OK Part II of the report on the Lake Don Pedro Community Services Distrcit Board Meeting held on Tuesday, February 21, 2012 (Held on Tuesday because Monday was President’s Day.) For those of you counting this meeting was 6 days prior the CSD administration office fire which was discovered at 0200hrs on the morning of Monday February 27th.
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Discussion regarding replacement of board room recording unit. Delay purchase until being placed on the next budget unless the cassette unit stops working.
Hugh Martin letter requesting to leave district service. Director Afanasiev made the motion to have the attorney draft a similar letter as was used with the McDonough/Clark matter. Director Ross stated he (Martin) would still be considered with the district but would not receive water or pay availability fees just like McDonough/Clark. VP Richardson suggested postponing the Martin matter until the OMIDPOU Resolution was considered which might affect his decision. Richardson questioned whether the McDonough/Clark papers had been filed with the county, Charise Reeves advised they had not because she was dealing with tax implications. Director Afanasiev withdrew his motion.
Proposal by Richardson to include Mission Statement on agenda header as discussed in previous training classes. Director Ross suggested only using the words “we” and “future” with nothing in between. VP Richardson read the modified version of the Mission Statement: “The LDPCSD is dedicated to providing potable water that either meets or exceeds all state and federal standards in sufficient quantities to meet the needs of our customers utilizing the most cost effective methods possible while still maintaining a sound financial plan now and for the future.”
Wes Barton stated the board did not have a focused goal and the mission statement did not reflect everything the district did. He especially did not care for the sound financial plan part stating we currently pay much more for water than other nearby districts.
The Board approved the mission statement and to add it to the agenda.
RESOLUTION 2012-3: to deny further OMIDPOU connections due to the water license restrictions and the Ranchito well sustainability report. Questions as to why Merced LAFCo was referenced in the document and potential effects of those who pay availability fees who are outside MIDPOU. Director Ross stated that the attorney advised him that Charise Reeves had written the entire resolution which was incorrect, Reeves wrote the draft which was forwarded to the attorney for his input.
Director Ross questioned some of the recitals of the resolution and acknowledged he disagreed with the attorney on this item. Ross stated he was afraid such a resolution would make criminals out of OMIDPOU users like himself, his neighbor and Mrs. Ross.
Wes Barton stated he understood the reporting had to be on a monthly basis.
Ruth Smith questioned how the draft and final resolution was distributed to directors.
Sam Kenner, who identified himself as Director Ross’s neighbor (also OMIDPOU), asked if he would lose water service if the resolution were to pass, to which the answer was no.
Tom Porter questioned why some people could get water Outside MIDPOU but he could not. Porter advised he withdrew some of his requests because of who was on the CSD Board. Porter stated he believed the board should be trying to sell the 4,000 af (acre feet) of water that we had rather than trying to find technicalities so as to not sell the water. He said our number one job was to sell water.
Director Ross asked if there were properties within the district but outside MIDPOU that were paying availability fees. When Charise Reeves stated she was unsure, Ross stated the reason he asked was because he knows someone that is paying for availability and is further out than him (outside MIDPOU).
VP Richardson felt the resolution was a show of good faith to MID that the CSD was cleaning up their act and abiding by the water license and agreement with MID. Ross stated the property he was referring to was adjacent to his ranch but needed an easement to get a water line but it does pay availability and is outside place of use however Director Ross never identified the property.
Failed 3-2. Kinsella-Richardson aye, Ross, Skoien and Afanasiev Nay.
Resolution to be returned to counsel to address the questions brought up in discussion.
Mr. Porter resumed his request for a refund of $11,000.
Thomas Porter: OK, am I up now?
President Kinsella: Yeah, you’re it.
Thomas Porter: OK you all have in front of you probably, a, ah, a list of payments that we made when our water was actually turned off in the street by the water district without notifying me.
President Kinsella: I’m sorry I didn’t hear that
Thomas Porter: In other words, I’ve been paying for water all during this time that – you have the list in front of you – and I have ah, not been getting water ah, and, ah, you, ah, ah, you, and I’m asking you a question are you now going to give me the money?
VP Richardson: I have a question
President Kinsella: Go ahead
VP Richardson: Uhm, what leads you to believe you weren’t getting water?
Thomas Porter: The valve was turned off in the middle of the street – he knows
VP Richardson: Have you, have you looked at the packet?
Thomas Porter: (inaudible)… the packet
VP Richardson: Well I would suggest you go to page 49, and page 48.
Multiple voices in background
Unknown: 49 (inaudible)
VP Richardson: Yes Mam.
President Kinsella: page 48
VP Richardson: 48 and 49 I think covers that. If you notice all the way to the right column
Thomas Porter: Um-hum
VP Richardson: look up above it says consumption. Those figures are for ccf’s, or units of water used. How can you say you weren’t receiving water when it clearly show units were being run through the meter?
Thomas Porter: (Inaudible) You mean all these zeros?
VP Richardson: No, in, in between the zeros we’ve got numbers like 206 at the bottom, 194, ,
President Kinsella: 242
VP Richardson: 57, 12, 37 …
Thomas Porter: Oh I want to see who actually read the meter at that time
VP Richardson: Well, at the last meeting it was discussed num – numerous people read the meters, but you know I was kind of curious too because I thought, well wait a second – we’ve got twelve zeros in a row and then just below the middle of the page it goes to 57. And I thought, well, what happened in October 2008 to do 57 units? I looked in my Foothill Express for October, and it just so happened that was the CSD Candidates Night held at the sales office down there. So I think that might be a possible explanation and evidence that water was being used from that 57 units.
Thomas Porter: You know it could have been coming out of our pump too, out of our well?
VP Richardson: Well this report doesn’t state so, and then if you go further back to when you first constructed that, ahm, office, you will see a great consumption of water. And of course that makes sense because as you’re constructing you’re going to use more water, you know, that makes sense.
Thomas Porter: And then also, also we did not put the well in immediately either
VP Richardson: Oh when did the well go in?
Thomas Porter: I don’t know. We could find out, we could go to our records. Ah this
VP Richardson: But sometime in 2007, or ?
Ron Young (Deerwood Employee): Ah it had to be in 2004, 5, 6
VP Richardson: OK, sometime back aways – ok. And you drilled that? It wasn’t one of the old Boise ones? Or
Thomas Porter: No, we drilled it
VP Richardson: OK, but anyway so my point is
Thomas Porter: I can get a precise date
VP Richardson: oh it really doesn’t matter, wh – what I think is important here is the consumption rate. You can see that water is flowing through the meter. How can that be if the valve was shut off and you weren’t receiving water?
Unknown speaker with Thomas Porter: Well that that’s what the question is who read it because if the valve was shut off there’s no way it could go through the meter
VP Richardson: Well a valve. A valve could be shut and then opened again as well, I mean,
Multiple voices
Thomas Porter: when Dan went down there and Jose went down there it was shut off
Unknown: Ah-hum
Thomas Porter: (inaudible) he was barely able to open it it was so stuck, so rusty, when he opened it and he’ll admit to that
VP Richardson: Well, no, I don’t doubt, I don’t doubt that it was shut if he said it was, but, you know, we have a consumption record here of water so, even if that valve was shut off at the time you saw it, it was obviously opened at periodic times through 2007 up until you stopped using water completely.
Thomas Porter: Well I
VP Richardson: Again, there are a number of places
Thomas Porter: all I can say is that ah, ah, we never touched the valve, we didn’t go out to the meter and say ok let’s turn on a meter, let’s go out to the street and turn on the
VP Richardson: Nor should you because that would be, technically a crime
Thomas Porter: Well then which one of your employees did the crime that’s what (inaudible)
VP Richardson: Well my understanding was, one of your employees was the one that shut it off
Thomas Porter: Not to my knowledge
VP Richardson: Well that’s what was said at the meeting, when you were here
Thomas Porter: I have ah one of my staff here who was there the day that ah these things broke, and ah, when the water line broke, and then when ah they used a backhoe and they they really broke the line ah ah, one of your employees, again we got a problem here, we got one, one person in Heaven he wasn’t working with me he was retired on the 20th of February 2008 and I gave him a pickup as a (inaudible) gift. And ah, certainly he wasn’t ah, he’s not available anymore, ah, ah, the other one is now fired for some malfeasance or accident or something
VP Richardson: Beg your pardon?
Thomas Porter: You have an employee that’s just been fired. And he wa, he’s the one that was turning off the valves and
President Kinsella: How do you know that?
Thomas Porter: I kno
Unknown speaker with Thomas Porter: I know it for a fact
President Kinsella: You know it for a fact?
Unknown speaker with Thomas Porter: Yes sir
President Kinsella: Did you find out why it was turned off?
Unknown speaker with Thomas Porter: It happened right in front of my house, yes. The reason was, what happened, right after Dave started here, I don’t even think Dan was interim manager then
Director Ross: (inaudible) this is a personnel matter
Unknown speaker with Thomas Porter: I believe Jeff was still here
Director Ross: is this a personnel meeting?
Unknown speaker with Thomas Porter: what happened was, there was a leak in front of ah your well that’s on Ranchito there was a leak across the street which had been leaking for 7 – 8 months I mean it had been a long time, I had called and called, the Jenkins called, everybody called and said that water was leaking so it leaked into that creek and kept it full all this time. Well one day — I saw Dave out there and Dave went out there and he dug up the leak well in the process of digging up the leak he bumped the pipe and took a chunk out of the pipe. I believe you were working on the crew at that time
IGM Tynan: Yeah I was in the hole, and ah, actually just to clarify Dave, the map was wrong, and Dave that’s why Dave hit the pipe
Unknown speaker with Thomas Porter: Right, right, (inaudible) I was out there, this gentleman right here was out there, there was ah board members out there directing traffic and what Dave did that day, I was there I watched it all, he went down to the intersection turned off every valve he could find he went as far down as Dolorosa on Ranchito and shut off every valve he could and he told me “Ron I cannot find where this water shuts off” so finally after about 2-1/2 – 3 hours the water was just gushing out of that main they finally figured out the spot to shut it off. That was the day that that water to th the sales office was shut off and, and because we, at that time we were running on our well and we continued to run on our well up until the 1st of this January which was, January I believe it was the 25th when it was turned back on the 18th, 18th or the 25th I have it wrote down at the office ah, but between that time we’d been on our well but the sulfur content of the well was so strong that we wanted to go back to the district water because you could smell it so bad inside when you turned the water on so that’s when I turned the RP valve on – nothing happened. I got a hold of Dan, they came out, Randy, the boys came out and got to looking and I, and we couldn’t get no water, we couldn’t get no water and finally Dan and Mr. Porter themselves walked to the intersection pulled the lid off and when Dan, when it took a pretty good pretty good deal to open that, but that was the time I believe that was in 2009
Board Secretary Charise Reeves: Ah, no
UNKNOWN SPEAKER (Now identified as “Ron”- Mr. Porter/Deerwood employee): When was that?
Charise Reeves: He wasn’t hired until June of ’10, so it was after that, it had to be between July and November
Deerwood employee Ron: When, when, when did Dave (cross talk)
Charise Reeves: …and October of 10.
Deerwood employee Ron: When did Dave start here, was that in 10 or 9 or ?
Charise Reeves: No, Dave has been here
IGM Tynan: I was with Dave on that leak
Ron: Huh?
IGM Tynan: I was with Dave on that leak – I remember
Ron: You were there?
IGM Tynan: Yeah
Ron: That was right after you, that wasn’t too long after you started?
IGM Tynan: Yeah, maybe a month at the most and I was in the hole the whole time
Ron: Right, but I believe that at, from that time for sure, that valve would have been shut off because we had been on our well, so I don’t know what the consumption shows
VP Richardson: The consumption shows alot
Multiple voices
Charise Reeves: Zero from that point on, from say July to August, either one, it’s zero consumption from that point going forward.
Ron: Up until
Charise Reeves: Un until now.
Ron: Up until now.
Charise Reeves: Because you guys were obviously on the well (inaudible)
Ron: And see before that we were on the well too so ah, there was only one time that, that, that I actually turned ah turned that RP valve off was because our little pump for our irrigation system ah burned up so I had to have that replaced, two or three days, two or three days we used this water and then we were back to the well again, uhm so,
VP Richardson: Well like I said, it it shows consumption so even if it was shut off it had to have been turned back on because like you said the sulfur content of your water you wouldn’t want to serve that to the people at the ah election, or the candidates night?
Ron: And when was that?
VP Richardson: That was October 2008, when that was supposedly shut off – it was 57 units
(TO BE CONTINUED)
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OK ENOUGH FOR TODAY, fingers and eyes need a break.
My best to you and yours, Lew
