www.montereycountynow.com JULY 17-23, 2025 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY 21 ing as leaders, and by and large, locally funded as well.” Special districts are perhaps more accessible to residents than even city councils and the Monterey County Board of Supervisors, and yet they don’t get the same attention as their bigger cousins. In Monterey County, 42 independent special districts provide everything in their service areas from mosquito abatement to water, roads, parks, sewers, community events and more. They range from tiny districts like Cholame Cemetery District in Parkfield to the expansive area of the Monterey County Regional Fire District, to the county’s largest airport in Monterey and the Moss Landing Harbor District. Every county resident receives one or more services from a special district, McKenna says. There are tough challenges for the districts, especially the small ones. Required to follow the same rules as cities and counties, some struggle to keep up. It’s left some to question if there are too many districts or if there’s a more efficient way to deliver services. “You have to remember that these districts are formed by the constituents,” says Neil McCormick, CEO of the California Special Districts Association, a 501c(6) not-for-profit association created in 1969 to promote good governance among the growing number of districts. “Special districts are created by voters and paid for by the voters,” McCormick says. Ultimately, it’s up to the community to decide if a district forms, merges or dissolves. Water—or rather the lack of it when most needed— was what sparked the call for California’s first special district, the Turlock Irrigation District in Stanislaus County. Farmers organized to create the district in 1887 after getting frustrated by an inconsistent water supply for their cattle and crops. With a new public entity to oversee the efficient distribution of water resources, farmers were able to increase their output, as well as diversify the types of agriculture they pursued. It didn’t take long for other communities in California to adopt their own water districts, including in urban areas. In 1915, the first mosquito abatement districts were formed to combat the spread of diseases. Special districts were taking hold across California through the middle of the 20th century, multiplying to just over 2,000 today. In Monterey County, some of the first districts were created in the 1930s to provide cemetery services. Unlike cities and counties which are considered general-purpose districts, special districts provide specific services, or a set of services, within a defined geographic area. They are usually financed by taxes approved by voters. Some will also collect fees for certain services to cover the cost of providing them. The leaders of the districts are either elected by voters or appointed by the county’s board of supervisors to a fixed term of office. (School districts are not considered special districts, because they receive state and federal funding and must adhere to state and federal regulations.) “We like to say special districts are the closest form of government to the people they serve,” McCormick says. Where there are people, there is going to be politics, and although special districts are dedicated to delivering services, there are politics to reckon with as well. While McKenna serves as the executive officer of LAFCO, a paid staff position, it’s governed by a board of seven commissioners and four alternates representing elected officials from cities and the county, plus elected or appointed special district board members and one member of the public at large, selected by the LAFCO commissioners. The idea is to have representation across cities, the county and the districts, but in a county as geographically diverse as Monterey County, sometimes competing interests come into play. Case in point, LAFCO Commissioner Mary Ann Leffel—an elected member of the Monterey Peninsula Airport District Board, appointed to a special district seat on LAFCO—was part of a controversial 5-2 vote by the LAFCO board in 2021 to deny a step in a voter-approved public buyout of private water utility California American Water. (The Monterey Peninsula Water Management District, the intended buyer, is pursuing eminent domain over Cal Am. The issue remains unresolved nearly seven years after a majority of voters said they wanted it to happen.) Leffel’s vote angered some constituents, who formally filed to recall her from her MRY board position in 2022. The recall failed to garner enough signatures to make it onto the ballot. Leffel won reelection to the LAFCO board—representatives of the 42 districts elect who will represent them on that regional body—in 2022. Then she again won reelection to the airport district board last November, besting her challenger by 2,000 votes despite raising less money. At a LAFCO meeting on June 23 inside the Monterey County Board of Supervisors Chambers in Salinas, Leffel was somewhat incredulous as she and the other commissioners were reviewing a staff report about seven special districts, including two in Spreckels, a small, Castroville Cemetery District General Manager Silvia Vázquez rolls out the paper cemetery map previously used by staff. One of her first tasks when she took over 21 years ago was to transfer the information to a spreadsheet. DANIEL DREIFUSS The plots were filled in with pen or pencil for decades.
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