Why Lodi city commissioners should be required to live in — yes — Lodi

If you look at the city of Lodi's Web page, www.lodi.gov, you will see that Lodi has, by my count, 14 boards and commissions with more than 100 volunteers serving on them.

This list does not including appointments to San Joaquin County or regional boards. Lodi's boards and commissions range from the Lodi Sister City Committee to the influential Planning Commission to the Greater Lodi Area Youth Commission to the Lodi Budget/Finance Committee, where I am currently serving my second term.

Undoubtedly, some of you will immediately say that the members of these committees are just members of the good ol' boys club. (I can assure you that if I ever were a member of that club, they kicked me out several columns ago.) I believe, however, that most of the people who serve on these committees are dedicated to the role that they serve, however limited, because the pay at $0 really isn't very good and I cannot identify any direct benefits of serving. But, if you want to say they are all members of the good ol' boys club, fine, but this column is not about that. This column is about the minimum qualification to serve on most of these committees, one that I think should change.

You see, the minimum qualification to serve on all but the Planning Commission and the Site Plan and Architectural Review Committee is that the applicant is a registered voter in San Joaquin County. Yes, not Lodi — but San Joaquin County. (The other two require that you are a registered voter of Lodi when you apply. I guess you can move to Stockton after you are appointed. The registration requirement also does not apply to the students on the Youth Commission.)

So, to serve on any of the other committees you don't even need to live in Lodi. You can live in Tracy or Stockton or Escalon or Farmington, and I think that should change. It needs to change because there are times when Lodi's interests do not match those of the people in the county.

For instance, the Recreation Commission is, at an upcoming meeting, set to examine the difference in fees between Lodi residents and non-residents. Currently, if you are a non-resident, your fee for a program is higher by $10 or $15 than a Lodi resident, and Lodi residents have priority in registration. That sounds reasonable since Lodi property tax dollars support Lodi's parks and recreation system.

With that background, I have been told that there is discussion to have one fee for all of the Lodi Unified School District, an area much larger than Lodi and one that includes parts of Stockton. Why would that even be discussed as an option? Shouldn't Lodi residents pay less than someone that even lives in Woodbridge?

Well, the answers may be in the fact that a majority of the members of the Recreation Commission do not live in Lodi but are residents of the county. Yes, you read that right — a majority live outside of Lodi. Doesn't that majority have an interest to keep fees for county residents lower? Absolutely; that is where they live. Will they do it that way? I hope not, but they can. Is this what the Lodi city council wants? I hope not.

My point is that our city council has formed these committees to examine issues and to make recommendations to them for Lodi, and our city council should be acting in the best interests of Lodi residents. How can that happen if the committees are not made up of Lodi residents? Our city council needs to change the requirements for all of the boards and commissions so that to serve, you must not only be a registered voter of Lodi at the time of your application, but you remain a registered voter of Lodi throughout your term.

John Johnson, CFA is a Lodi-based business appraiser. You can reach Mr. Johnson at john@johnejohnson.com or at (209) 369-1451.