The Measure C Citizens Oversight Committee needs your help.
The COC, as it’s called, is to have 13 members. According to a recent Fresno Council of Governments staff report, the COC needs seven new members to reach that figure.
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According to the staff report, the seven vacant positions are:
- Four positions for community organization representatives.
- Public-at-large position representing the rural area west of Highway 99, in Supervisorial District 1.
- Public-at-large position representing Fresno-Clovis metropolitan area in Supervisorial District 2.
- Public-at-large position in Fresno-Clovis area in any of the supervisorial districts.
Says the staff report: “The Measure C Expenditure Plan specifies that the COC shall comprise 13 members, including six at-large public members who respectively reside in each one of the five Fresno County Supervisorial Districts. Three of the six must reside in the Fresno-Clovis metropolitan area and two must reside in the unincorporated rural area of the county (east and west). The remaining seven members must be representatives drawn from a diverse mix of interested mix of interested community organizations.”
Members serve four-year terms, with a maximum limit of eight years on the committee. The terms of the seven vacancies were to begin on July 1, 2019.
According to the staff report, the Measure C Citizen Oversight Committee’s webpage is: fresnocog.org/citizen-oversight-committee/
Why is the Measure C Citizens Oversight Committee important? This is my take:
Measure C is Fresno County’s half-cent sales tax devoted to a wide variety of transportation projects. If I’m not mistaken, Measure C generates more than $80 million per year. Local transportation officials often are able to leverage Measure C funds to deliver much larger sums of state and federal transportation funds to the county. This money reaches into every corner of the county.
Transportation – i.e. mobility – is the backbone of the county’s economic and social structure.
The key to Measure C’s success since the mid-1980s has been public support at the ballot box. Measure C currently is 12 years into a 20-year extension. Local transportation officials are already thinking ahead to the day a ballot measure would be presented to voters that would extend the tax for 20, perhaps 30, years.
The Measure C Citizens Oversight Committee is an important vehicle for the people to influence how their transportation money is spent. The committee is democracy in action.
