Here you go folks, the most recent Salida MAC meeting videos.
Stanislaus River (Photo credit: chaimann)
For those who couldn’t be there this is the next best thing.
The second link contains much of Katherine Borges’ incorporation presentation.
Many thanks to Brad Johnson for the recording and uploading of the videos.
By Joan Rutschow
The need to produce and deliver safe and nutritious food is a fundamental human concern. We will have to produce
English: A volume of one acre foot. It is a one acre area with a depth of one foot. This is equivalent to a 66 x 660 x 1 foot volume since an acre is defined as 66 x 660 feet. NOTE: the drawing is not to scale! (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
more food in the next 40 years than we have in the last 10,000.
California farm revenue was $43.5 billion in 2011, making it the nations’ top ag state. California produces more than 400 commodities, employing 800,000 workers on 81,500 farms. U.S. farmers are among the most efficient in the world. Over the past 30 years, California has increased production of milk by 44%, processing tomatoes by 69% and almonds by 122%. At the same time, new production methods have helped growers save 100,000 acre feet of water a year. Our farmers are excellent stewards of our land and our water!
Letter to Editor, 5/31/13
It is very encouraging to see Adam Gray and Anthony Canella supporting farmers in Stanislaus County and Merced County, location of the most prime agricultural land in the world. We do have a water storage problem. We need more facilities to capture and store our water. Currently, because of 2 year drought conditions, and low water levels in our reservoirs, I feel San Francisco needs to seriously consider desalinization plants if they want more water and not take our water here in the valley (whole Pacific Ocean; technology for 50 years in the Mideast and Japan).
Bee Article, 6-23-13
The Water Advisory Committee stated that farmers get credit for replenishing our underground aquifers which have a value of $600,000/year. However, our resident farmer and hydrologist, Vance Kennedy, has stated that the value of aquifer recharge by our farmers is $2 million + per year. Concerning garden head accounts, which is property of less than 5 acres, homeowners are permitted to flood their property. The great majority of these small user accounts are urban homeowners and are maintained by families and elderly people who grow their own food in their back yard. Human survival by growing your own food, personal responsibility and self-sufficiency should not be penalized financially by raising the rates of the garden head accounts to sky high levels.
Remember – water + food = life itself!
By Joan Rutschow
By Emerson Drake
“Just like a fisherman understands a fish will rise to the bait and even swallow the hook, our local politico’s know
rattle snake (Photo credit: noah.w)
people will bite on the idea of jobs being dangled in front of them even if the the jobs are just a mirage.”
Modesto’s North Side
When we look to the land North of Modesto on the City’s General Plan we see the area East of McHenry and West of Dale planned for development of both homes and business. Actually they like the phrase “mixed use”, which means some business but mostly homes, if Modesto’s developers in the Chamber of Commerce get their way, which they usually do. Denny Jackman’s Residential Urban Limit (RUL) proposal would have limited homes from being built North of Kiernan. But that didn’t suit the Chamber and their “friends” on the City Council.
Denny was led to believe his (I believe watered down) RUL would be allowed to be brought by the city council to a vote of the public but he was duped. He bargained in good faith, but he forgot who he was dealing with, “politicians”. Overall their whole purpose was to delay the RUL until it it was too late to gather signatures. Some of those same people were the ones invited to the now well known Wine and Nachos meetings at his home.
Now everyone (city, county, developers), well almost everyone, is either after or willing to negotiate away Kiernan Business Park West and possibly more. Modesto’s Mayor Marsh, the Chamber of Commerce, and even County representatives are actively pursuing and or discussing this property and more. And as usual the lure is jobs. Or is it more about politics? Also bear in mind if Mayor Marsh gets his one cent sales tax passed he’ll have up to $3.25 Million a year to spend on economic development and one time projects.
Mayor Marsh brought Salida up in his inaugural address and his State of the City speech and has much to lose politically if he can’t deliver. One of his problems are his potential opponents in the still several years away mayoral race. Councilwoman Stephanie Burnside has been posturing for several months now. To listen to examples of this I played about 40 minutes of the last Modesto Finance Committee meeting on my radio show. These unfettered exchanges between Marsh, Burnside, Muratore and Nyhoff are moments the public, with a few exceptions, seldom hears. The only place you can hear it is here in the last 40 minutes (yes you can skip forward) of the show is the committee meeting. http://www.blogtalkradio.com/centralvalleyhornet/2013/06/27/whats-on-americas-mind-with-emerson-drake
Modesto’s West Side
On this same front you have Village I profiteer Bill Zoslocki actively running for Joe Muratore’s seat in the council but we’re already hearing rumblings of his making a run at Marsh for mayor again. And he’s supporting both the expansion of the business parks on Modesto’s North side but a MAJOR proponent for the Chamber’s Pathway to SPRAWL on the West side.
The fear Salida should have is the County making a tax sharing deal to allow Modesto to develop areas inside the Salida Plan for its own benefit. With any business Modesto develops in the Salida Plan acreage, Modesto will receive the taxes which would take tax money away from Salida forever. But they will some how try to sell this bill of goods to Salida residents.
Now the Chamber’s placed about 6,000 acres of prime West side farmland in their sights. You have to appreciate the lies they use to promote their efforts. The Beckwith Dakota Triangle is 1,040 acres. The area outside the designated triangle over to Hammett Rd extended to Kansas/132 is 4,000 plus. But behind closed doors the Chamber has been saying the Western border needs to be an actual road not an imaginary line so the far western border will be Gates Rd. which adds approx. another 1,000 acres to their plan. But during the sales pitch they don’t count the triangle or admit to the Gates Rd boundary. Pretty slick hey?
The other lie they tell is they want to protect the prime farmland acreage outside of the Triangle and to do so they need to bring it inside Modesto’s General Plan. But since the voters passed Measure ‘E’ which says the county can’t allow homes to be built outside of cities farmland it is far safer for prime farmland outside of Modesto’s General Plan than inside it. Everyone needs to keep in mind that once the Chamber gets the west side land they will turn to the North, Salida already has them salivating. And with the Chamber land use attorney George Petrulakis’ take no prisoner approach Salida better be ready.
Salida should beware of the Modesto Chamber of Commerce bearing gifts. It brings to mind these lyrics.
“Take me in tender woman, take me in for heavens sake, take me in tender woman, sighed the snake.”
Topics include what is happening behind the scenes at Modesto Finance committee meetings, MID’s latest decisions and
Radio RED 104.9 FM (Photo credit: Mahdi Ayat.)
the game playing going on, Safety tax or not, useless endorsements, political posturing by Councilwoman Burnside, the retirement of Fire Chief Gary Hinshaw, these and more so tune in at 6:30 PM Wednesday and find out the things you really need to know.
104.9 FM Modesto our Flag Ship station
Our live and archive link
By Emerson Drake
It would be funny if it wan’t so pathetic, watching the Chamber of Commerce lobbyist Cecil Russell scurry from group
Chamber pot (Photo credit: Pete Reed)
to group presenting their Pathways to SPRAWL plan. Several weeks ago at the Planning Commission’s meeting regarding the General Plan Amendments, Russell tried in vain to fend off questions from the public despite not being on the agenda.
During the meeting Maggie Mejia, President of the Latino Community Roundtable (LCR), spoke to the public saying she was going to bring a Proclamation to her group endorsing the Pathways to Sprawl plan of the Chamber’s. But a few minutes later when she heard she would receive opposition to the Proclamation she must have silently changed her mind. For just a few days later and without consulting LCR members, Ms. Mejia signed the so called Proclamation.
Last Tuesday when the Chamber’s representatives met at the King Kennedy Memorial Center, the presentation was given to five members of the public (two of whom were from Salida) in an effort to receive the Boards endorsement. They received the endorsement of the five members of the King Kennedy Board, along with that of the NAACP since Frank Johnson was there.
My point is we have three Boards, The King Kennedy Memorial Center’s Board, the NAACP, and the LCR, all of whom are desperate for a seat at the power table, and are willing to endorse this GREEDY DEVELOPER’S LAND GRAB to obtain one. None of these Boards discussed this with their memberships, if in deed they represent voters at all, let alone sought out debate on the subject. So now the Chamber has three meaningless endorsements to brag about.
By Emerson Drake
Stanislaus County ‘s very own Sheriff Adam Christianson is at it again. Last week Stanislaus County agreed to pay $1.8
Coroner’s Bureau, Plate 3 (Photo credit: Thomas Hawk)
Million dollars for hiring a pathologist away from the company Stanislaus County had contracted to supply us with until we could hire one of our own. Instead of seeking a pathologist on his own, the Sheriff broke our contract and pirated one away. So lets review this for just a minute. The Sheriff signs a contract that states we CAN NOT hire the pathologist away from the contracted company. But he does so anyway? What was he thinking? The result is yet another black mark against the Sheriff known for doing things his own way despite the cost.
Speaking of doing things his own way, our beloved Sheriff Christianson decided to auction off helicopter rides for charity, unfortunately it’s illegal. Now usually he saves his “specially arranged” rides for cases of wine used for campaign functions but this time it was for a fund-raiser of a nonprofit. Maybe the paperwork for the ride will disappear this time too.
Once again the Modesto Bee is showing their cards while protecting their friends and is trying to cover this up. They’ve had ALL of this information for days but for some reason haven’t bothered to let the public know.
For news you can use,
you won’t read in the Bee,
it’s the EyeOnModesto
spelled EYE.
By EOM Contributor
We have so many important issues facing this country right now…what do you believe your politicians should be concentrating on?
What comes to my mind first is access to health care, including birth control. Access to affordable birth control reduces the number of abortions performed and we can all agree that is a good thing. The Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) has many important parts. First of all, being a woman is no longer a pre-existing condition! The ACA prevents insurers from charging women more for insurance than men. In some states, women were actually paying up to 70% more for insurance coverage than men. The ACA prevents insurers from denying coverage for a pre-existing condition (diabetes, high blood pressure…). The ACA also prevents insurers from dropping your coverage if you are diagnosed with a condition such as diabetes or cancer. These are all good things. There may be some kinks to work out, but the ACA is a valiant attempt to provide millions of Americans with access to health care.
What has Congress done since President Obama was re-elected? They have voted 37 TIMES TO REPEAL OBAMACARE! 37 times at a cost of $50 million dollars! Money well-spent, wouldn’t you agree? Remember Einstein’s definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over and over and expecting a different result. Yes, our elected representatives are officially insane!
Other issues that need our attention are job creation, tax parity, immigration reform, equal pay for equal work, the on-going violence against women in our society (and our military where our female soldiers need not fear being raped by the enemy, but do need to fear being raped by their fellow soldiers and commanding officers), and discrimination in housing and the workplace (women can be fired and evicted for being victims of domestic violence, and gays can be fired for being gay), and investment in our infrastructure (repairs of bridges and roads which would make travel safer and create jobs), just to name a few.
But what have they actually done? Well, I’ve mentioned the 37 failed votes to repeal the ACA. In addition to that, state by state women are losing their rights to determine what will happen with their own bodies (male politicians believing they know more about our health than women and physicians do). The House just approved a bill that would eliminate overtime pay. Republicans want to raise the student loan interest rate to 8.5%, more than Wall Street Banks pay. Now what would be the effect of these things? Students graduating from college will be saddled with even greater debt. I don’t see how that helps us. Women facing an unplanned pregnancy will be forced to have children they can’t afford to care for. Employees working more than 40 hours a week will get compensatory time, but at a rate of one hour to one hour, instead of pay at a rate of time and one half. Most people work overtime for the pay, not for more time off. I’m not seeing how that will help low-income families or anyone, for that matter.
Contact your elected representatives. Tell them to stop passing bills that only harm us and do something that actually helps us! And stop focusing on the reproductive lives of women!
By EOM Contributor
The War Against Women continues unabated as shown by on-going comments made by male politicians. First there are
the “GYNOTICIANS”…those elected male representatives who believe they know more about women’s health than women and their doctors know. You know, the men in North Dakota who passed a bill requiring physicians to lie to their pregnant patients who are considering an abortion by telling them they will become sterile, will suffer life-long depression and may attempt suicide. None of which are true.
Now the House has approved a bill (which will likely not be approved by the Senate) which would institute a nation-wide ban on abortion after 20 weeks. Very few abortions occur that late and when they do it’s generally because of a serious threat to the mother’s health or discovery that the fetus will not survive due to a genetic flaw. Most genetic testing cannot be done until the 24th or 25th week, so this bill would force a woman to risk her life to continue the pregnancy or force her to give birth to a child she know will die within minutes. The reason they have chosen 20 weeks as their cut-off date is due to disputed scientific evidence that a fetus can feel pain at 20 weeks. According to Texas Representative Michael Burgess (who was actually an obstetrician), fetuses have “purposeful movements with their hands, even at 15 weeks, especially if it is a male fetus and his hands are between his legs”. Yes, he actually said that. He apparently believes male fetuses are masturbating at 15 weeks and if they can feel pleasure, surely they can feel pain. While I understand not wanting a fetus to feel pain, can we justify forcing the birth of babies who will die (and quite possibly die in pain) by denying the right to end the pregnancy?
We have all heard about Todd Akins who claimed that women don’t get pregnant when they are raped because “the female body has a way of shutting that down.” Sorry, Todd…statistics show that approximately 25,000 women a year get pregnant as a result of rape.
Several states actually allow a rapist to sue his victim to prevent them from having an abortion. They can even sue for visitation rights and custody. A rapist…getting custody of his victim’s child! How offensive is that?
The FBI definition of rape is “insertion or penetration of the vagina (no matter how slight) with any object, without consent.” Governor Scott Walker has said he will sign a bill that would require a woman wanting to terminate a pregnancy to have a 10″ metal probe inserted into her vagina (medically unnecessary) prior to termination. Watch out, ladies….the state will force you to be raped before you can end your pregnancy! By the way, this medically unnecessary procedure won’t be covered by insurance, adding to the financial burden of low-income women faced with an unplanned pregnancy.
In all but six states, it is legal to fire a woman for being a victim of domestic violence! It’s true…based on the assumption that the woman’s husband or partner who is violent may appear at her workplace. Yes, that has happened, but perhaps the solution is to lock up the violent man instead of firing the victim. There have even been cases where landlords evicted women who were victims of domestic violence based on the opinion that multiple calls to police constitute “nuisances” to the property.
And here is the most recent ridiculous statement, although at least this one was made by a journalist and not an elected official…Wall Street Journal editorial writer James Taranto wrote about the sexual assaults occurring in the military. He said that these reports are “fakes” and constitute an “assault on male sexuality.” Apparently, men are born to rape. If I were a man, I would be highly offended by this. Even as a woman, I’m highly offended by this.
But there are still people all around us that are not paying attention to what is happening to women in this country. Poverty (we still earn .77 to every 1.00 for doing the same work), lack of health care (including access to birth control), violence (1 in 3 women will be the victim of violence during her lifetime) and many other issues. There is one bright spot, though. More girls are graduating from high school than boys. More girls are going on to college than boys. More girls are getting advanced degrees than boys. Education is the key to better lives. Maybe, for the next generation, the pendulum will swing in our favor. Don’t worry, guys….we will treat you much better than you have treated us.
The latest on the up coming Salida MAC meeting, how easy it is to get endorsements from local groups and just how
Radio RED 104.9 FM (Photo credit: Mahdi Ayat.)
effective they are, the Chambers Pathways to SPRAWL, how little real news we get from the local print media and the slant they give what we read, these and more so tune in at 6:30 PM Wednesday and find out the things you really need to know.
104.9 FM Modesto our Flag Ship station
Our live and archived link to this episode:
The man who flaunted his promises to MID ratepayers not to run for office Jim Mortnesen, the Modesto Chamber of
Radio RED 104.9 FM (Photo credit: Mahdi Ayat.)
Commerce’s land grab and what it means to Salida, Safety/ General/ Road, which of these taxes appeal to you? these and more so tune in at 7:00 PM Wednesday and find out the things you really need to know.
104.9 FM Modesto our Flag Ship station
The link to the live and archive show
Eye On Modesto 