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PROPOSED NEW MONTEREY COUNTY DESALINATION PLANS

From the Monterey County Herald
Serving Monterey County and the Salinas Valley

Posted on Fri, Apr. 2, 2004

Mayors may get weighted votes on water
But district board opposes McPherson plan

By VIRGINIA HENNESSEY
vhennessey@montereyherald.com

Monterey and Seaside residents could have a greater say on local water issues than the residents of Carmel and Sand City under state Sen. Bruce McPherson's proposal to reorganize the Peninsula's water board.

Legislation proposed by McPherson would replace the directors of the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District with a panel of mayors, any of whom could call for a population-weighted vote on any issue.

Based on population, the mayors of Sand City, Del Rey Oaks and Carmel would each get one vote each. The Pacific Grove mayor would have two votes while the mayors of Monterey, Seaside and Marina would each have three votes.

Sand City Mayor David Pendergrass said in his experience with the Monterey Regional Water Pollution Control District, whose board has such a provision, weighted votes are only requested on major issues, "usually by Salinas."

Carmel Mayor Sue McCloud delayed comment, saying she'd just received a draft of McPherson's bill and had not yet read it.

McPherson spokesman James Jack said the concept is keeping with the "democratic principle of one person, one vote," allowing more input from cities with greater populations on issues of major import.

McPherson, R-Santa Cruz, is circulating the proposal to get input before introducing a final draft as legislation. He got pointed input this week from the current water board, which voted 5-1 to oppose the legislation as written.

"The Board of Directors specifically asks that the existing structure and composition of the board remain intact, without change," board Chairman Alvin Edwards said in a letter dated Thursday. "The draft amendments, as crafted, are not acceptable."

The letter also asks that the board be given a larger role in drafting legislation that would affect its makeup and asks that McPherson and Assemblyman John Laird, D-Santa Cruz, meet with the board to discuss the issue.

"I'm disappointed, but not surprised that they would vote before we had a dialogue with them," McPherson said. "But I'll be glad to have a dialogue with them. We plan to move ahead with what we have at this point, but I'll be glad to talk to them."

Sand City Mayor David Pendergrass was the lone nay vote on the action. Board member Kristi Markey was absent.

Pendergrass said he supported the board's request for greater participation in the process, but not its denunciation of the proposal altogether.

Pendergrass represents the Peninsula's mayors on the board.

He said voters clearly expressed their lack of confidence in the board with the 2002 passage of Measure B, an advisory measure calling for the dissolution of the board. Dissolution, he said, was too radical, but a change was obviously needed.

Pendergrass was alone in those feelings at Wednesday night's work session, where other board members said they should be given a period in which to complete a water project before the board would "sunset."

"I would ask for 12 years. If we don't have a project done by then, we would sunset," said board Chairman Edwards. "The key is we're working together a lot better than the last board worked together and we can get a water project."

The board is under pressure to develop another water source to reduce the Peninsula's reliance on the overtaxed Carmel River.

Previously dominated by an environmentalist bloc, the board's majority shifted to a more pro-business stance after the November elections of Larry Foy and Michelle Knight.

Foy, vice chairman of the board, agreed that the current board was more likely to find success. He said he was concerned that the lengthy phase-in of McPherson's proposal, which would replace members when their terms are up, would result in a period of stagnation.

Edwards also objected to the weighted-vote provision in the proposal.

"You could stack the deck" on major issues, he said, noting that Pendergrass would get an extra vote during the phase-in period.

And he said he thinks the voters should be allowed to vote on a change to the board's makeup, particularly since McPherson's proposal would also remove the requirement for a public vote to approve a water project.

McPherson pointed out that the district is the only one of 3,400 special districts in the state with such a requirement currently.