About 150 Cambrians attended the CCSD Candidate Forum put on by the Chamber of Commerce. As promised, each candidate gave an opening statement of 3 minutes – strictly timed by the League of Women Voters volunteers. Then the moderator asked a number of questions provided by members of the audience – more than I thought they would be able to get to.
A rebroadcast of the 2 hour forum is scheduled to play on KTEA-103.5 FM at 7:30pm Wednesday night. Interviews with individual candidates will run every weekday at 8am and 4pm beginning Thursday. When the audio becomes available for download, I will link to it here.
Among the questions were several financial issues, a question about the Fiscalini Soccer fields park, support for desal, the 4,650 residential limit, incorporation as a city and community priorities. Right off the bat, it was easy to see this year will not be the 1996 election all over again. When the League asked the simple yes/no to “Will you follow through and get the desal up and running?” Six of the seven answered yes. Clive Finchamp is the only candidate running who questions the wisdom and affordability of desalination and asked those who agree with that position to vote for him in November.
The rest of the candidates agreed on almost every question, with differences showing primarily in the “how” rather than the “what” they would do if elected. Though the distinctions weren’t very evident last night, perhaps the upcoming interviews on KTEA 103.5 FM, the series of posts planned here on AboutCambria.com and a forum on October 20 at Rabobank will tease out the differences.
If I had to pick one winner based just on charisma, clear communication and oration skills, without a doubt Muril Clift was the most polished and impressive of the group. His responses were well-thought out, clear and consistant. One thing is certain: Clift is an impressive leader we are lucky to have offering his time, intelligence and dedication to our community.
I agree with a comment Joan Cobin made at one point later in the evening: all the candidates, incumbents and challengers alike, were well-informed and, for the most part, completely on point. All of these Cambrians clearly care enough about their town to give their time and energy as a member of the Board. What I would have liked to hear more about specific solutions or approaches. Allan McKinnon hinted at some ideas he has up his sleeve and Frank DeMicco outlined some of his experience in the industry leaving the audience to infer that within that experience are some solutions for our town.
There were a few defining moments for each candidate. When Rich Davega showed his potential value as a Board Member when he said, “The number of staff out in the field has changed almost not at all in many years, but the number of administrative staff has grown quite big. I’d like to understand why that’s the case.” The two qualities I heard in that statement were a desire to understand (and therefore be able to explain) the District’s choices and an attention to details that have gone unnoticed by the current board.
(Although in their defense, the current Board has been rather too busy over the last eight years working on getting the master plan together and approved, a desalination project that has yet to see a Coastal Commission thumbs-up, development of a unique, ambitious plan to limit the number of homes that will ever be built in Cambria, and expended an enormous amount of energy and resources to help acquire an immense open space and extract money out of the grubby hands of the oil company responsible for the MTBE mess.)
Two comments made by Ilan Funke-Bilu that stick in my mind: He considers it a privilege to be able to serve his community by being on the Board and the desalination will cost the least and is the greenest of all the alternative water sources. I appreciate what Mr. Funke-Bilu has done for this community – on more than one occasion it was his hand going up as he said. “Now, wait a minute.” that saved this community from rushing headlong into budget foolishness and at least slowed down the “rubber stamping” of whatever recommendation staff put forward. I was working at the Community Center when the now infamous request for funding from CCSD was being considered. It kind of irked me at them time – only a little, though, when Mr. Funke-Bilu asked that the Center provide a better accounting of why it needed the money and where its money had gone. Frankly, I thought it was a bit sloppy on the Community Center’s part to not have all their ducks in a row before asking for a bailout. For a director to demand to know what an organization planned to do with donated money from public coffers is absolutely appropriate.
Clive Finchamp’s defining moment was unambiguous and punctuated by his sitting back with arms crossed and a big smile on his face. He declared desalination a bad idea for Cambria, providing a number of valid reasons before leaning back to let another candidate at the question.
Among the dozens and dozens of things Cambria has going for it are these seven candidates for CCSD. Listen or watch for yourself. And don’t forget: you can still register to vote! The deadline is October 20. And if you’re not pestering every friend you have about registering and making sure your neighbors have a ride to the polls, why not?
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Last 5 posts by Amanda Rice
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- California Coastal Commission Unanimously Denied Army Corps Desal Tests
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think we all enjoyed the civility showed to and by all at the forum. Having been on the receiving end of much that has gone on before..a sincere thank you.
MY Observations.
1. Two candidates must brush up on the limited tax opportunities available to CSDs (including Not being able to collect any sales or “bed” taxes from the communities).
2. The explicit endorsement of Desal for Cambria (by 6 candidates) must be followed up by a sincere attempt on their part to separate the folklore often reported on this website from the facts freely available at CCSD or ACWA or AMTA (American Membrane Tech Ass). As an engineer I have done my homework. I cannot tell you how boring it is to hear the tales of Santa Barbara, Morro Bay etc. all which have rational explanations. What they have in common is important. The drought of 89-09 caught those cities unprepared. As a result they installed what ever system they could find which was available (but was not suitable for their needs. The example is if you crash your car and HAVE to replace it ASAP with whatever the dealer has available..(usually a bad choice).
3. It was obvious that the challengers have a steep learning curve if elected. M. Clift’s prior board experience has been an asset in his time on the CCSD. Also J. Cobin in her 6 + years has taken the time needed to understand the many facets of local government. As a result she operates from a reasoned informed position with an underlying sense of all community needs.
I. Funke-Bilu brings his sharp lawyer’s intellect and a long held respect for the community to the CCSD.
The criticisms above were not of MY comments BUT I do not believe that the use of condescending charged words such as “Two candidates must brush up on…” the term “boring” and “a steep learning curve” will help to build a positive relationship for a newly elected Board.
This type of negative dialog is counterproductive to potential Board members as well as the Staff and Community.
If elected, I would work to create a more positive environment for all.
By the way, I have a M.S. in Mechanical Engineering from USC majoring in Fluid Dynamics and Controls and I ALSO have done my homework.
Thanks Allan, I always appreciate your input. The facts do remain as I indicated, there is a lot to learn at CCSD. Candidates should preface remarks with “I believe that…” or “I think that…” before making pronoucements.
(I am reminded of the old saw from my engineering days “don’t engage mouth until brain is in gear” an old joke I have just recycled).
It brings to mind a comment that needs to be corrected from a candidate to the point that field staff had remained stable whereas Administration had “increased considerably” (as I remember it).
Well the facts always get in the way. On Feb. 6th. 1998 an M & O audit lists total staff at 25 Full time employes. Our current MSR lists 33.5 employees, an increase of 8.5 over 10 years. Well the details show the Fire dept was 3, now a 7/24 operation with 9 (+6) and again in 1998 both the in house Engineer and Legal Counsel were not included(+2). This then accounts for 8 of the 8.5 staff position increase – hardly enough to complain about!.
I do look forward to a positive working relationship with whomever is elected in November and stand ready to brief any one before they venture too far out on their own respective limb!