Local government replaced by 'Good ol' Boy' network

Roseville residents need to add another word to their everyday vocabulary. That word is "oligarchy." Webster defines oligarchy as "1: government by the few; 2: a government in which a small group exercises control esp. for corrupt and selfish purposes; also: a group exercising such control."Our so-called democratic form of government has been replaced by the oligarchy, commonly called the "Good ol' Boy" network, as a Sacramento Bee editorial once referred to it.Government of the people, by the few, and for the few.The oligarchy in Roseville (and many other communities) works like this: Special interests (development and business communities in Roseville) choose City Council candidates who share their views and will support their agendas. Those candidates then receive tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions, enabling them to hire consultants and do multiple mailings of election materials to every voting household, assuring their election. Candidates not supported by developers' dollars cannot compete with this avalanche of advertising. In this last election, Gina Garbolino spent $55,434 and Jim Gray spent $48,720 (all largely developers' dollars, of course.) Their lone opponent spent $9,800 for advertising, with about half of that amount in loans from herself and her husband.Once elected, the oligarchy handpicks each member of every commission or board in the city, and appoints only their supporters and people they believe will support their agendas. This also holds true for the occasional City Council appointment, thus manipulating the election process.The Jan. 10 City Council appointment proved once again the power of the oligarchy in Roseville. In the November election, more than 12,000 residents voted for Sandra Saraceni. Yet when Rocky Rockholm resigned, three members of Council chose to ignore those 12,000-plus voters and appoint Carol Garcia. The only reason for the elaborate appointment application process was to prevent running afoul of the Brown Act, which limits interaction by elected officials outside of public meetings. Saraceni should have been automatically appointed to the vacant seat based on the residents who voted for her just two months previously.Garcia did not run in the election. She is undoubtedly a very intelligent, capable person, yet being in the banking industry and past president of the Chamber of Commerce carries a definite bias. What is best for the Chamber of Commerce members (businesses and developers) is not always best for the residents.Garcia quickly provided further proof of the existence and power of the oligarchy - and her allegiance to that oligarchy - when she seconded a motion by John Allard to elect Jim Gray as mayor.Our charter provides that the candidate receiving the largest number of votes in an election becomes vice-mayor, and mayor two years later at the next election. Rockholm had the most votes in the 2004 election, and became mayor for two meetings in December 2006 and January 2007, and then resig-ned. Richard Roccucci received the next highest number of votes in 2004, and logic, reason and fairness dictate he should have become mayor. Also, by seniority, Roccucci should have been named mayor: He was first elected in 2000, and Jim Gray was elected in 2002.But Roccucci is not acceptable to the oligarchy, because he is not a rubber stamp for the powers that be. Through the years, Roccucci has strived to strike a balance between what is best for the residents and what is best for the developer/business consortium. Roseville badly needs Council members who will follow Roccucci's lead, versus automatic approval for what benefits the oligarchy.The election process has been manipulated twice before in the last six years in the same manner. In 2001, I was passed over for appointment after being runner-up in the 2000 election. Again in 2003, the same thing occurred: After being a close runner-up in the election just a few months prior, I was passed over for appointment. This manipulation of the election process guarantees that only oligarchy members will be on the Council.This is not the type of government I thought I was helping to defend during my 26 years in the U.S. Air Force. And it isn't the type of government our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan today think they are defending.Can the oligarchy be abolished, and democracy returned to Roseville? Yes, but it won't be easy - the oligarchy will not go away quietly. The only way to bring democracy back is for the citizenry to take action through a series of citizens' initiatives: to amend the charter to expand the Council to nine members, to mandate election by districts versus citywide, stop the manipulation of elections as we have just seen and to pass an ordinance prohibiting Council members from voting on projects where they have received large contributions from the project proponents.But be aware - the oligarchy will use hundreds of thousands of taxpayer and special interest dollars to prevent this from happening. They've done it before.- Jack Wallace is a resident of Roseville and former candidate for City Council.