ABSTRACT: During deliberation on Agenda Item 1. Approve creation of and membership on the Governance Committee of the Monterey Peninsula Regional Water Authority at a Special Meeting of the Monterey County Board of Supervisors on September 28, 2012, Supervisor Jane Parker and Supervisor Louis R. Calcagno made comments. Highlights of comments made by Supervisors Jane Parker and Louis R. Calcagno are presented. The Board of Supervisors unanimously approved creation of and membership on the Governance Committee of the Monterey Peninsula Regional Water Authority; the Board Order is embedded.
Supervisor Jane Parker –
District 4
“If this Governance Committee is adopted by the PUC as the best structure for public representation, the County will gladly participate. However, the County maintains that the desalination plant should be publicly owned in accordance with County Code in which case this shared Governance Committee would be unnecessary.”
Supervisor Louis R. Calcagno -
District 2
“As long as we have the right at any time to remove ourselves from this authority, I can support it to get us past this hurdle that the Monterey Peninsula has in front of them…But at any one time, if I see that 2C water is in jeopardy or that I see financially it is taking a hunk out of the Supervisors budget, I would be the first to lead a charge to say that we are going to back away from it because our experience in the past has not been really good on this issue. I know people do not like me to say this and the Monterey Peninsula people do not want to hear it, but I will say that you have a water management district that was set up to take care of this duty from the beginning. And if the right people are not elected, you should have the right people elected. What we are trying to do is circumvent that body continually, and I can understand there is a feeling against it, but what we’re doing is we’re circumventing them and creating an authority to overpower them. You’ve got it in place. You’ve got a water management district that has all the authority in the world. We are just creating another layer of government and it has bothered me from the beginning that we have to do that…But you’ve got a group of mayors that feel that they need to take the authority I think they should be going in front of the water management district and basically telling the water management district ‘this is what you are going to do water management district and this is how you are going to do it. We’re the mayors and we are calling the shot here and you are representing us,’ buy we are not doing that and we keep berating ourselves on the Monterey Peninsula from that body. And as long as we do that we are probably going to have problems. But I will go ahead and support it with concerns and like I say if I see that it infringes on 2C water in any way, I will be the first to raise a charge against it.”
Note: 2C water
Cal-Am’s current application proposes to locate the Monterey Peninsula Water Supply Project (desal project) within the Salinas Valley Zone 2C basin.
Monterey County Board Order
ADDENDUM:
Special Meeting – Board of Supervisors Friday, September 28, 2012 00 hour 32 minutes
Monterey Peninsula Water Management District
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