The Norco City Council has decided to keep its membership with the League of California Cities (CalCities) while also holding off on joining the California Contract Cities Association.
“I was the one that kind of started this ball rolling, and the reason I did is I was having some issues with some of the things that were occurring, but a lot of those issues have now gone away,” Mayor Kevin Bash said.
Bash said that with Rancho Cucamonga Mayor Pro Tem Lynne Kennedy set to become president on the organization’s board of directors and changes happening that seem to provide the Inland Empire with better representation, he would support remaining part of the organization for another year.
“A lot of the cities now that had left, that I was talking to before, are now coming back to [CalCities],” he said. “I’m open to discussions and that kind of thing, but I just wanted to let you know that my position is, I think at least for the coming year, we need to stay with [CalCities].”
The city’s membership in CalCities is set to renew in January at a cost of $11,672. In Riverside County, 27 of the 28 incorporated cities are members of the organization with Jurupa Valley being the lone holdout.
CalCities currently focuses its efforts on education, advocacy and political fundraising to support cities across the state to help them run more efficiently, lobby at the state level for policy efforts to help member cities and put funding behind campaigns to stop measures that it believes will hurt member cities.
Stay up to date with the latest from The Record. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter today!
“I thought it prudent for me to come here tonight to tell you there is a value in CalCities,” Calimesa Councilmember Linda Molina, first vice president for the Riverside County Division of CalCities, said. “It’s not a perfect system, just like everything else, but it’s working well in Riverside County, and I hope that you will continue to support Riverside County.”
And while Bash initially said that he wanted the council to look into possibly joining the California Contract Cities Association, he ultimately decided against making that recommendation noting that the organization was still too new and that there was a new multi-county coalition happening within CalCities that could be beneficial for Norco.
“I don’t think they have that many cities, and I think they’re also kind of reeling, because the three counties coming together has never happened before,” he said. “So it would be my recommendation that we go ahead and we stick it out for another year and just kind of see what happens, because I really do see some positive things happening.”
A full recording of the meeting can be found here on the city’s YouTube channel.
The Riverside Record is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news outlet providing Riverside County with high-quality journalism free of charge. We’re able to do this because of the generous donations of supporters like you!