Tehachapi News

larger view

As I mentioned in my last column, I would like to take the opportunity to talk about how our governmental system works in Kern County.

I lived and worked in Boston for ten years. When I moved back to Tehachapi I had trouble figuring out the difference between the city and the county. Back East, all land is in some municipality or other, with the exception of forest or parkland.

Everyone lives in a city, town, village, or hamlet, with its own government. There are small parcels of unincorporated land here and there, but they are rare.

In Kern County, much of our land is unincorporated. We have 11 incorporated cities in the county: Arvin, Bakersfield, California City, Delano, Maricopa, McFarland, Ridgecrest, Shafter, Taft, Tehachapi, and Wasco. Rosamond, Lamont, Mojave and others we might think are cities are actually unincorporated areas, as are the Tehachapi area Community Service Districts (CSDs) such as Bear Valley Springs, Stallion Springs and Golden Hills.

Just because you have Tehachapi as your mailing address it doesn't necessarily mean you live in the City of Tehachapi. The 93561 zip code covers approximately 400 square miles of land as commonly defined by the Tehachapi Unified School District. The actual City of Tehachapi is only about four square miles in the middle.

The city limits are roughly behind Albertson's on the west, Highline to Dennison, and then Valley to Willow Springs on the south and southeast, behind the houses on Appaloosa Court on the east, and into the mountains behind Capitol Hills and Arabian Drive on the north. Within this area are pockets of county land. New residents in these areas are often surprised to discover they don't have city services, such as sewer, roads, water and police, that are enjoyed by their neighbors across the street. Some residents of these areas, however, prefer to stay in the county and not be subject to city ordinances.

Within the actual city limits, the City of Tehachapi is the governing body, comprised of five city council members elected by the city voters. For residents of the county, the government is the board of supervisors who meet in Bakersfield. While city residents also vote for our county supervisor, county residents may not vote for the city council. All of us in this zip code are served by one school district, fire department, hospital district and recreation and parks district.

Clear as mud? It gets worse! Next time, I'll attempt to explain CSDs and other “special districts.”

— Mayor Deborah Hand