Good afternoon, I hope you have time to read the attached. It pretty clearly outlines my personal thinking and is generally supported by the STA. Some of you might find some of my comments controversial. Well, that is me, I am willing to step up and say what I believe is the truth. I am far more interested in saying and writing what I believe is the truth, than sparing someone discomfort over their own actual public actions.
If you think something I say in the attached .pdf is wrong, please message or phone me and I will provide you the document(s) or other material that will tell you why I said it. You might not want to believe some things that governments do to you, but there is plenty of documentation that is readily available in the BEE and on line.
If you just do not like what I say, tell me why.
If you think this information is worth sharing, please send it on to your friends.
Thank you very much, Dave
My dear friends:
After reading this morning’s BEE, I am disheartened. Our
governments are no longer even remotely responsive nor responsible
to you and me. What is it that makes good friends and neighbors
mindless rubber stampers who grovel in front of a government staff.
Why do most elected officials become zombies after being elected?
Their peers vilify the ones who continue to think after being elected
when they try to inject common sense into an issue.
Today’s BEE challenges even the most cynical amounst us with
3 stories. The first page tells us that now, the City government is
going to regulate camping out. That is not restricted to illegal
camping out, or squatting, but even your children’s back yard fun. I
can understand vagrants who invade and ruin public property. But,
no, the City “leaders” had to make your children felons if they leave a
tent up in your back yard for more than 5 days. Apparently, your
kids cannot camp in your backyard unless the property owner goes to
the cops and gets a permit to erect a tent for no more than 5 days.
Councilman Dave Lopez told us that we desperately need a law
to “safeguard the public” against “illegal camping”. Well, Dave, if it is
already illegal, did what you voted for last night make it even MORE
ILLEGAL?
Councilman Joe Muratore told us, “We are not creating a police
state.” Really? When you support a new law that allows the cops to
come into your backyard and arrest your children for having a family
Tee-Pee in it?
Councilman Dave Geer promised us that he “…trusted police
officers to enforce the ordinance with common sense…” Really.
REALLY? If illegal camping is already illegal, and the cops are not
enforcing those laws, why would he trust the cops to enforce this law
with common sense? The BEE says, “These campsites are often
strewn with trash, are a health and safety nuisance, and are occupied
by parole violators and others with criminal records..” Well, do the
cops not have a reason to arrest parole violators, other criminals, and
address health and safety violations ALREADY??
You know, it just occurred to me; this deal may be just like
Kristin Olsen’s sophomoric demand for a dumpster diving law – which
I understand has never been charged against anyone. Could it be
just another payoff to some complaining friend of a Councilperson?
Could it be a way for a Council crony to get even with a neighbor for
noisy kids in a nearby back yard? Hummmmmmm.
Well then, if that does not make your day, read the story on
the first page of Section B, “Council votes to raise rates.” Now HERE
is a remarkable story about your neighbors spending $400,000 on
something that may never happen. The deal is to double or triple
your water rates so the City can fix the MID’s water treatment plant.
You read that right, the MID build a water treatment plant, owns the
water treatment plant and screwed up the water treatment plant. It
does not work; it is a pile of useless concrete and steel junk. It must
be torn down. The City has no rights to that plant, and absolutely no
authority to trespass on it or fix it. The City has no rights to do
invasive testing of materials, or any other diagnostic work.
Does it matter that no one alive today knows how much it will
cost to fix? Several people have told me that it will cost more than
$40 MILLION dollars and as much as $65 MILLION. It is not a
remodel; it is not wallboard and bathroom fixtures. It is CONCRETE
and STEEL that does not work!! MID engineers have already found
over 100 “deficiencies” in this plant, and they are not known for
being thorough. There could well be 300 deficiencies that will be
found only after the fix gets started. MID General Manager Allen
Short promised me with his very own lips that this plant would come
in for less than $30 MILLION dollars. It has cost us about $85
MILLION to build so far, and no one knows HOW to fix it, let alone
how much it will COST to fix it.
The final act of insanity is that the CITY has sent MID a
demand letter to give the City permission to fix the plant, take over
all the legal battles that will go on for 3 to 5 years, and when the
plant is fixed – at an unknown date or cost – they want MID to simply
“hand over” the property ownership to the City…for free. And this
Council (except for Council Woman Burnside, who actually gets the
insanity of this all) is charging over the cliff as if MID has already
agreed to the Mayor’s demand.
The catch is, MID has not even read the demand. The City told
me it is not a public document, and refuses to release it to the
Taxpayers Association. The MID will not even begin to discuss this
ridiculous demand for 2 weeks, if then. Please tell me, what would
make the MID want to give away profit-making assets for nothing?
They make a huge profit (relatively speaking – ask me for details)
selling water to the City. They support plant employees with HUGE
salaries and benefits. They control the water and they control the
price of water. MID is broke, wallowing in debt and it NEEDS those
profits. What are the odds that they are going to bend over and give
away these assets?
Finally, read the Op/Ed piece by Tom VanGronigan on page A-
13. Full disclosure requires me to tell you that Tom and I have
served on several Boards and committees since the early 1990’s. We
know each other. I rarely agree with Tom. His politics and ideas are
not similar to mine. Nonetheless, we have remained cordial if not
friendly for a long time.
The comments contained in Tom’s piece simply are not
germane to the discussion of selling our precious water. Remember,
there are reasons to do things, and there are ways to do things.
Tom, in my opinion, confuses the two issues. Tom’s comments all
relate to the fact that MID is broke. It needs money, and it needs it
ASAP. OK, MID really IS broke, and that is a REASON to fix the being
broke part. But the WAY to fix the broke part is NOT to sell the most
important, precious asset we have, our water and attendant rights.
The WAY to fix the being broke problem is to get real with the
unions. MID cannot continue to pay average employees $140,000,
with bloated benefits. MID overhead consumes most of its massive
profits from electricity, and its enormous debt service eats the rest.
MID must renegotiate with the unions, get salaries in line with
reality, get its huge law suit problem solved, raise irrigation rates
from $10 per Acre Foot to at least $25 per Acre Foot, fix the water
plant and sell the water it has already contracted with the City to the
City. Selling the water will not fix the real problem, which is very bad
management.
Thank you for your attention. If you think this is worthwhile
information, let me know, and send it on to your friends.
Dave Thomas
Eye On Modesto 