Time Suck

TIME SUCK… Squid has seen some colossal wastes of time while attending public meetings, but luckily for a cephalopod with eight arms, there’s always some knitting or doodling to do. But even Squid ran out of fidgeting projects on Tuesday, Oct. 7 when the Monterey County Board of Supervisors went on – and on, and on – only to end back where they started.

Supervisor Luis Alejo made a referral a year ago to set a name for the tiny village being built in Watsonville as temporary housing for people living in tents along the Pajaro River levee, a partnership between Monterey and Santa Cruz counties. That referral was delayed as the village went through a contentious approval process in Watsonville.

Now that the project is near completion (good news), Alejo brought the name topic forward again, wanting to change the recommended name of “Recurso de Fuerza” (“Resource of Strength”) to something easier to pronounce, as well as something that conveyed the mission, either Casitas de Esperanza (“Houses of Hope”) or Hope Village or both. To do so would require a lot of staff time (aka taxpayer money) since all the funding documentation that went to the state used “Recurso de Fuerza.”

People familiar with the project contended that the name was chosen by the levee residents themselves in a survey taken a few years ago. Alejo called that a “myth” since the original survey records no longer exist.

Supervisor Chris Lopez supported Alejo’s suggestions, contending it was better to do it now before the village opens to save on the cost of signage, but Supervisor Glenn Church was stymied why they were even discussing it at all, since Santa Cruz County will take over ownership of the village in about six months. “That’s a decision for another jurisdiction,” Church said. It was in the best interest of Monterey County’s budget, he argued, “to punt this.”

Alejo and Lopez landed on a vote to suggest Santa Cruz officials name it either Casitas de Esperanza, Hope Village or both, or to engage in a public process to choose a name. The vote was 2-1, since two supervisors were absent. It took around 45 minutes to get to approving these suggestions.

But then County Counsel Susan Blitch said the vote didn’t count – they needed all three yes votes, with only three supervisors present. Alejo was dumbfounded. It made no sense, he said, since they had a quorum and a majority.

If Blitch is right, then virtually no business could ever get done during absences, a rather routine issue. Another 15 minutes went by as she searched for relevant court decisions. In the end, they decided to bring the matter back to discuss it all again on Oct. 14, after Squid’s deadline.

That sucking sound you hear? The one hour spent on a name for a project already named that the county won’t even own.