A boisterous crowd of San Martin residents was fired up about a
county agency’s upcoming vote on whether or not to proceed with the
town’s incorporation as a city at a public workshop in Morgan Hill
Monday evening.
A boisterous crowd of San Martin residents was fired up about a county agency’s upcoming vote on whether or not to proceed with the town’s incorporation as a city at a public workshop in Morgan Hill Monday evening.
The workshop’s purpose, sponsored by the Santa Clara County Local Agency Formation Commission, was to discuss the incorporation process with residents and present the County Executive Officer’s report and recommendation on the issue, which was released Oct. 31.
The heated meeting perhaps set the stage for a public hearing today at 3:30 p.m. at the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors’ chambers, 70 West Hedding St., in San Jose.
LAFCO staff members presented a slideshow of the County Executive Officer’s report, which found that allowing San Martin to incorporate would drain money from the county unless it levied a sizable gas and electricity utility users’ tax of more than 10 percent for the first six years, dropping to nearly seven percent the next 19 years, on its residents.
At the end of the public hearing on Friday, the commission is expected to vote on a proposal that would place the question of incorporation on a future ballot for San Martin voters. Under the same proposal, that question would be coupled with a vote on whether or not to accept the utility tax.
LAFCO Executive Officer Neelima Palacherla said Monday in the event LAFCO and county supervisors accept the proposal, and if either of the two measures fail when presented to the voters, then San Martin will not be incorporated.
The four staff members said multiple times they would only accept questions from the audience, and no public testimony or comments would be allowed. However, what they heard were mostly comments, and mostly angry ones, many of which were directed at fellow audience members and not the LAFCO staff.
Close to 100 people were present in the audience. Roughly half were in support of the town’s incorporation, and the other half were against it. But on both sides, almost all who spoke were displeased with the way the county has administered the incorporation thus far.
Specifically, there were complaints that LAFCO has withheld information from the public and has not advertised public meetings; its financial analysis of San Martin’s revenues and expenditures is based on flawed data; and one resident complained that the county executive officer used “fuzzy math” to determine that incorporation would result in revenue loss.
“We have given the county all our taxes, and we have gotten dumped on by the county,” said one incorporation proponent.
Opponents of incorporation complained that cityhood for San Martin would only create another layer of bureaucracy, and said the county is already providing sufficient services.
Richard van’t Rood, attorney for the San Martin Neighborhood Alliance, a group of residents which has been the strongest proponent for incorporation, said if the county decides to put the issue on a ballot, the Alliance will sue the county.
“We’re not going to let it be on the ballot,” said van’t Rood, adding that the proposed utility tax is illegal.
Incorporation supporters want San Martin to be a legally recognized city that is locally accountable, and controls its own services, according to information presented at Monday’s workshop.
