Our community neighborhood is a "california special district" and specifically a "community services district" which delivers a special service--in our case road maintenance and construction. We are not a homeowner's association nor do we enforce cc&r's.

Special districts are an important and integral part of local government; however they are not cities, counties, or state government. Special districts are limited-purpose local government providing only the services their constituents want, need, and approve at an election. They fill a void in city and county services to provide public service needs. Nearly all California residents rely on special districts for some form of service that is delivered to their homes, businesses, or communities such as water delivery, fire protection, road maintenance, libraries etc.

Special districts are funded either through a share of local property tax revenue and/or voter approved fees or special taxes. In our case we receive funds from both sources --a share of the property tax for each parcel and also from the voter approved special taxes (the $595 per year that is also known as direct assessments/ charges that is shown on your property tax bill). Any loss in that share of the property tax revenue for our district would be devastating as more than 50% of our total revenue is from these taxes. Loss of this revenue would mean a decrease in services (road maintenance) that would be very difficult. 

A special district can only operate with the consent of voters and any changes in services or special taxes must be passed at an election by two-thirds support. A district cannot just arbitrarily raise the special tax--it must go before the voters and must pass by two-thirds vote.

Cameron Estates is an independent special district and we are governed by a board of directors. The 5 directors are elected by the voters in the district or they are appointed to fixed terms by elected officials in the district. Our directors establish and develop policy and the one employee carries out and executes what needs to be done regarding that policy.

Directors are accountable to their constituents and they all take ethics training course every 2 years to ensure what they do is compliant with state law and to best serve their constituents. Our district publicizes the annual budget so that the constituents can see where the money goes.

Special districts are open, visible, and accountable to their constituents. As a public agency, special districts must comply with the brown act, which means that meetings of the governing board of directors must be open and publicly announced. In our case we post the meeting date and time in the newsletter, on our website, and we post at all 3 gates at least 72 hours prior to the meeting. 

Special districts are accountable to voters and they must submit annual financial reports to the state controller and must also follow state laws pertaining to public meetings, record keeping, and elections. 

Cameron estates board directors and general manager strive to be professional in all its dealings with residents and other governmental agencies. We have a formal mission statement and formal governance policies and procedures that we follow and adhere to.

Because we are a public agency we welcome and need public input so that we can make the best decisions possible for our community. We all work together to make our community a great place to live.