SQUID FRY 02.23.17: Scare Tactics

SCARE TACTICS… Sometimes while Squid is holed up in the lair on a rainy day snuggling with Squid’s English bulldog, Rosco P. Coltrane, and snacking on shrimp-flavored popcorn, Squid forgets there’s any reason Squid would ever want to go anywhere else. But if Squid does get a travel itch, it’s easy: Squid, luckily, has a passport.

No so for thousands of Monterey County residents, including, according to some estimates, 70 percent of the agricultural labor force, the economic backbone of the Salinas Valley. So Squid watched closely to see what Salinas City Council would do Feb. 21 when voting on a resolution “that all persons be treated equally and with with dignity and respect regardless of their national origin or immigration status.” Nowhere in the resolution does it say “sanctuary city,” but according to City Attorney Chris Callihan, it’s basically the same thing. And based on remarks by President Donald Trump that he’ll withhold federal funding from cities and counties that become sanctuaries, Callihan set out to instill the fear of god – err, the feds – into City Council.

“They will withhold funding. That is a risk this council takes should it approve this resolution,” he said, noting that while it’s clearly unconstitutional for the feds to do that, there’s no reason to believe the Constitution will stop Trump from doing anything. With roughly $10 million in federal money on the line, City Council voted 4-3 against the resolution, with Joe Gunter, Kimbley Craig, Tony Villegas and Steve McShane sinking it. It seems things like firefighter salaries and road repair funds clouded over the $8 billion – with a b – annual impact the ag economy has in the region.

PUSH, POLL… It seems to Squid water is nearly all anyone can talk about in these oversaturated times. It’s not just the weather: There is increasing momentum on the Monterey Peninsula to introduce a new Measure O – that’s the failed 2014 countywide ballot measure that would have facilitated a local takeover of Cal Am’s water system by the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District.

Cal Am is aware of the momentum too, and recently paid for a push poll to test the waters of local voters. Squid heard from two people who received calls from said poll – the caller, in at least one case, was based in Utah – and the calls sounded close to identical: How do you feel about a water district takeover of Cal Am? Would the mayors’ support of Cal Am influence your vote? How about the County Board of Supervisors? But the best questions: Would opinions expressed in the Herald influence your vote? The Pine Cone? The Weekly was not included, perhaps because it was the only local paper to endorse Measure O. Two-and-a-half years later, with ever-rising water rates and multiple desal plant delays, Squid ventures the Weekly is the only paper that got it right.