[Sosfbay-discuss] Latest Green Talk Column - should run Friday.

[Wes Rolley]

I had a lot of good intentions this week but as some say the road to 
hell is paved with good intentions. It may fit my subject today to note 
that this saying is often mis-attributed to Samuel Johnson.

Following the machinations of the Santa Clara Valley Water District 
means that I have to pay attention to what is on their agenda. That is 
easy, subscribe from the water district's web site (www.valleywater.org) 
and you get announcements of every meeting of the Board of Directors.

That is where I learned of Wednesday night's session at the Morgan Hill 
Community Center at which the Water District presented their Annual 
Report on the Protection and Augmentation of Water Supplies – 2009 and 
to explain their Recommended Groundwater Production Charges for Fiscal 
Year 2009-2010. It is a challenging subject but at least I was able to 
download the Report and their Recommendations and read them before the 
meeting.

The problem was that I was not able to attend the public hearing and 
that, in itself has consequences beyond the fact that I may have missed 
important updates to the document they provided. Surely, the presenters 
must have commented on the fact that a San Jose judge has ruled that the 
current method of computing and collecting groundwater charges is not 
constitutional in California. It violates the provisions of Proposition 
218.

Just as importantly, the number of people who show up at a hearing is 
one indication of whether or not people care, and I did not do my part. 
I hope that the rest of you did. I know that two of the hearings on 
whether or not to apply term limits to Water District Directors had zero 
and two attendees respectively. That does not demonstrate a high level 
of civic participation.

Underlying this is another thought, one concerning the role of the 
media, especially in the coverage of our government and local issues. I 
digress a bit here, but will come back to the subject. It may be that 
one of my cultural losses was to not have been hooked on watching The 
Wire (HBO). I really began paying attention after listening to the 
show's producer, David Simon talk about it with Bill Moyers.

Simon, for two decades a reporter for the Baltimore Sun, is quite 
articulate about the importance of good reporting, good editing in local 
journalism. On Wednesday (May 6) he testified on this subject at a US 
Senate Hearing regarding The Future of Journalism. Simon rather blamed 
much of the problems of newspapers in America from the fact that they 
started cutting staff long before the competition from the internet took 
away much of the advertising revenue stream that funded good journalism.

According to Simon, “When locally-based, family owned newspapers like 
The Sun were consolidated into publicly-owned newspaper chains, an 
essential dynamic, an essential trust between the journalism and the 
communities served by that journalism, was betrayed.”

How do these subjects tie together? Well, I would be the first to admit 
that I don't have the institutional knowledge that Simon feels was lost. 
I don't think that many local journalists do, with the possible 
exception of the Mercury News's Paul Rodgers and he is now covering a 
broader list of topics just to be as indispensable as possible. Locally, 
Rober Cerrutti does, but has no regular journalistic outlet.

The result is that our community, no matter how broadly we define that 
term is not well served. We see many stories about the fact that farmers 
are not going to get any water this year and many of these stories 
contain the framing of jobs vs. fish. Nothing could be further from the 
truth.

To begin with, many of the farmers in the Central Valley are not going 
to be affected at all. Holders of senior water rights in the Sacramento 
River Valley will get 100% of their allocation. Those in the Friant 
block will get 80%. It is only those in the Westland's Water District 
that are so severely restricted. This is where farmers have been 
encouraged to replace row crops which could be fallowed for a bad water 
year with orchards that can not. It was a bad business decision and not 
one that should determine California Water Policy. Television shows us 
pictures of Latino works demonstrating for their jobs and never mention 
the fact that the United Farm Workers is not involved and has distanced 
themselves from the big agriculture promoted demonstrations.

Without the institutional knowledge that Simon values, we are not 
learning enough to make informed decisions should any of this come to a 
vote. Were the question of term limits brought to the voters here, I am 
not sure what I would do. In a certain sense, the Directors need to 
acquire that same institutional knowledge, of course with an informed 
media that can hold their feet to the fire.

I can say that I would not support the re-election of any of the current 
directors; those who have allowed an unconstitutional method of charging 
out costs to continue un-questioned for years, those who have failed to 
provide adequate long term, ecologically sound planning for meeting our 
true water needs.

-- 
"Anytime you have an opportunity to make things better and you don't, then you are wasting your time on this Earth" Roberto Clemente

Wes Rolley
17211 Quail Court, Morgan Hill, CA 95037
http://www.refpub.com/ -- Tel: 408.778.3024