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incumbent), Avon Wilson, and I took on city administration as though it
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nancially. The three of us spent at least 30 hours per week on city work.
In Lafayette, council members were unpaid. Indeed, a couple of years
later, Avon and I compared what we had spent on gasoline on city busi-
ness and the cost of public gatherings where we were obliged to pay for
our own meal. We found that the job costs us almost $800 per year.

Council members are involved in a wide array of activities –
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dustry, it is possible to work on the normal administrative problems and
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lasting improvements accomplished in that way. Normal administration
is important, but I think it is not enough. If you’re really going to work
at any assignment, you should seek to leave footprints. By that I mean
lasting improvements in the operation.

At this time, Lafayette was strapped for funds. When the City
had been incorporated in 1968, the sponsors of incorporation had
pledged not to charge a property tax in the foreseeable future (a nice,
vague phrase). While the City had attempted to operate as a limited
services city, citizens continuously sought more services. Since the
City’s income was sharply limited (coming principally from return to
the City of state automobile license fees plus 1 cent on the sales tax) the
City depended heavily on volunteers serving on City Commissions, etc.
However, in 1978, ten years after incorporation, the famous Proposi-
tion 13 was voted as an amendment to the California State Constitution.
Under Prop 13 all city, county and state property taxes were lumped into
a single property tax ($1.00 per year per $100 of assessed evaluation
statewide). The state legislature then had to determine the distribution
of this tax. The result was that cities were typically allowed the property
tax they had been charging in 1978. The average city in California re-
ceived 19.3 cents of every property tax dollar generated within the city.
Some 41 cities in the state in 1978 were not charging a city property tax.
Under California Assembly Bill 8, property owners in Lafayette and the

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