Monsters Under The Bed

h/t to Joe and MaryLou St Lucas for the Poway Monsters Under The Bed Video

Last Tuesday night, the Poway City Council met to approve the Wal-Mart expansion. We arrived a bit late but didn't really have to worry about parking, 'cause we knew there would be plenty of room at the empty Dixieline shopping center.

The meeting was crowded. All of the seats in the main chamber were taken. One side of the chamber seemed to be filled with Wal-Mart employees. Made me wonder if they would lose their job if they didn't show up. The lobby was also full; standing room only. We found some outside seats in front of 2 TV screens on the side of the building. Might have been the best seats available. We got to see the speakers as the council saw them, instead of from their backs. And we got some fresh air instead of the stench of divisiveness.

There were some articulate, thoughtful speakers from the "No We" group who presented their concerns about traffic, parking, aesthetics and noise, especially nighttime noise from delivery trucks. There were also a couple of passionate out-of-towners who begged the council to approve the Wal-Mart expansion so they could one-stop shop at Wal-Mart. They promised that the benefits of one-stop shopping at Wal-Mart would ripple through the business community. Another pro-expansion guy got up and complained because Joe St. Lucas, president of the 800 member No-We group, spoke for 5 minutes (with permission). He then proceeded to single out each anti-expansion speaker and say they were wrong. He droned on and on and Mayor Higginson was so captivated he forgot to remind him that his 3 minutes were up a long time ago.

After the speakers "had their say", the council members weighed in. Dave Grosch expressed his concerns about how the traffic and noise would affect the residents. For John Mullin, it was simple. Wal-mart is a commercial use. The land is zoned commercial. Voila, the decision is easy-peasy. But inconsistent. Just a couple of weeks ago, John Mullin voted for an emergency ordinance to keep another commercial venture from locating in a commercial zone because it might have an adverse effect on the neighborhood. Mullin wasn't interested in any adverse effects from Wal-Mart. And neither were Boyack, Cunningham or Higginson. In fact, Higginson went so far as to say that the concerns were "monsters under the bed."

"All I've heard tonight are monsters under the bed...there are no monsters under the bed," says Higginson.

Classic Higginson. This certainly is not the first time he has belittled or denigrated residents who have come to council meetings to express their concerns. But this is probably the first time he has done so to an 800 member organization at a taped meeting. It was pretty obvious throughout the whole meeting that finally allowing the residents to "have their say" was an exercise in futility. As one speaker so aptly said, "Thanks for nothing."

It wasn't always like this in Poway. During the early days, after incorporation, there was a decided effort among the elected leaders to make developers listen to residents. I can remember a developer showing up at council one evening and residents voicing complaints. Councilmember Bob Emery growled at the developers, "You go talk to the residents and work it out with them and THEN come back and ask for approval." Things changed when the city formed a redevelopment agency and that redevelopment agency became the biggest developer in town. Projects were shaped behind closed doors between developers and staff. Things became "done deals" long before they went to council for approval. Residents "having their say" conformed to the laws, but otherwise, the exercise was meaningless.

The Wal-Mart expansion is an example of how the city plans to develop in the future. The residents concerns will be ignored.The Wal-Mart neighborhood meetings were a harbinger of that we-don't-have-to-listen-to-you attitude. Wal-Mart simply set up tables and displayed their plans for the neighbors to see. A one-way meeting. No opportunity for the residents to voice their concerns. So, so different than the neighborhood meetings about north Poway developments or the amphitheater. Those days are definitely over.

Another example of the city's willingness to blow off resident's concerns is the feebleness of the EIR (environmental impact report). It's a joke. For example, consider the traffic information. The Wal-Mart EIR says that the level of service (LOS) at Poway/Community Rd is level C. But for the last 14 yrs, the city has been saying that it is level "D" or level "E". In the upcoming staff report for Lowes, the LOS of the Poway/Community Rd intersection is level "D". How did it go from level "C" to level "D" in a week? Especially since the EIR claimed that expanding Wal-Mart would improve traffic in the area. Do people just make stuff up to fit whatever conclusion is needed?

Every year since 1997, the Poway council has made an annual declaration that traffic sucks so bad in Poway, they qualify for an exemption from state law. Every year since 1997, the traffic monsters were real, and Higginson signed his name to it. This year, for the first year since 1997, the city council has not made their annual declaration about where you cannot have a granny flat because traffic sucks so bad. So, if you are thinking about building one, hurry and get your permits. I am afraid that as soon as Lowe's is approved, the council will look under the bed and tell the state that those monsters are really, really real. And so scary.

Bidness As Usual

irrigation water in the gutter in Arbolitos

Last (Tuesday) night, I wasted a few hours attending the workshop on the proposed water and sewer rates. There were mostly large-lot folks from north Poway at the meeting and they got what they wanted. The city is going to bail on the 5-tier conservation water rate structure and go with a 2-tier system. Everybody will pay $4.02/unit for their first 199 units in a billing period. The 200th unit on up will cost $5.74/unit. 200 units in one billing cycle is an ENORMOUS amount of water. It is way more water than the Cruse household uses in an entire year. Hardly anyone in Poway uses that much water, so for all practical purposes, we are back to a flat rate for most everyone.

Those of us who use less than 125 units in a billing cycle will see the water consumption part of our bill jump about 20%. The large-lot people who consume between 125-200 units in a billing cycle will see their water consumption bills jump about 10%.

The city will have to spend thousands of dollars to send out mailers (required by Prop 218) and give everyone notice of the changes and an opportunity to fruitlessly protest. Then in October, the council will lock in the new rates with a vote and they will become effective in January, 2011.

Last night's meeting went pretty much as I expected. A consultant presented several water and sewer rate options. Well, really just one sewer rate option and four water rate options. The four water rate options offered a choice between a 5, 3, 2 or no tier(s) structure. The first public speaker was Bruce Tarzy from the GVCA. Tarzy had already had a meeting with staff where he presented his 2-tier plan.  For months now, I have been hearing about how unfair it is that some people pay a different water rate than others, that some pay less than the cost to provide the service and are subsidized by others. So, why a 2-tier plan instead of a uniform unit rate? I'm not totally sure I get this, but from what I was hearing, it goes something like this: Everybody should pay the same rate. Except the people who use more than 200 units. Because they really need to learn to conserve. So, they have to pay more. As a result, the large-lot people are gonna get subsidized by the handful of super-large-lot people. And they seem OK with that. Advantage is relative.

After the people had their say, the council weighed in. Newbie John Mullin seemed to still be fond of a uniform unit rate. Jim Cunningham went next. If Cunningham had to be succinct to save his life, he'd be a goner. You can watch the replay, or if you want, but my analysis is that Cunningham's verbage amounted to: "What Tarzy said." Same with Carl Kruse. Next up was Merrilee Boyack. She wanted Don Higginson to go first, but he insisted that she state her position next. Boyack asked a few questions, but went with the Tarzy plan. Ditto the mayor.

I requested to speak during the public comment period. I wanted to address the sewer rates, or fees, as they are more appropriately called. I pointed out that we were all paying different rates. I even gave some examples of anomalies caused by the crazy tiered sewer fee structure:

1.)   Even when someone uses no water at all, they have to pay a minimum of  $45.00 for not using the sewer.    

2.)   The jumps between tiers are irregular.  A single extra shower or load of wash taken during the winter months could jump a user’s bill from  $304 to $458 per year.  That’s a $154 shower or load of wash or drink of water.

3.)   The person who uses 6 units of water pays the same total amount as the person who uses 12 units of water. How can this be conservation pricing when someone gets twice as much for the same price?  The person who uses 6 units pays twice the rate of the person who uses 12 units.

4.)    In general, the per unit cost for the sewer decreases as sewer use increases.

Well, I found out that the large-lot people and the council's passion for equity applies to water rates, but not to sewer fees, especially sewer fees that are tilted to their advantage.  Mayor Higginson, who interrupted me twice to hurry up with my comments, did not address my concerns. Neither did Boyack or Kruse. I am not sure if I heard correctly, but I think Mullin may have said something about looking into the sewer rates. To his credit, Jim Cunningham asked the staff about the sewer rates; staff told him there wasn't time for it this year, not enough time to get something sent out to the voters and ready for the October vote, it would have to wait.

So, there you have it.  Yep, I took the time to attend the water and sewer rate workshop. I stood up and spoke in front of a roomful of people who were seething with the injustice of unfair rates. I addressed a council that I had pre-sensitized for months with a barrage of emails and copies of my blogs. I'd even met with the staff and was the one who pointed out to them that there was quite a surplus in that sewer fund. And the response? There isn't time to fix the sewer rate structure.

Like I said, I wasted a couple of hours last night.

Did the Candidates Shop Poway?

We still do not know 100% for sure who won the special election for Poway city councilmember. The top 2 candidates, Steve Vaus and John Mullin are within 78 votes of each other a week after the election, and there are still more votes to be counted.  So, I decided to ponder the question, "Who is the real winner in the election?" I mean, financially. Is it Poway? Did the candidates spend a lot of money locally? Did they "Shop Poway"?

I looked at all of the campaign disclosure statements that were on file in the Poway City Clerks office as of Jun. 11, 2010. Here is a summary of where the candidates spent their money.

Pete Babich spent a campaign total of $2875. He (and every other candidate) bought signs from an out-of-town company. Babich spent $1186 for signs from International Marketing Services (IMS) in El Cajon. All the rest of Babich's expenditures were from Poway: $50 filing fee, $26 for flower seeds from Wal-Mart, $501 for printing at JRC, $1012 for postage and $100 for a booth at the Poway Chamber street fair.

Howard Collins spent $50 for the filing fee. He had no other expenditures for the campaign.

Chuck Cross spent a campaign total of $2037.96.  Other than the filing fee, Cross spent only $5 in Poway, for checks from US Bank. He also reimbursed Mary Cross $81.93 for stuff bought at Costco, but which Costco location was not indicated on his forms.  Cross' out-of-town expenditures were $800 for a web site, $21.40 for paypal, $100 to a Texas firm for bumper stickers, $297 to IMS for yard signs,  $100 to Cafe Merlot for hired help, $500 to a Long Beach firm for slate cards, another $247 to a Los Angeles firm for more slate cards, $168.72 to an Arizona firm called Dr. Don Buttons, and $113.91 from Overnite Prints, an Irvine, CA firm.

Dave Grosch spent a campaign total of $1252. Besides the $50 filing fee, Dave spent $51 in Poway for t-shirts from Express Me. Like many of the other candidates, Grosch bought yard signs  ($594 worth) from IMS in El Cajon. Grosch spent $100 for bumper stickers from a Texas company, $19 on checks and bank fees from a San Diego bank, and $438 from Staples, San Marcos for flyers.

John Mullin was the biggest spender. He reported spending $15,419.44.  (I tallied a figure $50 lower.)  Liked the other candidates, Mullin forked over $50 for the filing fee and he had a booth at the Chamber Street Fair ($150).

One of Mullin's biggest items were for  ads in the Poway News Chieftain ($2381).  He also spent some serious postage money in Poway ($1617.68 at the post office and $132 at Office Depot) ) and had some small printing jobs done in Poway-RB Printing ($135.94) but Mullin also had printing done out-of town: $3488.55 at Streeter Printing in San Diego, $154.80 for street fair handouts from Sanzo Specialties of New York, $341.61 from Select Mailing in Kearney Mesa, and $43.36 from the Xpedx paper Store on Aero Drive. Mullin also spent big on slate mailers and campaign literature, all from Laguna Niguel firms: SD Co RLVG ($570); Rep Wmns Voice ($400); SBAC ($520); Save Prop 13 ($400) and NTLC News ($560)

Mullin also reimbursed his wife for $3670.00 for buying signs and stamps and whatnot, most likely not in Poway. He spent $122.92 for window decals at the El Cajon firm where most everyone else bought signs.

Mullin paid $220 for renting something from David Calvert. My best guess is that Mullin paid Calvert for allowing him to put his campaign sign over the old Pomerado Publishing sign at the Chieftain's old building on Poway Rd.

David Radcliff spent a total of $1382.64. His filing fee ($50), chamber booth ($150) and Chieftain ad ($412) were his only Poway expenditures. He bought signs from a Florida firm ($340.64), and literature ($430) from a San Diego firm.



Steve Vaus spent a total of $9,753.  He paid the $50 filing fee, spent $150 for a booth at the Poway Chamber Street Fair and $560 for postage at the Poway post office. Other than that, the only other expenditure Vaus made in Poway was $3028 for ads in the Poway Chieftain. Vaus spent $65 at the Carmel Mtn Ranch Staples and $151 at the Carmel Mtn Ranch Home Depot.

Vaus, also spent some money on webservices: $566 to a TN firm (Carl Miner Idea Group) he also uses with his business (Steve Vaus Productions), $98.05 to paypal and $50 to a Florida firm called Political Technologies LLC.

Vaus did not specify an expenditure explicitly for signs, but he paid $1501 to a Pennsylvania firm for "campaign paraphernalia" that could be for his signs, and he paid $626.28 to Overnght Prints in Irvine. Vaus did not have any printing done at Poway shops. He spent $53 form Rubber Stamp Champ in San Marcos and he paid a Torrance, CA firm $950 for a slate mailer.

Vaus did reimburse a supporter $245 for some items bought at Costco and Albertsons, but which Costco and which Albertsons was not specified.


Roger Willoughby spent $781.69 on his campaign.  Willoughby paid the requisite $50 filing fee to the City of Poway and he also paid the city $20.60 for copies from records requests. Willoughby spent $225 for his booth at the Chamber street fair.  He bought signs from an Iowa firm ($355.57) and printing ($126.55) from JRC in Poway.

The only big winners among Poway merchants this campaign season were the Chamber of Commerce and Pomerado Publishing. (Hmmm- could that be the reason that the Poway Chieftain was so in love with the recall?) Other local merchants were out of the loop. In fact, only 3 of the candidates had any printing done in Poway. Mullin had a small amount of printing done in Poway, whereas Pete Babich and Roger Willoughby had all their printing done locally.  Dave Grosch bought some t-shirts in Poway.  Babich bought some flower seeds at the local Wal-Mart. Other than that,  save for postage and mailing expenses, no money was specified as spent at Poway locations.

My guess is that one of the reasons that the candidates did not "Shop Poway" is because they can find a better deal elsewhere. Same reason many of us might chose to buy something somewhere else. But it is a little disconcerting to see the candidates talk about the need to support local business and then see them not support local business with their campaign dollars.  For goodness sake, you can't get a better price at the Carmel Mtn Ranch Home Depot than you can get at the Poway Home Depot, can you?  So, what's up with the candidates talking the talk, but not walking the walk, when it comes to supporting Poway businesses?

Note: I have uploaded copies of each candidates campaign reports. If you want to take a closer look at a particlular candidate's expenditures and contributions, click on his name below.

Pete Babich
Howard Collins
Chuck Cross
Dave Grosch
John Mullin
David Radcliff
Steve Vaus
Roger Willoughby

Leadership

Leadership. I've been hearing that word a lot lately. Which is fitting because we have an election right around the corner. Leadership does matter when we pick our leaders. So, I wanted to take a look at one of the biggest issues- Water Conservation- and see how the candidates (and current councilmembers) are doing on water conservation. Are they just telling us to use less water or are they leading by example? I requested the water use data from all of the current councilmembers and candidates for the last 2 yrs. Candidates were under no requirement to release that information, but EVERY ONE of THEM did. Kudos to the candidates. I used the water use data  to compare water conservation efforts from candidates and current councilmembers. 

First, a word about the data. Everybody is not on the same billing cycle. Some people get their bills in Jan/Mar/May/July/Sept/Nov and others get them in Feb/April/June/August/Oct/Dec. For purposes of comparing data, I aligned Jan bills with Feb bills, and Mar bills with April bills, etc. Also note that the data is for the billing date. The  billing date  will indicate the water use in the 2 previous months. For example, a March billing date will indicate how much water was used in the previous January and February.

There were also  2 instances where the customer had more than one reading in a billing cycle (probably indicating a new meter was installed) and one huge anomaly (probably indicating a water pipe break). Dave Grosch had 2 meter readings for Jan, 2010. I added the readings together. I did the same for Carl Kruse who had 2 readings in Jun/July 2009. Betty Rexford, who has the lowest water use among the group had a 129 unit reading in Aug 2009. No other reading was more than 11 units, so I substituted 11 units for the August 2009 reading. 

First, I wanted to compare the total water use during the period from Feb/Mar 2008 until Mar/April 2010.

Here are the results (click on each graph to make it larger):

The biggest water consumers during this period were Steve Vaus, Jim Cunningham and Don Higginson. Which is kind of interesting. Because they all live in the same neighborhood.  I'm not saying they would vote the same way on everything. But how weird would it be to have the council majority be 3 people who live about a block from each other and are big water users to boot?  Would we all feel represented under such a scenario?

The next biggest water user is Grosch (who used less than half the water Vaus used), followed by Boyack, Mullin, Collins and Babich.  At the bottom of the pack were Kruse, Cross, Willoughby, and Radcliff, all of whom live on smaller acreage than the other councilmembers and candidates. The smallest water user is Rexford, who, I believe, has a well.

Because some of the councilmembers and candidates live on larger parcels than others, I decided to compare winter water use. During the 2010 winter, folks should have been able to turn off their outside irrigation for an entire 2 month period. Especially if they were leading by example.  Ahem....

The following graph shows the number of units billed  in Feb. or Mar for each of the last 3 winters, 2008, 2009, and 2010. The data from 2010 is in yellow. 

The largest winter water user, by far, is Steve Vaus. His total use during Dec/Jan for the last 3 years is almost 300 units. And he used 65% more water during this period in 2010 than he did during this period in 2009.  Jim Cunningham is the next largest wintertime water user; he used just a little over half of what Vaus used. With the exception of Vaus, almost everyone cut their wintertime use in 2010 or kept it pretty close to what they used in 2009. 

With the city promoting turning off irrigation this winter, I would have expected to see the 2010 data (in yellow) be fairly close for everyone, despite their lot size.  But it isn't.  Boyack's use is the lowest- just 3 units. Collins is next lowest at 4, followed by Willoughby, Rexford and Grosch, who are all in single digit use. Way to lead by example!

Mullin, Kruse, Radcliff and Cross used under 15 units. Higginson clocked in at 19 (less than half what he used the previous winter), Babich came in at 20, followed by Cunningham at 33, and in the very last spot, Vaus with 91 units.  91 units is way out there!

The next thing I wanted to look at was whether the candidates and councilmembers had cut back their use since the previous year. So I compared the total number of water unit used during the last 12 months to the 12 months before that.

The following information is useful in comparing and analyzing the data:

Vaus, Higginson and Babich all have lots between 32,000-37,000 s.f.

Cunningham, Rexford and Mullin have lots in the 22,000- 27,00 s.f range. 

Boyack's lot is about 14,500 s.f

Radcliff, Wiilloughby and Cross have lots between 6,600-7500 s.f.

The size of Grosch, Collins and Kruse's lot is unavailable on the Poway or Sandag's GIS site or zillow. 

Grosch lives in Rancho Arbolitos in a lot zoned PC-2. Collins lives in North Poway on a lot zoned RS-2 and Kruse also lives in North Poway on a lot zoned RS-4.

Once again, some people have been conserving for years and their recent use might not show much improvement. But look at that graph! Everybody, except Radcliff,  cut their water use in the past year. I'm going to give Radcliff a pass on this because his water use was, and still is, pretty low.  

The graph shows that, in general, people who have larger lots use more water. No surprise there. But there is still a lot of spread between the larger water consumers. Vaus, Higginson and Babich have lots that are relatively close in size, yet Vaus uses way more water than Higginson and more than twice as much water as Babich. So, there is still lots of room for improvement and leadership. And probably pool covers. 

Note: All of the candidates do not have the same philosophy when it comes to how the city should structure water rates and promote conservation. Please visit each candidate's website to learn more about their view on water conservation and water rates:

Dave Grosch 

Chuck Cross 

Roger Willoughby (could not find a website for Willoughby)

Howard Collins

Pete Babich

David Radcliff

Steve Vaus 

John Mullin