Legal and Efficient

By Katherine S. Sei

The GWCSD must separate the Board functions from the General Manager. This is a legal requirement. And it allows the General Manager to do the road work efficiently without micro-management.

1. The Board of Directors shall appoint a General Manager.

2.The General Manager executes the policies of the Board.

3.The Board sets policies, and does not do the work of the General Manger.

4.The General Manager serves the Board, and doesn't set the policies.

Why do these simple laws lead to efficiency, and also helps to avoid legal problems?

• One of the most important duties of the Board of Directors is to appoint and oversee a General Manager because the only qualification to be a board member is to be a voting member living within the district. The Board directors are probably not civil engineers, public accountants, or government employees knowledgeable about how to run the district, or skilled in managing the actual day to day affairs of maintaining the road.

The Board also votes on the budget which provides the boundaries for the money the General Manager can spend.

• A skilled and competent General Manager provides the experience and knowledge of how to maintain the roads-and knows with whom to consult for that work, and the other necessary activities including the necessary tree trimming and weed abatement, culvert repairs where bad drainage may damage the roads, awareness of encroachments (such as a driveway connecting to the district's road), etc. etc. etc. The GM, along with necessary civil engineering consultants, should be proposing a short and long term plan on how to maintain the District's road.

[1] California Government Code section 61040 and 61050. Read on the Golden West Community Service District web page (GWCSD.org), "Community Needs, Community Services: A Legislative History of SB 135 (Kehoe) and the 'Community Services District Law." This lists the government code as well as commentary on the legislative intent.