After talking to Kristi Jenkins at some length a few times about the Cambria Community Healthcare District, I’ve come to the conclusion that voting for her for the CCHD Board is a very wise choice. Ms. Jenkins’ professional experience and clear passion for exploiting the unused potential of the CCHD to the benefit of all Cambrians without additional costs make her an obvious choice next Tuesday.
Read more about her views and vision for the CCHD if she is elected can be found HERE.
As you may know, the CCSD Board has decided to move forward with imposition of the rate increase. This action is being taken in the face of the rate protest submissions and the presentation by Mr. Biddle of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer’s Association. As a candidate for CCSD Director, if elected, I commit to seeking a Board vote to rescind the rate increase based upon the evidence that the rate protest was, in fact, successful. If a rate increase is still warranted, then the CCSD must propose a new rate increase and follow the procedures required by law.
Rich Davega
The CCSD has posted a job opening for a wastewater treatment operator I or II.
Salary: Wastewater Treatment Operator I: $3295-4005 month
Wastewater Treatment Operator II: $3705-4503 month
Excellent Benefit package
Filing Deadline, November 18, 2008 at 4:00 pm
• Postmarks are not accepted
Under supervision of Wastewater Department supervisor the successful candidate will operate the District’s Wastewater Treatment Plant and Collection systems; perform proper testing procedures of routine analysis; record pertinent information; maintain cooperative working relationships and participate in stand-by duties as an on-call operator with the ability to respond to immediate emergencies.
Requirements:
•A California Grade I or II Wastewater Treatment Plant Operator License
•A high school graduate or equivalent; and
•A valid California class “B” driver’s license within six (6) months.
Interviews are scheduled for:
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
For more details about the position, visit the CCSD website.
For more details about the wastewater treatment plant and system, visit the Cambria Water Quality Control Plant, Wastewater website.
More valuable than a gallon of gas? Say YES! with a small donation today.Recently, Clive Finchamp posted two comments on the home page asking for candidates to post their assets. (I’ve included them below.) Some other comments made recently along the same lines prompted me to write this post about the issue of conflicts of interest and property ownership.
Every Director and candidate is expected to complete what is called a Form 700 with the Fair Political Practices Commission. The Political Reform Act prevents conflicts of interest in two ways — disclosure and disqualification. (See Gov. Code Sections 87100-87350.)
Disclosure
The purpose of financial disclosure is to alert public officials to personal interests that might be affected while they are performing their official duties, i.e., making governmental decisions. Disclosure also helps inform the public about potential conflicts of interest.
Public officials at every level of state and local government must disclose their personal financial interests. Elected officials, judges, and high-ranking appointed officials generally have the most comprehensive disclosure requirements. (Gov. Code Section 87200.) These include disclosure of:
For most other officials, including employees of state and local government agencies, it is up to the agencies that employ them to decide what their disclosure requirements are. Each state and local agency must adopt a conflict of interest code tailoring the disclosure requirements for each position within the agency to the types of governmental decisions a person holding that position would make. For example, an employee who approves contracts for goods or services purchased by her agency should not be required to disclose real estate interests, but should be required to disclose investments in and income from individuals and entities that supply equipment, materials, or services to the agency. (Gov. Code Sections 87301 and 87302.)
Unpaid members of boards and commissions and consultants to state and local government agencies also may be required to disclose their personal financial interests if they make or participate in making governmental decisions that could affect their private financial interests.
Disclosure is made on a form called a “statement of economic interests” (Form 700). The form must be filed each year. Filed forms are public documents that must be made available to anyone who requests them.
The incumbents’ form 700 are available at the CCSD offices – I have seen them myself.
From Clive:
Thus far I am the only candidate who has posted his assets on this webstite. How do we know that the whether the other candidates have any financial interests in the issuses they have voted on? Do any of the candidates, for example, own lots in Cambria and therefore have a vested interest in the way they voted? Or do any of them on rental property the would conflict with their duties on the board? By simply posting their assets on this website would clear up the matter entirely.
I have recently asked the Board Directors to post their assets on the Boards website as their are rumors that some of them have extensive lot holdings that would conflict with the say they have voted in the past. i.e., on the lot buyback plan.
From another commenter:
We do not need “rumors” as you cited, we need facts. And we need water. Let’s not rely on rumor about “extensive lot holdings” of ccsd board members, as referenced by Mr. Finchamp. I did not find evidence of such by looking at public tax records,but let’s not rely on that either. There is one way we can all know for sure. I think it is unreasonable to ask candidates to list all assets as Mr. Finchamp is calling for, but as a voter I would like to know how many vacant buildable lots are owned by candidates running for CCSD.
All these holdings should be shown on each candidate’s Form 700.
More valuable than a gallon of gas? Say YES! with a small donation today.From the American Legion:
Also: November 11 is Veterans Day. A special event honoring Veterans is planned for that day at the Vets Hall. More details as I get them.
More valuable than a gallon of gas? Say YES! with a small donation today.Today’s question for the CCSD candidates: What role do you think the Board should play in the larger scheme of the community? What role do you think the citizens of Cambria ought to have have in oversight of the CCSD? How would you go about enhancing community confidence in and support of the CCSD?
The Board’s duties are specifically enumerated in the Constitution of the State of California and various laws in the California Codes. No more , no less. I took an oath to faithfully abide by these mandates. I have tried to do the right thing from day one, almost eight years ago. If the people of Cambria disagree with me, they can remove me come this November. I think that’s plenty of oversight.
The way you establish confidence and support is with respect, honesty, and getting things done. I respectfully believe I have delivered on all three counts.
The Board should be involved in providing guidance and direction regarding all CCSD activities. The public should always be able to provide input to the Board on their wishes so that the Board can act accordingly. I also support the establishment of committees on key matters with community membership and Board member “office hours” between the official public meetings so that citizens/ratepayers can openly discuss issues/concerns outside of the more formal process at the CCSD public meetings. I believe that involving the community in this way, as well as providing full and complete disclosure during the formal CCSD Board meetings will go a long way towards re-establishing trust. However, it is also critical that the operation of the CCSD be more open and transparent and that operating efficiencies are implemented so that the community is convinced that the CCSD has been refocused towards serving their needs in a more fiscally responsible manner.
In our continuing series highlighting the views of the CCSD Candidates, today’s question is:
What is your position on Outsourcing or privatization? Would you support a community-wide vote to measure support/opposition ?
Like many things, outsourcing can be good or bad . In a sense we outsource our police protection and I think most of us believe that is good. We outsource our garbage services. There is no question that , for years, our garbage company has provided excellent service at a reasonable price. We outsource our media/community relations services with Davidson & Associates. Again, Connie Davidson has, for years, provided extraordinary service by, inter alia, obtaining multiple grants, and connecting our ratepayers with the District by being primarily responsible for creating and maintaining the CCSD website. The District also saves money by utilizing Ms. Davidson as an independent contractor and , thus, avoids paying taxes and benefits were she hired as an employee.
On the other hand, I will never agree to privatizing our desal plant. It is one thing to privatize our garbage service, especially where we have had such a proven positive history, but it is quite another to privatize one of our core needs. Water should never be a profit making enterprise.
Community wide support/opposition measures should be a rare phenomenon. We have a representative government virtually from top to bottom. Its wisdom lies in our representatives efficiently conducting our governments’ business . Community wide support/opposition measures interfere and take valuable time away from precisely that function. Our founding fathers and mothers realized this tension and created a balance by providing regular elections where , if the representatives failed to follow the will of the people, the people would boot them out at election time. I think our fathers and mothers were smart. Sometimes I think they were a whole lot smarter than their children.
I believe that each decision on expenses should be made based upon a cost-benefit analysis. Does outsourcing or privatizing an item save the ratepayers money and provide the same or better quality service than CCSD could internally? If the answer is yes, then the step should be taken. I believe that the “sense of the community” should be measured by publicizing the facts and circumstances as an outsourcing/privatization decision is being considered and getting community feedback through the regular CCSD Board meetings and the “office hours” that Board members will be holding. I believe that community-wide “votes” should be limited in number and reserved for major items such as BRP financing.
Last night’s candidates forum was informative and quite a success. About 55-60 people showed up at Rabobank last night to learn more about the candidates for CCSD Director. After the Chamber-sponsored forum, it was clear that the candidates have a lot in common – with the exception of Clive Finchamp, the candidates all support implementing the Water Master Plan, including the desalination project. My goal in organizing this forum was to give the candidates an opportunity to differentiate themselves from the other candidates and get a more individualized picture of each of the candidates.
With the help of co-moderator Steve Cole, we sorted through nearly 70 questions submitted before the event by email and by those in attendance and asked almost 20 questions of the candidates. We started out with each candidate answering a question focused on the theme: “What differentiates your from the other candidates?”
In the coming days, I will be posing some of the questions we didn’t have time for to the candidates and will post any responses I receive.
KTEA-FM 103.5 will be broadcasting the forum…stay tuned for date and time. It will also be available for download right here on AboutCambria.com soon.
I’d like to thank Rabobank for providing the space; Steve Cole for helping me fine tune the format and rules and for co-moderating; the volunteers who helped ensure everything went so smoothly: Jeff Hellman and Boyd Hogan as sound techs, Cheryl McDowell and Jackie Hogan as timekeepers, Bruce Marchese, Mickie Burton, and Tina Dickason for helping with seating and question cards; Stephen Overturf for letting us borrow his wristwatch; Elizabeth Bettenhausen for putting up flyers; Jim Kampschroer and Leeanne of KTEA FM 103.5 for broadcasting the event; and, of course, each of the seven candidates for CCSD Director. Kathe Tanner was tapping away on her laptop through the whole event…so look for something in this week’s Cambrian.
KTEA-FM 103.5 will be broadcasting the forum on Thursday October 23, 2008 at 10am and Friday October 24, 2008 at 7pm.
Highlights from the agenda for this week’s CCSD meeting can be found on the CCSD’s website and on About CCSD.com.
