All hail quasi-government. Most voters never think about how the Orange County Transportation Authority board is chosen, I bet a large percentage think they vote for them on the ballot. Well in today's LA Times, Dan Weikel's article sort of spells it out.
Just in case anyone cares, the now 18 member OCTA board (the eighteenth is a non-voting member who represents the Governor and five are the county sups) it's all done in literally the back room at Tustin City Hall when the Orange County League of Cities gathers.
It is about as far from democratic as you can get. The meetings are even "conducted in the spirit of the open meeting act" but not really. Its seems that while an issue was not on the agenda last week, Peter Herzog (Lake Forest's only openly bald council member) suggested that "...no one will protest the item being taken up without notice, so lets vote anyway."
Me thinks the OCTA board should be directly elected by the People. While your at it, lets do the same with the OC Fire Authority and OC Sanitation District and the Vector Control Board and maybe even LAFCO (the Local Agency Formation Commission--another joyful example of the layers of unaccountable 'democratic leadership').
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