districts and virtually every governmental agency. Ballots were “weighted,” giving some voters more clout than others. California’s two-thirds super-majority rule for raising taxes was circumvented.
When it became evident that proponents had obscured the fact that a substantial portion of the fee’s proceeds were going to pay down the district’s unfunded pension liabilities, outraged pension reformers joined the campaign against the measure.
Some credit for the measure’s narrow defeat goes to Fairfax’s appointed mosquito board commissioner Frank Egger, who consistently pointed out its flaws.
Leading the “no” campaign was the Marin-based Citizens for Sustainable Pension Plans. Showing leadership were gutty local agencies including the San Anselmo Town Council and Sonoma’s Board of Supervisors that either voted “no” or abstained.
The lesson learned for agencies that feel the need to raise taxes is, don’t just tell the truth, tell the whole truth. If there’s a need to fund past public pension funding errors, level with voters. They can handle it.
Don’t pursue byzantine election procedures to game the system. Voters now see through that stunt.
The mosquito board and its consultants were too smart by half. If they had conducted a traditional election and been frank about the tax’s purposes, their modest $12.88 per single-home parcel measure to support controlling insects would likely have flown under the radar to success.
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Bicycle riding is an increasingly popular sport, particularly among 30- to early-40-year-old males. Using bikes for fun and health is a fine activity so long as other road and pathway users, particularly pedestrians, are respected.
That’s been the problem on the hugely popular Southern Marin “multiuse” path between Mill Valley and Sausalito. It’s also true for Tiburon Peninsula’s bayside pathway. Practical steps to slow down the speeding cyclists need to be implemented.
Coupled with the competition encouraged by the bike racing smartphone app, Strava, cyclists are going too fast for conditions. That’s evident along this narrow route simultaneously used by pedestrians, seniors from the adjacent Redwoods retirement community and children from nearby parks and schools.
Reports of bikers colliding with kids and seniors have fueled community demands to lower the pathway’s speed limit.
The dilemma is enforcement. Marin’s sheriff, the policing authority over the county-owned path, doesn’t have resources to consistently monitor bike speed. As with autos, without enforcement the law will be flouted.
What’s needed is a self-enforcing mechanism to cause cyclists to slow down.
The answer is stiles, structures long-used by the British that economically accomplish the goal.
Stiles provide passage through fences by creating narrow gaps through which walkers traverse. Originally designed to keep farm animals within enclosures while allowing hikers access to fields, wooden stiles can be cheaply placed across the Mill Valley-Sausalito pathway.
Given its zig-zag design, pedaling through a stile is impossible. Cyclists have no choice but to dismount and walk bikes through.
Placing a stile along the Southern Marin Bayfront multiuse pathway merits a six-month test.
The county should erect the stile adjacent to the bridge where a bike collided with an 80-year-old walker, breaking her hip. If the test stile works, then it’s an appropriate model for North Bay bike and pedestrian shared pathways, including those on Mount Tamalpais.
Columnist Dick Spotswood of Mill Valley writes about local politics on Wednesdays and Sundays in the IJ. Email him at spotswood@comcast.net.