WRIGHTWOOD COMMUNITY SERVICES DISTRICT

1. WRIGHTWOODCOMMUNITY SERVICES DISTRICT wrightwoodcsd.org

2. What is a Community Services District? • It is a local form of government defined by California Government Code section 61000 – 61850 as being independent from other local governments and as having any local power except Land Use. • The Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) is an independent State Agency whose purpose is to oversee the feasibility of the development or expansion of local government. • First, LAFCO must approve the feasibility study. Then, the County Board of Supervisors reviews the LAFCO documents, and if they approve, then the voters of the community make the final approval through a ballot election established by the Registrar of Voters. wrightwoodcsd.org

3. What is a Community Services District? • A CSD does not have Land Use powers and is not a form of incorporation. • Wrightwood would remain a rural unincorporated area under the control of the counties of San Bernardino and Los Angeles. • A CSD is the only form of local government that can cross county lines and bring the entire Wrightwood Community together under a single, state-recognized entity. wrightwoodcsd.org

4. Why a CSD for Wrightwood? • There are over 2000 Special Districts in California and over 500 of them are independent Community Services Districts. • The establishment of an Independent CSD endows an elected Board of community residents with local control. It brings the property tax dollars and fees associated with the powers they select back to the community. • Currently, your tax dollars and fees go to the County and are pooled with other unincorporated area tax dollars to be dispersed by the County. Under a CSD, your tax dollars would only be used by and for your community. wrightwoodcsd.org

5. What has happened to date? • Interested community members discussed the possibility of a WWCSD. • Community members formed a committee and hired a consultant to create a feasibility study and submit an official application to LAFCO. • The committee brought the application and study to Supervisor Lovingood’s office and asked for support. • Supervisor Lovingood brought it forward to the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors as its sponsor. wrightwoodcsd.org

6. What has happened to date? • The Board Of Supervisors passed a resolution to present this proposal to LAFCO for review. At this point, the Board of Supervisors became the official applicant. • LAFCO received the official application and feasibility study in November of 2015. • The committee has been invited to 2 official meetings with LAFCO. The first was on March 7th and it addressed questions about the proposal. The second was on May 25th and it was an update of the status of the proposal. wrightwoodcsd.org

7. What are the proposed powers? Several powers were reviewed during the process and it was determined that, based on fiscal stability, the proposed initial powers would be: • Park and Recreation • Street Lights • Solid Waste Once the CSD is established and it develops its manpower and infrastructure, if the community wants to acquire other local powers, those can be explored in subsequent Feasibility Studies and sent through the CSD and LAFCO processes. wrightwoodcsd.org

8. Parks and Recreation • Currently, the County works through CSA-56 for Parks and Recreation, Street Lights and Sewer. We propose to only transfer the Parks and Recreation and Street Lights portions of CSA-56 along with any property taxes associated with those powers. • We propose to leave the sewer powers of CSA-56 with the County because the infrastructure is costly and requires significant maintenance and liability. wrightwoodcsd.org

9. Parks and Recreation • The CSA-56 transfer would include the funding resources and reserves, the infrastructure (Wrightwood Community Center, Old Fire Station/Museum, Vivian Null Park, Hollis Steward Park, the Skate Board Park, and Veterans Park), and any associated parking areas, equipment, maintenance equipment and facilities associated with parks and recreation. • The elected board would be responsible for reviewing and/or expanding recreational programs. • Any parks and recreation funds for programs, activities, maintenance and infrastructure must be used within the physical boundaries of the CSD. wrightwoodcsd.org

10. Street Lights • Street Lights powers would transfer any associated funds to the WWCSD and Southern California Edison would continue as the Operations and Management of the system, which consists of 23 lights. • The CSD would honor the Dark Skies Ordinance. • The transfer of Street Light powers would be a fiscal wash, but this power would enable the CSD to promote community events, which would increase community fiscal benefits and morale. wrightwoodcsd.org

11. Solid Waste - Phase 1: • Solid Waste powers are currently held by CFA-15 and consist of an 8% franchise fee. This fee would be transferred to the WWCSD through a contractual agreement. • CR&R Disposal Service would continue the disposal of community-wide solid waste through their Operations and Management System. • CR&R has indicated that they are supportive of creating a contract with the WWCSD that would include revenue from the LA County side of the community. This is one advantage of the CSD’s ability to cross county lines. • The WWCSD would develop a local recycling program to assist San Bernardino and Los Angeles County’s solid waste systems in adhering to the State mandate to recycle 50% of solid waste products and save landfill space. wrightwoodcsd.org

12. Solid Waste - Phase 2: • Refuse Disposal Land Use Fee (on property tax bills “CO Land Use – SWMD”): This fee has been in existence since 1973 when the County was first required to convert the dumps in the desert area from burning waste operations to landfill operations. • These fees are land use-based and are charged on the property tax bill of all developed parcels according to the existing County Fee Ordinance (CFO). This fee pre-dates the adoption of Prop. 218; therefore, it cannot be raised above the $85.14 per dwelling unit fee without an election. • The CSD would issue its own Dump Cards and, while the community would not see much of a difference in the process, the CSD would benefit fiscally from the collection of these fees and would pass those benefits on to the community rather than to the County at large, as is currently being done. wrightwoodcsd.org

13. CSD Board of Directors • The Board of Directors of the CSD will consist of 5 board members elected from among all the residents within the CSD territory in an election planned for March, 2017. • The CSD board members will serve staggered 4-year terms. • The Board will hold monthly public meetings. wrightwoodcsd.org

14. CSD Management • The General Manager will be an administrator of the CSD as well as the liaison and spokesperson for the District. • The GM will operate the matrix of services, direct staff, and perform general management of every aspect involved to make the best use of the district’s resources. • The GM will manage employees and hire contractors to fulfill the duties and responsibilities of the CSD. • Initially, management will be part-time and will remain as such unless changed by the Board. • 2 part time employees would be hired and designated by the GM. wrightwoodcsd.org

15. Budget Review wrightwoodcsd.org

16. wrightwoodcsd.org

17. PROPOSED BOUNDARY wrightwoodcsd.org

18. What’s Next? • LAFCO has named a July 20th hearing date for their review and vote on the proposal. This is a public hearing and voters will be notified by mail. The public will have an opportunity to speak for up to 5 minutes on this proposal. • If LAFCO votes to approve, the proposal will go to the BOS for final approval. If approved, they will submit it to both county registrars of voters by September 7th, 2016. • If this timeline is maintained, both the proposal and the candidates for the Board of Directors will be voted on by the community on March 7th, 2017. wrightwoodcsd.org