SQUID FRY 07.25.13 – Elementary, My Dear County…

ELEMENTARY, MY DEAR COUNTY… Squid is really in the wrong line of business. With all the sleuthing Squid does, Squid has the skills of a private investigator with a reporter’s pay and none of the glory.

Take the county’s intriguing Case of the Missing Slumlord, involving the guy largely responsible for a decade of ignored well-water contamination at a mobile home park in Carmel Valley. Former Jensen Camp owner Rick Pinch just disappeared, county counsel Patrick McGreal told Squid. (The county’s insurance agency recently finalized $2.5 million in settlements for camp residents exposed to dangerously high fluoride levels.)

The county hired P.I. Michael Stewart to serve court documents, including a subpoena, to Pinch at his Florida address last summer. But according to Stewart’s court declaration, no one answered the door and a neighbor said Pinch was out of state. Funny thing is, Squid was able to reach Pinch on the first phone call to the same number he’s had for at least five years, at that same address.

So how much exactly did the county pay this P.I.? Squid made a Public Records Act request just for kicks, and heard back, in a nutshell, “Who knows?” The county has no record of hiring or paying Stewart, despite the fact he produced a court report about the work. May Squid humbly offer Squid’s P.I. services in finding out how much the county paid its P.I.? Bet Squid can track it down during one episode of Magnum P.I.

CLOAKED IN SECRECY… Speaking of sleuthing, anyone with a tentacle in the Peninsula’s water-supply conundrum is interested in the whodunnit that sank the Regional Desal Project.

Now there’s an opportunity to find out – but not if the county, and California American Water, have their way. In a legal settlement with Cal Am, the county famously caved on its own ordinance requiring public ownership of desalination plants. But the agreement’s not official until the California Public Utilities Commission signs off on it.

Administrative Law Judge Sean Wilson will decide whether the county’s special exception for Cal Am holds up to the law – and whether to grant Cal Am’s motion to seal. (That’s lawyer-speak for making the documents secret.)

The county’s backing up Cal Am, while Marina Coast Water District and Water Plus want Wilson to open up all the invoices behind the disaster, which would let Squid finally see who, exactly, paid how much to whom.

If there’s one thing Squid believes in, it’s transparency (which explains Squid’s drawer full of gauzy underthings). If only Squid could count on the PUC to be as hot for see-through.