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RUSSO INTERVIEW from page 4 ....................................... The legislators in Sacramento should leave their moral judgements at the door whe~ they come into negotiation with us. The question is, how do you, on a going forward basis, provide the right incentives to municipalities to make housing pencil out so that municipalities would want to build housing and not avoid building housing? I believe that can be done and the League will have a positive proposal before the Legislature next year that will do that. Lastly, at the League's annual meeting this month, you and League President Chris McKenzie made it clear that the league was getting its act together, both organizationally and politically. Specifically, both of you focused on the League's new initiative to raise political funds in order "to be a player at the table." Elaborate. I'll take the latter question first. I hope that we will have the tools we need. That will depend, in large part, upon the ability of the League leadership and the Action for Better Cities (ABC) board's leadership to inspire and get buy-in from our elected officials throughout the state. I hope we can do it. It's not been done before and I wouldn't venture to predict. I'm optimistic, but guardedly so. What does it take in Sacramento? I think it's very clear what it takes in Sacramento: it takes money. The League operates with a fundamental political disability. Our strength politically may also be considered our weakness. Our strength is that all 477 cities in the state, with one exception, belong to the League. Our weakness is that we represent all the cities in the state each with their own idiosyncratic agendas. This means that we've had to become more disciplined as an organiza- tion to boil down our agenda to its essence. What is it that unites a city like Oxnard with a city like Oakland?. What unites Yucca Valley with Arcadia? What unites us is the desire to fight for each other's rights to run our communities in the ways that we, as elected officials who are answerable to the people living in those communities, think is best. This is a huge state. It's the size of a country. There is a role for Sacramento. But I would put to you that Sacramento has failed in all of its primary missions, whether it's energy, transportation, water, education, or finance. Sacramento, the state government, over the past 25 years, has been a demonstrable and objective failure. They should focus on doing correctly the things they are clearly tasked to do and stay out of the business of trying to micromanage how we run our communities in a one-size-fits-all manner. INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY AWARD WINNERS The Municipal Information Systems Association of California (MISAC) has established the Excellence in Information Technology Practices Certification Program to recognize exemplary practices in Information Technology and to foster peer recognition of Information Technology achievements. Local municipal governments and special districts are eligible to participate in the Certification Program. Award winners must complete an extensive audit application that demonstrates excellence in the following subject areas: Budgeting, Purchasing, Operations & Staffing, Customer Satisfaction, Intemet, Pro~ject Management, Professional Development, Security, Base Level of Services, and Disaster Preparation and Recovery. All applications must pass a review by a panel of three information Technology Directors. Two levels of certification are awarded, Achievement and Excellence. This year the winners of the Excellence Award are: the City of Fairfield, the City of Oakland, and the City of Torrance. Winners of the Achievement Award are: the City of Moreno Valley, the City of Santa Clarita, the City of South San Francisco, and the City of Vacaville. MISAC represents the Computer and Systems professionals in all of the Cities and special districts of California. MSAC has three chapters: Northern, Central and Southern. The organization serves as an advisory body to the League of California Cities with representatives on each of the League's policy committees. You can find additional MISAC information on our websita at www. misac.org http://www.misac.org. Visit the League's Official Web Site--www.cacities.or9 PRIORITY FOCUS/PAGE 5