Bill Horn in his annual State of North County speech Thursday morning called for acquiring the huge Rancho Guejito property. He plans to trek to Washington D.C. in April with a well-known local environmentalist in tow to petition California’s two U.S. senators to come up with about $100 million to help in the purchase.
He also promised that Hwy 76 will soon be widened.
Horn, Fifth District Supervisor in the middle of his fourth term, Valley Center resident, and somewhat latter-day conservationist, gave his 45-minute speech in San Marcos City Hall to about 150 people. It was the 14th such speech he has given since being elected supervisor.
Much of Horn’s speech centered around subjects that are dear to him: emergency services, police and fire.
He noted, for instance, “We learned many lessons from 2003 and have acted accordingly. We called for a full-time, firefighting helicopter and today, the County owns two choppers—with one stationed permanently in Fallbrook.”
He praised the County’s disaster preparedness, which included millions of dollars for training and buying new equipment and mailing Family Survival Guides to every post office address in the county.
Horn reviewed last year’s wildfires and credited a combination of Reverse 911, which the County adopted last year, with “old-fashioned door-to-door alerts,” in getting many people out of the path of the fires.
“I was proud how millions of people in our County responded to Firestorm 2007,” and he recounted how, “First responders rushed to the front lines and exhibited extraordinary heroism to save lives and property under near-combat conditions … During the first days of the fire, more people were safely evacuated from danger than any single event in the history of the United States.”
He bragged that “months of removing nearly 500,000 dead, dying or diseased trees on Palomar Mountain paid off by clearing fuel for the fire.”
Fifth District discretionary funds went to buy equipment, including fire trucks, for volunteer fire departments, including Fire Barricade Gel for Vista and Palomar Mountain.
“Over the past three years, your Board of Supervisors has secured 13 Water Tenders, 13 Type 2 Engines, one Light & Air Unit, Two Interface Rescue Engines and one Mobile Emergency GIS Trailer. The majority of which were use to fight the fires in our backcountry last fall.
“We have already begun to act on the lessons learned from the 2007 fires. I called a meeting with my North County Fire Chiefs in January, where we openly discussed our next steps and areas to improve. Supervisor Ron Roberts and I have asked for cost estimates for buying up to 50 new fire trucks. I’ve allocated $80,000 worth of fire proof gel to the Fire Safe Councils of North County. We have begun studying ways of restructuring our fire services, and we have formed a regional committee to dig into the details of these proposals.”
Horn will ask Chief Administrative Officer Walt Eckard to assess brush and vegetation in high-risk areas and seek state and federal legislation to allow the County to clear firebreaks.
He called volunteer firefighters, “a sometimes forgotten, but always vital link in the fire protection system in this county.” He said he intends to ask the CAO to look at covering insurance costs for the volunteers.
Horn noted that the County has waived building permits for fire victims and appropriated $2 million in soil erosion and hydroseeding. The Dept. of Public Works and Environmental Health staff have worked overtime repairing roads and removing debris.
“Each of our 17,000 plus county employees continues to have a helping role during the aftermath of Firestorm 2007,” said Horn. “I’m proud of their amazing team effort and pledge to do everything we can to rebuild our North County. We’re going to see this again and we need to be prepared and be extremely diligent.”
Other topics Horn covered were street gangs and illegal immigration, which he linked. Referring to a study of the effects of illegal immigration that he requested last year, he noted that the illegal population has grown twice as fast as the County’s population. It has grown from 3.2% of the population in 1990 to 6.8% today.
“The total cost per legal resident to provide county services in 2006 was $35.31. If you add to that the cost per legal resident that our hospitals bear, the total cost per legal resident soars to $89.21,” he said.
To combat this, Horn has met with members of Congress. He has urged the federal government to share information on illegals with local authorities, and vice versa. He has pressed the feds to identify people whose Social Security numbers don’t match actual records and turn them over to local police and asked that the federal government pay local government for the impact of illegal immigrants on local hospitals.
“I’ve been privileged to speak out locally and to a national audience on Fox News about what’s happen to our County,” said Horn. With Sean Hannity, it was his series on illegal immigration. With Neal Cavuto I debated an activist who saw nothing wrong with Mexican airlines flying people at cut rate prices to the border and then having the return flights virtually empty.”
He talked about working with SANDAG (San Diego Assn. of Governments) and getting promises that Hwy 76 would be widened, in part by offering the San Luis Rey River Park as an incentive.
Towards the end of the speech Horn talked about his desire to acquire the 22,000 acre Rancho Guejito as a public park.
The County doesn’t have the money to buy it and the Coates family doesn’t want to sell it, but Horn promised to, “keep up the pressure to buy this land and at the very least seek a conservation easement that will preserve the land while maintaining private ownership…I’ve been on it and it’s worth taking care of.”
In an interview after the speech Horn elaborated on his plans to go to Washington in April with Dan Silver, executive director of the Endangered Habitats League and speak to Senators Boxer and Feinstein about allocating the money for the land, which is adjacent to the Cleveland National Forest.
He said that he doesn’t want to open it completely to the public, just some parts of it.
“You can see it, but you can’t destroy it, is how I envision it,” he said. “My goal is to save what’s there.”
Horn didn’t shy away from the possibility of using eminent domain to acquire the land, which he said the Coates family had acquired for about $4 million. “But only at a fair price. I wouldn’t want to steal it,” he said.
Horn cautioned that his idea is “just a concept,” not a set in concrete plan.
He chuckled a little about the prospect of he and Silver going to Washington together, calling it an example of “strange bedfellows.”
On the reservation Max Mazzetti is often called “The Senator,” because of his involvement over the years in Indian advocacy—a passion that has frequently taken him to Congress and has led him to meet several U.S. presidents.
But this year you can call him Grand Marshal of the Western Days parade.
This lifelong resident of Rincon Reservation (well, since the age of 6 anyway) was named Grand Marshal just a few days ago by the Western Days Parade Committee.
He admits to having been floored when he heard about the distinction. “It’s a great honor!” he told The Roadrunner. But he’s no stranger to honors, having served on the Rincon Tribal Council for over 40 years and been the tribal chairman several times.
Mazzetti has been living in Harrah’s Rincon Casino’s hotel since last October when he lost his home, which he built himself, to the wildfires. Recently a replacement home was delivered and he’s hoping to move into it pretty soon.
His wife, Clarinne, is in a rest home right now. He’s there every day to visit her.
The first school Mazzetti attended was Rincon Day School— in those days they had a school on the rez, just as they do today. He also attended school in Valley Center, Escondido and finally Sherman Institute in Riverside. This Indian boarding school taught 40 trades, such as mechanics, engineering and welding.
Young Max took mechanics although he also wanted to be a musician, be like Glenn Miller and travel with an orchestra.
He eventually started his own band, the Mazzetti Swingsters, who during the 1940s played at venues such as dance halls, the American Legion, Lions Clubs and the like in San Diego. He played the tenor sax and clarinet. His sister, Elberta, played the piano.
As soon as WWII broke out he joined the navy. “The Navy loved me and I loved the Navy,” he recalls. He was a gunner’s mate 1st class.
For the first part of his service he was stationed in Seattle. There, one evening he and his buddies took in a dance where Benny Goodman was playing. There he met his future wife, Clarinne. They have been together for 62 years.
He describes her as “a real go-getter and a brilliant mind.” Together over the years raised several children, bought a lot of old houses, fixed them up and rented them out. Together they have taken trips all over the world. “She really loves to travel!” he says.
During WWII Mazzetti also served in the Aleutions, where his ship, a cable layer called the USS Delwood, was torpedoed. Fortunately, several Canadian corvettes were escorting the ship and were able to evacuate the crew.
He finished the war in Manila, preparing for the big invasion of Japan that never came because the Atomic Bomb ended hostilities.
He returned to Valley Center to join his father, Frank Mazzetti, in farming. His father grew hay, cattle and horses and planted orange and lemon trees.
“My dad was busy from morning until night,” his son recalls. “All of the Mazzettis have been hard workers!”
Soon after returning from the war Mazzetti become involved in politics. There were two groups on the reservation. One wanted to divide the land into 20-acre allotments for each family. The other wanted to keep the land in common ownership. It ended up being divided into allotments but with some held in common.
Mazzetti was elected to the tribal council in 1947 and immediately went to work to try to help his people who needed jobs badly.
At that time Indian veterans from WWII couldn’t take advantage of the G.I. bill to get home loans because tribal land wasn’t considered collateral. He worked with then District Attorney James Don Keller, who became a good friend, and was instrumental in getting Linda Vista portable housing available to tribes in three counties.
In 1953 he helped organize the California Indian Congress and became a director in 1953.
Also in the 1950s he became involved in fighting an attempt by some in Congress to abolish the reservation system. This actually became official U.S. policy from 1954-66 but Mazzetti was instrumental in keeping it from happening in California.
During that time he organized the Tribal Council of Riverside, Imperial and San Diego counties, an organization of 26 tribes (18 in San Diego).
The Indians, who were very poverty-stricken at the time, felt that if their lands were taken out of federal trust they would lose them all to property taxes.
When Mazzetti went to Washington to testify, some senators told him that Indians simply didn’t want to pay taxes but that they ought to be forced to.
One U.S. senator advised Mazzetti that the only way to stop reservations from being terminated in California would be to get a resolution passed in the state legislature supporting the status quo.
“That saved us from termination in 1954,” he recalls with satisfaction.
Mazzetti is a lifelong Democrat, and become one because of what President Franklin Roosevelt did during the Great Depression, including his jobs programs and public works projects. He has counted as friends prominent Democratic politicians such as Senator Daniel Inouye and Congressman Morris Udall.
But Mazzetti has also had many friends who are Republicans, such as Congressman Duncan Hunter, and presidents such as Reagan, who did a lot for Indians, Mazzetti feels.
In 1964 Mazzetti was invited to Washington by Vice President Hubert Humphrey to witness President Johnson signing the Medicare bill. That same year he was invited to attend the National Conference on Poverty. Through his efforts and efforts of others, housing programs through HUD (the Dept. of Housing and Urban Development) because available to Indians.
Mazzetti was never paid for his efforts. It was all voluntary. He continued to farm and to occasionally buy homes that he rented out.
His last battle was about 20 years ago when he helped five local tribes, including La Jolla, Rincon, Pauma, San Pasqual and Pala fight for water rights. President Reagan in 1988 signed legislation pushed by Congressman Ron Packard that gave some water rights back to their original owners.
Mazzetti marvels that 20 years later there are still details of those water rights that remain to be worked out.
When the Western Days Parade wends it way along Valley Center Road Mazzetti plans to be in his finest Western duds, waving to the crowds and reveling in the honor of being Grand Marshal.
The County of San Diego has answered the draft environmental document published recently by the San Pasqual tribe with 36 objections.
The tribe proposes a new 12-story, 172,390 sq. foot hotel next to the recently opened expanded Valley View Casino, which added 58,000 sq. feet and a parking structure last year.
The hotel would rise 130 feet above the casino grade and 200 feet over Lake Wohlford Road. There would also be outdoor concerts on the weekends.
The County’s comments and objections include noise, traffic, aesthetics, public safety, water resources, solid waste disposal and air quality.
Under the 2000 tribal gaming compact this tribe is required to consult with local governments, however, unlike the most recent compacts that have been signed with other tribes, such as the Pauma tribe, the County’s comments have a limited effect on what the tribe actually has to do.
The County has the following questions that it would like to see answered about the Valley View Hotel Project and comments about the proposal.
1) Need to confirm whether the parking lot concert venue is temporary or permanent.
2) Need to provide further details on the 4,597 sq. ft. “meeting/banquet facility” and 1,730 sq. ft. “pre-function” areas in the proposed hotel main level.
Aesthetics
3) The project will result in significant impact to scenic resources because it will introduce a massive, urban development in a rural area.
4) The project would introduce a substantial source of light and glare.
Air Quality
5) Appendix B, Air Quality Data, needs to be reviewed for accuracy.
6) Daily threshold should be utilized. “The tons-per-year thresholds only apply to major stationary sources. The current analysis is not consistent with County CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) practice.”
7) The RAQS (Regional Air Quality Strategy) compliance analysis is inadequate.
8) Estimated emissions assumptions are not supported.
9) Odor analysis is lacking.
10) Cumulate analysis (of emissions) is lacking.
11) Recurring employee parking area dust complaints may worsen as more employees are added.
12) The document does not adequately address erosion control.
Noise
13) Noise Analysis did not consider all sources of potential noise.
14) Appropriate field measurements and further analysis are needed. “Since the proposed concerts are scheduled during the later part of the evening from 7-10 p.m., field measurements would be needed for that time of day.”
15) Assessment of impacts to noise-sensitive receptors is inadequate.
16) References to County regulations are incorrect. “The County regulations in Section 36.404 have not been referenced correctly…”
17) Temporary noise regulations were improperly used.
18) Noise impacts are significant and not mitigated.
19) References to Noise Regulations is incomplete.
20) Assessment of impact is incomplete.
21) Site specific analysis is lacking. “Staff would normally require a site-specific noise study by a County-approved consultant to substantiate the claims made…that a deferred acoustical assessment would provide any useful noise mitigation measure for this proposed project.”
22) Due to the significant off-Reservation noise impacts, alternatives should be identified and analyzed.
Public Services—Fire Protection/Emergency Medical Services
23) The County does not agree that the hotel will not substantially increase calls for fire or emergency medical services.
24) The EE (environmental evaluation) does not provide adequate information to determine that the project will not significantly impact off-Reservation fire protection nd medical emergency medical services.
Public Services—Police Projection
25) Proposed project will further increase demands on the Sheriff’s Dept. substation.
Transportation/Traffic
26) EE overstates the existing capacity of Lake Wohlford Road & Valley Center Road and underestimates the traffic generated by the proposed project.
27) The EE statement that no mitigation measures are warranted is based on flawed analysis.
28) The EE Technical appendices should provide copies of that data sheets that were the basis for the Vehicle Occupancy Ratio used for the concert facility.
29) Traffic Control Management Plans should be considered and developed for concert events.
30) The EE should verify that adequate parking will be provided on-site and off-site for casino and concert patrons.
31) The tribe and their consultant should coordinate with County staff to better identify proposed/pending cumulate projects that would also add traffic to the study area roadway network.
32) [The tribe] should clarify if weekday concert events include Fridays, because other venues typically have Saturday concert events.
33) EE describes various existing Valley View Casino initiatives to reduce vehicle trips through provision of shuttles and chartered buses, and providing incentives for use of public transit, but does not provide any plans for how these will be expanded to handle additional casino patrons and concert attendees.
Solid Waste Impacts
34) Impacts to landfill capacity must be addressed through solid waste recycling.
Water Resources
35) Drainage analysis is not complete.
36) Additional information is needed to evaluate adequacy of proposed wastewater system.
For those who want to read the County’s response in its entirety, we will be posting it on our Web site: www.valleycenter.com/
On Tuesday a request by Fifth District Supervisor Bill Horn to direct the Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) to investigate three potential improvements in fire services and to seek support in removing dangerous brush from the unincorporated areas of the County was approved unanimously by the Board of Supervisors, 4–0, with Supervisor Roberts absent.
Horn asked for information in the following areas:
1. Working with the San Diego Forest Area Safety Task Force to create a risk assessment of vegetative fuels in the unincorporated areas of San Diego County
2. Explore ways to bring the insurance and workers compensation costs and policies for all volunteer firefighting agencies in San Diego County under one umbrella
3. Actively support grant writing on behalf of volunteer firefighting agencies in the County of San Diego
4. Explore possibilities to create and appoint a County Fire Warden position whose office would act as a liaison amongst local fire marshals, constituents, and land use officials in the unincorporated area of San Diego County
“In the wake of the October 2007 wildfires,” said Supervisor Horn, “no matter what the future holds in terms of potential reorganization or consolidation of fire services, it’s crucial that the County investigate any and all potential improvements to the current system of fire services as well as the administration of emergency medical services.”
The Valley Center Fire Protection District Thursday night voted to engage the Elk Grove-based firm of Emergency Services Consulting, Inc. to do a “gap analysis” for the district.
What that will do is assess the district’s capabilities to provide service and determine where the “gap” is between what it wants to accomplish and what it is in fact accomplishing.
The fire board wants this report in part to help it decide where to site a third fire station. The district currently owns land on White Star Lane but doesn’t know if that’s the best location for a fire station.
The board over the last two months had gotten presentations from two firms that do such analyses, ESCI and Citygate. Both are based in Northern California. Citygate is the company that has been contracted by San Diego County to help it complete its general plan update. It is also doing work for the City of Poway and North County Fire Protection District.
However, directors were not impressed with Citygate’s proposal, nor with the fact that its bottom line price was about $21,000, compared to $12,000 for ESCI.
Board Pres. Mel Schuler described Citygate’s proposal as “off-hand” and lacking in details for what it would do for the district. “They spent most of the proposal talking about billing instead of their scope of work,” he complained. He also didn’t like it that the company wanted 15% of the fee up front.
District Administrator John Byrne said that although he thought that Citygate was probably more qualified, “ESCI is no slouch either.”
Director Oliver Smith said he agreed that price is a concern, “but getting the report is at the top of the heap.” He pointed out that other priorities at the fire district are on hold until this report is done.
“All other things being equal that less expensive is better. I don’t see any major gap in the lower cost report as long as we can keep up with their information gathering.”
The district will provide the company with information such as the number of calls made each month, their location, and how fast the crews arrived.
The company will also get dispatch information from Cal Fire. This is probably the most challenging part of the assignment since Cal Fire is not used to providing such data.
Board Pres. Mel Schuler pointed out that the dispatch records are a key element to doing the study and if they can’t get the information that they will have money tied up in it.
Director Dan Thornton wanted to make sure that this study is a priority and that it gets done in 90 days, as ESCI has said it can do.
The information is important because once the study is done the district can then decide where to site a new fire station. Once that is determined it can figure out how much money it needs to ask the voters for in order to be able to run the department without going into deficit spending.
The board president emphasized that he wants “to hold staff to the fire and to hold the company to the fire so that we get this on a timely basis. I don’t think we should make this drag out for six months.”
Smith added, “I don’t think we have an option. We can’t drag it out. We’ve got to get it done. We’ve got to expend the effort because every thing that comes after derives from this. We’ve got to make it a priority.”
The board directed Byrne to ensure that the scope of work would have everything in it that the board wants for the $12,000 and that there won’t be hidden costs or add ons later.
Easter Sunday scores of kids and adults from Ridgeview Church tried to set new records in kite flying.
The Valley Roadrunner
P.O.B. 1529, Valley Center, CA 92082
Tel. 760.749.1112 Fax 760.749.1688
Website: www.valleycenter.com
Email: editor@valleycenter.com
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