Probably the most important meeting of
the Goleta Water District is scheduled for tomorrow, Tuesday, October
30th where radical changes are being proposed as to the provisions
of the Safe Water Supplies Ordinance which were adopted by the voters in 1991
and 1994.It is a must attend meeting for everyone concerned with the future of
our water supplies and the possibility that if the Directors approve the
recommendations of the District’s General Manager,they will give away the
District’s precarious future water supplies to the developers
.
The proposals being
advocated by Walsh, with the apparent blessing of Mr. Wullbrandt, who is
currently representing Landowners who wish to obtain rezoning in order to put
up high density housing, have now fortunately been made public. All of the
cards are now face up on the table as to where various parties stand on the
matters to be presented to the Board on the
30th.
The landowners and
developers, AKA, the “Water pirates” can not live with the provisions of SAFE
as adopted by the voters in 1991 and 1994. Without the ability to tap into the
existing and future supplies of the water of the GWD, the water pirates have
no ability to do all of their planned high density developments. The water
pirates will have to move out of town to find other areas to plunder.
Unfortunately we now suddenly discover that the pirates have a heretofore
secret powerful ally. This ally is the General Manager of the District, Kevin
Walsh, who has now been forced to go public on his true agenda as to the use
of the District’s precious supply of water to feed the appetites of the
developers by giving them access to our future supplies of
water.
A review of all
of his proposals that he is recommending that the Board adopt as to the
Modifications of the protective provisions of the SAFE WATER SUPPLIES
ORDINANCE, all lead to one conclusion; he wants to give the water pirates as
much of our water as he possibly can .When a person is trying to mask his true
intentions, you can never rely upon what that persons is telling everyone
about his intentions. In such circumstances you must carefully examine those
person actions to understand the true intentions. Mr. Walsh current actions
per his proposals to the Board speak very loudly and clearly as to his intents
to give large quantities of our water to the water pirates. Every proposal
attempts to eliminate or greatly restrict the protective provisions of the
SAFE Ordinance as to insuring limited use of the water supplies of the
District. Of course Mr. Walsh can not ask the voters, as required under the
expressed terms of SAFE, to vote on the proposed modifications, since he knows
that they would be soundly rejected by the electorate.
Mr. Walsh has
received reinforcements as to his efforts by the Board in January hiring Mr.
Wullbrandt as the District’s General Counsel in spite of the many conflicts he
has as an attorney. The hiring of Mr. Wullbrandt was contrary to law and the
Board has refused to do any thing about the situation when the facts have been
brought to its attention. Mr. Wullbranbt has publicly rendered his legal
opinion to the Board that almost everything set forth in SAFE is subject to
interpretation and the vote of 3 of the 5 Directors can by the guise of
interpretation change how the existing customers’ water supply can be used for
future development. Such legal advice certainly assists the water pirates and
contrary to the interests of existing
customers.
Fortunately for the
public, Bert Bertrando who was just elected to the Board has not signed on to
play on the team of the pirates. He has been taking a critical view as to the
past practices of the District and its past failures to properly enforce the
terms of SAFE plus pointing out the multitude of defects in the District’s
Urban Water Management Plan. He was successful in July in having the Board, by
a 3 to 2 vote, to do away with the carryover of the unused 1% water from year
to year. That vote was an extremely bad set back for the pirates, but they are
many, wealthy and determined. Mr. Walsh is trying to reinstate a carryover of
the 1% water in his current proposals. Again, you must watch his actions and
not his words. The water pirates have launched their counterattack and the
battle starts at 7 PM on the 30th. Bert’s only allies are the
truth, the terms of SAFE which were adopted by the voters, and the support of
the customers of the District. It should be an easy battle for Bert to win if
the public shows up in force on the 30th.If the customers decide to
watch TV Tuesday night, they will wake up on Halloween to discover that the
water pirates were victorious and the GWD is ready to give away as much of our
water reserves as there are takers. It will be a trick without any
treat.
If Mr. Walsh’s
proposed resolutions are adopted by the Board on Tuesday night, please keep
your children off the streets on Halloween night since there will be great
danger of personal injury from all of the flying champagne corks being popped
by the water pirates and their crews.