The first Municipal Advisory Council (MAC) to be established in Stanislaus County was in Knights Ferry in 1983. The second MAC established was Salida in 1984. Salida MAC was founded due to rapid growth and development occurring in Salida in the 1980's. The purpose of the MAC as outlined by state law is to represent the community to the county's Board of Supervisors. At that time, the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors had the forethought and vision to establish our county's MACs as elected, as opposed to appointed.
An elected MAC gives the community the right to chose who represents them, just as we vote for county supervisor, school and fire board members, state senators and representatives, federal senators and house congress reps, and even the president. It is the democratic way so why should local representation be any different?
Stanislaus County is seeking to change that and rip the democratic process from county residents who have the least amount of local representation already.
Former Salida MAC Chairman, Don Murphy, described the issue succinctly in his Next Door post:
"When full term openings occur however, it is the basis for democracy that we get to pick our representatives. Even though the vote of the MAC is only advisory, the discussions and the actions of the MAC have engendered thoughtful discussion."
As a former Salida MAC member and chairman, I could not agree more with Mr. Murphy. So let's address the reasons why our county would want to make an "administrative change" to remove our right to vote. Mr. Cavanah states the following reasons in his letter:
"First, since 2003, there has been only one instance where there were enough candidates to force the election onto the ballot. This occurred in 2007 when five candidates ran for three open seats on the Keyes MAC. Second, MACs occasionally face issues with reaching a quorum due to a lack of members and/or attendance issues. Having an appointed body will provide a more flexible timeline to appoint members to vacant seats and allow MACs to implement attendance requirements. In addition, staff surveyed 20 counties in California, of which 12 use MACs. Of these 12 counties, 11 appoint members. Appointing members to MACs is in alignment with the long-standing practice of the Board appointing members to advisory boards and commissions."
Regarding the perceived apathy of the lack of people applying to serve on a MAC board, I think the fault for this lies with the county. The county does next to nothing to communicate to the communities served by MACs, what a MACs functions are, and how
people can apply to serve on it. I have lived in the unincorporated community of Salida for 25 years and NOT ONCE in a quarter of a century, has my household ever received from the county a single piece of mail or even an e-mail to educate the community about Salida MAC. Now are all communities treated equally? A resounding "NO!" Because the MAC next door to Salida - Wood Colony MAC - has had the county send snail mail to inform their residents of their MAC. Multiple letters too, the most recent letter was sent to households in May 2018 (see image at left). Do Keyes MAC residents also get letters sent? How about Denair MAC? South Modesto MAC? I don't know but I do know that Salida MAC does not. So how do people know what a MAC is, if there are openings, or that it even exists if it's not communicated to them?
Back to Salida MAC for a moment. Salida MAC has had an opening on their MAC board since August 2018 due to a resignation. The current chairman has announced the board opening at the last several meetings, but it has not been announced on social media or the Salida MAC reminder e-mails that are sent out. And the county has certainly not communicated to the community that there's an opening. Why? I don't know but since I seem to be the only one communicating this outside of the meeting, if you'd like to apply for the open Salida MAC seat, you must be a Salida resident and fill out this application. Follow the instructions and turn it in to our District 3 Supervisor's office.
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The second reason Mr. Cavanah cites for the "administrative change" is his survey of MACs in other counties that are all-appointed. But what he fails to mention is how the residents in those counties feel about it. There's a whole movement including a Change.org petition and Facebook frames to change Alameda County's Castro Valley MAC from all-appointed to elected. All appointed MACs can serve as a crystal-ball-turned-cautionary-tale in that they tend to end up being made up of the appointing supervisor's campaign donors as noted in this article by the East Bay Citizen. Castro Valley has been battling for more representation for years and transparency in how their MAC council members are selected. Their supervisor finally allowed members of the public to view the interviews which is not something that occurs in Stanislaus County when board openings are filled mid-term by appointment. As you will see if you read these articles, their residents feel "failed" by the whole process.
Perhaps Mr. Cavanah received some objections to his dictatorial "administrative change" because he sent the following e-mail to the MAC councils on Monday, December 3, 2018:
"I appreciate all of the feedback regarding the proposed switch. In light of this feedback, I am requesting all MACs vote to either support or oppose the proposal at your January meetings. This vote will help inform me how to move forward. Consequently, the resolution requesting the Board of Supervisors switch membership from elected to appointed will no longer be on the Board’s December 18th meeting agenda.
I will work with all MAC chairs and/or secretaries on what information should be included on the January agenda."
It would also be helpful if the people responsible, meaning the County and the MAC board members, communicated with the community regarding this change. The county should send letters to ALL RESIDENTS in a MAC district's boundary, just as they do for Wood Colony MAC -AND- the current MAC board members should use e-mail and social media to get the topic out and ask for feedback from their community.
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