Vanderlaan concludes term as LAFCO chair

Joe Naiman

Village News Reporter

Bonsall resident Andy Vanderlaan concluded his year as the board chair of San Diego County's Local Agency Formation Commission.

Vanderlaan is the public member on LAFCO’s board which consists of two county supervisors (currently Jim Desmond and Joel Anderson), one city council representative from San Diego (currently Chris Cate), two city council members from the county's other 17 incorporated cites (currently Escondido mayor Paul McNamara and Chula Vista mayor Mary Salas), two members from special district boards (currently Jo MacKenzie of the Vista Irrigation District and Barry Willis of the Alpine Fire Protection District), and one public member. (Each of those categories also has one alternate who can vote if the regular LAFCO board member is not present.)

An 8-0 vote at the Feb. 7 LAFCO meeting (the LAFCO board does not meet in January ) selected Desmond as the chair for 2022 and McNamara as the vice-chair.

“It’s been an honor and a pleasure to serve as your chair,” Vanderlaan said following the vote.

Normally the LAFCO vice-chair becomes chair for the following year, although the desire for continuity with an ongoing project may cause the LAFCO board to retain the chair and vice-chair. The LAFCO chair and vice-chair positions normally utilize a rotation between Board of Supervisors, city council, special district, and public members. Desmond was LAFCO’s vice-chair for 2021.

“I think that Jim Desmond and Paul McNamara are going to do an excellent job,” Vanderlaan said.

Vanderlaan will stay on the LAFCO board, which when selecting Vanderlaan as the 2021 board chair took a separate vote to reappoint Vanderlaan to a seventh term as LAFCO’s public member. The term began in May 2021 and will expire in April 2025.

“We get things done. It may take a while, but we’re diligent,” Vanderlaan said of LAFCO. “We have a great reputation not only within our community but also the LAFCO community itself.”

Each county in California has a LAFCO which is responsible for jurisdictional changes including consolidations, detachments, annexations, and city incorporations.

Consolidations have occurred infrequently in recent years (since Vanderlaan joined the LAFCO board in 1996 San Diego County has had three water district consolidations and three fire district consolidations which did not involve the San Diego County Fire Protection District) and no city has incorporated since Encinitas and Solana Beach in 1986, although small annexations and detachments result in San Diego LAFCO processing numerous boundary changes each year. The proposal by the Fallbrook Public Utility District and the Rainbow Municipal Water District to detach from the San Diego County Water Authority and join the Eastern Municipal Water District will be one of LAFCO’s major reorganization activities during 2022.

A municipal service review evaluates an area's services and anticipated needs, and a sphere of influence study determines the boundaries best served by a particular agency. Both are prerequisites to any jurisdictional change other than an annexation of land within the existing sphere of influence, and LAFCO also conducts periodic municipal service review and sphere of influence updates for all cities and special districts.

Municipal service reviews now include budget and level of service information. The municipal service review and sphere of influence update for FPUD, Rainbow, the North County Fire Protection District, and County Service Area No. 81 (which covers parks in Fallbrook, Rainbow, and DeLuz) will be among LAFCO’s 2022 activity.

“It’s going to be a busy year,” Vanderlaan said.

Vanderlaan's post-retirement activities included a year as president of the Boys and Girls Club and coaching basketball at the Boys and Girls Club, Zion Lutheran School, Fallbrook High School (at the junior varsity level), and Potter Junior High School. He is currently on the board of education for Zion Christian School, which now includes a pre-school and a learning center for children up to 12th grade.