Department of Water Resources
A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment
January 28, 2009
5. Agencies, Programs, People –
Council rescinds water rationing
Lack of public notice cited
St Helena Star
Naturalists in the making
Students, builder team up to restore Delta wetlands
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Council rescinds water rationing
Lack of public notice cited
St Helena Star – 1/29/09
By Jesse Duarte
City councilmembers voted unanimously Tuesday to rescind their Jan. 13 decision to impose mandatory Phase II water restrictions, citing lack of adequate public notice beforehand.
City Councilmember Catarina Sanchez asked the council to reconsider the decision so the public would have a chance to comment on it and understand how it affects them.
Two weeks ago the council voted 3-2 — with Sanchez in the majority and Councilmembers Bonnie Schoch and Sharon Crull in dissent — to enter Phase II, even though their agenda only mentioned the implementation of Phase I, which includes strictly voluntary conservation measures.
Phase II was scheduled to take effect today when a display ad appeared in the Star. But with the council voting to rescind their Jan. 13 action, the ad was canceled.
“Some urgency exists to begin these measures, but I do not believe that the situation is so severe or dire that we can dispense with adequate public notice required under the Brown Act,” wrote Sanchez in a letter to the editor that appears on Page A6 of this week’s Star. “Our citizens deserve proper advance notice to effectively participate in the decision-making process. Better decisions will result when our citizens are fully informed.”
Her concerns are similar to those raised by Schoch and Crull when the council made its original decision.
On Tuesday Sanchez said the city should reconsider Phase II at a future meeting and publish bilingual flyers explaining water conservation, which would help “begin conservation at the homeowner level.”
Britton adamant
Mayor Del Britton fought hard to keep the water restrictions on track, at one point even preventing Councilmember Eric Sklar from putting forward a motion. But he eventually went along with the rest of the council in adopting a motion by Sklar to rescind the council’s Jan. 13 decision and discuss Phase II on Feb. 10, the council’s next regularly scheduled meeting.
Before that vote, Britton argued that rescinding the decision — which wasn’t mentioned on Tuesday’s agenda — would raise the same concerns about public notification that made the Jan. 13 decision so controversial.
“Don’t we owe the public the right to come and discuss whether we should rescind it or not?” he asked, adding that “most of the people I’ve talked to are glad we did it.”
Crull proposed scheduling a special meeting to rescind Phase II. But City Attorney Amy Valukevich said it was legal for the council to rescind a decision at the first meeting after the decision was made, regardless of whether it’s on the agenda.
Sklar said councilmembers “got ourselves into a corner” with their Jan. 13 decision. With Phase II scheduled to take effect Thursday, “we can’t get out of the bind without rescinding it,” he said.
Phase I restrictions, which the city has been under for since mid-2008, are purely voluntary. Going to Phase II would impose mandatory restrictions: customers with even-numbered addresses could only water their lawns, plants and vineyards on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Odd-numbered addresses could water only on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Watering would be prohibited on Mondays.
Brown Act violation
Sklar said he wanted to rescind the decision “to serve the purpose of public notification and openness which is a philosophy of the city,” not because the council had violated the state’s open meeting law, the Brown Act. Valukevich also reiterated the opinion she’d given on Jan. 13 that the council had not violated the law.
But according to Jim Ewert, an attorney for the California Newspaper Publishers Association who specializes in open government issues, the council did violate the Brown Act on Jan. 13 by taking an action that wasn’t listed on the agenda.
“If it’s not on the agenda and there are not circumstances under which the council has made a determination and voted on the necessity to take up an item that’s not on the agenda, they can’t talk about it,” said Ewert.
If a majority of the council votes that an emergency exists, they may take action that’s not on the agenda, said Ewert. But the council didn’t do that on Jan. 13.
This is the second time in a matter of weeks that the city has rescinded actions due to Brown Act issues. A Napa County District Attorney investigation concluded last month with a finding that the city violated the Brown Act by not identifying property involved in a closed session.
Rationing likely
According to the city’s Municipal Code, Phase II is triggered when
The council majority used the second provision to justify entering Phase II.
In spite of the procedural tug of war, there’s general agreement on the council that conservation will be crucial in
According to acting Director of Public Works John Ferons, if current weather patterns continue the reservoir will hit 25 percent around April 30.
As of
St. Helena has received 8.6 inches of rain this season, down from 22.3 inches at this time last year.#
http://www.sthelenastar.com/articles/2009/01/29/news/local/doc4981397776ccd701442148.txt
Naturalists in the making
Students, builder team up to restore Delta wetlands
By
SHIN KEE TRACT - Land once tilled by a man known as the "Chinese Potato King" is reverting to wetlands under the direction of a major developer and with the help of dozens of schoolchildren.
A.G. Spanos Cos. is restoring 142 acres of habitat here in part to offset the impacts of a proposed development in north
The work continued Wednesday with children who lowered sprouts of rye grass into holes in the mud and planted willow sticks that should take root and grow.
This all meant getting dirty and muddy, which most kids were all too eager to do. Just call them naturalists in the making.
"I want to go and get stuck again in the mud," 9-year-old Megan Constantino of
Spanos bought the land in 2004 without any specific plan, said company senior Vice President David Nelson. It later became apparent that the company could restore habitat to mitigate the impact of building elsewhere.
The company decided to make it an education endeavor as well by inviting students to help. "Unless we pass on the message of how important the wetlands are, they're going to disappear," Nelson said.
Government biologists and flood control officials gave the plan the OK, and what was once row crops is now an inland lake which, through its connection with the Delta, rises and falls with the tides.
The birds are loving it. "We saw a bunch of cranes flying," 13-year-old Justin Galvan said. "You could hear them from, like, 100 feet away."
The San Joaquin Council of Governments, which administers a countywide habitat conservation plan, will manage the wetland for perpetuity with funding from Spanos, the company said.
Delta smelt may benefit, along with the equally reclusive but more ominous-sounding giant garter snake.
Shin Kee Tract, like much of the Delta, was nothing but marshland until it was reclaimed in the late 1800s by Chinese farmers and laborers. Immigrant Chin Lung, the potato king, had one of the biggest farming operations on leased land in the central Delta.
Nelson said a portion of the new wetland will mitigate for The Preserve, a 360-acre development project on Atlas Tract, south of Bear Creek.#
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090129/A_NEWS/901290327/-1/rss14
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