February 18, 2004 by email

Regarding ALUC, the County has two appointees which we have changed recently to make sure they are on the right side of El Toro.  However, they are only two of seven.  As I have explained to everyone who asks, the only way to change the votes on the ALUC Commission is to get the league is cities to change their appointees or to convince the airports to change their appointees.  The airports have two appointees, there are two airports in the County - JWA and Fullerton, the directors collectively decide who the appointees are, the JWA director agrees there should be a change, but without the cooperation of the other director (who is also one of the commissioners) the change cannot be made.  I am told they are seeking options, but really the answer lies in the League Of Cities, the County has done everything that was asked, and more, in getting ALUC to be reasonable.
 
As for agendizing items, I explained to our appointees that there are two ways to agendize items - one is through the Chair and the second is for any Commissioner to make a motion and have the votes to support agendizing it.  The public employees you refer to are the staff who keep the minutes and issue documents, they have no say in whether anything gets agendized, it's completely up to the commissioners.
 
ALUC is a State mandated Commission, the County is required by law to staff the commission, we have cut that staff down to the bare minimum - one person who takes the minutes.  Mr. Bresnahan is not a County appointee and not paid by the County in any way - he is not obligated to comply with the requests of the BOS - although that would be nice.
 
I cannot reiterate enough, especially with the amount of misinformation regarding the County and ALUC, there are not County employees advocating their own agenda on ALUC, the County has changed our appointees, it's the other 5 that are creating the problems.
 
I hope this helps you understand what is really going on at ALUC, somtimes the details are left out and it can be a little misleading.
 
Tom Wilson