SQUIDFRY 11.30.17: Muddy Waters

MUDDY WATERS… Despite Squid’s gelatinous cephalopod form, Squid isn’t very flexible or any good at gymnastics. But Squid enjoys watching others put on a show, and has marveled at impressive mental gymnastics performed in recent weeks by Monterey County Supervisor John Phillips. He did the political equivalent of a backflip off the balance beam by arguing in favor of a new development because there is enough water, then six days later embracing a moratorium on new wells because there isn’t enough water.

On Nov. 8, Phillips testified before the California Coastal Commission in favor of the 54-unit Rancho Los Robles in Las Lomas. Despite the fact commission staff had evidence the groundwater basin is severely overdrafted, Phillips insisted it wasn’t. “This overdraft has decreased considerably and this project is a net positive water balance, and is undisputed,” Phillips said. (That was, you guessed it, after others disputed it.)

The next week, on Nov. 14, Phillips was in a Board of Supervisors meeting where Howard Franklin, a senior hydrologist at the Monterey County Water Resources Agency, presented on the alarming advance of seawater intrusion into the overdrafted Salinas Valley Groundwater Basin. And Phillips was ready to ban new wells. “It’s obviously a matter of urgency, especially for those of us in my district,” he said.

Phillips stands by his positions and says, two different groundwater basins, two different policies. Squid thinks: Way to not stick the landing.

HALL IMPROVEMENT… Other than the rising and setting of the sun, there are seemingly precious few constants in life, but they do start to crystallize if you pay close attention: scrub jays picking at the soil after a rain. The smell of wood smoke when the first cold snap hits. Seaside City Manager Craig Malin’s obsession with design.

Since coming into the job nearly two years ago, Malin has eagerly taken strides to make City Hall more transparent, efficient and aesthetically pleasing. A professed fan of famed architect Edward Durell Stone, who designed Seaside City Hall (as well as the public library in Davenport, Iowa, where Malin formerly served as city manager) Malin’s first order of business to spiff up City Hall came in the form of new cushions in the council chambers. The pattern? Houndstooth, which Malin describes as “1960s classy” and “perpetually cool.”

The latest chapter of Malin’s makeover is happening as Squid types: new carpet. Not just any color, but red – the original color of City Hall’s carpet – and not just any red, but “tango.”

“It will be replacing Kool-Aid vomit,” Malin says, referring to the color of the old carpet. While it may disrupt workflow while the new carpet is installed, he’s encouraging his staff to take the longview: “Think of it as cleansing.”