Blog: Cities Deserve Seats on Expanded Fair Board

The Board of Supervisors this week moved closer to an agreement with the Del Mar Fairgrounds that would place five county appointees on the fairgrounds’ board of directors.

Regional governance of a regional asset is appropriate, and I applaud my colleagues – Chairman Greg Cox and Supervisor Ron Roberts – for advancing this initiative.

During our hearing, numerous speakers encouraged us to proceed with our negotiations, and Supervisors concurred by a 5-0 vote.

In my remarks, I noted that representation on an expanded fair board should extend to the three neighboring jurisdictions that are most-affected by the facility’s traffic, noise and other impacts. The cities of Del Mar, San Diego and Solana Beach deserve seats at the table.

Fairgrounds representatives say state law precludes cities from holding voting seats on a fair board. But other lawyers disagree. This will all be sorted out. However, the law does not appear to restrict cities from holding non-voting seats. That’s what I encouraged my colleagues to explore as their talks continue.

Del Mar and Solana Beach are small cities but feel big impacts. The summer fair and race meet draw huge crowds and traffic. But more than 300 other events are staged at the fairgrounds throughout the year. Sometimes traffic at Torrey Pines and Carmel Valley is at a standstill.

Much of the state-owned facility falls within the small city of Del Mar’s boundaries. For years, Del Mar officials have said that the city does not recover the costs of law enforcement, fire protection and other services it must provide to the fairgrounds. Direct representation on the fair board would go a long way toward addressing this issue.

Ex officio seats for Del Mar, Solana Beach and San Diego would only improve community relations and strengthen a reorganized fair board.

Just look at other regional panels. In the interest of broad and thorough representation, the boards of directors of the San Diego Association of Governments, the San Diego Unified Port District, the San Diego Airport Authority and the San Diego County Water Authority provide seats for nonvoting members.

Ironically, one important position on the San Dieguito River Park Joint Powers Authority is the ex officio seat held by fairgrounds Deputy Director Becky Bartling. As a river park board member, I have heard Becky add valuable insight and commentary to this board’s deliberations.

Representation from San Diego, Solana Beach and Del Mar would bring similar value to the fair board.