SGV

The San Gabriel Valley’s rich history has profoundly shaped its governance structure. The first settlements in Southern California can be traced back to the San Gabriel Mission and the Valley surrounding it. As the Valley held the majority of the fertile land in the region, a multitude of small farming communities flourished and developed distinct identities. The San Gabriel Valley’s agricultural roots have had a profound impact on its governance structure. Because these farming communities valued their independence, they tended to favor small local governments and resisted centralized control.

Over time, the Valley has grown and changed with an increasing number of incorporated cities as well as unincorporated communities. Currently, the San Gabriel Valley’s 31 incorporated cities account for 40 percent of the incorporate cities in Los Angeles County; this is despite the fact that only 20 percent of the County’s population resides here.

In addition to having a disproportionate representation of incorporated cities, the San Gabriel Valley also has the largest number of the Los Angeles County residents living in unincorporated communities. Despite their unincorporated status, each of these communities has a unique identity and a strong sense of community pride.

Because of the proliferation of communities, both incorporated and unincorporated, the San Gabriel Valley has garnered the reputation of being the “Valley of Local Control and Local Independence.” This distinction has served as both an asset and a detriment to the region. While this local control has allowed residents to diversify their communities in a desired manner and enjoy a high quality of life, it has also resulted in a diffusion of power that has made it difficult for the San Gabriel Valley as a region to advocate for its fair share of resources for all of its communities.

During the 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s, the Southern California and the State expanded significantly in population, business activity and political influence. While this presented a great number of opportunities, it also posed significant challenges to areas such as the San Gabriel Valley and its locally controlled communities in maintaining the desired quality of life and local self-determination. The was because, as the region grew, there was a paradigm shift to more regional and global approaches to address issues.

As is frequently found in many public organizations, it is series of incidents that collectively contribute to that agency’s decision to pursue an alternative course of action. Similarly, The San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments can trace its roots to the events that occurred in the Southern California government circles in the latter part of the 20th Century. Some events, such as the development of the Foothill Transportation Zone, showed the potential for success if the cities in the San Gabriel Valley were able to work together. Conversely, other events, such as the disproportionate number of landfill sites in the Valley, highlighted the dangers if cities failed to work cooperatively together.

By 1970, the San Gabriel Valley was home to seven of Los Angeles County’s land fill sites. This represented the largest number of land fill sites in a geographic region within the entire County. At that time, the San Gabriel Valley was comically referred to in some circles as the “Valley of the Dumps.” Each of these sites was the source of much controversy due to the negative impacts (including increased truck traffic, air pollution, ground water contamination, vector control, etc.) they had on the adjacent communities and the Valley as a whole. The proliferation of these sites served as a public testament to the political impotence of the San Gabriel Valley communities’ relative to other areas within the County.

To address this issue, many of the elected officials in the central and eastern areas of the Valley, where many of the sites were located, began to organize and work with the County Board of Supervisors to identify alternatives. As a result of this collective effort, a plan was developed to phase in the closure of many of these sites and convert them to community use. Today, the San Gabriel Valley only has two landfill sites in operation and one of them is scheduled to close in the next decade.

In 1987 the Southern California Rapid Transit District, the predecessor transit agency to Metropolitan Transit Agency (MTA), announced fare increases and service reductions in the bus service provided in the San Gabriel Valley. The County Supervisor who represented much of San Gabriel Valley along with several of the Mayors and Council members from the Valley’s cities realized the San Gabriel Valley was not receiving its fair share of transit dollars to meet the Valley’s transportation needs. These agencies banned together to form a new transit agency whose focus would be to serve the San Gabriel Valley. This decision touched off a heated debate regarding regional vs. local providers of service and self-determination that led to a multi- year dispute that went all the way to the United States Supreme Court. The Court ruled in favor of the San Gabriel Valley and its efforts for self-determination and created a new transportation zone.

Shortly after prevailing in court, 22 of the San Gabriel Valley’s 31 cities and Los Angeles County entered into a joint powers agreement to form Foothill Transit Agency; Pasadena and 8 other cities located in the North and Southwest areas of the Valley opted not to join the new transportation zone. The purpose of this newly formed agency was to provide bus transportation service throughout the San Gabriel Valley. As discussed in Chapter 7, Foothill Transit Agency has been recognized as one of the nations top transit agencies and provides a higher level of transportation services and at significantly reduced costs compared to the large MTA. This was a defining issue for the San Gabriel Valley and the ability of the many cities here in the Valley to work together in accomplishing important issues. Ironically, in 2001, the 8 San Gabriel Valley cities outside the Foothill Transportation zone requested the COG to pursue the expansion and their inclusion in the Foothill zone. By this time, such an action now required MTA and State legislatures support which we were unsuccessful in obtaining.

In 1992, Los Angeles County voters passed the largest park and open space bond measure in the United States at the time. SGV cities received approximately 7% of the local park bond funds made available to the cities in the County for open space and new facilities. This was significantly below the Valley’s “fair share” based on population and contributed revenues from the tax. Compounding the inherent inequities of the Valley’s “fair share” was the fact that the limited funds that were allocated to the San Gabriel Valley went to only a handful of the cities, with Pasadena receiving the largest amount of the funding.

In 1993, the San Gabriel Valley Commerce and Cities Consortium commissioned a study to determine why the San Gabriel Valley, and specifically the cities in the central and eastern areas of the Valley, were not successful in attracting business to their respective cities. One of the findings, based on a survey of national businesses, indicated that there was no familiarity with of the area referred to as the San Gabriel Valley. Agencies surveyed recognized specific cities, most notably Pasadena, but had limited knowledge of the greater Valley as a place for business relocation and economic development opportunities.

The study also found that that there was a negative perception, held by both business interests and public officials, of the San Gabriel Valley due to the proliferation of local government agencies and the reputation for in-fighting amongst these jurisdictions that often resulted in protracted and costly litigation over a variety of issues. This in-fighting and lack of unity resulted in the Valley not being able to effectively compete with other jurisdictions within Los Angeles County and the State for its fair share of funding and other resources. The study’s conclusion was that the San Gabriel Valley would continue to compete unfavorably with other Southern California areas in attracting business, unless the Valley cities and communities united and adopted a strategy for building consensus and marketing the entire Valley, its cities and businesses.

In order to address these issues, several long-tenured and highly respected elected officials within the Valley met and agreed on a two-pronged approach. In order to improve the Valley’s relationship with the business community, the San Gabriel Economic Partnership was founded; this organization is discussed in further detail in Chapter 9 of this manual. Concurrently, these leaders agreed to form the San Gabriel Valley Council of Governments (SGVCOG) to address the inter-jurisdictional government issues. This new agency was the first of its kind in Southern California and would serve as an umbrella agency working with the cities and communities in forging a consensus in addressing issues that impact the cities of the San Gabriel Valley