The Coastside's elected conduit to county government has been on the brink of dissolution for more than a year. Part of the problem is that even some of its own elected members had become so fed up that they no longer attended meetings. But that is merely a symptom.
The real problem is rooted in control envy. The very few people who still consider the board viable - you can now count them on one hand - have decided the council exists primarily to stroke their own egos. Sure, if there is still time before everyone falls asleep, the board may also throw a monkey wrench into some worthwhile Coastside project before adjourning. Members will prattle on about the colors of homes, some poor soul's fence - anything but long-range quality-of-life issues that are important to all Midcoast residents.
|
|
After that, Vice Chair Slater-Carter - who also sits on the Montara Water and Sanitary District board - submitted a letter seeking the MCC's support for an MWSD grant request aimed at testing wells near the Half Moon Bay Airport. The land, long used for farming, is poisoned with nitrates, and those pollutants are making their way into MWSD water. It is important to note the MWSD recently won a lawsuit against the county over the status of that water.
So here you have an MWSD board member using her dual role as a member of the MCC, a county advisory board, to support MWSD machinations. The conflict is as apparent as it is ineffectual. She should have recused herself from the vote, but it hardly matters; we can't imagine anyone giving much weight to the council's advice at this point.
Only a handful of Coastsiders go to the meetings, and even those proposing new projects on the coast have figured out the council has no power. They are better off skipping the charade altogether and taking their chances before the Board of Supervisors, which then acts without much input from the coast.
We can only hope that newcomers Deborah Lardie and Neil Merrilees stick it out rather than simply quitting, as some predecessors have done. If so, the MCC may one day aspire to being merely dysfunctional instead of what it is now - ridiculous.
Alternatively, and this is really a better idea, the county Board of Supervisors can realize the MCC has gone hopelessly off the tracks and is no longer representing citizens. But that would require the Supes to do a much better job of following Coastside issues. Does anyone expect that?
- Clay Lambert
w