County Flips Its Politics at LAFCO

Democrats flipped two seats on the eight-member board in charge of making and breaking San Diego’s boundaries, setting up the board for a lot of potential tie votes. 

The San Diego Local Agency Formation Commission, or LAFCO, is now split evenly between liberal and conservative members just as it’s about to take on two supremely hot topics in local politics: La Jolla’s secession from San Diego and an audit of the San Diego County Water Authority. If a commission vote ends in a tie, the issue fails. 

The newly-minted San Diego County Supervisor Paloma Aguirre joined LAFCO, this summer. County Supervisor Board Chair Terra Lawson-Remer appointed her, ousting Republican and former LAFCO Chair Jim Desmond.

LAFCO Vice Chair Baron Willis appointed union labor powerhouse Brigette Browning, secretary-treasurer of the San Diego and Imperial Counties Labor Council, to the public seat on the commission held by former Republican San Diego City Councilman Henry Mathis. She previously served as an alternate. 

Desmond’s departure meant the chair of LAFCO was up for grabs. San Diego City Councilman Stephen Whitburn took that over and it will be interesting to see how he votes on two major issues. 

The San Diego City Council recently sued LAFCO after it decided to accept a petition by the San Diego neighborhood of La Jolla to leave the union and become its own city, so to speak. Whitburn abstained from voting on the matter. 

LAFCO also plans to conclude a kind of audit – called a municipal service review – of the Water Authority later this year. The former, more conservative-leaning LAFCO commission approved the divorce of two rural water districts from the Water Authority last year. San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria’s administration backed the Water Authority’s position to keep the agency whole at that time; Whitburn was one of three votes against the divorce. But lately, some San Diego City Councilmembers have been highly critical of the Water Authority and its double-digit water price increases. Councilman Sean Elo-Rivera suggested getting rid of the agency entirely. And LAFCO’s executive officer recently told Voice of San Diego that dismantling the Water Authority is not off the table when it comes to the audit.

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