Here’s the Letter from Allen Short to Sen. Dianne Feinstein
MID’s general manager Allen Short wrote this back in November 2011. Is he negotiating or solidifying an agreement. Either way, remember this as you listen to the Senator speak on Wednesday.
Eye On Modesto
Thoughts and observations about Modesto and Stanislaus County
Archive for the tag “MID Board”
Is George Petrulakis a Paid Lobbyist / Lawyer for MID Here’s His Contract
By Emerson Drake
We expressed concerns regarding any meetings between the City of Modesto and MID without Rollie Stevens being present especially when it was made known MID refused to allow Stevens to attend any meetings between them and Modesto City fathers. When Modesto Mayor Garrad Marsh met with MID General Manager Allen Short with Attorney/Lobbyist George Petrulakis present we felt uncomfortable. We were assured by the Mayor Petrulakis was just there as a facilitator. At the time, no one could prove Petrulakis was there for any other reason. But now after you read the contract you’ll see he is being paid to influence Modesto’s elected officials to see things MID’s way.
You’ll be able to see how much Petrulakis is being paid by the hour and how much he’s received so far.
We’ll discuss MID’s choke hold on requested public information very soon, but for now read the contract and decide for yourself if this is the correct way to proceed. If MID gets to have a paid attorney/lobbyist in the meetings shouldn’ t we?
MID Violates Brown Act and Public Records Act in the Same Week
Page 2 – A POCKET GUIDE TO THE CALIFORNIA PUBLIC RECORDS ACT (Photo credit: absurd_hero)
By Emerson Drake
During the Modesto Irrigation District Board Meeting on July 24,2012, Board President Tom Van Groningen refused to allow the public to speak in response to several agendized items. This is a direct violation and should not be allowed but this Board President likes making up rules as he goes along.
Just a point of reference, but Bee reporter John Holland was sitting just a few rows away from me, but somehow neglected to report this Brown Act Violation in his story about the meeting.
The Public Records Act limits the time a public agency has to respond to inquiries and since no emergency delay has been requested, by the time MID responds they will be in violation. MID has delayed many Public Records Act requests, and this is just another example.
To: Emerson Drake Via email only
Re: California Public Records Act Request
Dear Mr. Drake:
On July 16, 2012 Modesto Irrigation District received your Public Records Request via
email, requesting copies of any contracts regarding George Petrulakis or his law firm and
copies of any pay outs to him or his firm.
In accordance with Government Code section 6253, MID will comply with your request
to the extent that the writings you have requested are not privileged or otherwise exempt from
production under the California Public Records Act, or other applicable law.
We are currently gathering the information and will notify you when the information is
ready.
Should you have any questions regarding this matter, please do not hesitate to contact this
office at (209) 526-7388.
Sincerely,
Tim O’Laughlin
General Counsel
Copy: Allen Short
Pat
Here are the Letters Between MID and the City of Modesto
By Emerson Drake
You’ve heard about them and here they are the written exchanges between Modesto and MID.
Also, here is a little teaser. You know the MID has been using Martino Graphic Design INC to funnel money to political consultant and lobbyist Mike Lynch. But were you aware of the potential amount in their contract? Under purchase order 54981 from July 23, 2010 thru December 31, 2011:
This contract is issued to provide professional services to Refocus and Enhance Public Education and Information per Board Resolution No. 2010-35.
Not-to-exceed $450,000.00 plus cost and expenses.
$450,000.00 for Lobbying? Now you know why your rates are so high. They been giving contracts like these to friends to stay in power.
“On Watch” Cable TV Comcast 15, Streaming Video and 89.5FM
Emerson Drake
I’m guest hosting Athens Abell’s cable TV show “On Watch” at 6PM tonight Monday July 16th. Supervisor Terry Withrow will be there to discuss farmland mitigation. I’m doing a segment on Modesto’s negotiating with MID and Modesto City Councilman Dave Geer will be my guest. And if time permits a segment on the County Fair. It’s all on Comcast channel 15 the Assyrian Channel and online via streaming video and KBSV-89.5 FM
More Corruption at MID
From Dave Thomas,
In one of the most egregious in-your-face deals imaginable, Allen Short has made a deal with MID union employees to increase their already bloated salaries by 4%. That is correct, “The contract was drafted with the help of an outside negotiator. Two of the three bargainin units have accepted it, MID General Manager Allen Short said.” (The Modesto BEE, page A-1, July 16y, 2012)
If we did not understand how out of control MID management is, this should be the final teachable moment. Remember, that $100,000 a year meter reader gets another $40,000 in benefits, partly because he pays NOTHING into his pension. Short’s pay will likely be increased by a lame Board of Directors, meaning a monthly increase of about $10,000.
This pay raise will also be used to justify the next electricity rate increase.
If there was ever evidence that Short must go, this is it. Also, Glen Wild and Tom VanGronigan will be up for re-election next year. Remember this when you vote.
Thank you, Dave
Tonight at 6:00 PM Athens Abell’s “On Watch” MID Water Sales and More
Tonight at 6:00 PM Pacific I will be guest hosting Athens Abell’s cable TV program “On Watch” with guests John Duarte and Troy McComak.
It can be found on the Assyrian Channel KBSV-15 on comcast, KBES 89.5 FM, and http://www.betnahrain.org/KBSV/kbsv.htm streaming video. Just click on DSL at the top of the page.
First off we’ll be discussing with John Duarte MID’s proposed water sale and the propaganda and misinformation that the Modesto Bee and others have been spreading.
The we’ll bring you some interesting thoughts of Troy McComak a former California 10th District Congressional candidate.
I hope you can take the time to visit with us.
Muratore Stabs Constituents in the Back
By Emerson Drake
When MID’s General Manager Allen Short and attorney Tim O’Laughlin made their water presentation to the Modesto City Council, they deliberately misled them regarding the reliability of Modesto’s water supply from MID. This was acknowledged by the Council when they finally had the opportunity to read the proposed contract with the San Francisco Public Utility Commission , also know as the SFPUC. O’laughlin had the audacity to stand in front of the Council and claim the contract would protect Modesto and keep Modesto first when it came time to divvy up available water.
Obviously that was just a lie.
When the council first voted in closed session it was 5-2 for exploring a lawsuit against MID for violating a 2005 contract. But before it became public the Council took another vote which made it a unanimous 7-0 vote. Councilman Lopez spoke about this in open session. The two votes against were Mayor Marsh and Councilman Lopez.
Councilman Muratore Betrays Modesto and Changes His Mind
Unfortunately MID Director Tom Van Groningen has since somehow “persuaded” Muratore to change his mind and suddenly Muratore loves the proposed water sale. What arguments did Van Groningen use? Did he magically make more water appear in Don Pedro? No. Was he able to convince the SFPUC to take a back seat to Modesto and the farmers? No. So what did he dangle in front of Muratore to change his mind?
Well we do know from past experience with Councilman Muratore that money talks. Maybe VanGroningen apologized for not passing a special exemption when Muratore, Swehla, Endsley and Hawn brought a solar project to the MID board. Unfortunately that time Swehla screwed the pooch and failed to meet a paperwork cut-off and the project wasn’t eligible for the increased financial inducement which would have made the project viable, costing their fledgling company any chance of remaining in business. And of course we remember Van Groningen supported Endsley’s biomass/garbage burner plant which cost ratepayers $1.292Million dollars. The $92,000 went to MID attorney O’Laughlin’s firm, but hey, who’s counting?
Maybe a Forensic Auditor should be brought in to examine MID’s books given the revelation MID’s General Manager made when he admitted he had funneled money to political consultant Mike Lynch through Martino Graphic Design,INC. Has he done this before? Have they paid a political consultant through a graphic design company or another company unrelated to political consulting to disguise their intent? Couldn’t this sleight of hand be considered illegal, especially if there is evidence of this not being the first time? Lynch has been making the rounds whispering in the ear of political wannabes like Councilman Lopez’s stepson Josh Vanderveen, who has been speaking out for the sale regularly since this issue came to light. Up to this point there hasn’t been enough known inducement for Lynch to be making promises to so many political candidates. And of course it can’t hurt that Councilman Lopez has been making discrete inquiries about running for Supervisor Dick Monteith’s job when the supervisors term expires.
Whatever VanGroningen whispered into Muratore’s ear worked and as a result the potential vote is now 4-3 regardless of anything you’ve heard. Now all eyes are on Councilman Cogdill to see if he’s as honorable as we hope.
Above all we need Council members to watch out for the Citizens of Modesto’s best interests and not their political careers or their wallets.
More Water Sale Information You Need to Know
By Reed Smith
Right now, MID has overcommitted it water resource by 71,804 acre feet, with no drought and no sale to SF. With the sale to SF, that increases to 99,044 AF (and still no drought) of water MID does not posses.
This irrigation season, MID farmers are getting their full 42 acre inches of surface water deliveries. Based upon rainfall, MID should have drasticaly cut water deliveries like Turlock Irrigation District did by cutting 50%. They politically could not document the drought with delivery reductions. The MID Board, motivated by unknown incentives, is going to sell ALL of our water to SF. I say ALL based upon the fact they are already breaching a written signed contract with the City of Modesto. If this Board is willing to breach a written contract with their primary customers, and voters who elected them, they will do anything.
Right now on MID’s website: http://www.mid.org/about/newsroom/projects/watertransfer/documents/MIDWaterTransfer2012.pdf
The MID proposed contract gives SF first right of refusal for all future sales. Let’s connect the dots. MID sells water they do not have, directly taking it from a populace that has a written contract, in order to provide it to the SFPUC and the Cargill development. How is Modesto to protect any of it’s water with Nick Blom, Jr., Glen Wild, Paul Warda, and Tom Van Groningen sitting as Directors? We can’t.
The City Council has the most direct power to stop this sale by enforcing, by litigation, the written contract it has with MID: Appendix E: Water Treatment and Delivery Agreement. This document is enforceable, and will prevent the sale. THE PROBLEM: Rubin Villalobos along with a handful or others are trying desperately to “flip” the 7 to zero City Council vote to sue MID to a 4 to 3 against suing MID. Villalobos’s letter of May 4, says explicitly his purpose: to stop the vote to sue MID. Why would he do that? He is being paid to do that, claiming he represents MCS, when MCS’s write he does not, all the while he is representing another paying client. Villalobos profits from claiming to represent MCS, to the detriment of MCS. We do not know the name of the real client.
Let me run through the math: It takes 42 acre inches to grow an almond crop EVERY YEAR. A farmer cannot skip an irrigation year because he did not get water. The tree dies.
If MID sells to 27,240 AF of our water to SF, the resulting –99,044 AF from the over-obligation table can only come from one place, agriculture. Ag gets, on average, 191,000 AF. Subtract 99,044 AF from that and you have a 54.7% acreage loss to ag. That means that permanent-crop farmers will have to fallow 54.7% of 58,000 acres, or saying it another way, turn 31,726 acres into desert, right in our midst. Each acre, if growing almonds, the farmer generates $5,700 worth of almonds at the farm gate [3,000 lb. almond yield (non-pereil + pollinator) x $1.90/lb = $5,700 /Acre]. That money is, in turn, circulated throughout the Modesto community seven (7) times, as per Cecil Russell, Modesto Chamber of Commerce Exec Dir. So, we take a loss of 31,726 acres x $5,700 farm gate value per acre x 7 times economic multiplication factor = $1,265,967,400 ANNUAL LOSS to MODESTO.
Stanislaus County will be an economic desert by 2018. We have approximately 20% unemployment in our county now. WHAT WILL IT BE LIKE LOSING $1.26 Billion from our Stanislaus economy? AND, WHAT WILL CRIME BE?
MID does not have any water to sell. The sale is fraud and grand theft.
Reed Smith’s Response to Tom Van Groningen and MID
When the FACTS fail MID Director Tom Van Groningen, all he has left is opinion.
Let me start by commenting that Tom Van Groningen (TVG) is only President of the MID Board, because heappointed himself President. There was no vote for him to dominate the conversation at MID. He claims to be the only one in the room in command of the “FAQ’s” (made-up false statements). That is distinctly different than “FACTS.”
TVG states “the dialogue has generated some misinformation and I’d like to set the record straight. The water transfer under discussion doesn’t include the sale of water rights”. I guess TVG’s FAQs do not match up with the FACTS presented by the Chief of Water Rights for the CA State Water Board, who told us a 50-year water sale contract is absolutely a waiver of water rights. MID will never get the water back.
TVG has been staging this SCAM since at least 2008, yet his ploy of the week is to scare you into the FAQ that the deal is NOW “urgent”. The only thing that is urgent is the cash that will be skimmed off this deal.
TVG states: “The necessary infrastructure improvements are many, . . . These improvements will enhancewater use efficiency, increase the system’s flexibility and ensure reliablewater for our customers.” This statement baffles me, as his staff and consultants were asked for the specific assessment reporting on the flume. There are none. No analysis has been done. How can he state it is crumbling when he has not even looked? Where is the X-Ray analysis of the structure? His senior water engineer said in a MID Board meeting this year that if the flume started to leak because of an earthquake, it could be repaired within 5 days for approximately $55,000. That made TVG furious (great video), and in the name of “civility” he called his own senior water engineer, with 35 years of MID experience, a LIAR during a MID Board meeting. Wow. I guess I missed the engineering degree on TVG’s resume.
I would like to point out that the Roman Empire’s first aqueduct was constructed in 312 BC, and much of these were constructed with concrete, the same as the Geer Road flume. Many are still in use today. Pretty scary being just 95 years old, when heritage aqueducts are over 2,000 years old. Yes, certainly urgent, yup, yup, yup.
If the funds from the water sale are for infrastructure, why did MID General Manager, Allen Short, tell MID water users in October, no less than eight (8) times that the income from water sales would ONLY GO TO “CURRENT OBLIGATIONS, not infrastructure”. Why? Please read MID’s Proposed contract for this sale on their website foryourself. That would be a FACT TVG. Exhibit D says: “POTENTIAL USES OF REVENUE – Water sales revenue will be used for water related costs including BUT NOT LIMITED TO: • Debt retirement, • Rate stabilization, • Improvement district repairs/updates, • Enhanced canal security, • Pressurized systems, • Infrastructure improvements, • FERC relicensing and related obligations, • Water conservation programs.” I do not read any commitment to infrastructure here.
The only honorable and truthful MID Director, Larry Byrd, set the stage to document what the otherfour have been up to: they already voted for this water sale once on January 10, 2012.
This only reminds me of the semantic concept of “to rationalize” when broken down onto its component parts is a “rational lie”. When FAQS from the MID GM, MID Gen. Counsel, and the other four Directors are demonstrably all “rational lies”, who can doubt they WILL VOTE FOR THE SALE on June 26.
Eye On Modesto 