Matthew
02-22-2008, 03:22 PM
Two of five El Dorado County supervisors are now calling for incorporation of El Dorado Hills.
After falling on the short side of a 3-2 vote on the county's five-year road plan, supervisors Rusty Dupray and Helen Baumann saw what one incorporation proponent, John Hidahl, called "a real-time example" of the difference cityhood would make.
A budget-wary five-year plan passed cuts out several proposed projects.
"Eighty percent of the projects taken off the list were in El Dorado Hills and Cameron Park," Dupray said.
Dupray lumped the neighboring communities together, recommending incorporation for both.
Also irking Dupray and Baumann is that the five-year capital-improvement plan added back two projects for the Missouri Flat area near Placerville, on a funding basis "to be determined."
The gist of the Dupray-Baumann position is that El Dorado Hills has paid into the county's traffic-impact mitigation account but isn't getting county road projects built there -- while Placerville is. As a city, El Dorado Hills would control some money that now goes to the county.
"My whole contention is that a majority of the impact fees is generated from El Dorado Hills and Cameron Park, and I'd like to see them stay in those areas," Dupray said.
A 2005 ballot push failed to incorporate El Dorado Hills. Some strong sentiments both ways, either for incorporating the community or for preventing that move, have existed in El Dorado Hills for more than 10 years. The ballot push was defeated soundly.
Baumann and Dupray said they believed a plan approving the Placerville-area projects on an uncertain funding basis "was illegal" in addition to its being unfair for El Dorado Hills.
"Now might be the time (in El Dorado Hills) for a positive campaign to incorporate," Baumann said.
Cityhood proponent Norm Rowett said he wasn't surprised at the evolution of support among county supervisors.
"It's something we saw coming in the mid-90s, when we started (organizing)," Rowett said. "Our services received are not along the lines of our tax revenue that we're generating. We expected they would figure it out that their constituents were not receiving a fair amount for the taxes that are raised in our community."
Former Supervisor Bob Dorr, a leading opponent of the 2005 ballot measure and a candidate for the termed-out Dupray's seat on the board, said he believed Dupray's stance "was done in an emotional background," declining further comment.
"He's the supervisor now," Dorr said. "(But) the incorporation issue was settled by the voters, so the issue shouldn't come up."
Dupray acknowledged "frustration" but said the logic of his position stands on its own.
Hidahl said he was cautiously optimistic that successors elected in June to the board seats of the termed-out Baumann and Dupray would pay attention to the stance taken by the pair.
"You'd hope they'd take it into account," Hidahl said.
After falling on the short side of a 3-2 vote on the county's five-year road plan, supervisors Rusty Dupray and Helen Baumann saw what one incorporation proponent, John Hidahl, called "a real-time example" of the difference cityhood would make.
A budget-wary five-year plan passed cuts out several proposed projects.
"Eighty percent of the projects taken off the list were in El Dorado Hills and Cameron Park," Dupray said.
Dupray lumped the neighboring communities together, recommending incorporation for both.
Also irking Dupray and Baumann is that the five-year capital-improvement plan added back two projects for the Missouri Flat area near Placerville, on a funding basis "to be determined."
The gist of the Dupray-Baumann position is that El Dorado Hills has paid into the county's traffic-impact mitigation account but isn't getting county road projects built there -- while Placerville is. As a city, El Dorado Hills would control some money that now goes to the county.
"My whole contention is that a majority of the impact fees is generated from El Dorado Hills and Cameron Park, and I'd like to see them stay in those areas," Dupray said.
A 2005 ballot push failed to incorporate El Dorado Hills. Some strong sentiments both ways, either for incorporating the community or for preventing that move, have existed in El Dorado Hills for more than 10 years. The ballot push was defeated soundly.
Baumann and Dupray said they believed a plan approving the Placerville-area projects on an uncertain funding basis "was illegal" in addition to its being unfair for El Dorado Hills.
"Now might be the time (in El Dorado Hills) for a positive campaign to incorporate," Baumann said.
Cityhood proponent Norm Rowett said he wasn't surprised at the evolution of support among county supervisors.
"It's something we saw coming in the mid-90s, when we started (organizing)," Rowett said. "Our services received are not along the lines of our tax revenue that we're generating. We expected they would figure it out that their constituents were not receiving a fair amount for the taxes that are raised in our community."
Former Supervisor Bob Dorr, a leading opponent of the 2005 ballot measure and a candidate for the termed-out Dupray's seat on the board, said he believed Dupray's stance "was done in an emotional background," declining further comment.
"He's the supervisor now," Dorr said. "(But) the incorporation issue was settled by the voters, so the issue shouldn't come up."
Dupray acknowledged "frustration" but said the logic of his position stands on its own.
Hidahl said he was cautiously optimistic that successors elected in June to the board seats of the termed-out Baumann and Dupray would pay attention to the stance taken by the pair.
"You'd hope they'd take it into account," Hidahl said.