LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Board of Supervisors on Tuesday held an initial discussion about joining the effort to form the state of Jefferson.
The board took no action but appeared open to a request from a Jefferson formation committee to provide more information about the movement for further discussion.
Board Chair Denise Rushing said she and Supervisor Rob Brown both received information about Jefferson from constituents and decided to bring it forward for a discussion.
In introducing the matter, Supervisor Rob Brown noted, “This has drawn a lot of interest for many years, and curiosity.”
Brown voiced his ongoing frustration with the county's state legislators. “Personally, I think the representation we've got in Sacramento is nothing short of pathetic.”
He said that in five years of lobbying for requiring sex offenders to register with an address – rather than allowing them to simply put down “transient” – he's been unable to get state legislators to respond. Brown added, however, that legislative aides will return calls and attend meetings.
Lake County hasn't had good representation in the State Legislature since Mike Thompson was in the State Senate, Brown suggested. Thompson left the State Legislature for Congress in 1999.
For Brown, the final straw came last month in the form of a letter from Upper Lake businesswoman Marilyn Pivniska, owner of Pivniska Trucking.
After 40 years in business, Pivniska said this year she will shut down the business she and her late husband, Butch, built as she cannot afford to repower, retrofit or replace equipment according to the requirements of the California Air Resources Board.
“I miss the old days when our good work and productivity really mattered,” she wrote.
Brown said Lake County is part of the Rural County Representatives of California, which lobbies on behalf of 33 of California's 58 counties. Those 33 rural counties, said Brown, only have 6 percent of the state's voting population.
“We are always last at the trough when it comes to what we really need,” he said, suggesting creating a new state might be needed to address the problem.
Rushing said she believed the county's state legislators had been responsive, but she felt the conversation was important.
“The rural issues are lost in the cacophony of what goes on in Sacramento,” she said, adding, “It’s a systemic problem that needs a constitutional solution.”
And that solution can't happen unless the counties do something dramatic, said Rushing, who wasn't sure that Jefferson is the answer. She also pointed to concerns for the county's small businesses that wouldn't be issues if rural areas really had a voice.
Supervisor Jim Comstock said the state is near and dear to him, “and what’s happening to it is appalling.”
He added, “Our voice is not heard in Sacramento,” citing issues such as water.
Supervisor Jeff Smith supported looking into the Jefferson proposal. “I'm definitely open-minded to see what we can come up with.”
AB 109, the bill that put in place correctional realignment – which has shifted more responsibility for housing prisoners to local jails – is the most recent glaring example that the state doesn't care, said Brown.
“There’s some value to looking at this,” Brown said of the Jefferson proposal.
“It isn’t going to work the way it’s written and there’s a lot of unanswered questions,” Rushing said.
Kelseyville resident Truman Bernal of the Lake County Jefferson Declaration Committee said California is ungovernable.
He said he believes Lake County would benefit from being included in Jefferson, adding that the committee wanted to send representatives to the board to answer questions and to help conduct town halls, and to present a declaration and petition to allow Lake County to withdraw from California and join Jefferson.
Lakeport businessman Randy Sutton pointed to the struggles of rural counties and a poor overall business climate that's causing businesses to leave the state.
“If we have a separation from these utterly ridiculous regulations, I think we’d have some hope,” Sutton said.
Leah Odom of Lakeport also asked the board to consider joining the Jefferson movement, citing her own issues with the state and unworkable regulations on her farm.
Rushing told Jefferson proponents that they needed to focus on freedom and representation. “Really, representation is the key,” she said.
Email Elizabeth Larson at [email protected] . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.