CORRECTION ON THE VOTE HIRING KAMPA COMPANY (Oct 15th, 2014)
WELL, just listened to some of the audio of the Friday, Oct 3, 2014 LDPCSD meeting. As previously noted I missed that vote due to walking out of the board room in absolute disgust and feeling sick to my stomach with the continuing “behind the scene” conduct by Emery Ross. Evidently no one really cares.
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Was I the ONLY DIRECTOR not talking about the confidential/privileged information sent to me about the coming GM vacancy?
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ANYWAY, listening to the audio I was surprised to discover the information communicated to me by Chuck Day regarding the vote was either misunderstood or misrepresented some way. Day told me he was against immediately accepting the proposal (which was clear in the meeting) but in actuality he voted in favor of the “surprise proposal” contingent upon his suggestion that our CSD attorney approve the contract.
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CORRECTION: So the actual vote for approving Pete Kamp’s company to conduct the business of this district until a permanent GM can be recruited and hired was 4-0, not 3-1 as I had understood. I apologize for this misunderstanding. This is really not a big surprise since Mr. Day has much time left on the board (I do not envy him one bit) and starting off voting against the new manager would undoubtedly be used against him. It was painfully clear Ross, Afanasiev and Johnson were going through with accepting the proposal. Can’t beat them, join them?
President Day’s suggestion of making an immediate appointment contingent upon our CSD attorney ultimately approving the contract DID NOT confront my objection as to the process used to insert that proposal into the agenda. There was no public transparency of that process.
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HOW COULD A MANAGEMENT PROPOSAL BE SUBMITTED AND ACCEPTED BEFORE THE GM VACANCY WAS ANNOUNCED?
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Leslie Farrow, part of the “hire immediately group” made a statement with the unintended result of actually confirming and supplying evidence as to my concern that confidential information was wrongfully relayed by Ross to the benefit of one particular company looking for such business.
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Although dismissing my concerns of Director Ross divulging confidential information as being “ridiculous” and attempting to provide yet another defense for Emery’s consistent micro-managing of district business behind the scenes, Ms Farrow accidently confirmed the reality.
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Leslie Farrow: “I think the contingency plan is the best course of action, get him (KAMPA) in here get it down the road….but the one thing I want to say that’s unexcusable and if he (RICHARDSON) had stayed here what I was going to tell him is that, you know, unfortunately this is a small community and he (ROSS) got a phone call that he retired (GM RALPH FELIX). Let me tell you, all day long at the Coyote Fest everybody there knew that he retired (laughing by Ross – cross talk) so, you know, (cross talk) this is, this is ridiculous that he (Richardson) thinks that he (ROSS) was micro-managing that was, that was out five minutes after it happened.”
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???????????
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The Coyote Fest was held on September 27th, 2014, and KAMPA’s management proposal for the Lake Don Pedro Community Service District was already in the works on September 25th, 2014.
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“That was out five minutes after it happened” ???
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Thanks for the information Leslie.
NOW BACK TO THE ORIGINAL POSTING>>>>
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Here is the simple explanation as to why there has been so much fighting and arguing through the years about water service in this area. Section 6.0 of the Merced Irrigation District water contract with our Lake Don Pedro CSD clearly identifies where Merced River water can be legally served.
INSERT MIDPOU SECTION 6.0:
Isn’t it interesting that EMERY and BETSIE ROSS do not reside in the legal service area of this special district?
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How can EMERY even be a director on the board with such a special/conflicting interest?
How can he vote on ANY ISSUE concerning outside MIDPOU water service? Or personally recruit the “new” manager who once worked here and has supported such expansion in the past?
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How can water intended for domestic residential use in the subdivision be diverted to run a private for-profit foothill cattle ranch?
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Why is this ground well water – from our one well (that was specifically constructed to serve outside POU properties and is the necessary “other source” for diversions outside the POU), paid for by the 99% of customers who live (or own property) in the legal service area of the Lake Don Pedro subdivision?
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Is it really any surprise EMERY and BETSIE ROSS have diligently fought to expand district service boundaries in an effort to distract attention from their own outside PLACE OF USE business?
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So, how did the ROSS’s obtain a water meter for their cattle ranch? Apparently by wrongfully claiming a meter from another contract that had NOTHING TO DO WITH THEIR RANCH and THEY WERE CLEARLY ADVISED OF THIS FACT AT THE TIME THEY PURCHASED THE RANCH PROPERTY – (last paragraph page one). That first meter was subsequently removed due to the complaint of the rightful owner but how did they obtain a replacement? Even without a meaningless/sham of an annexation?
INSERT STURTEVANT RANCH LETTER RE ROSS METER
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INSERT GM KENT LETTER:
LOTS OF CONFUSION? Hardly confusion. It was clearly intentional.
Emery once accused me of calling him a “WATER THIEF” which I never did – he himself coined that term —– (regarding the apparent unaccounted for water from an undocumented water line running through his ranch serving other outside MIDPOU ranches) gosh, who would know better what his motives/actions truly were when he “liberated” the Sturtevant Ranch meter for his own use? Perhaps some might consider “water thief” an accurate description in a number of matters with which Emery has been intimately involved through the decades?
Ironically, Emery’s obtaining that meter and then getting caught essentially “Blew the whistle” on several other properties that had also wrongfully claimed/obtained Sturtevant Ranch meters under that 1969 agreement. Emery’s meter was installed in 1993, but he wasn’t even busted for that appropriation for another nine years!
SO AGAIN, I ask, why should 99% of the legal customers subsidize the ROSS CATTLE RANCH or ANY OTHER OUTSIDE MIDPOU PROPERTY?
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Why don’t outside POU properties simply pay for the added costs for that SPECIAL BENEFIT of ground water substitution for surface water (lake) transfers? Oh. Too expensive for them, but OK to pass the costs to legitimate users of Merced River water?
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Think about this, EMERY and BETSIE ROSS support the concept of installing more ground wells to expand outside POU service and believe since all customers already pay for the old well they should be required to also pay for the installation, maintenance, repair and replacement of several more. Can you imagine the expense?
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Now can you guess what our “new contract manager”, PETER KAMPA, did just before leaving Lake Don Pedro back in 1997 and going to McCloud CSD up in northern California? (That’s where he negotiated a contract with the Nestle Corporation for a water bottling plant which was ultimately abandoned and left that community in absolute bitter turmoil.)
INSERT KAMPA SOI EXPANSION & RESIGNATION
CUSTOMERS, (residents AND water availability properties in the subdivision) you had better wake up and smell the chlorine before you end up footing a massive funding project for future and extremely expensive ground wells to supply water t0 many more outside MIDPOU properties. There are only 35 properties on the list right now but many more wanting water service. (Go figure in this drought prone foothill environment.) Imagine what sort of service expansion will occur if there is suddenly more ground water available for the increased profit dreams of Emery and his followers? (Don’t forget some of his supporters can vote in district elections even though they don’t receive water, legally cannot receive water, and don’t pay a single penny to the district! What a racket.)
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We only have one ground well right now on Ranchito Drive that was specifically installed to permit the continued water service to existing properties outside the MIDPOU. (Wells in this fractured rock geology can be pretty undependable also.) Even now there are those who are discussing the possibility of rescinding the recent district resolution which prevents further outside MIDPOU water service. That resolution was based on the sound evidence of a complicated well study and the professional opinions of our engineer and attorney.
Perhaps it is not too late to stop, or at least slow, this affront to fairness by generating some letters to county and state agencies and/or your governmental representatives? Let them know you are against this continuing attempt at expansion of our service boundaries that will certainly occur AT YOUR EXPENSE. Complaints to the county district attorneys of Tuolumne and Mariposa? Requests for investigation by their respective Grand Juries? Ask the Merced Irrigation District (MID) why they allow this to continue. Maybe even the State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) might take notice if enough of you get involved and write to them questioning what the heck is happening in Lake Don Pedro?
Seriously, does it seem fair or reasonable to expand our service area when the water license and contract with MID clearly prohibits such outside service? Isn’t that putting the CART BEFORE THE HORSE …..once again? Do you want this surface water treatment plant to be transformed into ground water substitution scheme for surface water (lake) transfers to other properties not entitled to our licensed water? Just to make their properties more valuable while jeopardizing the water service for everyone?
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You probably already know what I’m going to say……so say it with me…..only those properties receiving the special benefit of outside MIDPOU water service should be required to pay for those added costs! Other than that,
LET THE WATER FLOW!
My best to you and yours, Lew
Oh yeah, to be posted soon…. How Emery Ross once threatened the district with criminal charges that would be very expensive for the district but he would be willing to “settle” the matter; how he vowed to make lives miserable with his presence at board meetings (he sure has been successful in that endeavor on both sides of the dais), how a previous attorney advised the board not to respond to his questions, and even warned him not to harass district employees, and much, much more.
Almost forgot, did you know when he was president, he personally racked up approximately $10,000 in telephone calls to state departments with ridiculous questions he could have researched for himself?
I’m exhausted, later.
