VoSD How Your Water Rates Subsidize Golf
San Diego - In the last four years, the price of water for almost every customer in San Diego has exploded. Scarcity and new construction projects have fueled constant rate increases and higher bills.

But one class of customers has escaped the rate hikes unscathed: The 475 businesses, homeowners associations, golf courses and public agencies that buy reclaimed water from the city.

In Encinitas one of the San Dieguito Water District's largest customers is a for-profit public-private partnership (Encinitas Ranch Golf Authority).

LATimes reports, Calpers is poised to ask cities and schools for more money to fill the pension hole.

One quote is revealing:

After weighing those factors, CalPERS actuaries concluded that it would be all right for the fund to go ahead with the hike because it wouldn't overly affect the state's general fund. The general fund, currently at $86 billion, pays for major state programs, including health and welfare, education and public safety.

A question California residents should be asking, why aren't Calper's financial gurus basing the contribution request on how much is needed to fund the pension pot, NOT how much can be squeezed out of state budget? If the budget were flush would they be admitting that the pension pot needs way more money in it to remain solvent?

Read the article here.

SUNANA BATRA --

Before Encinitas Union School District trustees consider on June 29 whether to place a 30-year, $44 million bond measure on the November ballot, taxpayers must require the list of "specific needs" and "precise costs" for this loan that the district is asking taxpayers to bankroll.

After viewing how the board and superintendent operate June 1, I am sounding the alarm to fellow Encinitas residents: These folks have a completely half-baked plan to continue reaping taxes from us and throwing that money at projects without determining the district’s true needs. MORE.

And from a blog reader:

Get this; when [Batra] from NCT asked under public questioning
what the $44 million is for, the Superintendent told her; we'll try
and have the language ready by next month, less than 90 days before the election.

If you know the number is $44 mil, then you know in detail what you
need the $44 for...don't you?

If you do know, why aren't you telling the public and the parents what
the money is for?

In a 3-1 (Barth) vote last year, the Encinitas City Council rehired Austin-Foust to do the city's general plan update traffic study. Austin-Foust was the consulting company that shepherded the city's last traffic study, which was never considered acceptable by the city council or traffic commission.

Last night, the traffic consultant spoke regarding making policy decisions to allow for the reduction in our traffic infrastructure level of service and adding roundabouts to Rancho Santa Fe road in Olivenhain. Otherwise, their lecture was pretty shallow on details.

See Also: TLB Council Meeting Report.

Last week, West Coast Arborists were given a new contract for city tree trimming. This is a $140k/year contract. For years, their contract has been administratively (behind closed doors) and non-competitively renewed. Recently, members of the public have been inspecting their work and requirements of their contract (including council candidate Tony Kranz). West Coast's work has been questioned by professional arborists and it appears that West Coast has been deficient in meeting the requirements of their contract, which prohibits the City from renewing the contract administratively.

Here is staff's canned answer to Mayor Dalager about West Coast's work.

A public records request filed after those statements were made reveal that there are zero written records of the inspections. None exist.

Looking to renew West Coast Arborist's contract, Staff asked West Coast to bring the City a contract that they could piggyback. This approach to contracting effectively blocks out any competitors from getting the City's contract. Here is the discussion about piggybacking:

WCA beat out only a single competitor for the Rosemead contract. They also got the original Encinitas contract (10 years ago) without Encinitas issuing an open call for proposals.

With the exception of Barth, the contracting approach went unchallenged by the council and WCA was given a new contract.

Deborah Ellis describes five reasons for poor tree service:

1. They don’t know how to prune trees properly

2. They don’t care about pruning trees properly

3. They want to remove as much from the tree as possible so that they can get as much money for pruning the tree as possible. More branches on the ground = the more work I did = the more I get paid (?)

4. Their client insists on this type of pruning, because they have seen it so much before, and they think this is the right way to prune trees.

5. Tree services that do improper pruning as a part of their business are often much cheaper than tree services that do proper pruning – perhaps in the short term – but not in the long term!

Here's her white paper.

From the white paper:

Caption reads, "This poor Chinese elm was stripped of just about every single leaf last year. Apparently, leaves are a bad thing to have on
trees, and so are most of the branches as well. Maybe the tree service thinks they can fertilize the tree to feed it. Obviously they don’t understand that it is the leaves that make food for the tree."

At last week's council meeting, local arborists pleaded with the council to stop the over prunning of our city trees. Dalager, Houlihan, Stocks, and Bond voted to renew the WCA contract which provides monetary incentives for poor care of our city's trees. Barth objected, but did offer middle ground with a motion to extend WCA's contract one year which would culminate in a review of their work. No one seconded her motion.