SQUIDFRY 06.21.18: Circling the Drain

CIRCLING THE DRAIN… Squid gets it: The World Cup is distracting, and it gets hard to keep up with basics: Replenishing the dog food supply for Squid’s English bulldog, Rosco P. Coltrane, reading the mail, paying the bills.

So too for many of Squid’s neighbors, based on a legal notice a mile long that appeared in the Monterey Herald on June 15, listing dozens of delinquent account holders who owe money for their sewer service to Monterey One Water. The agency is scheduled hold a hearing June 25, and will file $30 liens against the properties unless they pay up by July 5.

Among the debtors: former Seaside mayor Felix Bachofner, to the tune of $1,427.60. Bachofner, who keeps a perpetual presence at city meetings, is a consummate penny-pinching fiscal conservative. Maybe it’s time to dip into reserves? There’s Luke Coletti, a Pacific Grove activist who’s at war with the city over short-term rentals, and also at war with California American Water and the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District. He has time to write long rants about the funding mechanism for P.G.’s water recycling project, but not to pay $1,401.20 to the sewer district.

(After Squid went to print, Coletti provided proof he paid the bill plus extra—$1,500 total—on June 5, after the district had already submitted the list to the Herald.)

And there’s the winning toilet ring on the list – $10,368.25 – owed by Coastal Luxury Management, the company behind Pebble Beach Food and Wine, Cannery Row Brewing Co., and now-defunct 1833. Squid wonders if it’s OK to flush the toilet at CLM’s swanky events. Squid would ask, but worries about plunging any deeper.

CASH-N-CARRY… Squid is still trying to recover from the Monterey County Sheriff’s race and all the shenanigans that went with it: a state Department of Justice investigation into who signed checks from the Deputy Sheriffs Association to candidate Scott Davis’ campaign adviser; a Fair Political Practices Commission investigation into whether those funds were legitimate or laundered out of union dues; the kicking out of sheriffs commanders from that same union. You know, the usual.

Now that their man Davis has lost, the DSA is trying to repair all those wounded feelings. It seemed they were meant to hug it out at a June 18 meeting at the union’s Oldtown offices. But if members were there seeking answers from the board, there were none to be had. One member reportedly asked DSA President Dan Mitchell whose signature was on those checks, only to have a DSA attorney repeatedly tell Mitchell not to answer. Another member, this one from the B-unit that represents sheriff’s sergeants, is said to have asked how the B-unit could also get kicked out of the DSA – to applause of fellow sergeants.

Oh, and this: Security measures the DSA installed at its office – card readers and cameras – cost union members $33,000. Oh money! Good thing it grows on trees, right?

Editor's Note: This post was updated to reflect new information provided by Luke Coletti.