About Cambria

An announcement just hit my mail box about an American Red Cross Canine First Aid Class to be held in SLO Sunday, March 8, 2009.

American Red Cross Canine First Aid Class

-presented by Genete Bowen

Accidents are never planned — are you ready to handle your next canine emergency?

Be prepared by taking this educational class. It will teach you canine first aid skills, proficiency, prevention, preparedness and more. It also includes a comprehensive Dog First Aid book, a DVD with visual instructions, and an official American Red Cross certificate.

The class will cover:
• Injury and illness prevention
• How to handle an emergency (Seizures, strains, burns, chocking and basic wound care)
• Creating a pet first aid kiit.
• Disaster preparedness (Fire, earthquake, flood etc.)
• Maintaining your pet’s well-being

Date: Sunday March 8 from 10AM-2PM
Location: Thousand Hills Pet Resort
Register at: San Luis Obispo Red Cross
Phone: 543-0696

Cost: $37

“In my opinion, this is government at its worst.” Greg Sanders, President CCSD

The facts are these:

in 2006, the CCSD and CCHD entered into an agreement whereby the portable ALS equipment was available to be on the Fire Truck for use by the qualified paramedics who arrived at a scene, to aid in the life-saving activity.

The faster emergency personnel arrive on the scene, the better your chances of survival and complete recovery. Chief Miller ventured a guess that about 75% of the time, (and probably more) the fire department arrives first.

The ambulance arrives anywhere from 1 to 5 or more minutes later. Those minutes could mean all the difference.

Currently, every firefighter is also a certified EMT trained and certified to use the ALS equipment. In fact, nearly every one also works part time at the Heathcare District. When they arrive on the ambulance, they are allowed to perform any needed treatment, including the ALS. If that same person arrives on the fire truck, even if they arrive first, can not render aid.

One big hint that this issue is important was this: An ALS that would stay on the fire truck would cost $20,000.  District policy allows expenditures up to $25,000 without Board approval. There are regular expenditures that just barely meet the criteria of under $25,000. So why did this come to the Board? Because they could buy the equipment, but the CCHD must authorize its use, something it doesn’t seem willing to do.

If you’ve got 20 minutes, watch this part of the February meeting. If you don’t have 20, fast forward and watch the last 5 minute (start at 15:00) for a summary of Muril’s position.

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This Thursday, John MacKinnon, Jerry McKinnon and Amanda Rice will be meeting with any other interested Cambrians to discuss ongoing community concerns and issues raised at the recent CCSD meeting. A new rates proposal is on the horizon and the audit for 2007-2008 has been released. The agenda will primarily focus on the financial issues, especially as they relate to our pocketbooks. This meeting will also get us back in the swing of things and help get us organized and ready to ensure the new rates proposed are reasonable and the Prop 218 process rules are clear and fairly applied.

3pm, Moonstone Beach Bar and Grill. Thursday, February 26, 2009.

Watch a  four minutes of the February 2009 CCSD meeting. Chief Miller discusses the defensible space ordinance and clears up some confusion.

It probably sounds a bit worrisome to many of you, but last week’s CCSD meeting was actually quite interesting. The new members of the board are stepping up to the plate and addressing the issues they raised during their campaigns and our new fire chief is making his mark, too (no pun intended.)And although the meeting ended with a bit of a fizzle (committee assignments), Director Clift had the audience of a dozen or so “regular folks” (and some firemen) nearly standing and cheering (or at least crying “Amen!”) As soon as a get a moment to do the edits required, I will post the relevant sections of the meeting for your enjoyment. Until then, here’s a bit of a teaser for you.

Fire Chief Mark Miller gave a brief but significant report about the Defensible Space Ordinance that’s been a thorn in the side for many Cambrians. In a nutshell:  After meeting with the stakeholders – Fire Safe Focus group, Forest Committee, Cal Fire, and  local weed abatement contractors The CCSD and Fire Department have decided to take the position that we do not want to pursue adopting our own ordinance. They will continue to enforce the regulations that are outlined in Public Resource Code 4291. They are cooperating with Cal Fire to do the inspections on both vacant property and improved parcels and are hoping to open up the communication to avoid a lot of the angst we saw last year and have greater success with lot clearing. According to Chief Miller, Cal Fire has authority over improved parcels and CCSD enforces ordinance that covers the vacant parcels. In the Chief’s opinion, pursuing the ordinance led to the jusisdictional lines being muddled. Since they will no longer be pursuing the ordinance, the jurisdictional issues have been put to rest.

Director MacKinnon asked that there be discussion on the expenditures report, which led to a discussion about the way the reports are currently done, what the current software can and can’t do, what information might be helpful and useful and a consensus on the part of the board that the current reporting system needs to be revamped or tossed in favor of something else. The Finance Committee (MacKinnon and Clift) will be looking into the possible alternatives. (Note to President Sanders:  many of the ongoing expenditures for “regular” vendors – those who seem to be listed every month- can be tracked cumulatively at the Cambria workspace of EditGrid.com Fiscal years 06-07, 07-08 and 08-09 are all available, but none includes all the vendors, since I typed the information in manually.)

Regular business began with the comprehensive audit of the District’s books. For the CPA and numeraphiliacs in the crowd, it was likely a riveting hour of unbridled fun. Me, I tend to get a headache trying to understand more than one page at a time. I can easily grasp the concepts, but get glassy-eyed as all the abstract detail and jargon start a tea-party in my grey matter. Talk of depreciation, assets and wanting to have more gloom and doom in the auditor’s report to make sure Cambrians understand that the district may look flush, but that is not a full picture of what the situation is for the district.

The really good bits of the meeting were during the discussion of spending $20,000 on emergency equipment to put on the fire trucks. I really wouldn’t do it justice to just describe what happened – you should really see the video. The issue is one the district has been dealing with for over 5 years – cooperation and agreements with the Healthcare District surrounding emergency services. The upshot? Even with 4 ambulances at our beck and call and all CCSD firefighters certified as EMTs, and CCSD Fire, Cal Fire and the Ambulance go out to every call, only the EMTs and paramendics of the ambulance service can provide treatment. And according to the Fire Chief’s guesstimate, the CCSD fire crew arrives on the scene first about 75% of the time (though that was only based on his sense of it, not any actual numbers.) Much, much more to come on that topic, including the discussion about the Ambulance and emergency services for Cambria.

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Three new posts sit over at AboutCCSD.com awaiting your attention. Topics include potable water, desalination and financial issues. Also new: updates to the FY2008-09 selected expenditures worksheets available at the Cambria workspace of editgrid.com.

See you at the Vets Hall for the CCSD meeting Thursday at 12:30pm!

The Agenda for this month’s meeting has been posted. In addition to the usual reports from staff, the consent agenda includes: Approving Expenditures for Month of January 2009; Approving Minutes of Board of Directors Meetings January 8 and January 29, 2009; and, Adopting Resolution 09-2009 Authorizing Appointment of District Counsel. No hearing or appeals are scheduled and there are five items for regular business.

• Receive Fiscal Year 2007/2008 Comprehensive Annual Financial Report by Crosby and Cindrich, CPAs
• Clarification of Sewer Relief Policy
• Consider Appointment of Water Conservation Citizens Committee
• Status Report on ALS (Advanced Life Support) Equipment Aboard CCSD Fire Department Engine 5791
• Revise 2009 Committee Assignments

Meeting this Thursday, February 19, 2009 starting at 12:30pm at the Vets’ Hall.

There are many complex issues involved, and no small amount of money, in limiting the number of homes (more precisely, CCSD connections) in Cambria. One of the newer tacks is related to provision of sewer services to lots within the CCSD service area. Below is a letter recently sent by  a Cambria lot owner who is not on the CCSD water wait list. Seems like a reasonably strong position that properties within the district should have access to sewer built with taxes paid by those properties, but I’m no lawyer.

(This seems a good time to remind all the readers of AboutCambria.com that About Cambria.com was built as a forum for the community. The ideas and opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of AboutCambria.com or any organization or the community as a whole. The site is a place to exchange ideas and information and support formation of solutions. Share yours!)

February 12, 2009

State Water Resources Control Board

Office of Enforcement Division

Attn: Mr. Reed Sato

1001 I Street

16^th Floor

Sacramento, CA  95814

Ms. Gita Kapahi

State Water Resources Control Board

Office of Ombudsman

1001 I Street

16^th Floor

Sacramento, CA  95814

Mr.Roger Briggs

Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board

895 Aerovista Place

Suite 101

San Luis Obispo, CA  93401-7906

Mr. Paavro Ogren

Director of Public Works

County of San Luis Obispo

County Government Center

Room #207

San Luis Obispo, CA  93408

RE:  Request for Determination of availability of public sewer for properties within the service boundary of the Cambria Community Services District pursuant to Section 19.07.024 of Title 19 of the San Luis Obispo County Code.

Dear Sirs:

Please let this letter serve as my formal request to the State Water Resources Control Board to make a finding and determination, pursuant to Section 19.07.024 of Title 19 of the San Luis Obispo Building and Construction Ordinance, whether the public wastewater treatment plant operated by the Cambria Community Services District (District), is available to those properties not on the District’s sewer wait list, but are within the boundaries of the Improvement District’s Nos. 1 and 2 of the District.

Specifically, please determine whether sewer is available for the attached list of properties. The list includes the APN, assessment number, owner last name, and site address of 165 properties within the District’s service boundary; each property has sewer lines fronting in the street.

The authority to seek this determination is codified under Title 19 and states that sewerage facilities shall be operated by a public agency, unless the county engineer or the Regional Water Quality Control Board “finds” that service from an existing agency (Cambria Community Services District) is unavailable and that the formation of a new agency is unreasonable.   At this point, I am only seeking a determination whether sewer is available.  Once the determination is made, and assuming sewer service is not available, then the issue of how service can be made available will be addressed as provided in the statutory scheme.

Section 19.07.024 indicates that there is no discretion for the state board or county engineer to not make this determination when services are being withheld by the operating agency; further, the California Code of Regulations (Uniform Plumbing Code and Health and Safety Code) requires connection to sewer when it is within 200 feet of a proposed or existing structure.

The Cambria Community Services District (CCSD) Municipal Code prohibits application for residential sewer permits for any homes or multifamily residences after December 31, 1990; the District’s wait list was closed on that date and no new residential applications have been accepted by the District.

CCSD Municipal Code Section(s) 8.04.070 and 8.04.080 establishes the classes of properties within the special district limited boundary that meet the connection criteria for issuance of sewer permits and/or connections from the District.

I have attached a letter from District Counsel Montandon dated Sept 20, 2007, that indicates that a property not on the District’s wait list is “not eligible” for water or sewer service.

Assessment and bond  proceeding were conducted in response to a health emergency identified by the County Health Officer in the late 1960′s,  and the first phase was completed in 1972 using proceeds from the funded improvement districts; these were formed as a result of agreements between the County of San Luis Obispo and the Cambria County Water District.

The service area to be served by the public sewer facilities was approved by the Central Coast Board and the California Coastal Commission in the late 1970′s under Section 30412 of the Public Resources Code.

The funded improvement districts were located within the urban service line approved under the approval process for the construction of the sewer treatment works, and construction was completed and sewer is fronting and abutting all the properties to be benefited by the funded districts.

Please set the date and time of the required public hearing before the applicable approval body for the determination of sewer availability.

Please provide in writing the disposition of this request so that we can prepare for and submit relevant evidence confirming the denial of sewer availability.

Thank you for your cooperation in this matter.

Respectfully yours,

Gregg Allen Berge

CC:  Andrew Linehan

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Last month, I received another letter from someone asking me to consider joining in a lawsuit against the CCSD to get the  “full value” for my vacant lots. My lots are not on the water wait list and the argument being put forth is two-fold: every property owner paid into the assessment for building the wastewater plant and is therefore entitled to the benefit from that assessment; and the CCSD and County have, through regulations they’ve enacted, taken much if not all of the value of the property, since I can’t build on it.

These letters have been sent to many property owners in Cambria and on the face of them, they seem to have some merit.  You can download and read the most recent letter by clicking here.

I don’t intend to join the lawsuit, for a number of reasons, but I was concerned about the threat such a lawsuit could pose to the CCSD and the community. So I asked the CCSD for their response to the letter. In a meeting this past Monday with Peter Chaldecott, Tammy Rudock and Art Montandon (by phone), the District responded to the letter and my questions in a fairly straightforward way. We also talked quite a bit about the Buildout Reduction Program, which is a closely related topic. Look for a few posts on that topic coming up soon.

My main question about the lawsuit appeal by Unclog, LLC was whether the seemingly valid arguments would hold any water on appeal (no pun intended). Mr. Montandon seemed confident that the appeal was unlikely to even be filed. He also seemed confident that any appeal that was filed would have little basis for success. The District is aggressively defending its position as it relates to limiting the number of connections they will issue while maintaining that connections are available for purchase by any lot owner, so the value of their property has not been taken away.

A lot owner and reader of this site named William Washburn recently wrote:

I have examined the details of the UnClog lawsuit against the CCSD and believe them to have merit. The lawsuit apparently will be appealed to the Second Appelate Court, after having failed in SLO Superior Court. The issues are complex, and should be examed first before being dismissed as unfounded. The outcome could be serious for Cambria if it goes against the CCSD. The issues include Inverse Condemnation and Breach of Contract (the breach is not allowing lot owners to build after they were forced to pay for the sewer system).

After meeting with the District, I remain concerned about the possibility for a judgement against the District, but that concern is significantly less than it had been. The deadline for Unclog to file its appeal is sometime next week, yet the appeal hasn’t been filed. The District has been working diligently on protecting this community and property owners’ rights and they aren’t likely to end up on the losing end – in fact, they are doing what they can to ensure a win-win for everyone.

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