The following letter, signed by more than 100 Yolo County residents, was submitted Monday to the California Citizens Redistricting Commission.

“Between the river and the range is Yolo. This is not only a poetical but is a geographical fact, as the county’s eastern line is the Rio Sacramento and its western wall is a chain of the coastal mountains; between is a great plain of wonderful fertility, and that is the topic and scene of this work.”

— From “A History of Yolo County,” by Tom Gregory, 1913

Yolo County is a community like many others, but our pride and focus in two key areas sets us apart. The first is our dedication to the preservation of ag land and open space. More so than any of the surrounding counties, Yolo County has retained its value of preserving and protecting our agricultural and environmental heritages. All one need do is look around and see our values in practice: small, sustainable cities surrounded by acres and acres of productive and prosperous farm land. We celebrate deep roots in good soil.

The second is the extraordinary degree of cooperation we enjoy with one another. The communities that comprise Yolo County — be they the four small cities or the numerous towns and smaller centers of population — all share a history of working together to resolve problems.

Be it water or bike paths, transportation corridors or air quality, we work very hard to cooperate and to emerge with practical and positive solutions to our problems. We place a high value on collaboration and cooperation. It is, in a very real sense, who we are.

This may be reflective of our scale. For the most part, we are simply too small to launch major initiatives on our own; instead, we place a premium on efficiency and effectiveness. We look for ways to share resources and to make prudent investments and to practice the art of being a good neighbor. These are increasingly unique qualities in modern times and they set us apart.

Like everywhere, our communities are changing rapidly. There is a growing recognition of the need for clean and sustainable economic development. There is increased awareness of need to partner on public works projects — be it the development of more sources of water, or bike paths between population centers, or a need to locate more ag processing facilities where they will be able to better service county ag interests.

We value where we live. We work here, start businesses and raise our children here. We make our homes here, creating neighborhoods where people know and care about one another. We have our challenges and resolve to meet them head on.

We work together to prepare for our future. We take pride in municipal teamwork. We partner on water and tourism and infrastructure and law enforcement issues and fire safety and emergency services and parkland and road maintenance and air quality and flood control, and the list goes on. Our partnerships work because we share similar values and a common connection to the land.

We are ever mindful to increase and improve the quality of our partnerships, to celebrate and to value cooperation and collaboration. Our willingness to discuss and work on new models of service delivery sets us apart. These traditions and practices and policies exist because we are truly interwoven, interconnected and inter-related.

Clearly, we constitute “a contiguous population which shares common social and economic interests and which should be included within a single district for purposes of effective and fair representation.” — Section(2)(d)(4) of Article XXI of the California Constitution

We ask that you respect our traditions and our history of putting agrarian principles into practice. Those shared principles have guided and shaped so much of our planning and way of life here. As one of California’s original counties, we respectfully request of the commission that you honor our way of life and established practices of cooperation and collaboration by reuniting our county.

Christine K. Adams, Jan Agee, Sheila Allen, Ruth Asmundson, Michael Bartolic, Sue Barton, Janet Berry, Giacomo Bonanno, Shivan Bonanno, Ray Borton, Verena Borton, Carol Bourne, Richard Bourne, Dan Braunstein, Millie Braunstein, Ann Brice, Deborah Brittan, Ida Bryan, David Burmester, Libby Burmester, Davis Campbell, Jean Canary, Ellen Coppock, Christina Craig-Veit, Jane Deamer, Lynn DeLapp, Charles Derby, Marian Derby, Denise Dickson, Martie Dote, Delaine Eastin, Glen Erickson, Vahid Farahyar, Tim Fenton, Lis Fleming, Jim Frame, Leanne Friedman, Kari Fry, Wayne Ginsburg, Christine L. Granger, Jan Jursnich, Anne Hawke, Michael Hulsizer, Patricia Hutchinson, Hiram Jackson, Carl Jorgensen, Mary Anne Kirsch, Michael Koltnow, Marcia Kreith, Charlotte Krovoza, Rachel Livingston, Richard Livingston, Susan Lovenburg, Richard McAdam, C. Jane McKendry, Betsy Marchand, Jerry Marr, Kathy Marr, Jim Mayer, Lynanne Mehlhaff, Jenny Melton, Kingsley Melton, Rita Montes Martin, Karen Mo, Donna Lynne Moreno, Don Morrill, Karen Naliboff, Margaret Neu, Lynne Nittler, Barbara Ohlendorf, Harry Ohlendorf, Ann Privateer, Andrea Ransdell, Sherry Richter Puntillo, Cliff Roblee, Frank Roe, Christine Robbins, D.B. Robinson, Jim Rodgers, Cirenio Rodriguez, Juelie Roggli, Gary Sandy, Don Saylor, Lucy Landon Scarlett, David Scheuring, Stephen Schuchman, Heather Smith, Lawson Snipes Jr., Al Sokolow, Sandra Sokolow, Joanna Stone, Walter Swain, Brian Sway, Helen Thomson, Elise Tidrick, Gene Trapp, Jo Ellen Trapp, Eric Vink, Joanne Volario, Ken Wagstaff, Sandy Weiss, Terry Whittier, Matthew Williams Jr., Merline Williams, Dan Wolk, Francesca Wright, Carri Cummings Ziegler

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