The Mendocino County Board of Supervisors recently approved setting aside $500,000 to support the Inland Water and Power Commission’s efforts to secure water supply for the region in the wake of pending Potter Valley Project decommissioning, though one supervisor suggested that most of the funds might better be spent on roads instead.
“When I hear from constituents across the county, I hear they would like to see more road work done, so I would be inclined to reduce that (amount for water to) $50,000, (especially since) we don’t even know what it is for at this point,” said Fourth District Supervisor Ted Williams, suggested that $450,000 instead be put toward roads, with $50,000 remaining for the IWPC.
“We’re trying to reflect public values,” Williams continued. “I hear people support law enforcement… and they support roads; that’s what I hear the most. I don’t hear people talking about allocating half a million dollars to fund unanticipated consequences or projects related to water.”
“I do hear people talking about the need for unanticipated consequences related to water, in front of this board, quite vocally, related to the Potter Valley Project,” Second District Supervisor Maureen Mulheren said in response. “And the IWPC, and the Eel-Russian Project Authority, are Mendocino County’s key ability to move forward with water security. So we absolutely do have an incredible amount of deferred road maintenance… but if you look at any IWPC or ERPA meeting, you can see that legal expenses, and planning expenses, are mounting. There are a lot of opportunities to receive grants, and I hope that we’re successful with that, but if the county of Mendocino wants to continue participating with those conversations, they need to set money aside.”
Board Chairman and Fourth District Supervisor Bernie Norvell agreed, saying that he had “heard a lot of concern from the public about the county wanting to take a larger role in water and investing more, so I would support leaving the $500,000 for water.”
Third District Supervisor John Haschak then noted that “this board took a position in support of the IWPC, but I would just like to know what the IWPC and ERPA want to do with that money before signing off on it.”
“I do not know if the Executive Office has any more information at this point, but I would just say that I don’t think $500,000 is what the asks are going to be, but it is a safe buffer zone,” Mulheren said. “And I am surprised that we are having this conversation right now.”
Before making a motion to approve the list of CEO Recommendations for spending allotments, Haschak said he “would like a report back next meeting about what that $500,000 for water is going to be used for.”
The amended motion that was then approved unanimously included $1 million for road maintenance, $360,000 for the Little River Airport, $300,000 for Capital Improvements and $100,000 for architectural design for courthouse relocation as recommended items for spending of the FY24-25 Unrestricted Fund Balance. An item previously on the list that was removed by staff was $119,000 for a LJAG Cannabis grant.
(Ukiah Daily Journal)
MARK SCARAMELLA NOTES: It’s pretty clear from Supervisor Mulheren’s remarks what the “water security” money is going to be used for and it’s damn sure not for “water,” or “security” or anything even slightly damp. Mendo likes to pretend that spending money on planning and lawyers with some nice-sounding buzzword will really be used for that nice-sounding buzzword. But, like MCOG or the County Counsel’s office, or architectural design, once they allocate a big number to something as amorphous as “planning” or “attorney fees,” or “project management,” there’s no doubt that the lawyers and planners and bureaucrats and consultants and other suits get their foot in the door, the entire allocation will be taken over by them as they suck their high hourly rates on “work” determined by them. And part of that money will be used to prepare detailed demands for more. The fact that a Supervisor thinks that any of this will produce actual “water” shows that he or she doesn’t have any idea what they’re talking about or how much it should cost. Some readers may recall that back during the big 2020-2022 drought the County set up ad hoc committees and hired consultants and took community input from earnest locals seeking ideas for “shovel-ready” water development and water storage projects. Except for a few projects already underway in the incorporated cities, no such projects were proposed, much less advanced. The only one that panned out was the stop-gap measure of trucking some Ukiah water to Fort Bragg for one summer at very high cost — which didn’t provide any storage or a single drop of additional water. The most high-profile of the projects at that time was a $5 million state grant that Supervisor Williams finagled and claimed credit for that was supposed to be for a 500,000 gallon storage tank and some plumbing for the perpetually parched town of Mendocino. How such a straight-forward project could cost $5 million is a perfect indication of how the suits get their mitts these projects and raise the cost and complexity to impractical levels that guarantee nothing but higher costs and additional delay. Last we heard the experts had merged the original $5 million project with a nearby school district water project and they’re still debating how to proceed with the now-much more complicated project some five years later with absolutely no water to show for it. Or take the still-in-development stage Boonville Water/Sewer project. Again earnest people have been working with the state and the consultants and the engineers for going on ten years now and they’re still not done with the advance work after more than $2 million has been spent. And this is for a relative small, simple water/sewer system that will serve, at most, a few hundred people in a small area — if it’s approved by the property owners in the proposed district.
I recall that at some point in the past, former CEO Angelo, in a candid moment, supposedly remarked that county government is essentially a “jobs program”.