Shades of Green

Shades of Green…Squid knows that often, to get the juicy part of any public meeting, patience is key. But not on Tuesday, Feb. 25, when right away, Salinas City Council members were asked to disclose relevant financial contributions before heading into a closed session. One topic on the closed-session agenda was a real estate negotiation between the city and Taylor Fresh Foods, a familiar agribiz giant that donated $5,500 each to the campaigns of the five newly elected councilmembers: Jose Luis Barajas, Gloria De La Rosa, Aurelio Salazar Jr., Margaret D’Arrigo and Mayor Dennis Donohue.

D’Arrigo also recently worked for the company so recused herself. Meanwhile, Barajas and De La Rosa said they have returned the money, while Salazar and Donohue said they were in the process of doing so. 

CEO Bruce Taylor has described his unprecedented political contributions to last year’s Salinas City Council elections an “investment.” The rate of return will be even better than he imagined if the candidates send the cash back after it helped them get to victory—and will they or won’t they feel indebted to lean in favor? 

Squid will be checking the receipts to make sure the councilmembers come through on their promise to return the money. 

Thirst Trap…Whiskey is for drinking and water for fighting, they say. To Squid, it looked like straight-up warfare when the Shandon-San Juan Water District, based east of Paso Robles a little south of the Monterey County line, filed an application for water rights with the State Water Resources Control Board. The district wants water for agriculture, and would pipe in 12,000 acre-feet from Lake Nacimiento, which is owned and operated by the Monterey County Water Resources Agency. Easy peasy.

Not so fast, came the argument from, well, pretty much everyone. In October, the Grower-Shipper Association wrote to the state board: “To put it bluntly, we’re shocked…a ‘scorched-earth’ squatter-like attempt to deliberately inflict harm onto one region for the benefit of another must be flat-out rejected.” A similar letter followed from the Salinas Valley Water Coalition. The cities of Paso Robles and San Luis Obispo chimed in with letters to the water district. So did the Monterey County Board of Supervisors, writing, essentially: Come at me, bro. (More technically, the board will “vigorously protect its interests in all appropriate administrative and judicial forums.”)

The hatemail keeps coming. On Feb. 27, the Nacimiento Project Commission is set to vote on a letter of opposition.

There is no timeline on a decision from the state, so Squid will keep watching to see which runs out first, water or ink.