The Valley Center Municipal Water District (VCMWD) board Monday held a hearing and then voted to pass through hefty rate increases to customers.
The 14.8% increase takes effect Sept. 1. Another increase is expected in January.
Much of the large increase in water rates in Southern California can be attributed to a federal judge (Oliver Wanger) who has halted about half of the transfers of the state water project from Northern to Southern California in order to keep a small fish called the Delta smelt from being sucked into water pumps during periods when the fish cluster near their blades.
This has made the remaining water more expensive.
Seven residents attended Monday’s hearing, two of them spoke, and 41 ratepayers sent letters protesting the increase.
The board had little choice since its own suppliers, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) and the San Diego County Water Authority (SDCWA), had raised wholesale rates.
The MWD raised its rates 21.1%. Because of other supplies of water available to it, the SDCWA was able to keep this increase to 16.5%. Due to its own economies, VCMWD pared its own increase to 14.8%.
Paul Lanspery, deputy general manager of the San Diego County Water Authority gave a presentation to the board about the authority’s budget, adopted in June.
He noted that in addition to the 18.1% rate increase the SDCWA will be charged in September, it will get another 5.1% in January.
“The drivers of these price increases are water supply and our ability to buy supplemental water.” SDCWA is able to mitigate some price increases by purchases from Central Valley farmers.
A long-term driver of price increases is the inability to move water through the Bay Delta as before—the perennial issue whose fix used to be known as “The Peripheral Canal,” but which state politicians call by other names so as to not incite the ire of Northern California residents.
Nevertheless, said Lanspery, the Delta is, “at risk.”
Another price “driver” for SDCWA is its $3 billion water reliability capital improvements program (CIP).
According to Lanspery, three quarters of the rate increase is driven by MWD’s increases, and a quarter is driven by the CIP.
The CIP includes $300 million in upgrading 82 miles of old concreate pipes out of a total of 300 miles of pipeline. That program is 27 miles long. There is also a 20-year program to maintain the existing pipes, costing $700 million.
The SDCWA is also in the midst of three storage projects, including the $500 million San Vincente Dam expansion, which, when done in 2012, will hold 150,000 acre feet. This will help ensure reliability during droughts.
SDCWA is also paying $300 million to reline the All American Canal so it can buy water directly from the Colorado River, without the MWD as middleman.
Once that project is completed, by 2012, SDCWA can began easing its rates to its customers.
“We’re moving from being a building organization to an operations organzation,” said Lanspery.
Until 2003 although California was subject to droughts, it was able to buy surplus Colorado River water. However, with the development of the states along the river, less water is available. Southern California has had to rely more on the state water project. That water is more expensive than river water.
This, inevitably, meant lower sales, which, because the MWD has fixed costs to maintain the delivery system, means higher prices.
“In the near future you are going to see double digit increase,” said Lanspery. “Fixed costs are hard on rates.”
In response to these higher prices, SDCWA has cut contract costs and salaries.
Following Lanspery’s presentation Bill Jeffrey, finance director for VCMWD, noted that the local district will increase prices in September, then in January, and every year thereafter, to reflect increases it will have to pay.
If, as some expect, the State of California confiscates special districts’ property taxes, VCMWD will also have to pass that onto customers.
The district is also cutting staff positions, and has seen the number of employees go from 90 to 74 this year.
During the hearing two ratepayers who bought homes in the last few years, and thus are stuck with water use requirements based on several years of their properties not using any water, asked for relief.
Juan Macias and Mike Halloran asked for assistance.
Gen. Mgr. Gary Arant said that currently the district is in a voluntary water restriction program, in which residents have so far cut water usage by 30% (they have been asked to cut 10%).
If the program becomes mandatory next year, Macias and Halloran will be able to come before the board and appeal their allocations. Meantime neither will be charged fines for overuse as long as they continue to conserve, he said.
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If you are interested in someone from the SDCWA speaking to your group, call 858-522-6708 or email speakersbureau@sdcwa.org/
A debate of sorts has developed between EDCO Pres. Steve South, who says his proposed green waste facility on Betsworth Road won’t threaten local ag, and farmers like citrus grower Bob Polito, who says it could be the taxi for a bug that brings a bacterium worse than anything citrus groves have ever faced.
The insect is the Asian Citrus Psyllid. The bacterium it carries is the Huanglongbing or Citrus Greening Disease. Its origin is China.
The disease has devastated thousands of citrus trees in Texas and Florida.
Earlier this year California quarantined six square miles in San Diego County to isolate psyllids that had been found— although the bacteria was not. It has been located in Mexico, however.
After last week’s VC planning group meeting, and in advance of the July 22 public meeting on the site of the proposed green waste facility, South answered criticisms that growers like Polito have made.
South notes that the California Dept. of Food & Agriculture (CDFA) says the quarantine has been effective. He says infested areas would be avoided by trucks carrying green waste.
“We would not accept loads that contain citrus or mayara and the bulk of the material is generated from single family household in North County and not from grove clearing activities that involve citrus trees. Material would not be brought in from infested areas and since these boundaries are subject to change, ongoing communications with the Dept. of Agriculture would ensure this occurs,” says South.
Polito counters that such a facility won’t have the resources to monitor every load to determine if it is citrus in origin. There are many other plants besides citrus that play host to the insect, he says.
South also says that the green waste facility will compost its green waste, “which will kill any potential eggs, larva & adults.”
He also promises additional mitigation measures usually not found at other sites.
They include these measures:
1) All trucks will be enclosed
2) Grinding of material would be performed in a timely manner
3) Areas will have adequate setbacks
4) In cooperation with the CDFA, EDCO would have traps and ongoing communications.
5) Composting will kill any unforeseen psyllid
In addition, the major use permit EDCO seeks from the County would subject the facility to random monthly inspections by the Department of Environmental Health.
None of this satisfies Polito, who thinks green waste facilities should be located inside not outside of the quarantine zone.
He believes that if CDFA follows current regulations, “they would mandate that any green waste would be located within the quarantine area.”
The disease, says Polito, “has killed tens of thousands of trees in Florida. The Citrus Research Board (CRB) is spending growers’ money to find a cure for this disease because they know that is the only thing that will eventually save the industry.”
But such a cure could be as remote as finding a cure for cancer.
“This is something that all of California should be concerned about,” says Polito. “If it gets into California, grove owners and home owners will be affected. because it has the ability to wipe out all citrus.”
The meeting that VC Planning Group Chairman Oliver Smith has set up between South and the neighbors will occur on Wednesday, 6 p.m. at 12363 Betsworth Rd., on the southeast corner of the intersection of Betsworth & Frace Lane.
“It’s an uphill battle,” admits Assemblyman Kevin Jeffries, about the chances of his bill that would allow voters to make the legislature part-time again.
Jeffries, whose district includes Valley Center and Pauma Valley, has introduced the bill in the fourth of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s extraordinary emergency sessions.
Items brought up during this month long session must be related to saving money. Jeffries believes that returning the legislature to the part-time status that 43 state legislatures have would help do that.
If you want to support the assemblyman’s efforts, he says the best thing is to write letters of support to Assembly Speaker Karen Bass.
“If you attack her, or the Democrats, instead of just supporting the bill, it WILL be held in the rules committee,” Jeffries told The Roadrunner.
He added, “If the legislature as a whole was thinking ahead, it would agree to draft some reform efforts before it’s forced on them.”
He was referring to a citizen’s group, Citizens for California Reform (www.reformcal.com/cms/), which has begun passing petitions to put a part-time legislature constitutional amendment on the ballot.
“It would seem to be the logical task to pursue internally, instead of having it forced on us,” said Jeffries. His bill’s exact language hasn’t been set. “It’s the intent language of what we want to achieve in general terms. We will work on the actual language if we can move it forward.”
He has 20-30 working days, until mid-September to get the votes.
Jeffries said the simplest way to offer the amendment would be to find the original 1966 language that made the legislature full-time—and undo it.
His bill would go through the legislature as a constitutional amendment.
“I don’t know if the Democrats or others will see the writing on the wall and see that reform will come whether they want it or not,” he said.
The issue doesn’t appear to be a partisan one, and many Republican and Democratic political leaders are against it. Jeffries was asked about this.
“The biggest challenge that the GOP faces is: will it be the party of the status quo, or the party of reform? If it loses its grip then what is the difference?” he said.
“Yeah, we do hold the line most of the time on taxes, but if our version of taxes is just not as much as the Democrats, we will become irrelevant to a third party.
“We have to completely shake up state government from top to bottom, push control down and have the legislature not micromanage every issue. Until we do that we will have a hard time picking up voters.”
While Jeffries believes reform is needed he is leery about talk he is hearing about a state constitutional convention.
Bay Area Senator Mark DeSaulnier (D-Concord) has introduced a resolution that voters determine whether to open a constitutional convention.
“I’ve been to one of their presentations; clearly one of their many agendas is to eliminate the two thirds vote requirement to pass the state budget,” said Jeffries. “I see that as an attack on taxpayers.”
Some also want to do away with Prop. 13 property tax limitations, or else operate a “split roll,” where business property taxes would go up while keeping homeowners’ property taxes the same, added the assemblyman.
“That would further drive business and jobs out of the state,” he said.
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You can email Speaker Karen Bass at speaker.bass@assembly.ca.gov or write her at:
Capitol Office
1303 10th St., Room 219
State Capitol
Sacramento, CA 95814
VC Fire Chief Jeff Johnson would not rule out a serial arsonist at work in several recent fires, including one that began at a local gun club last week.
Although the fire at the Escondido Fish & Game Assn. gun range had barely started before The Roadrunner got a phone call from an irate neighbor blaming it on shooters firing their weapons during the summer, witnesses from the gun club who have spoken to the paper claim to have seen someone throwing or firing a flare near where the fire started.
Chief Johnson would neither confirm nor deny this story when asked about it at Thursday night’s Valley Center Fire Protection District board meeting, except to say that Cal Fire is “continuing its investigation” of the fire.
He would also neither confirm or deny whether there might be a serial arsonist at work in the area, or whether the May 12 fire at Harvest Farms Market, which was also started by a flare, might be connected.
There were several vegetation fires last week in Valley Center, statistically more than is normally associated with being this early in the fire season.
VC Fire Marshal George Lucia, who also is fire chief of the Palomar Mountain Volunteer Fire Dept., said that his investigation of a fire that occurred up there near a residence on Crestline Road is continuing.
“The longer a case stays open the more likely it is to be arson,” he said. “I have concerns about the structure fire on Palomar.”
If you want to report a possible arson, call 866-346-7632.
Complaints come via the Internet. Some are written in pencil. Some are on legal pads. Sometimes they come with an inch of documentation—or without. It doesn’t matter. The Grand Jury reads them all.
The San Diego Grand Jury just began its new term and Victoria Stubblefield is only the third woman in the 159-year history of the county grand juries in California to be named foreperson.
“I have a hard time getting my mind around that!” she says.
The VC woman, who retired a year ago from education, where she was a teacher and later an administrator, looks forward to the upcoming year of investigations by the 19-member board.
“It is a truly amazing experience,” she told The Roadrunner last week. So amazing that she wants to inspire others to do what she did and apply to serve. Unlike a criminal or civil jury, or a federal grand jury, the county Grand Jury investigates complaints of ordinary citizens—like you.
Like many who end up serving, including most of those she is working with, she hadn’t heard of the Grand Jury before she applied. She wants to change that and to encourage good people to apply.
“The Grand Jury is a watchdog group for people who do not have a voice or know the process to do it for themselves,” says Mrs. Stubblefield.
The current Grand Jury began its work on July 6. “Already in two weeks it’s just an unbelievable experience. I see the practicing of government by the people and for the people and for the betterment of the people in this Grand Jury process,” she says.
It makes recommendations to city and county organizations. They are not required to follow the recommendations, but are required to respond in writing.
“They can agree or disagree and the hope is that they can support the recommendations,” she says.
Once her name was selected from 150 applications as a potential juror, she was interviewed by Superior Court Judge Michael Orfield. The final 19 were selected by lottery, although a minimum number from each of the five supervisor’s districts are selected.
She was selected as foreperson after interviews by the two presiding judges Kenneth So and Kevin Enright.
“I had some education, and communications and reasoning skills,” she says to explain why she was chosen for the job. “My background as a administrator and teacher in the Escondido Elementary School District was a factor.”
She is a retired language arts teacher and assistant principal at Grant, now Mission, Rose and Glenview elementary schools. The last four years of her career she taught eighth grade language arts at Rincon Middle School. She spent 19 years in education. She has been a VC resident eight years.
What the jury will do for the next 12 months will be totally confidential until its reports are released to the public. Reports can be published any time during the term.
To see the 17 investigations that the Grand Jury took up last year go onto its Web site: www.sdcounty.ca.gov/grandjury/
The jury follows up on citizen complaints. Citizens write a complaint and the Grand Jury’s job is to be the voice behind that complaint, to research it and see if there is any merit to the complaint.
The identity of those making complaints is protected. Proceedings are confidential. The jury has subpoena powers, although people usually are happy to testify. They swear not to talk about their testimony until a report is published.
The 19 serving on this jury range in age from 45–85. Most are retired, because the job requires 26 hours a week spent in the downtown San Diego Hall of Justice. They come from all sorts of backgrounds, law enforcement, the Navy, business, plumbing—there’s even a retired radio personality.
Mrs. Stubblefield is available to speak to groups about her job on the jury—without, of course, getting into specifics.
“One of my goals is to educate people about the Grand Jury so that we can have a larger pool and diversity. We only have five women in the current jury.”
The Grand Jury is the ultimate lay board. The whole point of it is that it is composed of regular people with no previous background in what they are investigating.
They are trained for a month by the outgoing Grand Jury. They also attend a California Grand Juries Conference for additional training.
A previous report on the “People’s Ordinance” has led the San Diego City Council to consider repealing a longstanding provision that residents of some parts of the city don’t pay for trash service.
Another report called for a more easily trackable money trail for an Oceanside governmental organization called Main Street.
A report several years ago called for a county fire department, something that the County is now working towards.
For eight straight years the Grand Jury recommended that the County replace the Las Colinas women’s prison—something it has finally decided to do.
At the end of her term Mrs. Stubblefield has agreed to be interviewed by The Roadrunner about her jury’s accomplishments—whatever they may be.
“I hope we will continue the work of past grand juries in correcting systems and processes out in city and county governments. Getting those changes made and also publishing civic successes, as well as applauding and recognizing the good people that are doing good work in government.”
She notes: “We do all of our own research. We have one jury coordinator, who has one assistant. It’s us that reads complaints, and research and write the reports. It is an astonishing body of work that goes behind each report,” she says.
She adds, “I want people to know they have a right to write to the Grand Jury with a complaint. That’s very important for people to know that we are there to be their voice and to have the power to do what they can’t do.”
Write her at:
San Diego Grand Jury
Hall of Justice
330 West Broadway, Ste. 477
San Diego, CA 92101-3830
Or call 619-515-8707.
For an application or complaint for, go to www.sdcounty.gov/grandjury and click on “Forms” on the left column.
So far, almost 200 kids, teens and adults have signed up for Valley Center Library’s Summer Reading this year.
To say thank you, the library has planned some fun programs for the final two weeks of July, including two summer “Pops” concerts and a visit by the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center to build a functioning catapult.
The Thursday night Summer POPs concert at the library will feature the Valley Center Orchestra, Thursday, July 23 at 7 p.m.
The orchestra will perform selections from film soundtracks such as Lady in the Water and Lord of the Rings, featuring vocalist Adriana Ariza. The orchestra is lead by music director Bill Bonhivert and concertmaster Matthew Owensby.
The final Thursday of the month, July 30, offers a doubleheader of fun. The Reuben H. Fleet Science Center will be at the library to explore the science behind the workings of a catapult – including the construction and testing of a real catapult. This program is limited to 32 kids and begins at 3:30 p.m.
On the evening of July 30 the Summer POPs will be loud and brassy as the Brassisimo Quintet shakes the walls of the library with their lively brass only concert. The Brassisimo Quintet begins at 7:00pm.
Call the Valley Center Library at 749-1305 for more information.
Shown are VC kids in The Wizard of Oz, Premiere for Kids Drama Camp, which was held at the Avo Theater in Vista. Front - Peyton Smith as Munchkin Mayor From left:- Renee Terbush as Mistress Marvel Angelina Vasquez as Mrs. Gulch, Kassidy Whitney as Glenda the Good Witch, Nathan Chisholm as The Tin Man.
By DAVID ROSS
This week millions of people around the country and the world are celebrating the 40th anniversary of the moon landing. I am not one of them.
Neil Armstrong’s “giant leap for mankind” in July of 1969 ended in a stumble, and I, for one, am not going to raise a glass to missed opportunities, a lack of leadership and vision and, ultimately, an absence of guts on the part of the United States—and really, mankind itself.
I have an acquaintance who, although he graduated at the the head of his class from college, with all sorts of honors, for whatever reason lost his drive and frittered away his education. He spent the next decade in front of the television, eating TV dinners, smoking dope, and cashing welfare checks. Someone once suggested that he should refund the State of California for his education.
NASA and the space program reminds me of that wasted opportunity. For decades we have celebrated the moon landings as if they, in and of themselves, mean something. They mean no more than if Columbus had landed on the coast of America, collected some sand, taken that back to Queen Isabella, and then spent the rest of his life talking about how great it was to discover a new world.
For about 30 years NASA’s space program has consisted of flights with an increasingly aging, and definitely dangerous shuttle fleet that only rarely accomplishes anything noteworthy.
This week the second man on the moon, Buzz Aldrin, challenged the space program to do something truly significant, put a manned mission on Mars, instead of simply revisiting the moon. I’ve met Aldrin. He’s my hero, and one of the truly great men of the last century.
And just as a reminder that space is not just a big toy for grown up boys to play with, early this week NASA reported that Jupiter had been struck by a comet size object. A comet hit the big planet in 1994. If any object like that struck the earth, it would probably wipe out 90% of life. To prevent that kind of thing from happening to us someday, we need to get serious about space travel in this solar system.
But whatever we do, it’s time for NASA to either lead, follow, or get out of the way and let private enterprise do the job that it seems incapable of.
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
Copyright © 2009, Palomar Community Newspapers, dba Valley Roadrunner. All rights reserved. This content may not be archived, retransmitted, saved in a database, or used for any commercial purpose without the express written permission of the Valley Roadrunner.