In this issue of San Diego Dialogue Report, four key members of San Diego’s Regional Government Efficiency Commission (RGEC) talk about the inner-workings of the commission and what they believe it will accomplish. They are all appointees of Governor Davis. Each is chair of one of RGEC’s four subcommittees on transportation, land use and environment, the Port District, and governance.

Very few San Diegans have heard of RGEC, and even fewer know how to pronounce it. (Even members of RGEC have been heard to wonder whether it’s pronounced ree-jus or ree-jick.) The small numbers of people who do understand its mission tend either to fear it or doubt that it can accomplish anything.

With its off-putting name and obscure mission, it is easy to make fun of RGEC. That would be a serious mistake. As the commissioners interviewed in these pages make clear, RGEC is an instrument for improving the ability of government in the San Diego area to deal with major challenges to our quality of life, including increasing traffic congestion, unaffordable housing, and diminishing open space.

The California Legislature set up RGEC at the end of its session last August at the initiative of State Senator Steve Peace (D., El Cajon). The legislation asks RGEC to assess the merits of consolidating or better coordinating the work of transportation-related agencies in San Diego County.  These agencies include: San Diego Association of Governments (SANDAG), Metropolitan Transit Development Board (MTDB), North County Transit (NCT), San Diego Unified Port District, and the county’s Air Pollution Control District (APCD) and Border Infrastructure Development Zone (BIDZ).

The legislation also specifies that the commission is to be made up of eleven members: the chairs of the affected agencies, five gubernatorial appointees, and the chair of a special committee that was set up by the affected agencies before the RGEC legislation was passed. The latter was designated as the chair of RGEC. (Note: the chair of the Board of Supervisors represents both the APCD and the BIDZ.)

Much of the skepticism about RGEC derives from this seemingly awkward composition. How can RGEC accomplish anything new, it is asked, when representatives of existing agencies with turf to protect make up nearly half the commissioners?

A careful reading of the interviews suggests that the gubernatorial appointees are finding ways around this problem.