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other 40 cities were required to pay the standard state property tax, but
the city derived almost nothing from it. This is incredibly inequitable,
but it was a fact.

This situation existed from 1979 onward. I had not realized it,
nor had at least 90 percent of Lafayette citizens. Our City was badly
handicapped in trying to fund services that its citizens wanted, but the
money was going elsewhere. As a new Council member I said nothing
about this gross inequity for a couple of years. Everyone on the council
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After a couple of years, I asked the City Council to appoint me
the legislative representative for the city. I felt the situation was intol-
erable. Others agreed with that conclusion, but had given up trying to
correct the situation. They felt that nothing could be accomplished, but
if Dick Holmes was dumb enough to try, let him.
I became making periodic trips to Sacramento. An adjoining
city, Pleasant Hill, was in an identical tax situation. The other 39 prop-
erty-tax-deprived cities were all in Southern California from Ventura
County south. These cities began to work on legislative representatives
and hired a full-time legislative representative for that group of cities.
Pleasant Hill hired a legislative representative for a fee of $25,000 per
year. I represented Lafayette for nothing.

In visiting State Senators and State Assemblymen, no one was
interested in helping us. Each of them feared that by opening a “Pan-
dora’s Box” they would be besieged by scores of groups seeking ad-
ditional shares of the property taxes. When I talked to Senators or As-
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felt they had no incentive to help us. No one disputed the inequality. I
began to work with representatives of the Southern California cities in
visiting the state capitol. This process took about 2½ years. Finally, Bill
Baker, the assemblyman representing our area, went to work to try and
help us. In addition, Senator Nick Petris was an old and highly respected
Senator whose district included Lafayette. I worked with his principal
assistant and together we drafted a letter to his fellow Senators urging

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