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Letters regarding San Miguel CSD election 

To the editor, 

San Miguel CSD Director candidates Hernandez and Palafox are blind to facts

Contrary to what Cesar Hernandez would like you to believe, I am very in touch with reality and facts. Something Mr. Hernandez is in short supply of.

Mr. Hernandez has stated that I have released personal information without his permission. This is summarily untrue. The statement in question is in regards to the fact that neither he, nor Hector Palafox submitted protest letters to oppose the water and wastewater rate increases. This is public information that is already running the rounds of social media. Several residents had submitted public records requests to the San Miguel Community Services District. General Council for San Miguel CSD approved the requests and the information was given to these residents. The public records requests demonstrated that Mr. Hernandez nor Mr. Palafox, nor any residents with the same surname or address submitted letters of protest to oppose the water and wastewater rate increases. This is fact.

Another subject that both candidates continue to attribute to me directly is the water and wastewater rate increase that was voted into effect at the June 28, 2018 meeting. The fact here, is that the water rate increase was considered by the entire board and the vote was (3) in favor and (2) opposed. This was not a decision made by me individually. Over the course of several months and seven meetings, the Board of Directors had arrived at a crossroads where a very tough decision had to be made. With courage and leadership from a majority of Board Members, the Board of Directors voted to increase the water/wastewater rates ensuring these services would no longer run in deficit. Moving forward, the best course for the community is not to lower the water and wastewater service rates to their previous level as Mr. Palafox and Mr. Hernandez state as their intentions. This will put the community back to providing services at a deficit and ultimately insolvency. Proof of this is openly available in the 2016-17 audit. This shows clearly that $957,281.00 dollars were expended in operations for water and only $361,281.00 was collected for water service. For wastewater, $612,976 was spent on operations and $377,942.00 was paid for services. How do Mr. Palafox and Mr. Hernandez suggest we make up the $831,034.00 shortfall when the budget for FY 18/19 has been trimmed and balanced? Without implementing a rate increase, San Miguel would not be able to secure grant funding or loans for future infrastructure expansion or improvements. There would be no capital resources to repair and upgrade the existing infrastructure and once the reserves are depleted, the likely result would be dissolving of the CSD and takeover by San Luis Obispo County translating to significantly higher rates for both water and wastewater services. This decision weighed heavily on me and the other Board Directors, but was ultimately the most responsible and best decision for the community. These are facts.

Like my opponents, I too share the concern for those community members living at or below the poverty line and will be working towards finding ways for those residents to afford water and wastewater services under the new rate structure. The simple fact is that the previous Board of Directors for ten years, neglected to raise water and wastewater rates incrementally which put the current Board of Directors in the unenviable position of having no viable solutions to keep the San Miguel CSD solvent other than a substantial rate increase for water and wastewater services. My idea to reduce this issue for disadvantaged community members is to enlist all members Community Services District Board of Directors and well as current staff to create assistance programs and/or take advantage of existing assistance programs for these residents that will enable them to afford their basic needs. I have previously and will continue to engage in dialogue with the other Directors and staff until solutions are in place.

I didn’t want to dignify Mr. Hernandez accusation that I don’t know that I’m serving on a Community Services District Board of Directors rather than a City Council, but felt it should be pointed out that the title which included the reference to ‘City Council’ had been included through editing by Paso Robles Daily News. I have asked for a correction to the heading.

My last point to counter Mr. Hernandez’s accusations and provide facts, revolves around public comment at a Board of Directors meeting. As Mr. Hernandez has pointed out of his own volition, he has only attended one San Miguel Community Services District Board meeting. Given this fact, he would have no personal account of how public comment was handled during the meeting in question. The water and wastewater rate increase was subject to governance under Proposition 218. This required a very specific process to ensure all procedures were compliant under the 218 process. Using the Prop 218 guidelines, there was a very long public comment period open for several months, which had closed the meeting prior to that in which the vote took place, as there was no further public comment offered. Public comment was once again opened on the subject of the water and wastewater rate issue as an Agenda item for the current meeting after clarification from General Counsel. Public Comments were then offered to the board. At no time did I, or the Board of Directors disallow public comment at any appropriate times. I encourage all interested parties to read the minutes from the June 28, 2018 to fully understand what took place. There was no shut down of public comment by me, nor the Board of Directors. This is fact.

When considering the candidates who are all running to represent the community of San Miguel, facts need to be considered rather than baseless or untrue statements, accusations and emotional arguments. I take pride in being fair, reasonable, truthful, and dedicated to the community of San Miguel. I along with Mr. Palafox and Mr. Hernandez were invited to the San Miguel Advisory Council meeting and were given three minutes each to address the community, introduce ourselves to the board, and talk about any important issues facing our community. I was the only candidate that showed up. The following night was the last Community Services District meeting before the election where once again, both candidates could have had an opportunity to address the community and the Board of Directors they could potentially be serving on. Again, neither showed up. Do you want Board members representing the community of San Miguel that refuse to engage the public in any way? I have been, and will continue to be engaged with the entire community, my fellow Board Directors, staff and other groups that are in place for the benefit of our community
Once again, I can’t state enough how much I sincerely appreciate the opportunity to be a part of making our community a better place and moving San Miguel forward responsibly and again, I humbly and respectfully ask for your Vote Nov. 6, 2018.

Ashley Sangster
Current San Miguel CSD Board Director and Candidate

 

The future of San Miguel

To the editor,

My name is Anthony Kalvans. I am a director for the San Miguel Community Services District. I was elected in 2012, at the age of 19. I was born and raised here. I also served on the San Miguel Advisory Council for several years and belong to the San Miguel Lions Club and Native Sons. I developed a reputation for being the cranky one always fighting with county staffers on the Advisory Council. I am writing this letter urging the voters of our community to go out and vote in the November election, and to ensure that whoever is elected be held to their campaign pledges and I also sincerely implore the community to work on healing the divisions that have left us divided. In my honest opinion, our community cannot continue on the path that it is going on. The status quo will only serve to hurt the community even further.

It is my opinion, which I have voiced repeatedly and publicly, that the community must become more independent and that the county hasn’t done us many favors. Legally, the only way for our community to accomplish that is through our CSD. Our CSD currently manages the communities: Water, Sewer, Streetlights, Fire, and Garbage Services. These are found under government code 61100 subsections: a, b, c, d, g, and t. However, also under government code 61100 our same CSD is authorized to provide additional services to our community including several other things including:
• The operations of community recreation (article e and f)
• Maintain landscaping in the right-of-way (also under article g but not being done)
• Provide either policing services (article I) or security services (article j)
• Provide library services (article k)
• Maintain streets and sidewalks (article l)
• Provide transportation services (article p)
• Abate or remove graffiti (article q)
• Community Facilities (article s)
• Animal Control Services (article x)
• Operate a postal system (article z and aa)
• Operate and maintain a cemetery (article ab)
• And several other items including: snow removal, operating a dam, and controlling mosquitos.

On top of that, the CSD is also authorized to operate a community revitalization authority (government code 62000), which would allow us to do revitalization projects in our community without raising taxes.

I mention these things because there is often a debate on whether or not our CSD has too much on its plate, or if we should leave things to the county. Unfortunately from my time on the San Miguel Advisory Council, whose job is to advise the county, I can assure you that leaving things to the county has not always been to the benefit of San Miguel, and that the county over the years has had policies that were detrimental to the growth of San Miguel. Some of these things include:

• Only recognizing one park in San Miguel, which has allowed the county to collect more in builders fees and claim that there is a critical shortage of parkland in San Miguel under their resource management survey. The two neighborhood parks, (Jazzytown and Mission Meadows) are zoned for housing, and Father Reginald Park by the mission is in a county created purgatory.

• Spending over a million dollars on a park project, that was opposed by several groups, including several elected officials in our community, and having county staff at the meeting saying “This is only a handful of people opposing it.” While simultaneously rejecting a proposal to open the school fields to youth sports. And leaving a condemned building next to the playground.

• Designating the giant hardpacked dirt area downtown along Mission Street as critically important habitat for the endangered Kit Fox. Along with the disused airport site, that features a hardpacked runway. Any builder in those areas are required to pay the highest offset fees the county has set. These areas also happen to be the areas of our community designed for commercial development. Making nearly all new commercial development prohibitively expensive.

• A community-wide road paving project, which paved over several sewer manholes and left residents on the hook for paying to raise them.

• Building amazing gateway signs for our community, but then not having any program in place to maintain them.

• During the community design plan of 2016, county staff originally proposed making 10th street a major bike lane, despite it having one of the steepest inclines in our community.

• Replacing the River Road bridge in the mid-2000s, but not making it bike or pedestrian accessible.

• Zoning several areas of the river for housing.

• My personal favorite: denying that a couple hundred acres of land were designated in the 1920s for residential and commercial development, and telling the board of supervisors in 2009 that the land was always intended for agriculture use during a pending large residential subdivision project. Tragically, one of the staff members charged with writing the report for the proposed development, also was the same exact person who signed off on a document from the 1980s removing the land from the community of San Miguel despite community outcry. These actions gave the proposed development at the time, a virtually failing grade for its Environmental Impact Report, and denied the town of San Miguel several millions of dollars in community money that would have actually went to repairing our infrastructure that we are currently going to have to pay for. What’s more, If the project would have been built, San Miguel would have also economically qualified for a full service grocery store, and many other services residents of San Miguel currently travel to Paso Robles for.

All that in mind, I applaud Supervisor Peschong for his hard work in supporting our community, my issue lies with the staffers. Some of those same people, whose decisions I question, continue to influence our community today. Sadly, I’ve been told that these people are some of the best, and most qualified people for their roles. If our community is to be strong, then we need challenge the status quo and become more independent.

I personally support any candidate and any elected official on any of the boards in San Miguel who share my belief that the community of San Miguel should stand on its own two feet and review the additional authorities the community services district has available. If they don’t, then I personally would not support them, because the status quo will only serve to continue to waste taxpayer money, and harm economic opportunities to our community. I would also encourage any voter in our community to do the same, and I am urging the community to heal the divisions that have left us divided. Our community cannot be strong if we are divided.

Sincerely,

Anthony R. Kalvans
Director San Miguel CSD

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