Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
October 24, 2007
5. Agencies, Programs, People
LAND PURCHASING ISSUES:
Report: State getting ripped off in land deals; Watchdog agency concludes 'taxpayers may be getting fleeced' - Inside Bay Area
FLOOD PLAN APPROVED:
Supes OK flood plan - Marysville Appeal Democrat
Editor: Full impacts of runoff are not being considered -
ANTELOPE VALLEY-EAST KERN WATER AGENCY ISSUES:
Grand jury requests AVEK files -
LAND PURCHASING ISSUES:
Report: State getting ripped off in land deals; Watchdog agency concludes 'taxpayers may be getting fleeced'
Inside Bay Area – 10/24/07
By Paul Rogers, Media News staff
Yet taxpayers may be getting fleeced because state agencies do not have a reliable system to figure out the fair market value of lands they are buying.
That's the conclusion of a report from the state's non-partisan watchdog agency, the California Legislative Analyst's Office.
Echoing the findings of stories published over the last five years by the Mercury News, the agency, known as the LAO, concluded the Department of Fish and Game and other agencies keep too many documents secret when they buy land and do not have consistent standards to ensure the public is paying reasonable prices.
The report was published Thursday after two years of research. It cites as particularly flawed the $100 million purchase by state and federal officials of 16,500 acres of salt ponds from Cargill Salt in 2003. That sale, brokered by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., was praised repeatedly by Feinstein and top officials of former Gov. Gray Davis as a good deal for the public.
Yet the two appraisers who calculated the deal's appraisal were brought up on charges of misconduct in 2005 by the state Attorney General's office. They were fined after a judge found their assessment of the Cargill lands' value was "based largely on unstated extraordinary assumptions and hypothetical conditions."
The LAO report also cited concerns with the federal government's purchase of land.
Reforms may be afoot.
On Monday, U.S. Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto, said in an interview that she plans to introduce legislation by the end of the year that would significantly change the way the public buys land.
"Appraisals should not be bills that are presented to the taxpayers and the case is closed. That's where we are now," Eshoo said.
"This has to be turned around."
Eshoo said the bill she is now drafting will require that appraisals in federal land deals be made public before the sale closes to improve transparency. It also will require a public comment period, and require agencies to withdraw purchase offers if the appraisals are found to contain significant flaws.
The LAO report, she said, "makes excellent recommendations," and "confirms my views based on what we saw in the
John Donnelly, executive director of the state Wildlife Conservation Board, the state agency that helped purchase the Cargill salt ponds said Tuesday he did not want to comment on the results of the LAO report until he had read it more carefully. He said disclosing more information before sales close might violate the privacy of landowners.
"I'm comfortable with the way our process works now. I think its defensible," he said. "If proposed legislation or other suggested reforms come out saying that we can improve things, then we'll evaluate them at that time."
The issue of how state agencies buy land is arcane and complex. Yet much is at stake.
The LAO report did not identify how much money taxpayers may have lost.
It said there are three significant flaws with the way public land is purchased in
-Consistency: State agencies don't have uniform standards for valuing land or hiring appraisers.
-Objectivity: Officials in agencies often are advocating buying land — sometimes under pressure from political leaders — even as their co-workers are hiring appraisers and giving them direction, a conflict, the LAO said.
-Secrecy: the Wildlife Conservation Board, State Parks and other agencies, including federal agencies like the US Fish and Wildlife Service, refuse to release appraisals to lawmakers or the public before escrow closes, limiting oversight.
"We spend a lot of money — in the billions in the last few years — to buy land," said Mark Newton, the LAO's resources and environment director. "Are we paying a fair, reasonable price? What we found is that we don't have very many standards."
Among the report's recommendations:
-A new state law should be passed requiring "a specified set of appraisal standards" for buying parks, open space and wildlife refuges.
-All appraisers should be hired, directed and reviewed by one agency, the state Department of General Services.
-Reviews of appraisals should be provided to state lawmakers before escrow closes on all land deals. Lawmakers could choose to make them public.
The only licensed appraiser in the
"This is something I've been concerned about for years," he said. "What happens is that the agencies shop appraisers until they get a number that the buyer is willing to accept. The bond money they are using doesn't come out of their budgets. There hasn't been enough oversight."
Feinstein declined a request for an interview.
In a written statement, she called the LAO report "a good set of recommendations.
Of the proposed Eshoo legislation, she added: "It is a real start in the right direction. We're going to continue to do our due diligence, and look at putting something together as well."
One activist said Feinstein owes it to the public following the Cargill sale.
"This Cargill deal has turned out to be a taint on the acquisition of public lands," said John Hansen, executive director of Integrity in Natural Resources, a Santa Rosa-based group that scrutinizes land purchases. "Senator Feinstein needs to help remove that taint. She needs to help clean this up."
A Cargill spokeswoman said the company has no comment on the LAO recommendations. She noted the land sale was approved by several state and federal agencies.
"We're proud of the deal," said Jill Singleton. #
FLOOD PLAN APPROVED:
Supes OK flood plan
Marysville Appeal Democrat – 10/24/07
By Robert LaHue, staff writer
The supervisors had originally approved a joint powers agreement making the county part of the Sutter-Butte Flood Control Agency on July 24. But
In background information provided to the board, Sutter County Administrator Larry Combs and interim assistant county administrator met with Butte County Interim County Administrator Starlyn Brown on Aug. 30 to review the JPA.
The meeting resulted in 23 changes to the JPA’s wording, which were for clarifying portions of the agreement and do not alter anything policy-wise, Combs and Coad wrote.
“We believe that all the agencies will approve it,” Combs told the board Tuesday night.
Along with Sutter and
The new agency, which will replace the old West Feather River Levee Reconstruction Agency, is intended to spearhead levee improvements on the west bank of the Feather River.
Contingent on all parties approving the revised JPA, a first meeting date has been set from 1:30 p.m. Nov. 8 at the auditorium of the Sutter County Health Department. #
http://www.appeal-democrat.com/news/county_55640___article.html/agency_sutter.html
Editor: Full impacts of runoff are not being considered
The following letter has been sent to the Solano County Water Agency and copied to the Army Corps of Engineers:
I am writing in response to your long-awaited and recently released document, Ulatis System Drainage Study or Flood Management Options Report. It appears that your consultants have completely ignored the issue of proposed subdivision development in
The West Yost report includes only passing mention of
It includes a large number of photos of flooded
You propose a flood detention basin along Laguna Creek in Cherry Glen but totally ignore the fact that increased runoff from
You even suggest the possibility of removing homes along Alamo Creek in order to widen the creek channel to increase its capacity as it flows through South Vacaville, while totally ignoring the addition of 1,025 homes, plus a business village in the watershed upstream from
You make no reference to the EIP Associates Draft Environmental Impact Report for the Triad/Standard Pacific subdivision, although Ch. 4.11 of the report includes extensive discussion of runoff from that project, calling it a potentially significant impact of the development (emphasis theirs, not mine!)
No one I know gives serious credence to the developers' claims that flooding the golf course during a storm will actually reduce runoff from the valley after a subdivision is built.
Perhaps if issues of runoff and flooding had been adequately considered when south
On behalf of the Friends of Lagoon Valley, I ask that you give serious consideration to the runoff and flood-related impacts of a large subdivision in the
http://www.thereporter.com//ci_7266963?IADID=Search-www.thereporter.com-www.thereporter.com
ANTELOPE VALLEY-EAST KERN WATER AGENCY ISSUES:
Grand jury requests AVEK files
By Alisha Semchuck, staff writer
PALMDALE -
But, the grand jury letter might have needlessly caused furled brows at AVEK, a water wholesaler that sells to agricultural and municipal users. AVEK General Manager Russ Fuller acknowledged receiving the letter, but said he could not speculate on what prompted it. "We do not know what they're looking for."
AVEK Director Frank Donato had a similar reaction. "This caught me by surprise. I don't understand (the reason) for some of the questions on this request."
The letter, dated Oct. 16, asked the length of board members' terms of office and if they were elected or appointed. It also sought copies of meeting agendas, minutes, meeting times and locations, and a board packet, complete with descriptions of all items to be discussed.
A few folks thought the letter might have been spurred by recent tensions between AVEK and several Rosamond residents who oppose the water agency's plans for a water bank near their homes on land at
The Brown Act, a portion of the California Government Code, sets the way local elected or appointed boards of public agencies must conduct meetings. In a letter dated Sept. 20, Jennifer Lentz Snyder, assistant head deputy of the district attorney's Public Integrity Division, cited potential violations that may have occurred when the AVEK board conducted meetings. She also pointed out that the board, in accordance with the Brown Act, can discuss specific legal matters in closed session.
AVEK attorney William Brunick was working with Snyder to correct any possible wrongdoings, though he vowed the board did not intentionally violate any laws.
"In all honesty, I really don't know" what triggered the letter, said Rosamond resident Randy Scott, one of those who oppose the purposed water bank on the farmland off
"I don't know if it's got anything to do with the
There's no need for alarm, according to Bill Pilkington, chairman of the
"We are not selecting any one district or agency for special investigation. The basic purpose here," he said, "is to save the jury time and the special districts time which would be involved in an investigation (that) subsequently proves to be unnecessary."
The grand jury is taking a new approach by sending out these questionnaires. More than 100
"The information we have requested would allow the grand jury to keep abreast of the operations without the necessity of an investigation." He said the information would save time for employees at agencies and special districts who would be required to spend their work hours digging through old documents, and it would also save time for the folks who sit on the grand jury because they would not have to travel to the agencies being investigated. This way they have the basic information in advance.
"So the grand jury can concentrate on more pressing matters. Another purpose of this program, when a problem or potential problem is detected, it can frequently be answered or resolved by a simple phone call."
Pilkington shrugged off the likelihood the L.A. District Attorney's investigation sparked the grand jury letter.
The letter doesn't request any past information, except for an audited financial statement. "The information we request is not retroactive," Pilkington said. The grand jury wants documents that begin with November 2007.
"This is the first time we have gone countywide," Pilkington said. "It will be an ongoing (program) until discontinued by the grand jury." #
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