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Rules Committee delays LAFCO staffing change after supervisors raise scope and oversight concerns
Summary
A proposed administrative-code change to expand a LAFCO staff position beyond Community Choice Aggregation and extend its term touched off lengthy debate about scope, redundancy and oversight; the committee rescinded an initial vote and continued the item for additional review.
The Rules Committee on Oct. 3 debated an ordinance to amend the administrative code so that an existing Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) staff position could have an expanded scope of duties and an extended term. The position had been created to support Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) work; the proposed change would allow the in-house staffer to assume executive-director duties and take on other LAFCO projects.
Supervisor Breed and other committee members raised concerns that the resolution would broaden the position's responsibilities beyond the original CCA purpose, duplicate work done by the Budget and Legislative Analyst or the City Attorney's Office, and create an automatic three-year term without sufficient documentation of duties. Angela Calvillo, Clerk of the Board, and LAFCO staff explained the position's history: it was established in 2009 for CCA support and the commission now seeks to use the same staffer for other special studies and to avoid paying an external interim executive director at higher rates.
LAFCO chair Supervisor John Avalos and staff described projects the commission has been asked to study, including ranked-choice voting, municipal banking scenarios and fiber infrastructure options. LAFCO staff also said prior consultant work and RFPs had been used for some technical studies, and that reconciling the workload in-house could reduce costs.
After extended discussion the committee rescinded an earlier roll-call result and voted to continue the measure to the call of the chair to allow supervisors and staff to resolve outstanding questions about job scope, term length and accountability.
Next steps: committee members asked for clearer job descriptions, the supporting contract details and a list of pending LAFCO special studies so the Rules Committee can consider amendments before forwarding the measure.
