On August 27, 2010, Judge Thomas W. Wills ruled in favor of the City of Pacific Grove’s position relating to its ability to bring a civil action against Episcopal Senior Communities, Inc. (“ESC”) for zoning violations.

ESC holds a use permit to operate its retirement facility, Canterbury Woods, in Pacific Grove.  In 2009, the City initiated an administrative enforcement process against ESC, contending ESC expanded its commercial use into adjacent residential zones.  A neutral hearing officer found in favor of the City.

ESC filed a petition for review of the hearing officer’s decision, as well as a Complaint asserting several causes of action against the City.  The City filed a Cross-Complaint, which was challenged by ESC.  ESC is represented by John Sanger of Sanger and Olsen, a San Francisco-based law firm.

City Attorney David C. Laredo, of De Lay & Laredo stated, “This ruling affirms the City’s multiple remedies to enforce its Municipal Code.  I am pleased the court validated the City’s position.”

Miller did not list a vocation on his application. He is 54 and a native of Pacific Grove. Among the issues he wishes to see the Council address during his tenure — five months — he listed completion of the Bath House, restoration of the lighthouse,  funding of the library,  stabilization of the city’s finances, paying down unfunded liabilities, and a “fair” tree ordinance.

Miller will serve until the general election in November, when six of the seven seats are up for election. The only councilmember not facing election will be Bill Kampe, whose term expires in 2012.

The Monterey City Council decided Wednesday to seek a Joint Powers Agreement for a Peninsula-wide fire department, following the lead of Pacific Grove which voted unanimously to approve the concept on May 12, 2010.

The cities of Monterey, Pacific Grove, Carmel and Seaside are exploring the JPA for fire services, which proponents say will save each city money as well as provide better services. Pacific Grove and Monterey have had a joint service agreement for many months.

Pacific Grove anticipates, for example, being able to hire out to other JPA members the services of staff mechanics who are experts in their field, while smaller jobs such as oil changes can be relegated to less skilled, and thus less expensive, people.

The cost of training new recruits can also be shared by all the departments.

Both Pacific Grove and Monterey’s city councils directed their respective staffs to work on the agreement and bring a final draft back for approval soon.

Matter of Trust currently organizes shipping, storage and distribution of boom-making materials to regions affected by the Gulf oil spill. Other activities include media presentations on the current spill program, ongoing environmental education and continued partnership with Phil McCrory to produce the Otti Mat, a key component in the Hair Mat Oil Spill Program. Since 2000, Matter of Trust has helped thousands of salons recycle hair and create more green jobs.

Matter of Trust sparks community action on issues such as water decontamination of spills and soil erosion. The organization offers many grassroots ways to get involved in environmental cleanup, from direct donation of supplies -hair and nylons - to cash donations to help pay for netting and hair boom stuffing parties. Currently, thousands of salons and groomers across the country support boom stuffing and hair mat manufacturing efforts by sending hair trimmings and recycled nylons.

Hair stylists and pet groomers can help by contacting the website www.MatterOfTrust.org or by calling 415-242-6041. All of us can help by getting our hair cut and donating nylons to local participating salons. For information on the mats: www.ottimat.com

The April 20 explosion on the Deepwater Horizon oilrig, and the rig’s subsequent sinking two days later, created an undersea oil gusher that some are calling the worst environmental disaster of our time. Viewing aerial photos of the spreading oil plume can impart a feeling of helplessness, but not for the people at an organization called Matter of Trust. And not for a growing group of Pacific Grove businesses.

Many of our local haircutters and some pet groomers are finding a way to help with the Gulf oil spill. Under the guidance of distribution facilitator Matter of Trust, an ecological charity, these local businesses are helping other communities by sending hair clippings to warehouses along the Gulf Coast to be made into oil capturing “hair booms.” Vigorous response from salon owners shows a very caring attitude and willingness to make an active contribution towards stewarding the environment.

Oil booms are commonly used to contain offshore oil spills. Hair booms work much the same way, except they are stuffed with hair and made of recycled/reclaimed materials instead of 100% petroleum-based plastics. Hair booms are basically a nylon stocking stuffed with hair and encased in nylon netting. The donated hosiery provides a container and structure for the hair, while outer netting prevents tearing.

Donated warehouse space receives hair and hosiery shipments in areas potentially most affected by the spill. Volunteers in Gulf communities use these supplies to construct hair booms. Stocking-stuffing parties called “Boom-B-Q’s” are producing mountains of stuffed nylons. Matter of Trust supplies the outer netting and does the final assembly of booms to be deployed at the spill site.

Make no mistake; the method is effective. And the principles are simple. Hair draws oil to itself without the use of chemicals. Hair also sheds water naturally, leaving the water behind while the oil clings to it. During the San Francisco Bay tanker spill of 2007, hazard mats made of hair cleaned up beaches and were then composted. The oil-soaked hazard mats were completely broken down to non-toxic compost with the addition of green waste and mycelium mushroom components. Videos of this process and the hair boom in action can be seen on the Matter of Trust’s website (see sidebar).

Several PG stylists said they had wondered about uses for hair clippings. Larry Wagner described working at a New York salon many years ago that stockpiled hair in a warehouse stacked to the ceiling, hoping for the day it would be used. Coincidently, the original Hair Mat inventor, hair stylist Phil McCrory, got the idea in 1989 while watching the Exxon Valdez oil spill on television. McCrory watched scenes of oil-soaked otter fur and the idea of making an oil-soaking hair mat hit him. This vision eventually became the Otti Mat.

Today, salons in Pacific Grove and throughout the United States and Canada are keeping that vision alive by recycling hair and graciously taking the initiative to ship it to where it can do the most good, namely our exposed coastline and fragile marshlands. According to the Matter of Trust website, all salons, groomers, wool and alpaca fleece farmers and individuals can sign up to donate hair, fur, waste wool, clippings, nylons and funding. The signup link is right there on the MOT home page. This nationwide grass roots effort connects thousands of businesses to immediate environmental benefit.

Participating local businesses include Danielle’s Hair Design; Capelli Salon; Boomerang Hair Studio; Ivy’s Beauty Salon; The Hair Specialist; Adara Salon; Hair Affair; Setsuko’s Beauty Salon; Wave Lengths; Jae’s Molibang; Wildflowers Hair Salon; Royal Paws Pet Grooming; and “new kid on the block,” Lonny McDaniel at Just 4 U Hair Salon.

By Marge Ann Jameson

Pacific Grove has become the first city to sign onto a Joint Powers Authority (JPA) for fire services on the Monterey Peninsula.

In a special city council meeting on May 12, the council chambers filled with dignitaries from nearby cities as well as the upper echelons of most local fire departments – Chiefs Rawson of Carmel, Hutchison of CalFire and Wombacher of Seaside joined our own Chiefs Mazza of Monterey and Andrew Miller.

Mayors Chuck Della Sala of Monterey, Ralph Rubio of Seaside and Bruce Delgado of Marina were in attendance, as well as the city managers of Monterey, Fred Meurer, and of Seaside, Ray Corpuz. Jason Burnett, newly elected to the Carmel city council was also on hand.

It was a unanimous vote.

“The reality is that we can’t go back to the way it was,” said Mayor Carmelita Garcia. “I ask myself, ‘What can I do to ensure that our services remain the same if not improved?’ We’re going outside the box. It’s the thing to do.”

The JPA continues the process begun when Pacific Grove made an agreement with the City of Monterey to provide fire services some 18 months ago. The aim of consolidation is to provide the best fire protection available at the least cost for the cities that sign on.

Since combining forces with Monterey, the result for Pacific Grove has been just that: lower cost, a reduction in workers compensation premiums and claims, according to city manager Tom Frutchey. Those reductions in cost, said Frutchey, are directly attributable to better training and larger administrative staff which Pacific Grove could not afford as a stand-alone fire department.

Mayor Ralph Rubio of Seaside was pleased with the prospect of saving money by reducing duplication of training costs. He also pointed to the possibilities of pooled equipment purchases. Rubio said that with the recent establishment of the Special Response Unit for the police agencies on the Peninsula and now the fire service JPA, the next steps could be consolidated police and public works.

Fred Meurer said that building officials and vehicles services were also shared, but that the cities involved would probably not combine planning departments. “It’s what makes each of us unique,” he said.

There will a single fire chief under the JPA, and for now it’s Sam Mazza. Each jurisdiction will still own its own firehouse. Under the cost allocation model, each city will pay based on its own population and the number of calls.

Most calls are medical response.

Mayor Chuck Della Sala of Monterey pointed out that LAFCo had encouraged a JPA as long ago as 1981. “This could mark history,” he said. “Electeds can begin to work together to deliver services at the best level of service and the last cost possible.” He celebrated new ways to deliver services while “maintaining the identities” of the individual communities which will likely join the JPA.

It was this issue of individual identity that was on the mind of some at the meeting. Pacific Grove City Manager Frutchey assures that, while firefighting personnel will wear an insignia of the JPA, their sleeve badges and hats will mark the name of their individual communities as will the fire engines and trucks. He also pointed out at in the bidding process among firefighters in Monterey, a increasing number have bid for the Pacific Grove station.

Pacific Grove had disbanded its volunteer fire department, but reinstated the volunteer fire association recently. Under the JPA, each jurisdiction will have the option to maintain volunteer and/or reserve departments at their own expense.

“We’re already working on bringing back pay-per-call volunteers to go with the volunteer association,” said Frutchey.

A two-tier system for retirement benefits will likely be enacted, reducing fears of budget crises around CalPERS failures. “We shouldn’t demonize police and fire for having a good labor contract,” said councilmember Ken Cuneo.

CalFire had also presented a proposal to provide fire service, but fears of the State’s budget deficits and unfunded liabilities were the greatest factor in Pacific Grove’s choice to go with the JPA model instead.

The JPA will take effect July 1 and should be fully implemented within a year. Other cities are expected to vote on the consolidation soon.

Mr. Holly represented in his voters’ pamphlet statement that he is a lawyer. Most potential voters would likely assume that he had obtained a degree in law and had passed the California State Bar Exam. When questioned on his credentials at a recent forum, he admitted that he had not, in fact, passed the bar exam but that it was not a prerequisite for the job of Treasurer for which he is running in the upcoming election.

And yet he represented to voters that being a lawyer was material to that position and made him the best-qualified candidate.

This is a man who states that he worked as a compliance examiner for the Oklahoma Department of Securities and for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as the Senior Compliance Specialist: Should he not be examining himself?

He told a reporter from the Salinas Californian that he made the misstatements in the rush to get his papers filed in time. Then he compounds the problem by saying that, when he worked for the Securities and Exchange Commission in the 1980s, one did not have to have passed the bar exam in order to work as a lawyer. We will have to look into that one: To my knowledge, the bar exam is the one prerequisite to practicing law that can’t be circumvented. One could pass the bar exam without having a degree in law, but one could not practice law even with a degree if one had not passed the bar. This bears further examination.

I also want to know whether Mr. Holly represented himself as a lawyer in order to obtain his current employment as Chief Deputy Auditor-Controller/Debt Manager.

He also told the same reporter that his law degree came from a correspondence course offered by a company that “defrauded a few people” and “went out of business in 1987.” No wonder he didn’t take the bar exam. But do we want a man who was “taken in” by a fly-by-night correspondence school to be handling our hard-earned tax money and investing it for us?

Tomorrow I will check with the Monterey County Elections office to learn whether they will be pursuing the matter. Mr. Holly himself has stated that he will advise before the weekend whether he will remain in the race for Treasurer of Monterey County.

While I’ve seen the bulk of the presentation before, there is always something new to glean in reviewing a subject. And what I gleaned from this presentation came as a bit of a shock.

This is a replacement water project. It does not increase the supply to Pacific Grove nor provide any additional water for new projects so dearly loved by the Chamber of Commerce. No new water credits for restaurants in vacant retail spaces downtown. No water for increased numbers of hotel rooms in spite of the city council looking at Measure C again.

Nor will there be new water for second bathrooms in outdated homes to increase real estate values, sales and taxes.

No increased population density to make better use of the limited space available to us here in Pacific Grove – Grandma can’t move in when she can’t live alone. Odds of walking to work in PG just went down. Forget hopes of roses in the garden, concentrate on xeriscape landscaping instead.

California-American Water will ask for a moratorium on all new water very shortly.

I fully support the project, don’t get me wrong. I’m not happy about the price tag, but I understand better now why Marina will pay so much less than Pacific Grove for their water: Pure and simple, they won’t have to pipe it as far.

I believe Craig Anthony when he says the average water bill on the Peninsula will increase from the present $40 to $80 or so. They’re already paying $63 in Alisal, and around $150 in San Diego. I’m waiting for the other shoe to fall as Ratepayers justifies the figures they used to project an exorbitant bill, and that may come next week in discussions before the PUC, or it may come later in June after hearings.

But compared to some other communities, we’ll be getting off pretty cheaply. And there’s not a lot we can do. Conservation remains top of the list.

Like it or not, the state-of-the-art desalination plant is coming and it’s the quickest, most effective, ecologically-sound and cheapest solution that we have. Compared to the two other projects which were examined, this is the one. As a city, we’ve supported the project since former Mayor Cort first got involved in the discussions, in meetings facilitated by Supervisor Lou Calcagno.

But no new water? Everything status quo but the water bill?

How do we get more water to do the things we want, as a community, to do? There’s a finite amount on earth, you know. We need to look at every single drop we use. And at some point the cost is moot. There may come a point where, as a population, we’d pay anything for more water.

Conservation is one answer, of course. It gets tiresome to hear about, but that’s one of the first steps and the one that will endure. Eventually, it becomes a way of life. It’s also the cheapest. And we’ve done an absolutely stellar job of conserving water, especially compared to some other communities.

In our individual homes, we need to look at fog catchers, rainwater cachement and cisterns. The less we take from the municipal system, the more will be available for other uses.

But as long as we continue to water our lawns, the cemetery, the golf course, our parks, ballfields and schools with potable water no amount of turning the water off while we brush our teeth or sharing our flushes is going to make an appreciable difference.

One city council member even suggested we use artificial turf in the El Carmelo Cemetery. Be careful, Pacific Grove, or you may find plastic growing on the golf course as well!

Underneath Pacific Grove is a granite slab. And running along the top of that slab is a freshwater river. It goes out to the ocean and we never see it. We need to capture that water with spring boxes, use it and send it on its way. We have plenty of rainfall in the winter, but in the dry months we depend on water from other sources. We need to store that rainfall and make it available in June.

We need to look at the David Avenue Reservoir again. We’ve spent $90,000 as a city, in grant money and matching funds, to prove that it’s viable, and where did did the project go? Dan Cort left office and the ball was tossed to the ad hoc water committee. Now council member Deborah Lindsay is moving to Santa Cruz and Lisa Bennett says she will not run for office again in November, so who’s going to carry the ball?

Just because we’re surrounded by water doesn’t mean we can ignore it. Water is more important than CalPERS, Measure C or traffic bulb-outs. Without it, those things don’t matter. So who will pick up the fumble?

By Marge Ann Jameson

Despite testimony from former Mayor Dan Cort and Marina Mayor Bruce Delgado – who is on the board of Farmer’s Market operator Everyone’s Harvest – plus two former councilmembers (Scott Miller and Ron Shenk) the Pacific Grove City Council could not find a majority to approve support of a change of location for the market.

Instead, they will continue deliberating at the May 19, 2010 meeting.

Many members of the public also spoke, the majority of whom urged the Council to put the matter to rest no matter which location they chose. Speakers agreed that the matter has gone on long enough.

The agenda item called for the council to direct the Planning Commission, next to receive the hot potato, to hold public hearings at the time Everyone’s Harvest applies for an amendment to its use permit to allow it to move to a location on Central Avenue at Grand, in the area of Jewell Park and the Museum.

It should have been simple, as the Planning Commission technically has the first role as regulator while the City, as landowner, is in second position.

The discussion bogged down around questions of public input from the surrounding neighbors on the location choice, and on the question of whether the Market should be allowed to open its doors to vendors outside of Pacific Grove. The council also requested clarification on requests by Everyone’s Harvest to respond to certain other needs they have before they actually apply for the amended Use Permit.

City Attorney Dave Laredo pointed out to the Council that it is not within their purview to conduct the public hearings, that it is the function of the Planning Commission. Everyone’s Harvest had requested that the city council hold the hearings to provide public input.

Community Development Department has the function of arranging for input from Public Works, Police and Fire regarding questions fire and safety clearance requirements, Laredo said. Preliminary individual input from each of those departments has been gathered and mitigating measures which prevented the Market from using that Central Avenue location in the first place can be put into effect, making the Central and Grand location viable in the future.

Everyone’s Harvest has also requested signage, which, according to City Manager Tom Frutchey, was approved two years ago and never put in place.

A two-week delay will allow time for public input from neighbors living within the prescribed distance from the Market. One neighbor, the Museum, has already weighed in and is enthusiastic about the move. Museum Director Lori Mannel, according to testimony, will ask her board to consider opening the Museum on Mondays when – and if – the Farmers Market moves in.

The council lined up with Deborah Lindsay, Lisa Bennett and Bill Kampe voting no, and Ken Cuneo, Alan Cohen and Mayor Carmelita Garcia voting for the agenda item. Councilmember Robert Huitt was on an excused absence from the meeting.

“If the city really does want to make this work it still needs the requirement that the Farmer’s Market has to initiate the amendment and we have not made it attractive for them to do so. I think we need to do that first,” said Bill Kampe.