The News and Review published a scathing exposé yesterday about how Sacramento County doesn’t exactly have its act together. The article by Foon Rhee, formerly of The Bee, displays some actual journalism for a change. It goes into some detail about the County’s Department of Health Services having a run-in with the County’s top executives. Well, call us jaded, but we’ve heard it all before. Of course, we’ve heard it before as concerns the County’s municipal services role. Surely you know that - if you have paid attention to many of our numerous posts here over the years. It’s not pleasant to speak unkindly about the Board of Supervisors; we don’t like doing it, but they have not given us much choice except to be vocal. Similarly, we don’t like saying bad things about how the County mis-handles its regional responsibilities. We are glad that the News and Review did it so we don’t have to. You see, our beloved Arden Arcade is in the same boat as every other community - whether incorporated or unincorporated. The County’s regional role covers the entire County and there is not much we in Arden Arcade can do about changing how the County discharges its regional responsibilities except vote for or against one - just one - Supervisorial candidate every 4 years. While we are quite used to seeing this kind of problem on the municipal services side {Golly, could that be why we publish this blog?}, we’re not surprised to see that the County is screwing things up for the region also. It strikes us as sad, very sad, that everyone else is at the receiving end regionally of what we get all the time municipally. It’s an in-your-face problem that’s in all of our faces and about which no one can do much except complain by sending letters or emails, making phone calls and giving public testimony. There is an additional remedy at the municipal level that has worked well for Citrus Heights, Elk Grove and Rancho Cordova - one that merits consideration for Arden Arcade and other communities within the UnCity. That municipal remedy - reorganizing the government to achieve democracy and local control - isn’t in the cards as a solution for the regional level. That’s too bad, isn’t it?