Alpine Fire Protection District board member Barry Willis is now a member of San Diego’s Local Agency Formation Commission board.
Willis joined the LAFCO board May 6 as a special districts representative on the LAFCO board.
“I’m excited to be here,” Willis said.
LAFCO handles jurisdictional boundary changes including incorporations, annexations, consolidations, latent powers expansions, and detachments. The LAFCO board consists of two county supervisors —currently Dianne Jacob and Jim Desmond—, one city council representative from San Diego, two city council members from the county’s other 17 incorporated cites, two members from special districts, and one public member.
Chula Vista mayor Mary Casillas Salas also joined the LAFCO board May 6.
Special districts include independent special districts, which have independently elected directors, and dependent special districts, whose members are the Board of Supervisors or in some cases a city council. The boards of independent special districts choose the two special districts representatives on the LAFCO board. Willis replaces Ed Sprague, who is on the board of the Olivenhain Municipal Water District, as a LAFCO commissioner.
Willis was born at Mercy Hospital in San Diego and was raised in the Allied Gardens area of San Diego. He attended Foster Elementary School, Lewis Junior High School, and Patrick Henry High School before starting his college classes at Grossmont College. He graduated from the University of California, San Diego, and is now a professional health insurance and life insurance broker who also has a Series 7 stockbroker’s license. Willis has lived in Alpine for 14 years.
Willis was first elected to the Alpine Fire District board last November. He sought Sprague’s seat on the LAFCO board. “I was intrigued by what LAFCO does. I wanted to be a part of decisions like this,” he said.
When Willis received the telephone call that he had been elected to the LAFCO board he was in Hong Kong.