Everyone has an opinion and that’s great, unfortunately not everyone with an opinion bases such on factual information. Take our LDPCSD for instance, without having researched the matter extensively & serving on the board for 4 years, I too could easily believe the DECEITFUL BULLSHIT published by the Lake Don Pedro CSD regarding water license 11395 and the legal PLACE OF USE for MERCED RIVER WATER. (FAKE DOCUMENTS INCLUDING MAPS!) Sadly, this incorrect information has been created and used by GM/Treasurer PETE KAMPA [and his Kampa Community Solutions llc; or KCS; or KAMPACS MANAGEMENT COMPANY] in an effort to further expand special benefit subsidized groundwater replacement service for LAFCO ANNEXATIONS outside the subdivision POU he set up 20 years earlier! Naturally, with the already victimized MR WECS of the subdivision paying all additional costs for this continuing water scam. shame shame shame!

PS: Please strive to resist the extreme left’s “dumbing down” of our society and common sense notions of right and wrong – that’s where it all begins!

My best to you and yours, Lew

May I remind the witness they are still under Oath and subject to charges of perjury for knowingly providing false information to this Congressional Committee, so consider carefully and answer truthfully the following question, with a simple “YES” or “NO” answer as I have a number of other extremely important questions to ask you within my time limit:

Have you ceased mistreating and/or physically abusing animals? – yes or no.”

(Witness surprised by the obvious disingenuous nature of the question), “Madam Congresswoman, I indeed have a 10 year old canine companion by the name of Deogi (pronounced the same way as the English alphabet letters of “D” “O” “G”), but never,  either as a government employee or individual in the private sector, have I ever -”   

Congresswoman interrupts, “Mr. Chairman let the record reflect the witness has never ever stopped physically mistreating that poor creature held in captivity for over a decade while inexplicably also refusing to acknowledge that life form with the customary gesture of furnishing a name for the animal, preferring to just call it dog.”  

Sound crazy?  You bet!   But stuff similar to the above nonsense was on television today and being conducted by congressional representatives who claim to serve the citizens of this nation.  Good grief. Over, and over, and over again, stupid leading trick questions prefaced with politically motivated and highly biased opening remarks.

Surprised?  You shouldn’t be – this sort of garbage was promised to start happening as soon as the House of Representatives became “their” majority playground for the continued obstruction of meaningful progress.

Seriously, it was difficult to believe there was any sincere underlying attempt to uncover truth judging by the questions being asked, as they were clearly trick questions even children learn to recognize.  Compounded multiple questions in one, with only a “yes – no” answer option?

Clearly disingenuous construction since either way a witness might answer, they will be subjecting themselves to wrongful accusations, charges, or somehow “implicated in” whatever, based solely on some ridiculous, misconstrued, out of context conclusion of intentionally providing “false or misleading statements” – all due to the witness recognizing the trap construction and choosing to provide an appropriate, intelligent, and logical response. But even then, AG Whitaker was often prevented from finishing an honest and appropriate response as the “question baiting excuse for a representative” would quickly cut him off with a nasty “witness refuses to answer the question……moving on to the next question…….”.

EXAMPLE OF OUR INTENDED LEGAL PROCESS?

How many of us, during a moment of emotional excitement, have expressed something that was not representative of how we actually intellectually or logically perceived or believed about a particular situation?  You know what I mean?  Those “off the cuff”, spontaneous, emotionally triggered inappropriate comments without much thought versus the underlying logic and dismissal of something perceived as being very wrong, perhaps even intentionally biased?

“With a call like that the referee should be tarred and feathered in the parking lot!”

A controversial sports ruling hardly warrants such an archaic humiliating punishment.

“All the politicians on that side are dishonest leftist crooks!”

One honest public serving politician makes that statement incorrect.

“Such traitors to our country should be executed”

Please define “traitor”.

WANT EVIDENCE OF A CRIME?  GO FISHING WITH TAX DOLLARS!  (It might be out there – or at least something close that can be pressed into service like “real evidence” and dressed up for sale to a gullible public….. all the while the truth of a matter is obscured and sacrificed on the alter of deceptive televised political games.)

OK, so the NSA (and others?) apparently copy and store everything citizens communicate in vast storage facilities located in Utah and elsewhere.  We are told it is really no big deal because no one is actually listening or studying the material in “real time” and it is only stored in case of need for retrieval at some time in the future, you know, “after the fact” of something occurring.

Ahhhh, OK I guess, especially if such data collection assists protecting the country from terrorists – why not?   Not much I can do about it anyway, besides, I have nothing to hide, in fact, come to think of it, I hope patriotic officials, agents, and departmental staff in legitimate state and federal government offices, not yet corrupted by the “deep state left”, are indeed listening to private telephone conversations regarding the shenanigans going on in this country – and here in Lake Don Pedro for decades also! lol

Listen to my telephone calls all you want. Not very interesting. Most of it likely consists of typical blah, blah, blah about local political corruption and how it has incrementally destroyed property values within the Lake Don Pedro subdivision. Or how it (corruption) has cost the MERCED RIVER WATER ENTITLED CUSTOMERS (MR WECs) much more for their water service through the years which completely negates all the reasons for forming a special district in the first place.

Heck, my telephone conversations are so boring surveillance technicians could perform a variety of other duties while listening to the “broken record” complaints about the LDPCSD. They could watch TV, listen to music, maybe have a meal or snack “on the clock” while listening to my repetitious complaints all day long without a single cause for concern. However, they should also be aware, a conversation could suddenly change and truly represent an immediate problem.

Imagine, perhaps they are snacking on the job and attempting to swallow a large bite of chunky cream cheese filling from a huge bloated warm doughnut just as I describe the best home remedy for a large erupted canine sebaceous cyst on my companion’s right hip. gulp.

Unfortunately, it does seem sometimes that the ugliest, most unappealing, and foul smelling aspects of our political system do ooze out from such “politically biased eruptions” – like in today’s organized harassment of the acting Attorney General.

Guess I should just hope no sports referee is ever tarred and feathered in a parking lot somewhere because of a bad call between now and when I depart this plane of existence, or, perhaps some day an “off the rail investigator” fishing around for as of yet unidentified perpetrators, might be questioning yours truly about potential involvement because I joked about it in a past post. Never say never, yeah?

“But, but, but…..I have NEVER tarred and feathered ANYTHING or ANYONE in my life! ….the restrained suspect was heard screaming prior to being gagged, bagged, and dragged from the courtroom for refusing to answer a multitude of perjury trap compounded questions with A DEMANDED SINGULAR REQUIRED “YES” or “NO” RESPONSE.

While doing something else and listening to the continuing televised embarrassment in the background, I heard something that “caught my ear”. I didn’t recognize the female voice so I grabbed my trusty digital recorder and backtracked to the statement on the TV DVR to catch the name of the person speaking. I wanted to know who she was because it was one of the few statements during the entire process that made sense and pretty much described what I was thinking anyway.

Turned out to be a Mrs. Debbie Lesko, looked her up – she is the Representative for the Arizona 8th District.

Below is her statement prior to her own questioning of current acting US Attorney General Matthew Whitaker:

ARIZONA REPRESENTATIVE LESKO:

“Thank you, ah, I have to say that I’m very disappointed in this hearing.  You know, I ran for congress to get things done. And ah, at the beginning of this you know, we were told that this is about, asking about DOJ (Department of Justice) oversight, and some legitimate questions and here we are, it’s nothing but character assassination, harassment of our witness and its really disappointing.  At first I was mad.  I have to tell you when this thing started hours ago I went outside and a reporter asked me, “What do you think of the hearing?” And I said it’s a joke, but now, it’s just sad.  It’s sad because we were on the floor just a little while ago talking about ah, how we were honoring our late representative Dingle and talking about bi-partisanship and how we need to get things done, yet here we are with a blatant political show that doesn’t help anything.  I imagine if American people are watching this right now they’d be shaking their heads, like, “what are you doing there?”  We need to work together to get things done…….”    

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“What are you doing there?”

Viewer’s perspective:

”WHAT ARE THEY DOING THERE?”

The question works for me – with the addition of a few extra unnecessary expletives followed with a proposal of “taking them all out to the parking lot to join a sticky feathered referee!” lol

Sure would be far more entertaining if the more intelligent and honest VICTIM WITNESS could have responded with the same sort of disrespect and lack of accountability as those asking the stupid “bait” questions ….. might I suggest a possibility for the next round? Something like ….

“Madam Congresswoman/Mr. Congressman, thank you for your question, please accept my sincere response question to you with the same simple yes-no answer requirement:

Have you had any success at all, regardless of how minimally effective, in removing your anti-American obstructionist head from your arrogant, misguided socialist fat ass?  Yes or No?   

My best to you and yours, Lew  🙂

Probably the later, yeah? Another Lew’s Almost Music Expression with this particular project focused on just a feeling,….wha, ah, whaa, ahhhh,whaaaa……fee……lings, nothing more than feeee……..lings!

You know what? I am really starting to like this new menu structure….still a little trouble finding my “backside” at times, but like the above link – simple. Probably like everything else in life – experience counts and the only way to obtain experience is by doing.

My best to you and yours, Lew

I live in the “quasi-boonies” (in some respects) but appreciate and enjoy the Lake Don Pedro foothill environment – but not the decades of arrogant local governance in the form of “we can do anything we want without accountability”. 

So, what’s going on in the town of Mariposa?  Heck, I don’t know other than what I read or occasionally hear from those with more routine contact.  Most of the “common knowledge” possessed by area residents closer to that beautiful town would likely answer a number of questions I have contemplated from time to time.  You know, why some things developed, and/or, are continuing to develop in a particular way – or not.    Essentially the “background story” on wide range of local issues from the fairly insignificant such as why a particular road does not go all the way through to the next logical intersection, to more serious things like why an individual was apparently deprived of their Constitutional Rights? 

People can say anything and they do, but how can extremely suspicious activities by a local government, continuing for many, many years and involving substantial public funds diverted and “gifted” to third party private interests, not be investigated by the local authorities delegated with that responsibility?  Perhaps a stupid question?

You’ve probably heard variations of the following examples before when confronted with something you yourself recognized as wrong and refused to remain silent – but as soon as you spoke up you were surprised to hear people you thought you knew say things like:   Hey come-on – we are neighbors, why cause a problem? Wasn’t really hurting anyone much.   We are all trying to do the best we can.  Who would want to harm or hurt a fellow neighbor?  Who wants to ruin a lifelong dream for a profitable development to dramatically improve their family circumstances?  Those projects, even if technically in violation, will probably help the entire community.  You don’t want to harm your community do you?    We are all human.  Everybody makes mistakes.  Be more understanding – you aren’t perfect, are you?   Accidents happen all the time too you know?   It’s just a part of life.  Good and bad, it all balances out in the long run.  Who are you to judge someone else anyway?  No one is perfect.   What’s done is done, can’t go back and make it right.  Live and let live.  Everyone knows you can’t fight city hall.   It will cost a small fortune to play their legal games even if you could find a lawyer to take this on – chances of winning are exponentially small.   Why ruin what life you have left with this sort of crap?  Hey, you’re smarter than that, just let it go.  Go with the flow.   You’re not that stupid are you?

But if those who oppose what they see as corruption refuse to acquiesce to such support of “whatever” the above arguments often regress to physical violence, threats of such, or angry, hateful proposals along the lines of “go f*ck yourself somewhere else – we were here long before assholes like you arrived”.   

Such things probably happen in every community to one degree or another and we are generally oblivious to the hardships of others due to a lack, or inadequacy, of contact or communication.  Besides, we all have our own community problems to deal with anyway yeah?

When citizens are effectively “shut out” by local officials set on maintaining an inequitable “status quo”, which also appears to be contrary to operative established law, an important question emerges with a host of negative ramifications regardless of which direction a person may decide to proceed:  

Do I quit and allow what I believe in heart and mind to be wrong and allow it to continue harming others (after all, I will likely be able to afford what they are doing sp why destroy my own life when those to be affected apparently don’t care anyway?), or, do I continue resistance with any legal option available regardless of the low expectation for success?  (Besides, who knows what positive things might be discovered along the way…..like the personal enjoyment obtained in creating LAME Productions about the contested subject?  LOL)

Obviously I chose to resist because my research of remaining and accessible records indicate the formation and development of the LDPCSD was far more focused on expanding water service OUTSIDE THE EXISTING WATER LICENSE PERMITTED PLACE OF USE (the intended residential SUBDIVISION), in favor of numerous proposed future LAFCO ANNEXATIONS into “their LAFCO special district”.  Hum, sound like a conflict of interest perhaps?  Creating a special district specifically intended to be exploited to provide water service to rural foothill areas not entitled under the State water license through a scam Groundwater Substitution Program paid for (since the beginning) by the Merced River Water Entitled Customers (MR WECs) of that water license entitled subdivision?

What are the primary elements of a special district?   A limited service to a geographically defined area for a particular class of customers with that service provided for only the amount necessary in furnishing that limited service (emphasis on limited service, yeah?)

Every single element favoring creation of a special district was violated by the very entities charged with creating this “public service”!     LDPCSD has no defined boundaries, thus the customer base will also continually fluctuate with every new LAFCO ANNEXATION (or detachment) and since groundwater substitution is an extremely expensive endeavor in this drought prone region and primarily paid for by MR WECs, their water service has always been much more expensive than intended – that is when provided by a proper formed and functioning special district.   

Even before acquisition of the Sierra Highlands facility in 1981, it appears as though Mariposa County LAFCO (and to a lesser extent Tuolumne County LAFCO, since Mariposa is the lead agency) had already secretly added substantial lands to the much smaller service area the CPUC was prepared to approve in the transfer of Sierra Highland’s facility and assets to the new special district.   

The CALIFORNIA PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION (CPUC) quite clearly documented the service area when it approved the transfer of the former SIERRA HIGHLANDS WATER COMPANY to the new LAFCO FORMED Lake Don Pedro CSD in January 1981, effective February 1981.  This would indicate that the claimed submitted ZONE OF INFLUENCE submitted to the CPUC by the Sierra Highlands engineers (which was much larger than what the CPUC approved) was indeed rejected by the CPUC.  This was also made clear with the language in that approval regarding the other proposed line extensions and services that Sierra might later provide –such future proposed services were not to become liabilities of the new LDPCSD.

Sure looks diabolical yeah?  

The LAFCos created a Special District serving water to a residential subdivision that could then be quietly “reconfigured” and used as a “spring board” for a foothill water empire with service connections to thousands of acres of drought prone, rural foothill land.   The counties created the perfect situation for their respective foothill development potentials without responsibility for the costs associated with supplying water because the Lake Don Pedro Common Interest Development, Property Owners Association, and CC&R governed subdivision provided the “deep pocket” perpetual financing necessary for such massive expansion because the thousands of subdivision owners were also MANDATORY CUSTOMERS OF THE LDPCSD due to subdivision property ownership.  MR WECs, even if the scam became apparent, had absolutely no escape except to sell their property and start again elsewhere where laws are obeyed by local government.

Yes, sure looks like a carefully prepared gigantic financial trap for every subdivision property owner unaware they were being setup to finance a public subsidy for special benefit groundwater substitution services to later LAFCO ANNEXED properties into the LDPCSD that were outside the legal water license service area of the subdivision.  Can you imagine what this has done to the value of properties in our  subdivision for the last forty years – an 11,000 acre sprawling foothill subdivision in drought prone foothills with quality water flowing from Yosemite National Park guaranteed for each and every lot upon a demand for service?  Our subdivision property investments were destroyed in the name of greed.

Groundwater wells in a fractured rock drought prone geologic region are not cheap or dependable – especially for sustained high demand.  Who wants to take on that financial responsibility for perpetuity with much more “UNCONTROLLED DEVELOPMENT” on the horizon?

Apparently, these two LAFCOs in 1980, had already secretly included substantial lands in this new district’s service area that was approved by the CPUC in early 1981 at time of actual facility transfer.

But how could Tuolumne and Mariposa change the configuration and operation of a water company in 1980 PRIOR TO ACTUALLY TAKING POSSESSION of that facility – when the PENDING APPROVAL BY THE CPUC was not concluded until 1981 – the next year?

NOTE ALSO:  The CALIFORNIA STATE WATER BOARD in July 1980 declared the Merced River fully appropriated and being put to maximum beneficial use as prescribed by the State Constitution.  Yet by the next month, August 1980, two County LAFCOS had already slipped in substantial lands not accounted for by the State of California when declaring the Merced fully appropriated? 

Can you hear the comments? 

“Ah, come on, what’s the big difference anyway – FULLY APPROPRIATED, or, FULLY APPROPRIATED with a little extra diversion and use (of Merced River water) pretty close to the actual approved WL11395 POU residential subdivision?  Besides, it was always planned that way!”  

Ahhh, the land developers often repeated lie.   Sure all that extra development may have been planned by land developers, real estate interests, Sierra’s management, engineers, general manager (CSD inherited both engineers and GM incidentally), and the co-operative COUNTY LAFCOs (Local Agency Formation Commission) of Tuolumne and Mariposa,  but not the State Water Board.  LAFCO can not simply overrule state law concerning water restrictions in a state license (although Pete Kampa in the 1990s advised LAFCO could do just that).

The LDPCSD KampaBoard that has operated since October 2014 (with a few director changes) is continuing this same arrogant disregard for service restrictions in WL11395 and clearly supports the unethical GROUNDWATER SUBSTITUTION PROGRAM for LAFCO ANNEXATIONS.   (Evidenced by recently changing an annexation detachment, back to an annexation permitted groundwater substitution for newly proposed development.   –  (But I’m confused again, I thought only LAFCO could annex and detach properties from a special district?  Humm.)  

Apparently our UNITED STATES of AMERICA system of law has been confused with some other socialist-left leaning “for the people scam system” that the board believes permits:  

Continued “gifting” of public funds/resources to third party private land developers to which this Special District owes no legal duty or moral obligation to provide water,

Ignoring clear and long established restrictions on Merced River water service outside the water license legal Place of Use Lake Don Pedro residential subdivision (formerly Sierra Highlands Water Company subdivision),

Complete betrayal of the 99% of Merced River Water Entitled Customers (the MR WECs who are also MANDATORY VICTIMS OF THIS WATER SCAM AGAINST SUBDIVISION OWNERS due to their property being in a California Civil Code, Davis-Stirling Act regulated Common Interest Development governed by a POA (Property Owners Association) and elected Board of Directors, with annual assessments, various committees (including CCR VIOLATIONS),  restrictive CCRs (Covenants, Codes and Restrictions) running with property title for each Unit of development and perpetually controlling development and use), and blah, blah, blah – basically each lot in the subdivision is MUCH MORE RESTRICTED in use than those outside a CID.   

Yet all these restrictions worked together in providing a TREMENDOUSLY VALUABLE ASPECT TO THAT SUBDIVISION PROPERTY OWNERSHIP – EACH AND EVERY CPUC PRESCRIBED PROPERTY IS ENTITLED TO WATER SERVICE UPON DEMAND AT ANYTIME!  The issue comes down to this simple lakedonpedro.org slogan (expressed in a few different ways including LAME VIDEO SONG- lol):

“THEY DIDN’T WANT OUR SUBDIVISION LAND WITH WATER

ONLY OUR SUBDIVISION WATER ON THEIR LAND”

Where were we? Oh yeah… CONTINUED: THIS IS THE UNITED STATES of AMERICA, NOT whatever socialist-left leaning “for the people scam system”, the LDPCSD board/management believe permits: 

Arrogantly refusing to answer legitimate customer questions or accepting responsibility for their years of special interest activities in expanding a groundwater substitution program for LAFCO ANNEXATIONS their current General Manger set up over 20 years ago (when operating as a rogue employee without board direction or authority and pursuing his own personal/business objectives far beyond the scope and performance of job when employed between 1994-1997 – seeding annexations then? Attempting to harvest them now?) 

Returning that former rogue employee in October 2014 through an unethical Board orchestrated closed recruitment process and appointing him GM without a backgroun0d check yet providing access to over one million dollars in cash –

(Cash accumulated over several years thanks to a successful PROP 218 to avoid a 2008 LDPCSD bankruptcy – this raised the rates and fees for the 99% of MR WECs who pay the bills and WHO DO NOT REQUIRE GROUNDWATER SUBSTITION FOR THEIR WATER SERVICE!)

CASH that the GM/TREASURER then used to leverage state and federal grants to develop GROUNDWATER WELLS to create a massive “ALTERNATE SOURCE of WATER” with which to expand a GROUNDWATER SUBSTITUTION PROGRAM –

(circumvent WL11395 restrictions by replacing Merced River water that illegally leaves subdivision with expensive groundwater)

and selling that newly developed “DROUGHT EMERGENCY GROUNDWATER” to LAFCO ANNEXED property owners to develop their outside subdivision projects.

<<Gasp>>

WHERE THE HELL WAS I?   lol 

Don’t believe I have ever posted this before, but, I had pretty much decided to drop my subscription to the Mariposa Gazette and glean what news I desired from other sources. That is until I noticed a distinct difference in the publication.  Sure, with new owners, editor, and staff a different style of doing things was expected and all of those improvements certainly noteworthy, but what halted my plan was a fundamental change increasing attention and focus on issues that, for whatever reason, particularly interested me.  

Previously, it seemed articles/stories about controversial subjects or a particular case would rate an initial quick article – but always seemed to lack any sustained investigation or follow-up if you will, to flush out the truth and underlying factors which made it a story in the first place – when only briefly mentioned.  A newspaper should contain trustworthy news that readers can depend on which results from honest investigation and reporting of the facts.  I would think an openness to hear different perspectives/opinions to any controversy also appropriate in determining truth.

Now, with that said, would it be fair to expect a publication owner to risk retaliatory financial loss for reporting on a controversial subject that might possibly be uncomplimentary to the “movers and shakers” of a particular community?   (Advertising dollars or whatever economic threat might conceivably be waved about or actually used in an effort to kill or influence a particular story.)

The original “letter to the editor” started off on that subject acknowledging my appreciation for the “real life consequences” people often experience in “doing the right thing” along with my desire not to cause such harm to anyone – but as you probably guessed, that original letter was a few thousand words over the maximum so that blah blah blah was dropped for space- lol.   Actually, when I first spoke with the editor over the telephone and joked about always being verbose and having to really cut the thing down he actually offered more space (only goes to show he sure doesn’t know me – does he?  Lol – In retrospect, I should have asked him, you mean a few extra words?  Sentences?  Full page?  LOL!!!, however, as I explained at the time, my last shot was formed, loaded, and ready to go- so off it went.  And to my joyous surprise, it was printed.  

Yup, did it again huh?  Blah blah blah too much all the time.

That original title said it all.

My best to you and yours, Lew