UPDATE: According to Senior Planner Sean Conroy of the City’s Community Planning & Building Department, City Attorney Don Freeman will be the only person representing the City of Carmel-by-the-Sea at the SWRCB Meeting in Sacramento, CA. on June 19, 2008, not thirteen people as noted on the NOTICE OF INTENT TO APPEAR.
ABSTRACT: The State Water Resources Control Board will hold Public Hearings to determine whether to adopt, with or without revision, a draft Cease and Desist Order (CDO) for California American Water. In issuing its draft order in January, the State stated Cal Am violated Order 95-10 by diverting water in excess of its water rights, threatening fish and other wildlife in the river corridor. Cal Am maintains it has not violated Order 95-10 by limiting its annual take to 11,285 acre-feet and pursing a desalination plant.
The Hearing will commence on Thursday June 19, 2008, at 9:00 A.M. and continue, if necessary, on Friday, June 20, 2008, at 9:00 A.M. in the Coastal Hearing Room Joe Serna, Jr./Cal EPA Building 1001 I Street, Second Floor, Sacramento, CA. If the draft CDO is adopted, another public meeting will be held on July 23-25, 2008 to determine any modifications to the draft order.
An ADDENDUM consisting of announcements in The Carmel Pine Cone about a FOREST THEATER MEETING on June 19, 2008 at 4:30 P.M. is presented. And COMMENT on a Conundrum: The “mayor, council members” are to attend a FOREST THEATER MEETING on Thursday, June 19 AND attend the State Water Resources Control Board Hearing on Cease and Desist Order for California American Water in Sacramento on Thursday, June 19, 2008?
DRAFT Cease and Desist Order WR 2008-00XX-DWR
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING
Via FAX 03/14/2008
NOTICE OF INTENT TO APPEAR
Cease and Desist Order Hearing for
California American Water
Carmel River in Monterey County
Sue McCloud, Ken Talmage, Rich Guillen, Heidi Burch, Don Freeman, George Rawson, Andrew Miller, Sean Conroy, Brain Roseth, Joyce Guiffre, Gilbert Neill, Walter Kieser and/or David Zehndr
CALIFORNIA ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
STATE WATER RESOURCES CONTROL BOARD
WATER RIGHTS
Hearings Program - California American Water (CAW) CDO Hearing
In response to a request for hearing made by California American Water (CAW), the State Water Board will hold a hearing in the matter of the unauthorized diversion of water by CAW - Cease and Desist Order WR 2008-00XX-DWR – Carmel River in Monterey County.
• Submitted Policy Statements
o Sue McCloud, Mayor – Carmel-by-the-Sea
Good afternoon chair and member of the board:
I am Sue McCloud, Mayor of Carmel-by-the-Sea. I would ask that the 4 Carmel Council members who are here with me stand to show their support of these remarks. There are several Monterey Peninsula Mayors present this afternoon as well and 3 of us have City Council meetings today. It would therefore be appreciated if they could speak following me.
We understand that today’s session is to deal with policy statements. However, it is very difficult to focus on policy when no determination has yet been made whether Cal-Am is in violation of Order 95-10 and if so, to what degree. Once that determination has been made, we would then be in a position to weigh in.
Our concern is procedural: first determine if Cal-Am is in violation; then ask the public and the cities how this would affect them; and then and only then ask for policies that would address reasonable remedies. Assemblyman John Laird, sent you a very thoughtful letter on March 25 which also outlines a two step process: namely, to defer consideration of the draft order until the various studies and EIRs undertaken by the PUC are completed and for the Board to fully coordinate with other state entities to help the community find the least costly and most environmentally beneficial solution.
This Peninsula is a one crop economy, and that is tourism, which accounts for the majority of our revenues. In turn, there are many in Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito counties who derive their income from working in our tourist industry. Thus, their jobs will be adversely affected buy any drastic reductions without a new water source.
If we are facing rationing and a moratorium on hookups, if we are facing a loss of jobs in the tri-county area due to drastically reduced water supplies, if we need to address the resultant pain and suffering of our residents, we will all have to work collaboratively to develop the policies to address your concerns as well as those of the community.
For our part, Cal-Am customers have voluntarily conserved water and in the process we have earned the title of top per capita conservers in the state. There is probably little additional water to be saved via conservation.
The Monterey County Mayors’ Association wrote you March 20 opposing the CDO which “will have a very severe ‘domino effect’ on the economic well-being of this large County”. It asked that the formal hearings planned for June be held here locally.
In conclusion we endorse Assemblyman Laird’s two priorities and ask also that you not enact the CDO with its adverse economic and social impacts, but that you first determine if there has been a violation of Order 95-10 and then allow us the time necessary to develop policies and to spend our time and resources to bring new water sources online.
Thank you.
o Carmel Inkeepers Association
o Assembly Member John Laird
ADDENDUM:
FOREST THEATER MEETING SET
"THE CARMEL City Council will hold a special meeting at the Forest Theater Thursday, June 19, to discuss plans for its proposed renovation. The meeting will be held at 4:30 p.m. and will allow the mayor, council members and the public to hear details of how the venue, which opened in 1910, might be updated and improved. The Forest Theater Foundation is raising money for the project, which city taxpayers will also fund, and proponents hope at least some of the work will be done by the time the theater celebrates its centennial. For more information, call (831) 620-2000."
NOTICE OF SPECIAL CITY COUNCIL MEETING
Special Meeting
Thursday, June 19, 2008
4:30 pm
On site at the Forest Theater
On Mountain View at Santa Rita
I. Call to Order
II. Roll Call
III. Pledge of Allegiance
IV. Orders of Council
A. Workshop to receive input and provide policy direction on the proposed Forest Theater Renovation Project.
V. Adjournment
(Source: The Carmel Pine Cone, June 13-19, 2008 pg. 9A)
COMMENT:
• A Conundrum: The “mayor, council members” are to attend the FOREST THEATER MEETING on Thursday, June 19 AND attend the State Water Resources Control Board Hearing on Cease and Desist Order Hearing for California American Water in Sacramento on Thursday, June 19, 2008?
6 comments:
Why is the city only sending Don Freeman if it was so important for Sue McCloud to say at an earlier city council meeting she wasn’t going to speak at the public meeting in Monterey because her speaking time would be deducted from her June hearing time? Instead of the mayor et al. going, she schedules a special meeting on the Forest Theater. What is going on here? More priorities askew?
Sue McCloud is just another politician who has convinced enough Carmel voters that she cares about Carmel and Carmelites, when she really only cares about herself. The Forest Theater design is not for Carmel, it is for Sue’s perceived legacy. True to her bureaucratic training, she is using the same old MO she employed with Sunset Center and SCC-empower and embolden the Foundation, mislead the public into thinking this McCann design was meant to be and ram it through without consensual community support because it just has to be done by 2010. The broken record saga continues...
Yes - my prediction is that the Foundation won't actually give a presentation. The whole thing will be run by Sue, who will dictate who talks and for how long. Then "policy direction" will (conveniently) be whatever Sue decides! She just wants to get something done by 2010, wether or not it's good for the community or the theatre groups. Another prediction - she'll do anything to protect her stupid concession stand, even though the theatre groups all (apparently) think it not working. Otherwise, why would they have asked Mr. Macann to redesign it.
Let’s see. The city could have released the McCann study to the public last May 2007. The city could have encouraged and solicited public input anytime between May 2007 and the present. Yet the council recently rubberstamped $65,000 in taxpayer monies for a schematic design, before making the McCann study available to the public and are only now having a workshop/meeting for the purpose of getting public input into the design. How clever. Even the most dense have to see this for what it is, the 2010 express train without any stops to its final predetermined destination.
I recently heard that the Foundation wanted several community meetings, some as early as last year, but the city would not let them happen. Can that be true?
Please follow this story. I am particularly interested in the Board's decision and the next meeting scheduled in July.
Thank you for featuring this important story.
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