October 18, 2010 – Daily Brief

Lazy Dog cafe has banned dogs. As they should have without a complaint.

If you don’t like the idea of pets (or Petz. Sorry, I couldn’t resist), outside, at a pet-friendly restaurant chain, then don’t eat there. I’m tired of the whiners winning. It’s the same reason smoking bans in restaurants/bars/etc irk me. Not because I want to smoke indoors or breathe in someone else’s smoke. I don’t. But if a private business wants to allow it, indoors, fine. Let them. I’ll just decide to go somewhere else.

FYI: Lazy dogs are welcomed at Newhall’s Way Station (my very favorite local breakfast joint); I saw two of them laying there on the floor last saturday morning.

■”The County DA’s office has closed without action a complaint against Frank Ferry regarding his now infamous letter to Kevin Korenthal’s employer. As a matter of fact, the DA has closed a number of complaints against elected City officials according to the SIGNAL.” It is impossible to express my complete and utter disgust with all the unethical and corrput behavior from Frank Frank Ferry. But I am equally disgusted with the D.A.’s office, and as a die-hard Republican, Steve Colley is not getting my vote this year. Steve Cooley will NEVER do a thing about corruption from any of our council members because Steve Cooley depends on SCV money from us local Republicans. There was a recent fundraiser for Cooley at Larry Rasmussin’s office in Center Point, with Larry’s secretary calling up all the “usual suspects” who support these fundraisers. Cooley has other fundraisers here as well, and he has come to depend on SCV for a considerable amount of money for his campaign chest. Steve also attends many SCV Republican events. OF COURSE Steve Cooley isn’t going to bite the hand that feeds him, and I think this is a situation that certainly needs some attention from media. Maybe one of those news channels that enjoys poking their noses into SCV’s less important issues needs to start sniffing around Cooley’s lack of interest in so many unethical acts from Frank Ferry, and Laurene Weste. Now, even as a die-hard Republican, I will not be voting for Steve Cooley. He has proven he is just another corrupt politician. When laws are enacted to insure political integrity, and those laws are broken, dirty politics is allowed to thrive. When Frank Ferry donated $12,000 to send out campaign mailers for Laurie Ender, that was an illegal campaign donation. Now apparently, thanks to Steve Cooley, we can all make campaign donations exactly like Frank Ferry! Why go to all the trouble of setting up a PAC, or why bother adhering to the set campaign limits, when Frank Ferry can get away with a donation of $12,000. If the law is irrelevant for a city council member, who takes an oath to uphold the law, why should we, the “little people” consider such laws relevant regarding our own campaign expenditures? Lesson learned! As for the disgusting smear campaign Frank Ferry waged against Kevin Korinthal, this just shows all of us what any challenger can expect from our dirty City Council. Not only can challengers be threatened and attacked by Frank Ferry, Frank can also attempt to take your job away from you by launching a smear campaign against you with your employers, ON CITY STATIONARY! And BTW, CLWA board members, it did not escape the notice of many people at the City’s State of the City Luncheon last week that you all were laughing up a storm when Kevin Korinthal got up to speak about the ugly, unethical behavior of Frank Ferry. I had to hand it to Kevin, that was a gutsy move, and I heard a few people commenting after the luncheon that Kevin had earned their respect. AND votes! Because CLWA board members were seen laughing about this disgusting behavior from Frank Ferry, I will no longer be voting for Bill Cooper, (shame on you Bill, I believed you were an honorable person) Jerry Gladbach, Peter Kouvanis, and R.J. Kelly . CLWA board member Ed Colley was also laughing with them about Frank Ferry’s attack on Kevin, but I never voted for Colley in the past because he is nothing more than a Frank Ferry wanna-be. So now we know. Our City Council can be just as dirty and unethical and low-down mean as they want to be, but because of his SCV ties to a sgnificant amount of SCV campaign money, Steve Cooley will just look the other way, EVEN if laws are broken. And that, Frank Ferry, Laurie Ender, Marsha McLean, and Laurene Weste , is your legacy. How sad and absolutely tragic that this does not bother any of you one little bit. Note that Councilman Bob Kellar’s name is not included in this vile list. Obviously, SCV needs two more like Bob Kellar. And Frank, (I know you are here) KNOW that you are reviled by the people of SCV. Even yesterday at a local SCV event, I heard quite a number of people openly discussing their disgust with you. You are a repulsive human being to a great many people, Frank. And that is why, Frank, that you almost lost your seat by just a few votes to a man that only had a few thousand dollars. David Gauny, PLEASE run again. This city proved in the last election that an incumbent as dishonest and dirty as Frank Ferry can only hide such horrible behavior for so long from the mostly uninformed masses. What is really scary, is that Frank Ferry is the principal of a high school! This dishonest, corrupt individual is in a position to influence young, impressionable minds, and that should make all of us very, very sick at heart.

Oh, by the way, I understand there may be a letter sent to Ferry’s school PTA.

The older I get, the more I realize we need more detached, cold blooded economists in politics – but all of those candidates are too smart to get into politics…

This post is inspired by Disgusted in SCV’s candor. I’d like to report the inside nuances of what is going on between Castaic Lake Water Agency’s Manager, Dan Masnada, and Newhall County Water District, because The Signal will never report it. First see the story reported by The Signal: http://www.the-signal.com/section/36/article/35195/ Santa Clarita has 3 water “retailers” who sell water to the public: Newhall County Water District (a public agency with elected Directors); Valencia Water Company (owned by Newhall Land and “barely regulated” by the California Public Utilities Commission); and Santa Clarita Water Division (owned by Castaic Lake Water Agency aka CLWA). Each of those 3 water retailers obtains about 50% of its customers’ drinking water from ground water wells [whose overall production is declining due to contamination from Bermite, allegedly due to increased water usage upstream in Agua Dulce (a disputed fact), and from dry cycles in California's climate]. In Santa Clarita, the flow of underground water generally follows the flow of the Santa Clara River (east to west) and its tributaries: the South Branch of the Santa Clara River (south to north) and San Francisquito Creek (north to south). The more water wells drilled upstream to extract underground water, the less underground water is available for existing and new well user downstream. Theoretically, each of the 3 water retailers can drill new wells to extract more ground water to supply their customers. That’s where the conflict between Newhall County Water District and Valencia Water Company arises. The unbuilt phases of Tesoro de Valle are upstream of unbuilt Newhall Ranch. A bare majority (3/2) of Newhall County Water District’s Directors want to serve Tesoro de Valle’s future homeowners by having that developer finance the digging, construction and operation of ground water wells. The taking of MORE large quantities of ground water upstream from Newhall Ranch would mean that there would be significantly less ground water for Valencia Water Company to extract, by wells, to serve the future residents of Newhall Ranch, owned by VWC’s parent company Newhall Land. The conflict between the interests of those two water retailers is real, because large new housing developments cannot be built without a scientifically prepared “water supply assessment” proving long term availability of drinking water for a project. In the case of Tesoro del Valle, because they are asking Los Angeles County to approve amendments to previously approved project development approvals (e.g. lot or house size), under California law Tesoro del Valle’s developer has to re-prove to the Board of Supervisors that a reliable water supply is available for that project. That proof is made in the projects new Environmental Impact Report, or in a Subsequent EIR or Supplemental EIR. Meanwhile, Newhall Land is seeking further approvals from the Board of Supervisors for its Newhall Ranch project, which is supposed to be served water by Valencia Water Company obtained from ground water wells and recycled water. To the extent that Newhall County Water District reports to the County that it is going to serve well water to the future Tesoro del Valle residents, Valencia Water Company and Newhall Land will lose ground water it had counted on for its project. Castaic Lake Water Agency’s General Manager Dan Masnada used to work for Valencia Water Company. Castaic Lake Water Agency’s Board of Directors has historically been allied with Valencia Water Company’s interests. As a result, Dan Masnada has claimed that Newhall County Water District cannot serve well water to the future residents of Tesoro del Valle without CLWA’s consent, which Mr. Masnada indicates will not be given. The curious legal fact is that under the special law by which the Legislature created Castaic Lake Water Agency, the agency was NOT given the power to allocate the use of ground water under ordinary circumstances. As a result, Tesoro del Valle’s owners, and the 3/2 majority of Newhall County Water District’s Board, take the position that CLWA and Masnada have no legal authority, under the CLWA Act, or under general California water law, to tell them they cannot build new water wells to serve the future residents of Tesoro del Valle. [I will not comment on who is right legally, because my opinion doesn't matter. Only the Court of Appeals' opinion matters as to the scope of CLWA's powers.] As a “first result”, the time and place for Castaic Lake Water Agency to assert its right to decide who may build water wells in the Santa Clarita Valley, or to otherwise argue that there is not enough ground water to accommodate Tesoro del Valle, is in a fight over the water supply assessment in the Environmental Impact Report (or similar) for the amendments to the Tesoro del Valle project. (An old appellate court decision, coincidentally against Newhall County Water District, says that plaintiffs like CLWA or Newhall Land or the Sierra Club cannot attack the “water supply assessment” for NCWD in any other context.) There are two potential results from such an attack at the Board of Supervisors level: The County will decide that there is “not enough ground water” for more development at Tesoro del Valle, disapprove the amendments to the project, and Tesoro’s owners will have to sue the County. Alternatively, the County will decide that “there is enough ground water” for more development at Tesoro del Valle, and if Newhall Land doesn’t like that decision they will have to sue the County and prove their superior right to that ground water. In such a case by Newhall Land against the County, Castaic Lake Water Agency will be free to join in and assert that they get to decide which of the 3 water retailers can drill water wells, where they can be drilled when they can be drilled and how much ground water can be extracted from each new well on an annual basis. Quite obviously, CLWA and Newhall Land are hoping that the County will not put them to the test of proving their rights in court. The bottom line will be that if Newhall Land and CLWA do not challenge Tesoro del Valle’s water assessment, then the water wells at Tesoro can be drilled and Newhall Land will have to “subtract” that ground water used by NCWD/Tesoro from Valencia Water Company’s own future “water supply assessment”, potentially leaving Newhall Land short of drinking water to build out all of Newhall Ranch. Obviously, any other future developers of projects needing a Water Supply Assessment are simply “out of luck” in the review of their Environmental Impact Report hasn’t happened, or if a Subsequent EIR or Supplemental EIR is needed for project changes. However, the complicated situation does not end there. The 3 water retailers obtain the “other” roughly 50% of the water they sell from Castaic Lake Water Agency, which buys it from the “State Water Project”. (The quantity of water available to purchase from the State Water Project is also declining, due to drought in the Western Sierras, and due to Federal court decisions.) State Water Project Water is not supposed to be used for or sold to property owners outside the boundaries of Castaic Lake Water Agency’s service area. Under the Castaic Lake Water Agency Act, those boundaries cannot be changed without the Legislature enacting specific future legislation to change the boundaries. Given that State Water Project Water is in very short supply for current water users inside CLWA’s boundaries, if any of the water retailers start using State Water Project Water to serve customers outside the CLWA boundary, the “aggrieved parties” can bring legal action to stop those sales. Because actually available State Water Project Water has already been fully allocated for use at existing Santa Clarita Valley properties, according to the County’s preliminary land use approvals for Newhall Ranch, Valencia Water Company is not suppose

■Stonefire Grill, a popular SCV “fast-casual diner”- So according to that Cattleman’s website, the tri-tip cut is not very popular in Canada. I assume it will be cheaper for Stonefire to obtain their red meat from there. I am dissappointed and wonder how much more expensive would their tri-tip be if came from sustainable, humane sources instead of the Canadian CAFOs. The Canadian Cattleman’s feedlot guide http://www.canadiancattlemen.ca/feedlotguide/ shows pictures of their feedlots and what I see really makes this neighborhood restaurant untractive to me.

Not only did The Signal refuse to endorse Meg Whitman or Jerry Brown, U.S. Rep. Tom McClintock says he’s voting Libertarian and that “He believes that Republicans could pick up more than 70 seats in the House, but that that the huge Tea Party-driven sea change will end our state’s border — mainly because California Republicans don’t have any real principles.” http://www.calwatchdog.com/2010/10/15/mcclintock-no-whitman-fan/