Letters to the Editor 09.03.15

The Diffenbaugh Way

I finally caught up to “The Language of Family” while sipping an early morning coffee at Peet’s (“Vanessa Diffenbaugh is a world-famous author whose life, writings and work follow her convictions to help abandoned young people,” Aug. 20-26). Wow! What a story. Vanessa and [her husband] PK reaching out and having such a huge impact. Their story brought me tears of happiness. The world is a beautiful place. Matthew Sundt | via Web

(Editor’s note: Mr. Sundt is the proprietor of Old Capitol Books in Monterey.)

Going Downs

A recent letter from a local citizen pointed out another misleading mailer from the Monterey Downs outfit, showing a photo of urban blight and inferring that the Downs development would be located on blight (“Monterey Downs economic report promises triple gains for Seaside – with a lot of big ifs,” Aug. 27-Sept. 2).

The letter reminded me of an event a few years ago, which helped me to see just what kind of corporate “person” is this Monterey Downs. After joining a tour led by the city of Seaside (attended by about 70-80 people) to look at the Veterans Cemetery and the proposed Downs development sites, I saw that the Monterey Downs Facebook page had posted a photo of a large group of people on the tour. The caption: “Monterey Downs supporters.” When I commented on Facebook that many (if not most) of us on the tour were NOT supporting this development, my comment was quickly deleted, and I could no longer access the page.

So, aside from the fact that the draft environmental impact report found significant unavoidable impacts in the areas of aesthetics, air quality, biological resources (plants and wildlife), greenhouse gas emissions/climate change, water supply and traffic – aside from all this – do we really think it’s a good idea to deal with such a deceptive, shady organization? Lynn Hamilton | Salinas

More Water Rage

Squid and the rest of the press might as well pull up a chair at California-American Water’s dining table for all the disservice they have done to the community with their incredible lack of investigation and blindly retelling the half-bits of information Cal-Am releases (“Squid guzzles the Kool-Aid at a rage-filled Cal-Am Water meeting,” posted Aug. 24). Eighty percent of the ratepayers still have no real idea what Measure O was or why the dam was destroyed. Oh wait, $20 million in advertising. You’re all ready at the table and bursting at the seams. Dan Wilson | Carmel Valley

[Editor’s note: We would direct Mr. Wilson to our May 4, 2014 cover story “The Big O: It’s time to find out if public ownership is feasible,” as well as ongoing coverage of the shady funding of Measure O. Stories can be found in our archives by searching “Measure O” at www.mcweekly.com.]

Public Litigation

I’ll not speak to the specifics of any given case, but we have an epidemic of public employees bringing frivolous lawsuits against our local governing bodies and settling for large sums of money (“Monterey reaches settlement with another former officer, agreeing to pay out $75,000,” posted Aug. 26). It’s extortion, plain and simple, and the taxpayers have no sympathy for those of low moral character who exploit our legal system to enrich themselves at our expense. Devin Podeszwa | via Facebook

Bay Watch

Great article on our local police culture in times of so much negative press on law enforcement (“A late-night ride-along on Monterey State Beach starts with fire and ends with smoke,” Aug 20-26). I have had many interactions with Officer Jake Pinkas, mentioned in the piece, as well as others in the MPD over the last three years and have always found them to be respectful, pleasant and willing to help on their own time when resources have been so limited. Thanks for showing we are lucky to have a PD like this in Monterey in these times. Esther Malkin | via Facebook

Big Blue Yahoo!

Yes! An example to be emulated around the world (“Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary counts its victories,” posted Aug. 24). Let’s share the beauty of environmental stewardship and love of our Big Blue! Marie Butcher | via Facebook

Drip Watch

Here on the Monterey Peninsula, we are paying outrageous water costs under Cal Am’s tiered system. My Cal Am bill last month was $784. This bill was for a family of three, on one acre, plus two weeks of kids and grandkids visiting. How did we come to pay these kinds of bills?

I looked back at my summer 2008 bill when I used 2,000 gallons more than I did this summer, but only paid $184. Seven years later, after cutting my peak summer water use. I’m paying $600 more for 2,000 gallons less!

Cal Am has had 40 years to solve our water problems and failed. But they have failed quite profitably. Now Cal Am is proposing to charge us $177 million over 20 years in order to compensate itself for $40 million in under-collected revenue, plus $137 million in interest and profit. This under collection of revenue is due to our conservation efforts and Cal Am’s collection errors. We should not be asked to pay the $40 million and certainly not the additional interest and profit!

Cal Am’s tier system is the cause of their problem and they should solve it without more cost to us. When you charge people so much for water, they will use less. Cal Am should have foreseen this before they put their tiers in.

They also propose to keep the tier system, but get rid of all the allotments for family size, acreage and summer watering, and raise tier 1 residential rates by as much as 95 percent.

If you don’t agree with these proposed changes, send letters of protest to the California Public Utilities Commission at public.advisor@cpuc.ca.gov (refer to case A.15-07-019) and the Office of Ratepayer Advocates at richard.rauschmeier@cpuc.ca.gov. Melodie Chrislock | Carmel