FREE SPEECH
The Monterey County Civil Grand Jury took the city of Carmel to task in 2015, reporting, among other findings, that city officials were in the pocket of the Carmel Pine Cone, which vigorously opposed the former administration. “The governance and administration of the city is unduly influenced by the reportorial and editorial practices of The Carmel Pine Cone,” the grand jury wrote. With history like that, you might expect today’s administration would avoid any appearance of getting too cozy with the newspaper. But City Administrator Chip Rerigsays he agreed to give the Pine Cone the (unsurprising) scoop that Cmdr. Paul Tomasi will succeed retiring Police Chief Mike Calhoun. Rerig emailed city staff Dec. 16, 11 hours after the story hit, with an apology: “You should not have learned of my decision through our local media outlets, and I apologize for this oversight. My only defense is that I wanted to insure that the story was not first reported by a news group other than The Pine Cone. I’ll do better in the future.”
WHAT’S UP WITH THAT
Al Siekert, who cooks for Monterey’s homeless who gather to eat next to Window on the Bay, asks why the picnic tables there were removed. Assistant City Manager Hans Uslar explains, “They had become very unsightly and, since they are made out of concrete, the rebar came through on some of them.” They’re in the shop and will be back after restoration.
GOOD WEEK / BAD WEEK
GOOD:
It’s a good week for stormwater, and not just because rains recently soaked Monterey County. The State Water Resources Control Board issued two grants locally totalling more than $14 million to help fund projects that would clean and in some cases reuse stormwater. The Monterey Regional Water Pollution Control Agency was awarded $10 million toward a project to collect, treat and reuse stormwater in the Salinas area. The city of Pacific Grove was awarded $4.4 million for a joint project with Monterey. Though some of the water that project will treat will be used for irrigation purposes, the project’s primary thrust is to clean stormwater that flows into Monterey Bay, as 3.2 miles of P.G. coastline have been deemed by the state as an area of special biological significance.BAD:
It was a bad week for rooster owners who lost a lawsuit challenging a new county ordinance limiting the number of roosters they can raise (up to four) unless they apply for and receive a permit from Monterey County Animal Control Services. Monterey County Superior Court Judge Tom Wills upheld the ordinance, and in his Dec. 6 decision, wrote that the plaintiffs –James Leahy Jr., Heriberto Perez and Miguel Angel Reyes Robles – failed to prove they were actually harmed by the new regulation, because they hadn’t even applied for a permit: “Plaintiffs have done absolutely nothing to obtain permits or exemptions that might well allow them to continue raising roosters.” Since the ordinance was passed in 2014, the county has received 50 applications for rooster-keeping permits and approved 18.
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