Column: Good public policy depends on open, fair process

Phil Klasky

In 2006, the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to pass Ordinance 3973 to provide code enforcement and law enforcement with the tools they asked for to manage off-road vehicle activity in the county. The ordinance received unanimous support because it was developed by a group of stakeholders convened by code enforcement who met for four months to create a fair and effective law. Our organization was one of the stakeholders along with conservation groups, homeowners associations, ORV recreationists, the California Off-Road Vehicle Association (CORVA) and the Off-Road Vehicle Association (ORBA).

Code enforcement and the sheriff's department report that the ordinance has significantly cut down on trespass, noise, nuisance and conflicts between residents and riders.

In 2007, a group of off-roaders attempted to repeal the ordinance, but the board voted once again to uphold the law. Supervisor Brad Mitzelfelt indicated that he wanted to revisit the ordinance in a year. His staff promised that if the supervisor proposed any changes, the stakeholders would be consulted. That never happened. Instead of meeting with residents and property owners and responding to their concerns, Mitzelfelt has been meeting exclusively with ORV interests. The result is the proposal to eliminate the requirement for a staging permit. This change would have a dramatic adverse impact on the quality of life in our communities.

Permits for large gatherings of ORVs enables code enforcement to monitor the stagings and neighbors to be notified of the events. The permit process is an essential tool to prevent large, uncontrolled groups from trespassing on our private property and public lands. But there may be some changes to the ordinance that will help improve it and we, and the other stakeholders, are ready to sit down and work out a solution through negotiation and consultation with code enforcement and law enforcement. We are willing to talk about a reduction or elimination of the permit fee and ways to make applying for a staging permit easier.

This contentious matter will not go away by ignoring the concerns by those who remember what it was like before the ordinance, and those of us who continue to experience trespass on our private property, harassment and intimidation, and the excessive noise, dust and nuisance by large, unmanaged groups of weekenders, or large groups of riders from outside our communities who do not respect our private property rights.

We have discussed our concerns with Supervisor Neil Derry and the other supervisors and call on them to help facilitate an open and fair process as we move forward with what is best policy for county residents.

After several requests, we are still waiting for Supervisor Mitzelfelt to come out and meet with his constituents in his district about this important matter.

Good public policy is based on dialogue, transparency and compromise, and not the influence of special interests. For more information go to www.orvwatch.com.

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Source: http://www.hidesertstar.com/articles/2010/03/13/editorial/doc4b9b404cbc307628407809.txt

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