Editorial: New course for Galt

Haines, Malson, Meredith for City Council

Published 12:00 am PDT Thursday, October 12, 2006
Story appeared in EDITORIALS section, Page B6

In Galt, politics have a dangerous way of swinging from reflexive opposition to growth to aggressive advocacy of growth. The Galt City Council is in the aggressive mode. It has tentatively approved a northern expansion of the city service boundary toward the Cosumnes River, ignoring that its existing boundaries have plenty of room for growth and that the river habitat is sensitive and irreplaceable.

Galt has a proud farming heritage that it could lose by becoming Elk Grove's southern annex. There is no reason for Galt to surrender its character.

Three of the five council members are up for re-election. They are Darryl Clare, Thomas Malson and Randy Shelton. Of these three, only Malson (an engineer for Aerojet) voted against this inappropriate northern expansion of Galt. That all but disqualifies the other two from serious consideration. Malson has been quiet as a council member, but may emerge as more of a leader with a different council majority.

One challenger on the ballot, electrician Andrew Meredith, stands out. He is a veteran of the war in Iraq. He returned home in November and was shocked at how the council was "not listening to the community." He advocates slow and sensible growth in Galt to the east, inside the existing service boundaries. If he can lead in Iraq, he certainly can lead in Galt.

Of the rest, Donald Haines is the best pick. It's more than a little weird that he works at the same place that Councilman Tim Raboy does, the Board of Equalization. However, as long as Haines (an investigator with the board) stays out of Raboy's chain of command during his day job, he may represent that elusive middle in Galt politics when it comes to growth.

For Galt, the top priority is to stop the self-destructive expansionism that could make the city a renegade in a region that is trying to make wiser choices about growth. That would require a new council majority. Donald Haines, Thomas Malson and Andrew Meredith for Galt City Council are the best hope for that new majority.