Eye On Modesto

Thoughts and observations about Modesto and Stanislaus County

Archive for the month “December, 2018”

15 Dec 2018

The House Modesto Gets Flimflammed at MID

By Emerson Drake  

On October 1, 2017 Pastor Glenn Berteau took a few minutes from Sunday’s service to introduce  lay pastor Stu Gilman and to ask for the congregations’ support and vote for Stu Gilman.  Pastor Berteau reminded the congregation that Stu is a personal friend of his and a friend of The House along with being a board member of The House.  Stu made a promise to the congregation that day. He said for years they had been overpaying for electricity and he would get them a rebate based on how much money they had spent on electricity.

Stu was subsequently elected to the Modesto Irrigation District Board and MID was facing a law suit from ratepayers.  He and the rest of the MID Board decided to commission a Cost of Service Study from Bartle Wells Associates and MRW & Associates to defend against the pending lawsuit.

Now to the meat and potatoes. The ‘report’ basically said apples were oranges and up is down.  It’s an agreed upon fact the water delivery side was facing a $17 Million shortfall every year.  And the electric ratepayers have been overcharged to pay for steeply discounted electric rates to large companies (read below cost in some cases), to pay for the water losses and to buy a percentage in the natural gas powered Lodi plant.  The Lodi plant is where their profits come from and are called ‘discretionary funds’ by the report.   The report states if MID’s Board has a policy they can point to that allows them to spend the discretionary funds as they see fit, that could include cars, boats. subsidizing farmers and large businesses including Gallo.

Stu Gilman and the rest of the Board voted to support the report and if it holds up in court it removes any possibility for the congregation and quite honestly the rest of us ratepayers to not only get a rebate but to get an even break in MID’s repressive rate structure.  So when the rubber met the road Stu supported MID and abandoned his congregation and the rest of the ratepayers.  Stu had his chance to stand up and keep his word to us but he showed his true colors and instead became just another one of them.  We had hope and gave him rope, and look what he did with it.

One of the issues is the essence of religion is submission to authority and for supporting Stu Gilman, Pastor Glenn must accept some responsibility for the outcome.  People expect their Pastors, Ministers, Priests, and Spiritual Advisers to look out for their best interests when they demonstrate their support for candidates or ballot measures from the pulpit.  As happens often in life the people that need the breaks the most get screwed but when it happens to you, by the leaders of your church, you should be asking questions.  Lots of questions.

And your belief in their answers is discretionary.

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11 Dec 2018
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MID Intrigue, Betrayal and the Brown Act

By Emerson Drake  

Recently Modesto Irrigation District meetings are more like a Shakespearean play. They’ve had it all, palace coups, intrigue, betrayal,  possible legal violations and audit reports that stretch credulity.  And believe it or not we’re underplaying recent events.

Since it directly effects our wallets lets start with the most recent first, the 100 plus pages of the District’s Cost of Service Study Report.  Listening to the report of their meeting on line will mystify and amaze you while on occasion putting you to sleep.  When I hear “generally accepted audit and accounting standards” the hairs on the back of my neck rise up because that is the same verbiage we heard during the Enron scandal.  Remember Enron’s report suggested Enron was financially sound all the while the walls were crumbling down.

MID is fiscally sound but the reasoning behind the report is questionable. The whole purpose of this report is to defend them against an electrical ratepayers law suit. They change the words “electrical profits” to “discretionary funds” that can be applied anywhere the Board chooses. And as the magician says abracadabra there is no subsidy for the water side despite the annual shortfall of  $17M.  When evaluating MID’s reports keep in mind the old adage  ‘liars can figure and figures can lie and that well paid ones do it even better.”

The report’s cost of service numbers are skewed, in other words biased and distorted.  As we learned during the Mountain House discussions it all depends on which column they put costs into.  Or if they bother to account for them at all, after all out of sight is out of mind.  MID has a tendency to say once we decide to supply power to an area the expensive main feeder power lines and substations don’t count against cost of service. Yet someone pays the bill.  But that person is an imaginary one named ‘discretionary’.

While we’re still working our way through the report we haven’t come across the validation of supplying electricity at below cost to businesses while still covering their costs. If you have any doubts, it’s ‘Discretionary’ that is paying for it.  If you want to meet ‘Discretionary’ take a look in the mirror.

As we continue to review the report and receive information from our on-going public record requests, there will be more to follow.

 

 

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04 Dec 2018

Modesto Plans a General Amendment 2040 Update

BY Emerson Drake  

Modesto is planning a public study session for Councilmembers and Commissioners, and is allowing the public to attend.  In a recent public records request, the city denied that Councilmembers had had any input into the General Plan Amendment. Unsurprisingly,  the City Attorney Adam Lindgren’s response was a point blank denial that ANYONE from the Council had sent any emails or texts to city staff regarding the GPA.  Do we believe that?  No!

I would suggest anyone interested in learning the city’s plans should try to attend or at least send a representative to be in the loop. The date is Monday, December 17, 2018, 6:PM Modesto Centre Plaza basement level.  The main entrance at 10th and K Street is recommended.

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