I welcome you all to join the Mendocino County Public Banking Coalition in
which we have been pushing for "home rule" for 2 1/2
years/ <br /><br />Karina said, "Where do I sign
up?" I see that I have invited Karina to the MCPBC long ago,
but the invitation was never answered. You can read more about it
and see the draft county charter #14 on the MCPBC Facebook page. <br
/>https://www.facebook.com/MendoPublicBankCoalition?ref=br_tf<br /><br
/><span class="userContent">Thank you, Charles, for these fine definitions
and explanations from Black's Law Dictionary. We already have 2
advocates on the Board of Supervisors in favor of a county charter,
Hamburg and Gjerde. Brown and Pinches are against it, but Pinches
will soon be gone. McCowen says he is not opposed to it, but wants
to see a better charter. And a member of our Coalition is educating
Tom Woodhouse who finds the concept "interesting." If the
vote count at the end of the month decides Madrigal won the race for
District 3, she will be the 3rd vote we need to get the charter on the
ballot. <br /><br />We need your help in convincing Supervisors to
place the charter on the ballot. <br />We need money to pay a lawyer
to scrutinize the draft charter for inconsistencies and gross
errors. We expect to be doing a fundraiser soon like the Jeff
Clements event, to raise the money, but we first need to engage a famous
speaker with public draw. Can you suggest someone? <br /><br
/>Thanks for your interest! <br />Many of us from the MCPBC helped
make Measure S law. Now the CRNMC can help the MCPBC make Mendocino
into a Charter County. <br /><br />Attached please find page 17 of
our PowerPoint presentation. <br /><br />In Peace, Robin<br /><br
/><br /><br />Some Comments On Home Rule from Charles Cresson Wood<br />
<br /> Hello CRNMC friends,<br /> <br /> Since I mentioned it in a post
to this listserv several days back, several people have asked me to
provide more information about "home rule counties." This email
a<span class="text_exposed_show">ttempts to do that. I am not an expert
on the matter -- just a law school student investigating this
possibility. Perhaps becoming a home rule county is an appropriate next
step for the CRNMC? <br /> <br /> Black's Law Dictionary (1990 edition)
defines "home rule" as a state constitutional provision or
legislative action providing city or county government with a greater
measure of self-government. The basic document used to carry on the
function of home rule is the "home rule charter." A home rule
charter is an organizational plan or framework for a municipal
corporation, analogous to a constitution of a state or nation, and again
it is drawn by the municipality itself and adopted by popular vote of its
people (Black's Law Dictionary). Such a home rule charter gives an
affirmative grant of power to a city or county to manage its own affairs,
it can be used to transfer portions of state power to local government.
Home rule charters give city or county governments a fair amount of
autonomy from state control, and have been used to keep the state out of
the day-to-day operations of local government units. California adopted a
constitutional provision granting the possibility of home rule to
counties, and was the first state to do so; all that happening back in
1911. [History buffs will note this follows on the heels of the height of
the populist movement around 1890-1900.]<br /> <br /> A home rule charter
is interesting because it can provide additional powers to our local
government to accomplish the following:<br /> <br /> (1) Enhanced
Environmental Regulation: provide additional ability to regulate the
environment and the ways in which business is affecting the environment.
Counties in Colorado are using home rule county powers to regulate
fracking. (See an article entitled "Local Government Fracking
Regulations: A Colorado Case Study," appearing in the Stanford
Environmental Law Journal, in January 2014.) We may need additional local
regulations to effectively control fracking and other detrimental
industrial processes, such as preventing toxic pesticides from getting
into our wells and surface waters. <br /> <br /> (2) Adopt Powers of the
State: By becoming a charter county, a California county can have its
charter take on the force and effect of state legislative enactment
(state law). In other words, a county charter is something more than a
local ordinance and less than the California Constitution. This can give
it sovereign immunity in California courts, so that some of its laws
stand up, particularly when challenges come from legal persons such as
corporations. (See an article entitled "California Counties:
Second-Rate Localities or Ready-Made Regional Governments",
appearing in the Hastings Law Review in Spring 1999). We may need
additional fortification against future legal challenges coming from
corporations.<br /> <br /> (3) Immunity from State Control: The role of
the state in preempting local regulatory authority differs significantly
between home rule and non-home rule (general law) counties. For both,
state constitutions implicitly recognize the superior authority of the
state to regulate certain matters; in these matters the state may always
preempt local regulations. Home rule counties have an opportunity to
adopt a more active and definite role in their own governance than
general law<br /> counties (Mendocino is now a general law county). Home
rule status, per the California Constitution, Article XI, provision 5(a),
authorizes local government to preempt state law in the governing of
municipal affairs. Although the law is still evolving here, cases show
that in cases where a significant local interest is served, home rule
counties can preempt state law. Regulation of non-hazardous solid waste
is one of those areas deemed to be a matter of significant local concern.
(See An Assessment of the Role of Local Government in Environmental
Regulation, UCLA Journal of Environmental Law and Policy, 1986.) Note
that according to the Wikipedia entry for "Home Rule," in
California, Dillon's Rule does not apply to home rule charter<br />
cities (although this needs to be confirmed, it may also not apply to
home rule counties). We may need to, in the future, block certain
industry-friendly laws that the state seeks to impose on us.<br /> <br />
(4) Handle Our Own Problems Expeditiously: Home rule counties can handle
their own problems as they take place, and they have been granted broad
powers to do so without going to the state legislature. Home rule thus
gives a city or county government great flexibility to deal effectively
with local needs and desires in its own ways. (See the article "Home
Rule Comes to Minnesota," appearing in the William Mitchell Law
Review, Vol. 19, issue 4, 1999.) One use of home rule charter is to
provide for a public bank. The city of Bolder Colorado has used its
public bank to build out a publicly-owned public utility. (See <a
target="_blank" rel="nofollow nofollow"
href="http://coloradopublicbanking.blogspot.com/">http://coloradopublicbanking.blogspot.com/</a>).
Many other interesting possibilities open up when public money is used
for the good of the people instead of the big banks. We may need the
legal clout to establish our own local and parallel financial system, so
that the existing corrupt financial system tied in with the Wall Street
big banks can collapse and go bankrupt, but our county will not be wiped
out by their implosion.<br /> <br /> /s/ Charles</span></span>