The Route 66 town of Needles may break away from San Bernardino County or from California altogether because of its frustration with county government, reports the San Bernardino County Sun.
Council members say they are looking into two scenarios: switching the city’s state affiliation by becoming a part of Nevada or withdrawing from San Bernardino County and starting its own county. […]
Relations between the City Council and county officials became increasingly strained in March when county supervisors indicated they were unwilling to help maintain Needles’ beleaguered Colorado River Medical Center as a full-service hospital. […]
Members of the council have alleged the county at the last minute reneged on a promise to help run the hospital. […]
Given the choice between joining neighboring Arizona or Nevada, Needles council members said they would prefer Nevada.
During a failed succession secession attempt in the 1980s, the proposal was to call it Mojave County, which has a nice ring to it.
But the chance of either breakaway scenario happening is as likely as me winning the NBA scoring title. Voters in the county have to approve it. The states involved have to OK it, as does Congress. The last time a county formed via succession secession was more than a century ago.
Needles is more than 200 miles from the county seat. To placate its often-overlooked residents, the county ought to consider putting a satellite county seat in Needles for the convenience of townsfolk and residents in the eastern half of the Mojave Desert. At the least, having a permanent setting for county services in Needles would save a lot of fuel.
(Hat tip: Helen Baker)
Subdividing the nation’s largest county makes sense. Several Arkansas counties have dual seats, often because the county straddles a river or difficult terrain. Even in Oklahoma, a few counties have multiple courthouses, but only one official seat. Creek County has two satellite courthouses (Bristow and Drumright), as does Kay County (Blackwell and Ponca City).
(By the way, I think you mean ‘secession.’)
Ron (or Helen) – did you mean ‘secession’? 🙂
It may have been over a century since a California county was created by secession, but several counties have been formed recently across the US by breaking away from their “home” counties (such as Broomfield County, Colorado). The most recent time this happened next door in Arizona was the secession of LaPaz County from Yuma County in 1983 (affecting US 60 & 95, but not 66).
Both Riverside & San Bernardino counties are a bit unusual in their geographic disparity and population distribution. It’ll be interesting to see how this turns out, especially how the three states haven’t always seen eye-to-eye on water sharing & other important regional issues (one episode being a proud part of our family history).
rcm
Yep, my mistake on each succeeding secession. 😉
I was under the impression it is the right of the people to secede if they wish. That is to say they are under represented (if at all) by thier respecttive government. That is after all why we broke away from England.
The Undeniable Legality of Secession
At the most fundamental and basic level of our political belief system as Americans rests the idea that men ought to be free to determine their own form of government. Our Declaration of Independence states this fact clearly:
…That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness…
Few Americans would deny that our founders in 1776 had among other inalienable rights the justification and right to assert a form of government “most likely to effect Safety and Happiness”. With such a strong sense of the rights of the people inherent in our most foundational of beliefs, it is amazing that Americans so easily view these concepts as applicable only to another time and place.
Secession is legal under natural law, biblical law and in accordance with the State-Federal compact theory of government.