.
.
.
John Earl of Surf City Voice writes in:
URGENT: RESPOND TO THE OCWD BOD’S POSEIDON FIASCO OF LAST WEDNESDAY. HERE IS HOW:
If you were outraged by the fiasco that occurred at the last OCWD board meeting (please, don’t rely on the OC Register’s account of the meeting, it is sanitized pablum), where about 90 percent of the speakers opposed Poseidon but the board majority didn’t care (in HB’s case, that would be Cathy Green), there is another meeting of the Joint MWDOC/OCWD Planning Committee scheduled for this coming Wednesday, July 25, 2018 at 8:30 a.m. in room 101 at OCWD headquarters on Ward and Ellis in Fountain Valley. Cathy Green and other OCWD and MWDOC board members will be there and you can make public comments both at the start of the meeting (as at city council) during each agenda item presentation as well.
This is a great opportunity for HB residents to talk to their representative on the OCWD BOD, Cathy Green, face to face about your concerns.
Usually, Green ignores the concerns of her constituents or deflects them incredulously. Note, at virtually every meeting of the full board where Poseidon is on the table, Green absolutely ignores absolutely every criticism of the project and gives her standard speech: “We tried to buy water from the MET in past years but they wouldn’t let us and that’s why the basin is only 43% (or lower depending on the date) full.”
Please note: that is a BIG LIE!
In fact, as I have written about previously on Surf City Voice, the OCWD BOD has mismanaged the basin by allowing it to be sucked down to risky levels during a major drought and because it did NOT buy the water needed to refill the basin to safe levels because it would rather make money selling water than exercising sound management by minor conservation and/or filling the basin in wet years with imported water so that we have plenty of water in dry years. Green doesn’t want to raise the Replenishment Assessment (fee for the amount of basin refill from imported water) by even a small amount, but she and the other Poseidon cheerleaders on the board are VERY willing to pass the Poseidon project would raise the replenishment rate by hundreds of dollars more per month.
UPDATE: Video of Wed. morning meeting!
Most of the deadenders all in one shot: Nguyen, Dewane, Bilodeau, ?, Green. Shot by John Earl.
Five Years Ago Today: Poseidon’s Day of Infamy
John wrote a good piece last week that we didn’t cross-post, but today seems like the perfect day to link to it – since it’s July 24, EXACTLY FIVE YEARS after what John locates as the date of OCWD’s Big Lie, or Day of Infamy: when they agreed to a “confidentiality agreement” with the east-coast hedge fund. Here’s a little bit, and then click to read the rest…
We will never know exactly when some members of the Orange County Water District Board of Directors (OCWD BOD) decided to put the interests of Poseidon Resources over the interests of the District’s 2.5 million ratepayers, but July 24, 2013, might be remembered in OCWD history as a day of infamy.
That’s when OCWD officially became a partner with Poseidon by dusting off and amending a nearly forgotten 2010 confidentiality agreement signed with the company three years before.
That agreement allowed for the exchange of private financial information that could lead to a water purchase agreement requiring OCWD to buy 56,000 AF of Poseidon’s expensive desalinated water per year for 30 – 50 years regardless of need, which to this day hasn’t been demonstrated officially or otherwise by OCWD or Poseidon.
The resolution, which passed 8 – 0 (two directors absent) continued to protect the company’s supposed trade secrets … read more here
Elections Have Consequences:
VOTE FOR WATER BOARD THIS FALL!!!
Steve Sheldon, the “plump, florid preacher’s son” boundlessly loyal to Poseidon.
VERN HERE. With over a hundred public commenters last week, 90% of them opposing this deal, and the OCWD blissfully continuing what they were intending all along, we start to wonder, do we have any influence over them at all? Six of the members are just stubbornly ignorant and/or paid off. Well, while we continue to go down to Fountain Valley to speak truth to power, there is one other recourse we have – FOUR OF THE SIX DEAD-ENDERS ARE UP FOR RE-ELECTION THIS FALL! (And another one of them could theoretically be replaced by the Santa Ana Council if that body grew a spine and integrity.)
The eccentrically populated ten-member board consists of seven members elected by their individual “divisions” in the county, as well as three representatives of larger cities – Santa Ana, Anaheim and Fullerton – chosen by their city councils, and usually councilmembers. The seven popularly elected members have four-year terms, four of those will face voters this fall, and those four have all voted in favor of the Poseidon boondoggle every step of the way. We need to find good candidates to replace them, ASAP – and ONLY ONE per division! Those are:
- Steve Sheldon (above left) Division 5 (most of Newport Beach and parts of Irvine) – someone who actually did paid consulting for Poseidon for years, and yet is still allowed to vote on their project;
- Shawn Dewane, Division 7 (Costa Mesa, and parts of Irvine, Newport, Tustin and Fountain Valley – he also runs lobbying group Cal Desal AND the Mesa Water Board, which most people think is WAY too much power on this one issue;
- Denis Bilodeau, current Board president and endless Poseidon booster, who – I’ll say it now – admitted to several of us off the record that Poseidon is “unaffordable” and “doesn’t pencil out” and then got mad at us for discreetly alluding to that, and does NOT vote according to his better knowledge – Division 2 (Orange, Villa Park, and parts of Tustin);
- and Dina Nguyen of Division 1 (Garden Grove, Westminster and Stanton) – the Board’s slight, female, Asian Clarence Thomas, who opened her mouth last week for the first time anyone can remember, in praise of her generous funders.
Meanwhile, if the Santa Ana Council started to notice or care how much the billion dollar desal plant would add to their generally low-income population’s water bills – unnecessarily! – maybe they’d take a little pity and replace Poseidon-besotted Vince Sarmiento (right) with a better representative. Probably a long shot with the corrupt council they have right now, in which Vince is actually, believe it or not, a member of the LESS corrupt clique.
The one ABSTENTION last week was from my Anaheim friend James Vanderbilt. I still don’t understand why it was so hard for him to vote NO, and make us all proud. He told me he “got there late and missed all the public comments.” That’s not much of an excuse, he knows all the arguments against the boondoggle, and he gets his advice from Anaheim STAFF who also oppose it as something “Anaheim doesn’t need.” If James gets beat by Jordan Brandman and Anaheim gets taken over again by a kleptocratic council majority, they’ll stick Poseidon lover Brandman right back on the board, and we’ll be that much further back in our struggle. But James is not inspiring us right now. Duane Roberts would not have abstained.
The good news is we still have Poseidon opponents Phil Anthony, Roger Yoh, and Fullerton’s Bruce Whitaker for at least another two years.
*************
Meanwhile, Ryan alerts me that Poseidon is claiming in their propaganda that they are supported by “every state elected official in OC.” I know that Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva opposes the project, now I’m gonna have to go bug her to make a statement. And then I have to go talk to Senator Moorlach, who I’m pretty sure hasn’t thought seriously about the matter in years. Our work here is never done…
Just SOME of our Previous Coverage of Poseidon:
- HB Council Respectfully Asks Coastal Commission to Shitcan Poseidon. (July 2013)
- Poseidon Runs Headlong into Infiltration Gallery (report on Nov 2013 Coastal Commission hearing)
- Poseidon’s Water Boy: Matt Harper Quietly Pushes Desal Scam Past Ratepayers. (May 2014)
- OCWD’s Sheldon Clams Up on Poseidon Vote, Flory Shakes Things Up! (June 2014)
- Who owns the OCWD, you or Poseidon? YOU DO! Remind them, tonight! (June 2014)
- Unpacking Poseidon’s Latest Propaganda Blitz with Debbie Cook. Pt 1: The CNN Puff Piece. (June 2014)
- Recent Poseidon-Probolsky Push-Poll Threatens Candidates and Misleads Voters. (Nov. 2014)
- Sheldon’s Unethical Culture Challenged by Legal Complaint (Dec. 2014)
- Poseidon & OCWD Bring their Snake-Oil Show to the Pumpers Tomorrow (Dec. 2014)
- Surfin’ Sheldon, Little Lost Dina, Righteous Flory – What You’ve Been Missing at OCWD! (Jan. 2015)
- Poseidon Update: OCWD “just sticks the tip in…” (Jan. 2015)
- Sheldon Says “Suck it Surf City!” The Poseidon Shill is also Behind our High Density Development. (Feb. 2015)
- OCWD’s Forecast for the Future: Cloudy with a Huge Chance of Error. (March 2015)
- Pat Bates Baits Us with Bogus Doomsday Drought Scenario. (March 2015)
- Swan Song for Poseidon? A Blast of Truth from Irvine’s Peer Swan. (March 2015)
- Cage Rattled Hard, OCWD Dons Fig Leaf Before Marrying Poseidon. (April 2015)
- Our Celebrated Groundwater Replenishment System Steals Poseidon’s Lunch Money. (April 2015)
- OCWD profile #1: Phil Anthony, the Quiet Skeptic. (April 2015)
- Showdown at the OCWD Corral Nears, R4RD launches Volley. (May 2015)
- The Poseidon Adventure Sails On! (May 2015)
- Dina Nguyen Stands Up Garden Grove, Skips Fascinating Poseidon Forum. (May 2015)
- Will OCWD be Shipwrecked by Mermaids? (June 2015)
- Cathy Green Falsely Carries Poseidon Water to Coastal Commission (June 2015)
- Watch Poseidon Joke over Proposed Property Tax Increase to fund their “Privately Funded” Desal Project. (July 2015)
- Bao Stands for Garden Grove Against Poseidon, the rest of Council Waffles. (July 2015)
- Phan is the Man – who Stopped this and Needs to Start it Again! (July 2015)
- OC Can Do Desal Better – Use Salt to Lock Up CO2 Emissions. (August 2015)
- San Diego Has Too Much Water – but is Paying $1 Billion for Their Poseidon Plant. (Dec. 2015)
- Poseidon Progress Report: Eight Ways to Screw the Public. (Feb. 2016)
- Why the Coastal Commission Will Approve Poseidon. (April 2016)
- Poseidon in denial over the obstacles ahead, and more… (May 2016)
- Dispatches from the Battle Against Poseidon, Summer 2016 (July 2016)
- Poseidon Plays the Race Card, LULAC Dances to their Tune. (July 2016)
- Fullerton Reaches its Day of Decision on Poseidon (Jan. 2017)
- OCWD Tonight: Replenish the Aquifer with the Winter’s Fabulous Snows! (April 2017)
- John Earl: The Ideological War Behind Poseidon. (August 2017)
- How Stoopid Does Poseidon Think This County is Anyway? (Jan. 2018)
- OCWD Blocks Study of Alternatives to Poseidon, Misleading Coastal Commission. (Feb. 2018)
- Poseidon-Obsessed OCWD will Try to Ram Billion-Dollar Desal Project Down Our Throats. (June 2018)
- Excellent Comments for Poseidon Term-Sheet Meeting: Hamilton, Everts, Moshiri, Hiemstra (June 2018)
- Climate Change could Swamp Billion-Dollar Desal Deal (June 2018)
- Top Three Reasons Poseidon’s New Term Sheet SHOULD Have Been Rejected July 18 (July 2018)
- Important Poseidon Updates – Video of Wednesday’s meeting, and who’s running for OCWD? (July 2018)
- Poseidon’s Voodoo Math; and Klepto Kris Murray named to powerful Water Board (December 2018)
- Let’s put Poseidon out of its misery this year: Latest reports from the Front Line. (February 2019)
- New OCWD Director Kelly Rowe’s ALTERNATIVE to Poseidon. (August 2019)
“I know that Assemblywoman Sharon Quirk-Silva opposes the project…”
Um, how do you know that? And how do you know what she’ll be saying tomorrow?
Regarding James Vanderbilt and his abstention on the Poseidon vote. That night he had been at army reserve training and arrived at the OCWD meeting just before the vote on the term sheet. He did not have a chance to hear the arguments pro and con and I would imagine that he thought it would be unfair to vote either way without hearing arguments from both sides first. He did the right thing to abstain, which didn’t help Poseidon at all since Poseidon already had the 6 votes needed to pass.
Thanks for the info, James didn’t tell me it was one of his military days.
And I see Phil Anthony was absent, I hope he’s not ill – he’s been serving this county since the 60s.
A vote of 6-4 would have been much more heartening.
No representative of the city state or federal government should come to any meeting about a Billion dollar project that has been on the table for a long time and say “I missed the pros and cons” This should have been vetted by the politician who ever where ever WAY before the meeting. If they are unable to do the in debth study then their paid staff should be doing it. This is a failure of the Anaheim city council man who should not be on the board, simply.
Oh, I dunno about that.
Voting on an item if you’ve missed public comments or a portion of a presentation is generally a bad idea and possibly illegal.
Probably the right call by Mr. Professional, James Vanderbilt.
I don’t think that it’s even arguably illegal; why do you think otherwise?
How bad of a practice it is depends on the amount of homework one has done and the novelty of the arguments presented. Yes, one couldn’t know for sure if one hadn’t been there, but asking someone else “did I miss anything important” has worked for countless late-arriving college students in lectures and could probably suffice here.
James has developed a “half a loaf” reputation which I don’t think serves him well; while it is certainly “better than none” it’s not as good as a full loaf. Lucky for him that he’s running against a “negative-one loaf” major opponent this fall.
I think it depends on the circumstances and the decision being made by the body.
For example, if I skipped out on testimony from an applicant on a zoning change and voted to deny that change, I think I’d be putting my attorney in a pretty rough situation should the city get sued by the applicant. Seems pretty prejudiced.
Casting a vote after missing pubic (as in all or a majority) certainly feels like a Brown Act violation, too.
I think Vanderbilt could be more animated, but the loaf comment you’re making is nonsense.
The “loaf” comment doesn’t refer to him loafing — I don’t think he does —but to his tendency to deliver only half a loaf to his supporters. (Admittedly, his supporters are sometimes divided, such as on the minimum wage — but I don’t think they are on Poseidon.) He likes being the Kennedy/O’Conner swing vote, and he likes playing his cards (about possible compromises or reservations) close to the vest — and I don’t think that it serves him anywhere close to as well as he thinks it does.
This is intended as constructive criticism, by the way: Vanderbilt is neither evil nor bought, unlike some people I could name, but he seems to want to avoid being pigeon-holed for its own sake. I think that it hurts both his performance and his chances — and I say that as one who likes him.
Alright, fair enough.
*Anything Denis Bilodeau says…..should be question publicly and in very defined detail.
Just our opinion…of course! Would love to see his campaign contribution reports! All of them that are fit to print !!!!!!
*You’re on a slippery slope! Do we question what he says privately or publicly? And do we question the way he votes? That is always … to move Poseidon forward!
Welcome to the side of reason.
I suspect it’s a brief visit.
“Engine Room more steam!” Personalities? Not always consistent that is for sure. The few that are are pretty amazing. This is always the time of the year when that old Reclaim Water (now gone supposedly) was pumped with impunity to make that barrier against seawater intrusion into our polluted well systems. They really need to sleeve all these old pipes and make sure that no leaching is occurring …..going into the trickle down eco systems from La Habra and Whittier…….Hilarious. “It take a long pull to get there,,,: they said
in “Porgy and Bess” and we “keep waitin for that judgment day!”
Well, what happened at today’s meeting?
It is obvious that the inferior mental capabilities of the common people are just not astute enough to understand the overall project as these board members can. Give it up you lesser human beings.
It was not a meeting at which a vote or decision was expected. But John filmed the whole thing, and commented:
“This is a livestreamed video of today’s joint meeting of the Municipal Water District and the Orange County Water District. Today’s discussion, at times heated, was about transparency, water use and supplies for the future, the Poseidon project, and the need or lack of need for it.”
I have been told that Phil Anthony passed away recently. Check it out.
Yes, I’ve been working on a piece about him. His political career in the OC goes back to 1962!