Politics Report: Water Independence

The truth is Halloween should be on Friday every year but it makes it hard to write the Politics Report. I don’t have much.

Here are two observations:

Madaffer clap back: Former San Diego City Councilmember Jim Madaffer, who represents the city on the Water Authority sent in another op-ed, this time a response to environmental lawyer Marco Gonzalez who blasted him for hurting the city he represents.

Madaffer’s message is crystallizing: “Let’s be clear: Water independence is desirable — but not at any price.”

He is making the case the city should pull back on Phase 2 of the Pure Water recycling plan. Phase 2 is more ambitious than Phase 1, which is under construction now.

He cited the Council’s resistance to raising rates for four years and only doing the next two years. “Now that the City Council has limited the rate plan to two years, it should insist that staff provide honest, verifiable data — not blame — before committing billions more to Phase 2,” he wrote.

(MacKenzie Elmer did a good round up of this fight Monday.)

Why this is amusing: “Water independence is desirable but not at any price,” is a strong message but Madaffer may not be the best messenger. Just a few years ago, he pushed for what would have been the most expensive public works project ever constructed in the San Diego region: our own tunnel connecting San Diego to the Colorado River.

That would have not added any water to our portfolio. It just would have made us less reliant on the Metropolitan Water District.

Nick Serrano erasure: At the hearing Tuesday where the City Council barely approved the two-year water rate increases, Councilmember Marni von Wilpert had the strongest criticisms of the County Water Authority.

“The reason I am very concerned about the County Water Authority not being here today is because we are being asked to approve primarily their increases. And I continue to sit here asking if the biggest cost driver to our residents is going to be the County Water Authority’s rates, then where the heck are they?”

A fair point except that Nick Serrano, the chair of the Water Authority, was there. She even asked him a question. He is also the deputy chief of staff to Mayor Todd Gloria so maybe she doesn’t think of him as anything else. But that was pretty funny.

More Links

Treasurer-Tax Collector: I can’t bring myself to spend time on treasurer tax collector selection intrigue. Thank you to the Union-Tribune for doing some work on the applications.

This is interesting: “Over the last month, councilmembers have demanded answers from city staff after an audit found that a contract with Herc Rentals increased by more than $6 million without approval from the City Council,” reports Mariana Martinez Barba.

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