About Cambria

Yesterday’s CCSD meeting wasn’t short (they adjourned to closed session at 5:00), but it was a refreshing change from the tense and combative  meetings of the last eight months. I missed the first half-hour, so I missed the swearing in and early parts of the meeting. When I walked in, the Board was hearing the manager’s report, including hearing from the district engineer about the desalination project and from Jim Adams about the seriously low well levels at the  San Simeon wells. Director Greg Sanders was acting President for the meeting and ran it smoothly and professionally. After they had approved the consent agenda, we took a short break before launching into the hearing and regular business.

What follows is an abbreviated version of the most important outcomes of the meeting. (For a more detailed view, watch the meeting on Channel 21 Friday or Saturday or visit www.AboutCCSD.com tomorrow.

There will be no surcharges (for now), but there will be a message on the bills that go out on January 10 cautioning Cambrians surcharges could be imminent if the rain doesn’t continue to recharge the aquifer.

After receiving the report of capital improvements and outlay projects the Board agreed to have the Utilities committee (with Directors Chaldecott and DeMicco) review the information and work on prioritizing the projects and the finance committee (Directors Clift and MacKinnon) reviewing how much funding could be made available for those projects. The Board also agreed to a special meeting (tentatively on January 15) at which they would hear from the committees about their findings and determine how to guide the district forward.

The Board didn’t address rescinding the rate increase directly, but did indicate they must review the possible impacts to the budget and left open the possibility of adding the item to the agenda at the special meeting in early January. And although they brushed against the fiscal issues of the rate increase uncertainty, there was no discussion of what I consider to be the more important issue raised by the rate increase: the extremely sloppy and disrespectful way the counting was undertaken – from eliminating protests for questionable reasons to errors in counting that continued even after the results had been certified. Each and every rate increase from here on out will have to go through the Prop 218 process. The Board should immediately address the standards and procedures for the counting process, so we never again have even a question of improper or unfair treatment of Cambrian’s constitutional right to oppose taxes fees and assessments.

This was just the first meeting, but it looks like there is now a Board of Directors intent on hearing from and listening to the community as well as the staff. Cambrians must respect this and encourage it by paying attention and speaking up – communication is, after all, a two way street.

As part of a public records request seeking more information about the League of Women Voters’ role and guidelines used to validate protest statements, I found an interesting email between Tammy Rudock and the members of the Board. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t have believed it. Frank DeMicco was a member of the citizen’s group that worked on the first rates protest and is currently a candidate for CCSD Director. The same week he filed as a candidate, the general manager “finally had time” to look into Mr. DeMicco’s credentials. She said some on the Board and some staff wanted to know if he was really a professional engineer, as he had described himself at a public meeting. The email explaining her actions apparently came after Director Clift asked her why he and the other board members was being sent Mr. DeMicco’s CV.

It is more than a little troublesome to know that the CCSD staff is investigating those who don’t agree with them and those who may be elected as their employer. What’s more, they did not ask Mr. DeMicco directly, but tried to get the information without his knowledge, first through his employer and, when that did not work, through the City of Santa Maria, which uses the engineering firm he works for on projects for the city. This action could in fact be in violation of ethics and fair political practices laws. At the very least, it shows reckless disregard for a member of the community and how a General Manager of a CSD checking his credentials might affect his job or reputation.

Who else has been subjected to this kind of digging? This is a small town, not some impersonal large city. Anyone who wants to know Mr. DeMicco’s qualifications, whether to evaluate the authority of his opinions or some other reason, can email or call him and ask him.

Perhaps we need have some kind of “official” repository where the resumes, curricula vitae, credentials, awards, diplomas, certificates of participation and pictures of all trophies won by each and every Cambrian is available for all to see. Oh, and let’s not forget to include any criminal convictions, bankrupties,  traffic court records and civil court judgments, regardless of how long ago they were recorded or their outcome. Of course, such a repository would bar any unsubstantiated allegations and respect the “innocent until proven guilty” doctrine that underlies our legal system.

Such a collection would certainly be interesting. Since the median age in Cambria is about 51 and many are retired, it stands to reason that our neighbors don’t necessarily know our professional and personal histories. But the bigger question is this: do we really need to make people to substantiate their histories?

Unless the CCSD plans to hire Mr. DeMicco or rely on his experience and advice in making a decision for the community, there is no reason for them to be taking time to look into his credentials – or anyone else’s for that matter. Cambria deserves better.

See the emails between Tammy Rudock and the Board about Mr. DeMicco.

See Muril Clift’s Response to Tammy’s Email.

Read the Resume Mr. Demicco gave me.

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.

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?