The Salida Municipal Advisory Council meeting is Tuesday, September 24 at 7 p.m. in the Nick W. Blom Salida Regional Library 
Community Room located at 4835 Sisk Road, Salida. Featured speaker will be Andrew Malizia on “Stanislaus County Public Works”. Visit Salida MAC’s online newsletter for more information: http://salidamac.blogspot.com or e-mail salidamac@gmail.com for more info.
The Latino Community Roundtable (LCR) Presents…
Candidate Forums Continue with Modesto Irrigation District (MID) Monday night Sept. 23 at 6:00 PM at Castle Real Estate 1418 J. Street, Modesto Ca.
The League of Women Voters of Stanislaus County Presents…
Date and Time: Sept.30, 6:15 to 7:30 PM. – Modesto City Council candidates for Districts 2, 4 and 5 in the council chamber in the basement of 1010 10th Street
The Latino Community Roundtable Presents…
Candidates forums for the Turlock Unified School District and the Turlock Irrigation District (TID) on October 10th 6:00 PM at the Turlock Chamber of Commerce Conference Room.
The League of Women Voters Presents…
Candidates for the Modesto City Schools of Education on Oct.10, 6 to 7:30 PM at the King Kennedy Center 601 Martin Luther King Drive Modesto, Ca.
Emerson Drake
Jobs,,,Jobs…Jobs is the cry and we’re being told the magic elixir to our problem is shovel ready land. If you build them they
will come is the Chambers mantra referring to Business Parks. The quality jobs will flow into Modesto if we only had a park….
We’re not in Kansas anymore Toto
It sounds like a chant from L. Frank Baum’s Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and it may be just as fanciful. At the recent Planning Commission meeting we heard the Chamber’s lobbyist Cecil Russell and his faithful realtor side kick Craig Lewis repeat this claim as they have several times before, but this time with a twist. The lobbyist had promised at prior meetings to supply us with the numbers of the prospective contacts they had received from companies looking to establish a business in Modesto.
They alleged the Stanislaus County Alliance had received over 70 inquires and the reason NONE of these came to to fruition was, you probably guessed it, lack of shovel ready land. Bill Bassitt the Alliance’s former CEO admitted that during his tenure he had failed to bring in a single major manufacturing company despite Modesto giving the Alliance $65,000 this year alone (Modesto has funded them for years) to do just that.
The Alliance is, by design and charter, supposed to represent ALL of Stanislaus County in an effort to obtain new business.
Lets take a look at this claim by asking ourselves a few questions:
Is the only reason we have had few companies move to Modesto because of lack of shovel ready land? A more obvious answer would be since the current recession started in 2007 even if we had massive amounts of unused land available for immediate use here in Modesto it would have remained unused. We’ve had land available on Pelendale (35 acres in a single plot alone) acreage in the Beard Industrial Park and Kiernan Business Park East but it has gone undeveloped. In Beard the owners have played a waiting game looking for a particular type of tenant who would need rail access to support their private railroad company. They’ve actually been thwarting some business possibilities playing a game with the public until the City Council made them a “special” deal by going to LAFCO and not requiring them to sign waivers to be able to access the utilities you and I paid for.
Isn’t the Stanislaus Alliance supposed to represent ALL of the County not just Modesto?
Yes, they are and Turlock, Patterson, Riverbank and Oakdale all have land available so why the flimsy excuses? They feel the time is right and want to strike while the window of desperation is open. And what political leader is willing to speak out against the jobs, jobs, jobs mantra? NONE.
The Chamber is running Village I Developer and Profiteer Bill Zoslocki for City Council
When the Chamber can’t come up with new ideas or faces they run retreads like Bill Zoslocki. He has spoken out for the Chambers Pathway to SPRAWL several times in front of the Planning Commission but now that the elections are getting closer he has become the invisible man. When we reminded people of Developer Bill Zoslocki’s past of manipulating prior councils and making millions of dollars at the expense of Modesto taxpayers his supporters whined, forgetting that once he pulled papers and then filed for office he opened himself up to public scrutiny. Something the Candidate workshops remind the prospective candidates that their supporters ignore.
Will we stand up to the Chamber’s pressure?
As we’ve written in recent articles the Chamber is playing both ends against the middle which seems to be their way. In public pretending to lean one way and behind the scenes working in the opposite direction. Will we, the voting/taxpaying public, see through the smoke screen or will we be like the scarecrow seeing the paved over farmland filled with houses wishing …if I only had a brain.
Tonight’s topics include MID candidates, the Serpa rule, where are our MID payments going, water mining, the latest from the
Planning Commission, Wood Colony and Salida, these topics and more so tune into tonight and find out what you need to know to make decisions important to you, your family and your community. Wednesday at 8:00 PM
104.9 FM our flagship station
To listen live or from the archive http://www.blogtalkradio.com/whats-on-americas-mind/2013/09/19/whats-on-americas-mind-with-emerson-drake-1
By Emerson Drake
During the discussion of the consent calendar we requested some information on several items. Document #11389 in the
amount of $37,946.87 and #11408 in the amount of $8,247.96 were detailed for manual checks. No breakdown was given. And Document #11404 in the amount of $18,229.63 – #11430 in the amount of $12,590.11 – #11459 in the amount of $38,436.15, detailed for prepaid procurement cards and again no detail was given.
$115,450.72 in money for which no detail has been provided is a concern. So we made a public records request for the details regarding these expenditures. When the topic was broached all that was asked for was an explanation. The example we received was “for example it would repay employees for bridge tolls.” Now we don’t know how much of this money was spent on tolls, but using bridge tolls as an example for over $115,000.00 spent between August 6 thru August 27 seems a little ludicrous.
We also questioned a $1,300 dollar charge labeled ‘monthly’ for progress magazine which is a publication by the Modesto Chamber of Commerce. The same chamber which actively supported selling our water long term to San Francisco and which endorses political candidates including those for the Modesto Irrigation District. This presents an ethical dilemma for MID and the ratepayers. We have repeatedly requested this practice be halted to no avail. It may be we’ll have to wait for new candidates to be elected to help support Directors Larry Byrd and Nick Blom.
Three MID candidates to avoid: Jim Mortensen, John Mensinger, and Paul Campbell
Jim Mortensen actually jumped up to be speak during the public comment period to support/endorse (he used both terms) last weeks adoption of the “Serpa” rule in the Board Governance policy specifically section BL-4 (b). Quite honestly I was surprised but maybe I shouldn’t have been. He was nominated by Tom Van Groningen to the Water Advisory Board. He promised NOT to run for the MID Board and as soon as possible he pulled papers and signed up to run. Jim Mortensen has also publicly spoken in favor of selling our water to San Francisco. John Mensinger and Paul Campbell both failed to speak out against the proposed water sale. For Mortensen to support a policy that not only allows but insists the General Manager and Attorney NOT allow requests for information if it takes up too much staff time or is disruptive, is unconscionable. Please remember former GM Allen Short deemed 15 minutes of staff time as too much.
Trust is something you build
Already our new General Manager Roger ‘the Dodger’ VanHoy has demonstrated a desire to withhold information from the public and also a penchant for presenting misinformation unless his feet are held to the fire by the Board. After remaining silent last week when asked if the ‘Serpa’ rule was part of the Governance policy we got a taste of things to come IF he’s allowed to go the way of his mentor Allen Short.
We are also following up with TID Board President Michael Frantz regarding Board of Control report concerns. More on that subject after we’ve talked with Director Frantz.
If you get the chance, ask “the Dodger” why MID is spending over $6,000 a year on having bottled water delivered when MID own’s two water treatment plants. His answer would be funny until you consider the elderly and low income people barely scraping by so his people in Ripon, the Woodland generator(near MJC) and, believe it or not, the MID legal Department, can drink bottled water. Maybe he doesn’t like the taste of ours.
I know it gives me a sour taste in my mouth what about you?
Vance C. Kennedy
Since the last MID Board meeting a lawyer friend of mine was kind enough to call my attention to a report, published in 2011,
which is applicable to the question of what can be done about the grossly over-drafting of the water table in the foothills. I have left a partial copy of the reference with Pat, your secretary.
I quote, “The common law doctrine of correlative rights regulates the taking and use of groundwater, unless local arrangements apply. That doctrine limits groundwater pumping to the ‘safe yield’, being the volume of natural and artificial recharge of the aquifer, which is shared by overlying landowners on an “equitable basis” (regardless of their particular uses), and by non-overlying landowners, if there is sufficient water available.”
That last “if there is sufficient water available” is the key. There is not sufficient water available to support the water drawn by the existing and proposed deep wells. The rainfall in the foot hills averages in the range 12 to 14 inches of water per year, of which perhaps half contributes to groundwater. Almond trees being planted require at least 30 inches of water per year, so there is a shortage of about 24 inches of water above the safe yield. The shortage is being made up by mining ancient groundwater (2,000 to 13,000 years old) in direct conflict with the doctrine of safe yield. It causes major and continuing drops in the regional water table. The result is a short time benefit to the County of a large increase in almond production and a long term societal disaster for the foothills region. Politically, it is a “hot potato”, but must not be ignored, as in the past. Irreplaceable and extensive damage has already occurred and must not continue.
In sedimentary rock deposits it is well known that the lateral permeability of rocks is much greater than the vertical permeability. Therefore, when a deep well operates, it can draw water much more easily from the side than above. That water comes from the neighbors before it comes from the overlying rock. California is one of two states that have no groundwater laws, but tort law may very well apply, since a neighbor’s property may become worthless as a result of the almond grower’s actions. After all, if water is too deep or expensive to pump, a foothill house and land is worthless. It no longer provides taxes to the County or a livelihood to people.
Who is responsible for filing the lawsuit to recover damages due to these deep high-volume wells? It’s a valid question. It is my non-lawyer understanding that if the problem is a purely local one, the affected property owner is responsible for handling the suit, but if it is a regional problem, the public authorities have the responsibility. There is little doubt that this is a regional problem and therefore the County should file suit to stop the pumping and reimburse the harmed property owners. There is some discussion of this question in the reference mentioned.
I realize that this is outside the sphere of influence of MID, but I thought the MID members might be interested.
A copy of this talk will be provided to the Board of Supervisors, and, as a water agency, you might be interested in following up on the information I have provided.
Part four in the applicable section: UncommonInnovation
By Emerson Drake
Monday night’s Planning Commission (PC) meeting was one of the most enlightening so far. Traipsing through the murky
waters of the General Plan Amendment process has been challenging. Like all public processes at times it becomes trench warfare with groups like Modesto’s Chamber of Commerce saying one thing publicly and then maneuvering behind the scenes in a completely different direction.
The case in point
The Chamber has been talking publicly with the Commission and interested parties like those from Salida, saying Salida should be removed from Modesto’s General Plan. But when it came time to vote the three Commissioners most closely tied to Modesto’s Chamber, Ted Brandvold, Steve Carter, and Marshall Riddle, finally showed their cards. They openly voted against the PC’s Staff proposal and earlier attempts to return Salida to the General Plan along with an additional 1,200 feet on the North side of Kiernan between Dale and McHenry.
Brent Sinclair had explained to the PC and the public that he and staff had made the recommendations because he believed, not only could he sell the plan to the Stanislaus Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO), but that Modesto could set the standard for all Stanislaus County communities to follow. At previous meetings Brandvold’s comments had made it obvious he had bought into Craig Lewis’ ‘we need to stay ahead of Riverbank’ spiel.
Craig Lewis made a last desperate attempt to try and sway the Planning Commission by pointing out how many acres less the new proposal was but it was quickly responded to by acknowledging the majority of the acreage being removed was Salida. The Commissioners didn’t buy the keeping up with the Jones’ (Riverbank) or maybe like many of those in the audience they were aware Riverbank is in the process of pulling back their General Plan boundaries to more reasonable limits.
The PC Staff recommendations 091613_PC Agenda GPA WkShp
The Brandvold, Carter, Riddle proposal which included the additional land failed to pass 3-4 and the following vote to support the PC Staff’s proposal passed 4-3.
Another interesting note was the mention of the several hundred notices which had been sent to landowners in the now expanded Beckwith-Dakota Triangle (1,830 acres in the shape of a rectangle) and that only 6-8 came to the meeting. Also of note was Commissioner Brandvold’s comment that the same few faces from Salida were always present and he wasn’t convinced they represented Salida’s position on annexation. You can imagine the reaction. You had the Salida Chamber of Commerce represented at the meeting along with the Salida MAC. The Salida MAC had previously voted to officially oppose the annexation of Salida by Modesto so I’m really not sure what he was thinking or if he was…thinking.
It could have just as easily been said that the same few people had been representing Modesto Developers at these meetings but since he clandestinely supported the Chamber it went unsaid by him. It also needs to be noticed Salida has continually supported their friends to the south, Wood Colony, in their attempt to avoid annexation. But there are those, especially those who didn’t bother to attend this meeting, who would sow the seeds of dissent and ignore this fact.
It’s far from over
The business park planned for the Beckwith-Dakota triangle is HUGE and 1,830 acres (almost 3 square miles) is too much land to allow to be stolen from farmers and those living in Wood Colony. It has been pointed out repeatedly NO buffer between Business Parks is allotted for. And if this doesn’t change the harassing lawsuits against these farmers are inevitable regardless of Right to Farm Ordinances.
Chris Tyler’s comment from the prior meeting, “Prove it Works”, is important to remember because if those responsible for placing businesses in the proposed business park allow an inequitable arrangement similar to the one Blue Diamond received in Turlock we’ll have squandered, not only our legacy for Modesto’s future, but allowed the best soil on God’s green earth to be paved over. Giving away 88 precious acres of some of best farmland in the world for 50 jobs has to be considered unacceptable. Over in Mountain House they insist on high quality jobs to be brought in or they turn the businesses away. I realize how desperate we are for jobs but we can’t afford a giveaway to “buddies” to line the pockets of a few.
The recent months with the Planning Commission have been similar to the opening skirmish of a major battle and the Modesto City Council will be the battleground. The big guns/power brokers will be brought in to do battle in the main arena. Of notice was land use attorney/developers mouthpiece George Petrulakis sitting in the back of the room taking in the preliminary’s planning and awaiting the spectacle yet to come.
Tonight is one of the last times if not the last time the public will get to influence the Planning Commission’s recommendations
to the Modesto City Council.
Here is the supporting pdf: 091613_PC Agenda GPA WkShp
It’s yet another important meeting the Bee didn’t mention.
By Emerson Drake
When MID General Manager Roger VanHoy was asked during the last MID meeting if ‘the Serpa Rule’ was included in the Governance policy the Board
was getting ready to vote on, he looked down at the dais and acted as if he was going to write something and made no comment. And as I pointed out in the last article the Serpa Rule was indeed part of the Governance plan (BL-4 to be exact).
BL-4 states: (B) In the case of Board members or committees with MID employees or contractors requesting information or assistance without Board authorization, the General Manager or the General Council MUST refuse such requests that require, in their opinion, a material amount of staff time, or funds, or are disruptive.
Previously GM Allen Short had declared that conducting a salary survey was disruptive to morale and that potentially (the project didn’t have to be started) using more than 15 minutes of staff time was cause for not supplying the requested information.
Well I wasn’t the only person he bamboozled. Apparently he had assured more than one member of the Board the Serpa Rule wasn’t included there either. Sadly he mislead several of the Directors who voted him his permanent position as General Manager just last week. The honeymoon is over for ‘the Dodger’ after he stepped on his own…tail. Looks like the Board and the public are going to have a trust issues with Roger ‘the Dodger’ VanHoy in the future, and rightly so.
So I wouldn’t be surprised if the Serpa Rule gets removed from the Governance policy before the elections.
The two men who pushed hard to get the Governance policy in front of the Board as an action item (Tom Van Groningen and Glen Wild) are going around ‘campaigning’ for a few of the candidates saying, that like themselves the candidates believe our water should be sold to San Francisco on a long term basis and that we need to institute the Governance policy immediately.
The three candidates we should avoid like the plague are John Mensinger, Jim Mortensen, and Paul Campbell. We can NOT afford to for these men to get into office. Their irresponsible desire to send water out of our county to San Francisco on a first serve basis utilizing a long term (30 year) contract is shortsighted and foolish.
By Emerson Drake
Just when you think things are somewhat under control down at the Modesto Irrigation District (MID) the old guard pulls a
fast one. And just like they have in the past they voted for an incomplete piece of legislation called Board Policies Regarding Board Governance Process and Staff Linkage. This was a ghost from the past since it was under this ‘guise’ they voted for the “Serpa” rule. This was how Allen Short used to manipulate the information made available to elected Board members and the public. One of the main parts of the original policy enabled the General Manager to use a ’15 minute rule’ as a tool to limit staff time to research questions from the MID Board.
Here is the scary part. According to General Manager Roger Van Hoy parts of the policy were not included in the material on the website and in the packets passed out to the public AND the Directors. Here is the incomplete segment the Directors and the public were allowed to see.
The General Manager stated links to “other” policies” would be added using hyper-links referencing the other unnamed policies and enforced. I specifically asked if any of the old SERPA rule were included. NO response was given. I requested a delay so the Board could read the entire policy they would be voting for and was ignored. Director Larry Byrd said he didn’t realize this was an action item and requested more time to study the proposed governance policy.
Unfortunately Unity of Control BL-4 which was approved IS the Serpa Rule
Once again the ultimate power is in the hands of the General Manager and the best we can hope for is a benevolent Dictator
. BL-4 states: B. In the case of Board members or committees with MID employees or contractors requesting information or assistance without Board authorization, the General Manager or the General Council MUST refuse such requests that require, in their opinion, a material amount of staff time, or funds, or are disruptive. In the past Allen Short used a 15 minute time limit as his policy for a material amount of staff time. And just what describes disruptive?
Tom Van Groningen and Paul Warda revisit the crime scene
Directors Van Groningen and Warda were among the Directors voting for the original policy and Glen Wild has been a rubber stamp from the beginning of his term four years ago. Sadly it appears the lame ducks are desperate for so sort of legacy. I would have thought they had placed enough anchors around the necks of ratepayers in the form of sky-high rates.
Paul Warda had promised to vote against this policy at the last meeting
He did come up to me during a short break five minutes prior to the Board taking up the policy and informed me of his rethinking his prior decision against the governance policy and that he would be supporting it. It seems a legacy, no matter how devastating, is more important to these three lame ducks than having helped improve MID.
You can register your unhappiness with their decision by emailing the MID Board at board@mid.org Ask them to take BL-4 out of the Governance policy immediately.
Eye On Modesto 