LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

MEASURE B IS NOT ABOUT AFFORDABLE HOUSING


Editor, Roadrunner:

Do you know what Measure B is? Measure B is not about affordable housing. Measure B is about one developer (Accretive) wanting to build one development (Lilac Hills Ranch), that wasn’t going to be approved!

They found a loophole, hired people to collect signatures, got it on the ballot, and are banking on you being stupid enough to think that this is about fixing our “affordable housing crisis”. Why would the Mayor of Chula Vista be so concerned about building in Valley Center? Only she can answer that. This I know for sure; voting yes, on Measure B does not mean that anyone will be getting affordable housing. Not in Chula Vista; not anywhere. Accretive Development would never build affordable housing. It’s not profitable for them.

Earlier this year we all watched the citizens of Carlsbad defeat another developer, despite being over-spent exponentially. We can do this! We can defeat this greedy, shady developer. Measure B is not about affordable housing. It’s about a massive cluster of homes, in the middle of nowhere, that breaks the codes of San Diego County’s General Plan, with so much insufficient infrastructure and safety concerns, that our elected officials couldn’t approve it.

LEE MARZANO-SCHWARZ,
Valley Center
* * *

VOTE FOR ROLAND SIMPSON FOR A MORE CONSERVATIVE VIEW

Editor Roadrunner:

On the election for Yuima Water District, I would point out a few things. Ms. Johnson took the position of General Manager of Yuima Water District when she was Financial Director of same. I told her that the laws governing water districts stated unequivocally that she could not be GM and Finance Director. She said she did not want to be “interim director.” She said she would retire from Finance as soon as she could. She did not mention that what she was doing was illegal according to the law when the vote was taken. I tried to get the board to appoint her as “interim director.” She refused. Six or more months later, she retired from the Finance position.

Ms. Johnson thinks of Yuima as if it were a BIG district. We have 330 meters, 96% agriculture, (Valley Center in comparison has about 10,000 meters.) I want a more conservative view for the Board. We cannot afford to forever pay outrageous salaries.

My daughter came in and spoke to them. She is the Human Resources Director of a private company with 1,170 employees. She told them our salaries were outrageous compared to the private world. She told them that one of our employees was receiving 80% more than the average person in such a spot on the outside. The next day, they began work on a complete revamp of her “job description” No one in the private industries is receiving the salaries that we give to our employees. Nor pensions that include 87% of your salary as a retired person. Nor pension benefits such as medical for life for the GM and spouse. No one in the private sector gets benefits of this sort, NOR raises even. Her company, one of the largest in the world, has not had an increase in 7 years.

Ms. Johnson brought in a manager for our four employees that work on pipe installation. My daughter told them that a manager has about 200 people to supervise. Ms. Johnson brought in an accountant, and now wants another one. When does the District realize that these expenses are killing our water rates?

In response to Ms. Johnson’s claim that the reserve of $7 million that we had went to fulfill the Master Plan, and that we needed these “things” is not true. What it was spent on was 1.) the retirement funds of 5 about-to-retire employees (Ms. Johnson included); 2.) $281,000 more or less to CalPers per year for the next 7 years, and apparently no way out of this…they have made an “estimate” of the money we would owe them to retire from the fund as $9million; 3.) $1.3 million more or less for a lawsuit which we lost; 4.) $1.5 million more or less, for the paperwork to build an easement for a pipe with the Pala Tribe that was never built. But the rest of the money, nobody seems to know what happened to it. As for the tanks that were built, and the horizontal wells, and much of the “hardscape” mentioned in the Master Plan, they were built with loans, NOT reserve money. The Master Plan was supposed to be updated by the last GM, but he left without doing anything on it.

Our District is almost bankrupt. We have raised our rates 34% since I have been on the Board for 2 and ½ years: to wit, 9% the first year, 9% the next year, and this year, 16% to the IDA portion of Yuima. And without those raises in our rates, we would go bankrupt.

Ms. Johnson often mentions hours she has worked as “unpaid”, but she is salaried. Yuima owes her nothing for all those extra hours she cites. Interesting that she knows all these numbers. And she clearly states that she is only going to receive 87% of her salary, not 120%. Do any of you get 87% of your salary when you retire? How can we hire a new person to take her place if we must pay 30-40% of her old salary ( the rest paid by CALPers) . The new person must take the hit?

Ms. Johnson has told the Board that she is retiring, but then she hasn’t. Is it legal for a GM to be a Board member as well as a GM?

I think we need a conservative change on our board. Let’s change the direction of the board.

Please vote for Roland Simpson.

LANEY VILLALOBOS, Pauma
Valley
*

Note: Mrs. Villalobos is a director of the Yuma Municipal Water District board. She represents Division 1. * * *



*Note: Opinions expressed by columnists and letter writers are those of the writers and not necessarily those of the newspaper.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *