The Case For District Representation

Op-Ed by Allen Bacon, BOSCO Fullerton

Last week, almost lost in the news of the postponement of the Fullerton Police/Kelly Thomas beating death case and the reboot of the Fullerton City Council, there was a Public Dialogue on West Fullerton featuring some of our City Officials including City Manager Joe Felz and Police Chief Dan Hicks.

That was an important meeting because the area of West Fullerton has really been the Ugly  Stepchild of the City.  It has been seriously neglected.  I know, because in a past life (when I was a newlywed and starting our family) I lived in West Fullerton.

The roads and infrastructure are in horrible condition, gang violence and crime is on the rise, and don't even get me started on the unique challenges the Airport brings into the mix.

This is not the first time these dialogues have taken place.  This was the third such meeting.  And the fact is it is always, sadly, poorly attended.   There needs to be more people there from West Fullerton to discuss the issues and I implore everybody that has not made it in the past to attend the next one and let your voice be heard.

But this needs to go one step beyond these dialogues about West Fullerton.  We need to at least start having discussions about representation or districting in our City.  Our city is big enough now.

Last November, right after a similar dialogue took place, Mayor Quirk-Silva and Steamers Owner Terrence Love hosted a public chat which was well attended and the whole idea about having Districts and City Council representing each of the areas of the city was brought up.  The mayor and her husband Jesus Silva, an educator in the Fullerton School District seemed to like and support the idea.

Fullerton School Board member Chris Thompson, said to be careful for what we wish for because we may end up not getting the best people on city council.

He makes a valid point. So maybe we don't make it mandatory that the City Council member actually come out of the area they are serving.  Those details would need to be ironed out.

The point is that we would have a City Council member that is assigned to a specific area of the City and be involved with the issues and problems so areas like  West Fullerton do not keep on getting overlooked and the unique problems and challenges of each section of our city are properly addressed.