SQUID FRY 07.19.18: Write On

WRITE ON… Squid can’t stop wondering what President Donald Trump and Russian PresidentVladimir Putin discussed for their two-plus-hour meeting in Helsinki. Military secrets? Favorite TV shows? The 2016 U.S. presidential election? While Trump and the GOP do their best to discredit an inquiry into said election, Squid tuned in to a more local, but equally bitter, campaign aftermath.

Sheriff Steve Bernal won re-election with a whopping 64 percent of the vote, despite strong support from the Deputy Sheriffs Association for Deputy Scott Davis. The union is not content to accept the results and move on. Instead, DSA President Dan Mitchell lodged a complaint with the state Fair Political Practices Commission – asking them to investigate not a political candidate or committee, but media outlets. Mitchell accuses the Monterey County Weekly and KSBW of… well, doing journalism. “These news organizations ran negative articles about Scott Davis for Sheriff without following normal media standards,” Mitchell alleged. “These news organizations ran negative articles about the Monterey Deputy Sheriffs’ Association without following normal media standards.”

Squid can hardly tell what “normal” is these days, but what isn’t normal is this: asking the state agency tasked with upholding the Political Reform Act to investigate news outlets. (And, um, has he heard of the First Amendment?)

FPPC Enforcement Chief Galena West seems to agree. In a July 17 letter to Mitchell, she wrote: “The Enforcement Division found insufficient evidence of a violation of the Political Reform Act, and will not pursue an enforcement action in this matter.”

NOT SO EASEMENT… Among the quotes Squid often hears is “whiskey’s for drinkin’ and water’s for fightin’.” At the Fort Ord Reuse Authority, where road proposals often lead to controversy, it could also be said roads are for fightin’, because it’s not clear they’re for driving.

Squid’s not just talking about Eucalyptus Road – FORA’s road to nowhere that’s closed to cars – but, evidently, General Jim Moore Boulevard as well. On the Marina Coast Water District’s July 16 board agenda was an item that caught Squid’s eye: purchasing an easement from the Army for $331,000 for some pipe it already laid underground while General Jim was being built.

Why? Because, according Marina Coast’s report, “FORA did not obtain the road right-of-way from the Army… to dedicate the street for travel way and utilities.” Marina Coast Engineer Mike Wegley explained to the board that because they never obtained the easement, and Marina Coast’s pipes had gone more than two years without being used, the district was now on the hook to pay. “Unfortunately, this wasn’t one of the ones that was handed over,” Wegley said of the easement, before the board voted 5-0 to pony up $331,000. “Now we have to purchase it.” Whoopsies!