Badlands Journal

Supervisor John Pedrozo disagrees. The county took action by prohibiting more work without filing the proper paperwork, he said. "If someone wants someone to file a grand jury investigation, more power to them" Pedrozo said. "The county has done everything we've been asked to do." Merced Sun-Star, Dec. 1, 2006
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12-1-06
Merced Sun-Star
Grand jury looking into Livingston pipe...Scott Jason
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/local/story/13069658p-13722975c.html
A sewer line installed by Ranchwood Homes earlier this year and challenged by environmental advocates could be the focus of a civil grand jury investigation, the foreman said. Adrian Vanderzyde, who heads the Merced County civil grand jury, said the charges are directed at the city and county. "There are a lot of issues (in the complaint)," Vanderzyde said, "but primarily it's an issue between development and ag land." The 16 jurors will decide Thursday if they'll investigate the complaint, which is the only new one submitted at the moment, he said. The identity of the person who filed the Nov. 16 complaint is being kept confidential. The potential for an investigation was lauded by one environmentalist who fought the sewer line, while city and county officials first learned of the complaint Thursday. In February, three environmental groups tried to halt the installation of a mile-long, 42-inch sewer line because they said the necessary reviews and paperwork had not been filed...pipe will be used for a possible subdivision by Ranchwood Homes on 420 acres...attention prompted the county to stop work on the project in February until state-mandated environmental reviews are completed...nothing else has happened with the project. The three groups -- the San Joaquin Raptor Wildlife Rescue Center, Protect Our Water and Planada Community Development Corp. -- said the city was wrong to allow the trenching because there was no environmental review and the land was out of their control... "We did not go beyond our boundary, and it was always in our legal right to do what we did," Assistant City Manager Vickie Lewis said. The project was a mile outside the city limit and fell within Livingston's influence... Bryant Owens, of the Planada Community Development Corp., said he was pleased to learn the grand jury may investigate and said the developer should be sanctioned for not doing any environmental reviews. "It seems to me that (owner Greg) Hostetler did everything to get it in the ground before it could be stopped,"... Supervisor John Pedrozo disagrees. The county took action by prohibiting more work without filing the proper paperwork, he said. "If someone wants someone to file a grand jury investigation, more power to them" Pedrozo said. "The county has done everything we've been asked to do."
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Supervisor Pedrozo's district has a skinny neck in one end of it. That pipeline runs right out of the Livingston sewer plant down that neck. Pedrozo held a dog-and-pony show with county and Livingston city staff and elected officials about the pipeline of Feb. 16, 2006. Prominent farmers not in on the deal, whose land lay in the path of the pipeline, were complaining. But Pedrozo shouted down people who told him that the pipeline was laid on county land and was county responsibility. The county issued a stop order on the project about the time of its completion. Big deal. County Counsel Ruben Castillo had somebody write a letter to Livingston outlining all the laws Livingston broke in "approving" the pipeline. Beyond issuing a stop order on the project around the day it was completed, the public is unaware of any other county "police action" taken to defend its land-use authority. It leads reasonable people to suppose a large bribe is being negotiated for the benefit of very few people.

Who is Robert Lewis, anyway, this gentleman from Las Vegas currently masquerading as a county planning director in Merced? Is he a competent California public servant, knowledgeable in state environmental law and regulation pertaining to development? Or is he the doorman for The Vegas-Merced Developer Casino? Whoever he is, he’s CEO Dee Tatum’s boy in planning.

These are the same guys about to bring you Riverside Motorsports Park, without the semblance of a credible traffic plan and without any public information about who the investors in the project are.

They have brought this county into a state of ill-repute. Government here has boiled down to a simple formula: who has what on whom? Sitting on top of this house of ill-repute is Rep. Dennis Cardoza, Himself-Merced. But, Cardoza won't dirty his hands with "local affairs," except maybe to bring back $25-$30 million a year in pork from the next Farm Bill to his district.

We challenge the Grand Jury to have the guts and sense of civic responsibility to investigate the corruption behind this sewer line, which passes through a large acreage owned by Michael Gallo. He is developing a subdivision, Yosemite Lakes Estates, close to the UC Merced campus. A large contributor to Cardoza, Gallo is also planning larger subdivisions in Stevinson, toward which Hostetler's pipeline points but does not yet reach. If the authorities don't make Hostetler dig up the pipeline, it will be ready to serve and extend to Stevinson in the next growth boom.

The Grand Jury was so scared of CEO Tatum, they whitewashed a Planada land-deal bribery charge against him without a semblance of coherent explanation. Faced with Hostetler and Gallo in full cry, reasonable people could anticipate that the Grand Jury would be reduced to jibbering idiocy -- if they even muster the spirit to take the case. We challenge it to do better this time.

Government in this county has lost its sense of civic self-respect. Since UC Merced arrived, this county has been nothing but a developer-owned house of graft, good laws broken, and scandals concealed. But, the housing boom has busted for awhile. Maybe some truth will out.

Bill Hatch
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Badlandsjournal.com, Feb. 7, 2006

Mysterious sewer line leaps out of Livingston

From:

Lydia Miller, President
San Joaquin Raptor/Wildlife Rescue Center
P.O. Box 778
Merced, CA 95341
(209) 723-9283, ph. & fax

Steve Burke
Protect Our Water (POW)
3105 Yorkshire Lane
Modesto, CA 95350
(209) 523-1391, ph. & fax

Bryant Owens
Planada Association and Planada Community Development Corporation
2683 South Plainsburg Road
Merced CA 95340-9550
(209) 769-0832

To:

Robert Lewis
Director of Planning and Economic Development
Merced County
2222 M Street
Merced CA 95340

Jon LeVan
Local Agency Formation Commission
Merced County
2222 M Street 2nd Floor
Merced CA 95340

Board of Supervisors
Merced County
2222 M Street 3rd Floor
Merced CA 95340

Brandon Friesen
Mayor
1416 C St.
Livingston, CA 95334

Monday, February 06, 2006

Ladies and Gentlemen:

It has come to our attention that the City of Livingston has authorized a private developer to install a 42 -inch sewer main connecting a 300 acre parcel along Magnolia Avenue near Westside Blvd, in a portion of unincorporated Merced County adjacent to but outside the SUDP of the City of Livingston.

This is clearly a ‘project’ under CEQA, and must be halted immediately and the City of Livingston must be enjoined and required to follow all the appropriate protocols for environmental review of a project of this nature. In addition we request and require the County of Merced Planning and Economic Development Department to assert its land use jurisdiction in this matter.

It is our understanding that the installation of these municipal services is a prelude to annexation of this 300-acre parcel into the City of Livingston. As such the entire project is premature and represents a clear violation of LAFCo of Merced County’s jurisdiction and statutory authority with regard to out of boundary service extensions in Merced County.

The City of Livingston’s mistaken authorization of this project has allowed grading and deep ripping on agricultural land in violation of the County of Merced’s Williamson Act Zoning.

The particular parcel must be removed from the Agricultural Preserve according to a prescribed process adopted by the County Board of Supervisors in 2000. This has not been done.

The City of Livingston has acted irresponsibly and precipitously in authorizing non agricultural land uses on land not properly under its legal jurisdiction: Livingston may not act as lead agency with regard to any aspect of this ‘project’ without providing the appropriate Notice of Exemption to the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research, The EPA at the federal level, the County and the Local Agency Formation Commission. No evidence exists that any such notice of exemption has been filed with any of the aforementioned agencies. If such notice has been approved at any level of the City of Livingston City Council level, these commentators challenge the validity of such notice and ask that it be invalidated.

Proceeding in the aforementioned manner places the City Council of Livingston in violation of California Government Code 65402 requiring mandatory referral of such a proposal to the county LAFCo, and the county Department of Planning and Economic Development. This has not been done. If this project is to proceed correctly, given the total acreage involved, such project would definitely qualify as a ‘major expansion’ of an SUDP. Such a designation automatically triggers the need for CEQA review and an EIR is mandatory. The City of Livingston has previously attempted to annex agricultural land by designating it as blighted. This tactic was rebuked by the County of Merced and eventually rescinded by the City of Livingston.

There is no evidence of any negotiations between the County of Merced and the City of Livingston regarding tax and revenue sharing agreement, and consequently there have been no noticed public meetings to discuss those agreements, in violation of state law, local ordinance, and Merced county’s current General Plan. The county of Merced is currently in the preliminary stages of updating its General Plan. The City of Livingston has not yet filed even a notice of preparation for expanding its SUDP. The proposed project is therefore premature in that the context for approving such a major expansion does not yet exist for either jurisdiction. There is no notice of preparation on file with the county or the state reflecting any such intention on the part of the City of Livingston. We therefore request that this project be stopped until such time as the appropriate land use authority can be determined and that jurisdiction be asserted.

The commentators’ request, under the California Public Records Act, to inspect any indemnification agreements entered into by this developer, Mr. Hostetler and Co., and/ or any of his associates, specifically Mike Gallo and Co., ‘holding harmless’ the City of Livingston for any legal challenge to the environmental review of the proponent’s (s’) project. We also request to inspect any documents showing any other agreements between the two named parties and the City of Livingston. We also request to inspect any documents pertaining to any agreements between local business or industry (specifically Foster Farms) with regard to connection to the proposed waste water conduit into the city of Livingston.

To the best of our knowledge, a Ms. Donna McKinney, possibly a consultant with the firm PMC, is acting as the director of Planning for the City of Livingston. Who is paying her salary? To whom does she report?

Another matter of concern is the fact that authorizing this sort of activity outside of an existing SUDP is a violation of the Subdivision Map Act. According to the documentation that has been inspected to date it appears as though the developer has requested pre-zoning for parcels within this 300-acre site, to which the 42-inch sewer main is to connect. This seems to be several steps premature for an annexation request. When will the public have an opportunity to comment on any identified significant environmental effects?

We have grave concerns over the lack of information concerning who will be allowed to access this new infrastructure. Can the City of Livingston WWTF actually serve the anticipated urban expansion? What funding source exists for other necessary municipal services? How does this proposed project coordinate with regional water and wastewater needs? If a municipality in Merced county becomes incapable of serving the WWTF needs of its customers and fails, does the responsibility for those services revert to the county? Can the county afford to assume that sort of infrastructure liability?

Have there been any Can/Will Server letters of agreement between the Livingston WWTF and this developer? Is a Will Serve letter valid in the demonstrable absence of capacity?

Given that this developer has a plethora of residential development projects in Merced County and elsewhere, and considering the abject indiscretion of the City of Livingston in lending its ‘approval’ to this developer (especially since the approval lacked jurisdiction or authority) ,we request that all development projects by this developer throughout Merced County and especially anywhere proximate to the City of Livingston or the surrounding unincorporated communities be red-tagged (administratively halted) until such time as the environmental review of each of those current projects can be reviewed for accuracy and compliance with the appropriate laws, codes mitigation measures and appropriate checklists, and until the public is assured that each project is under the inspection and review of the appropriate agency.

This hubris on the part of the developer coupled with the abject irresponsibility of those agents of the City of Livingston demands commensurate sanctions by the appropriate governing bodies and/or state agencies. We request that those authorized to do so pursue such sanction to the fullest extent of the law.

We appreciate your consideration of this information and request to be notified in writing prior to deliberations and/or actions pertaining to this information by each of the notified agencies. Regarding inspection of the documents requested above, we reserve the right to inspect any documents identified subsequent to the above request, prior to any copies being made. We will give specific instructions as to which documents we need copies of when they have been identified and are available for inspection. It is our understanding that each agency notified in this document is responsible to respond to our request, within the statutory time frame with any identifiable documents described herein.

Sincerely,

Lydia M. Miller, President Steve Burke
San Joaquin Raptor/Wildlife Rescue Center Protect Our Water

Bryant Owens- ChairmanPlanada Community Development Corporation

Cc: Interested Parties
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Badlandsjournal.com, Feb. 26, 2006

Merced County
Ruben E. Castillo
County Counsel

February 16, 2006

Thomas Hallinan, Jr., City Attorney
City of Livingston
Post Office Box 486
Oakdale, CA 95361
Fax: (209) 847-5515

Re: Sewer Line Trunk Extension

Dear Mr. Hallinan:

I hope you are well. I am taking the opportunity to write to you about a sewer line extension to a proposed future residential development. The extension was approved by the City of Livingston. Unfortunately, there were a number of deficiencies in the City’s approval, and I wanted to alert you to them as one public agency attorney to another.

As I understand the facts, Ranchwood Homes (“Ranchwood”) is extending a 42” pipeline from the waste water treatment facility in the City to the site of Ranchwood’s proposed future residential development. I also understand that Ranchwood is in the conceptual design phase for the development of a residential housing project located in the unincorporated area of the County, partially within and partially outside of the Sphere of Influence of the City. In order to provide future sewer service for the proposed Ranchwood development project, Ranchwood entered into an agreement with the City to design, construct, and dedicate a sewer trunk line from the City’s waste water treatment plant to the proposed project site. This agreement reflects a finding by the City that the project was categorically exempt from CEQA. The agreement was unanimously approved by the City Council on December 21, 2004, but a Notice of Exemption was apparently never filed.

As approved by the City, the project called for the construction of 5,115 lineal feet of trunk sewer line by Ranchwood. The new sewer line would be installed “between the intersection of Gallo Drive/Vinewood Drive easterly and southerly to Peach Avenue. However, as approved, the “entire length of sewer trunk line is outside the City limit line and Sphere of Influence.” The sewer line is “designed to convey future urban sanitary sewer flows from the City to the existing Wastewater Treatment Plant site.” However, “no part of this in-ground project will be connected to the City sewer system until future mixed-use development occurs.” [December 21, 2004, City Staff Report re: Ranchwood Sewer Trunk Line, emphasis added.]

Following approval by the City, Ranchwood acquired easements from private property owners and the County department of public works. The project proceeded and a “dry” sewer trunk line was installed all the way from the waste water treatment plant to just short of Magnolia. At the request of the County, further installation has been stopped, subject to an encroachment permit from the County and compliance with all applicable laws.

Given these facts, I thought it important to share with you our legal view concerning the project. It is the County’s reasoned opinion that the approval of this project by the City does not comport with the City’s jurisdictional authority. Furthermore, it appears to run afoul of the Cortese-Knox Local Government Reorganization Act, the California Environmental Quality Act, and general land use and planning law. As County Counsel, I respectfully request that the City take every action to bring its approval of this project into compliance with these laws, including all appropriate environmental analysis, and I further request that the City communicate with and cooperate with the County to make certain this project is carried out in conformance with the law and the jurisdictional authority of each respective public agency.

1. The City had no Power to Approve a Project Outside its Territorial Limits.

As you know, the California Constitution at Article XI, section 7, confers on a city the power to “make and enforce within its limits all local, police, sanitary and other ordinances and regulations not in conflict with general laws.” Thus, “[u]nder the police power granted by the Constitution, counties and cities have plenary authority to govern, subject only to the limitation that they exercise this power within their territorial limits and subordinate to state law. (Cal. Const., art. XI, Section 7.) Apart from this limitation, the ‘police power [of a county or city] under this provision . . . is as broad as the police power exercisable by the Legislature itself.’ Birkenfeld v. City of Berkeley (1976) 17 Ca. 3d 129, 140 [130 Cal. Rptr. 465, 550 P.2d 1001].” (Candid Enterprises, Inc. v. Grossmont Union High School Dist. (1942) 50 Cal App 2d 374, 122 P2d 965.)

A municipal corporation has generally no extraterritorial powers of regulation. It may not exercise its governmental functions beyond its corporate boundaries. (Von Schmidt v. Widber (1894) 105 Cal 151, 38 P 682; Mulville v. San Diego (1920) 183 Cal 734, 192 P 702; Oakland v. Brock (1937) 8 Cal 2d 639, 67 P2s 344.) The Constitution delegates directly to inferior governmental agencies the police power in their respective localities, provided only that its exercise by any city must be confined to such city. (People v. Taylor (1938) 33 Cal App 2d Supp 760.) A municipal ordinance can have no extraterritorial force unless by express permission of the sovereign power. (Ferran v. Palo Alto (1942) 50 Cal App 2d 374, 122 P2d 965.)

It is only when annexation occurs that the police power transfers from the County to the City. Police power has been given a county and a city, respectively, for exercise only “within its limits” and when land in suit was annexed to city it left territorial jurisdiction of county, ceased to be “within its limits,” and hence was no longer subject to provisions of county zoning ordinance classifying land as residential and limited to single family dwellings. (South San Francisco v. Berry (1953) 120 Cal App 2d 252, 260 P2d 1045.)

2. The Out-of-Boundary Extension of Service Requires Approval by LAFCO.

This sewer line extension should have been approved by LAFCO. As you know, a city that wishes to extend sewer service outside of its jurisdictional boundaries must go to LAFCO;

(a) A city or district may provide new or extended services by contract or agreement outside its jurisdictional boundaries only if it first requests and receives written approval from the commission in the affected county.
(b) The commission may authorize a city or district to provide new or extended services outside its jurisdictional boundaries but within its sphere of influence in anticipation of a later change of organization.
(c) The commission may authorize a city or district to provide new or extended services outside its jurisdictional boundaries and outside its sphere of influence to respond to an existing or impending threat to the public health or safety of the residents of the affected territory if … [certain requirements are met].

(Cal. Gov. Code Section 56133.)

Since the sewer is intended to serve a 300-acre parcel outside the City, it implicates LAFCO’s jurisdiction over an “out of boundary” service extension. (See Ceres v. Modesto (1969) 274 Cal. App. 2d 545.)

3. The California Environmental Quality Act.

In December of 2004, the City made a determination that the sewer line
project was categorically exempt from CEQA. Of course, we do not believe the City ever had jurisdiction to make a valid CEQA determination for land uses on land that is not within its territorial limits.

Nevertheless, the City may have incorrectly applied a statutory exemption, instead of a categorical exemption, to find the project exempt from environmental review. In the review and approval of December 21, 2004, the City stet (sic) on Section 21080.21 of the Public Resources Code to find the project exempt. Section 21080.21 provides:

“This division does not apply to any project of less than one mile in length within a public street or highway or any other public right-of-way for the installation of a new pipeline or the maintenance, repair, restoration, reconditioning, relocation, replacement, removal, or demolition of an existing pipeline. For purposes of this section, “pipeline” includes subsurface facilities but does not include any surface facilities related to the operation of the underground facility.”

Reliance on this section may be misplaced. The total sewer line project greatly exceeds one mile in length. Thus, even though the project – as approved – appears to fit the statute, as the length of the first phase of pipeline installation is 5115 feet, this run afoul of a principle of CEQA that one cannot “piecemeal” a project in order to avoid the applicability of CEQA. (Association for a Cleaner Env’t v. Yosemite Community College Dist. (2004) 116 Cal.App.4th 629, 638. A lead agency may not split a single large project into small pieces in order to avoid environmental review of the entire project. Orinda Ass’n v. Board of Supervisors (1986) 182 Cal. App. 3d 1145, 1171.

In the most far-reaching decision on the issue of “piecemealing” development projects, the San Joaquin Raptor/Wildlife Rescue Center successfully set aside an EIR for a housing project in Stanislaus County, based on the failure of the project to include construction of sewer lines and construction of a wastewater treatment plant to serve the project. (San Joaquin Raptor/Wildlife Rescue Ctr. V. County of Stanislaus (1994) 267 Cal. App. 4th 713.) In that case the court relied on 14 Cal. Code Regs. Section 15378 (a) which defines the term “project” as “the whole of an action, which has the potential for resulting in a physical change in the environment, directly or ultimately.” Because the sewer expansion had been proposed to serve a housing project, and the housing project could not proceed without an expansion of sewer service, the court concluded that the expansion was an integral component of the housing project.

Second, the pipeline is not located within a public right-of-way. Instead it is located on private property, from which the City got a number of public easement dedications. The acquisition of easements after approval of the proposed project is not in keeping with the claimed exemption.

In addition, the City did not notify the County of its determination as a responsible agency. CEQA sets a standard of communication and cooperation among responsible government agencies with respect to projects.

Lastly, the City did not file a “notice of Exemption” for the pipeline project. (Pub. Res. Code Section 21108.) Although the filing of such a notice is not required by CEQA, it is the standard practice for California government agencies to do so.

According to PMC, consultant to the City, an EIR is being prepared for the City’s sewer and water master plan and this “project” is probably a part of that master plan. WE are concerned that a project has already been approved and constructed that is (or should be) a part of the larger master planning effort that is currently undergoing environmental review.

4. Livingston’s Actions May Have Violated Government Code section 65402.

Section 65402 (b) of the California Government Code states:

“[A] city shall not acquire real property for any of the purposes specified in paragraph (a), nor dispose of any real property, nor construct or authorize a public building or structure, in another city or in unincorporated territory, if such other city or the county in which such unincorporated territory is situated has adopted a general plan or part thereof and such general plan or part thereof is applicable thereto, until the location, purpose and extent of such acquisition, disposition, or such public building or structure have been submitted to and reported upon by the planning agency having jurisdiction, as to conformity with said adopted general plan or part thereof.”

Thus, the City may not authorize a project within the County until the County has determined its consistency with the County’s general plan. If found to be inconsistent, the city council must vote to overrule it. The County was neither consulted nor has the City taken action to overrule the County general plan on the truck line extension.

CONCLUSION

As you can see from the above, the approval of this project by the City is questionable. The project failed to comport with the City’s jurisdictional authority, the Cortese-Know Local Government Reorganization Act, the California Environmental Quality Act, and general land use and planning law.

Your help is sought so that the City may take every lawful action to bring its approval of this project into compliance with these laws, including all appropriate environmental analysis. I also request that the City communicate with and cooperate with the County to make certain this project is carried out in conformance with the law.

It is important that the County and the several cities maintain a cooperative and positive working relationship. It is in that spirit that this letter is provided to you. I hope to hear from you soon.

Highest regards,

RUBEN E. CASTILLO
MERCED COUNTY COUNSEL
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Badlandsjournal.com, March 10, 2006

Merced County Development Rodeo: Ranchwood Event

San Joaquin Raptor/Wildlife Rescue Center and other members of the concerned public always wondered how developers in Merced County rode roughshod over local, state and federal environmental laws, regulations, agencies and its own public. But, rarely have they been granted the insight provided by this telephone message, recorded on Feb. 3, 2006.

Badlands has blocked out the last two numbers of the telephones the developer left for return calls from the supervisor he thought he’d called as a courtesy to the developer.

Mrs. Crookham, this is Greg Hostetler calling. My cell number actually is 704-13** if you need to call me. I’m on a cell phone cause my other battery I’m trying to save that, preserve it you know. I’m into preserving things too from time to time, but anyway, uhm, I’m just calling you, uh, to let you know that…ah if you don’t already know… that we’ve had a lot of drama and trouble in the county … everywhere I do business [inaudible] apparently I guess because of Mrs. uh…Mrs. Deirdre Kelsey ah… thinks staff may need some help, because she’s climbing all over them… using [inaudible] staff for her personal pit bulls…trying to bite our people, and our staff — this is my opinion — causing a lot of drama in Livingston, for the City of Livingston and we’re trying to uh in the progress of uh in the process of installing a sewer line over there. If you haven’t talked to Dee Tatum, he could fill you in on what’s going on over there. But uh this probably will not end any time soon. So, I just wanted to give you the update, and if you could give staff any help I’d appreciate it… Thank you!

End of message…to erase this message press 7, to save it press 9, to hear more options press 0. To replay this message press 4, to get envelope information about this message press 5. To…. Sent February 3rd, at 11:48 am from phone number 704-13** duration 1 minute 14 seconds. To erase this message press 7. To save it press 9. This message will be saved for 21 days. End of messages.

On Feb. 9, City of Livingston Mayor Brandon Friesen wrote San Joaquin Raptor/Wildlife Rescue Center and members of the public, accusing them of “conducting a documented pursuit and vendetta against Ranchwood Homes.” The mayor said public questions raised and public requests for documentation on this project have “placed our City in the middle of mud slinging and we will not stand for it.”

· The 42-inch sewer trunk line from the City of Livingston: Mr. Hostetler, who does business as Ranchwood Homes, is referring to a mile-long sewer trunk line he built from the corner of the Livingston wastewater treatment plant to a few yards away from where he plans to build a subdivision. The trunk line is built entirely outside the jurisdiction of the City of Livingston in land under county jurisdiction. On Feb. 16, when the project was still incomplete, County Counsel Ruben Castillo wrote a letter to the city attorney of Livingston instructing him in the number of laws the city had broken by “approving” this project beyond its jurisdiction. However, by Feb. 28, the project was completed and the 42-inch, mile-long sewer pipeline was covered over. The public has been granted access to neither city, county nor LAFCO files on this project, despite requests to county CEO Dee Tatum, county Counsel Ruben Castillo, county Director of Planning and Economic Development Robert Lewis, Local Agency Formation Commission Director John LeVan, and the county Board of Supervisors. A request for a meeting with CEO Tatum and department heads has also gone unanswered. The County has taken no action.

· 1,000 acres in North Merced: Ranchwood cleared approximately 1,000 acres of pasture bounded by G Street, La Paloma, Merced Country Club and Old Lake Road, north of Merced. The field crossed Fahrens Creek. Ranchwood put in field roads crossing the creek at two locations, tore out all vegetation along the creek and pushed freshly disked dirt into the stream. The land contains wetlands, is probably habitat for federal and state protected species. There are probable violations of the federal Endangered Species and the Clean Water Act. The public filed a request for code enforcement with Merced County. The County took no action.

· 300 acres near Le Grand: Ranchwood disked and deep-ripped a portion of a 300-acre field on the corner of White Rock and Le Grand roads in county jurisdiction. The land contains wetlands, is probably habitat for federal and state protected species. There are probable violations of the federal ESA and CWA. The public filed a request for code enforcement with Merced County. The County took no action.

· 1,100 acres near Le Grand: Ranchwood deep-ripped, leveled and disked approximately 1,100 acres of seasonal pasture land on the SE intersection of Buchanan Hollow and White Rock roads, also near Le Grand. The pastures contained small streams, wetlands, vernal pools and federal and state protected species. The public filed a request for code enforcement with Merced County. The County took no action.

These are significant conversions of land. Merced County should have directed Ranchwood to do proper environmental review before proceeding. Instead Merced County turned a blind eye to these significant conversions.

State and federal agencies were notified and are expected to uphold regulatory compliance on these projects.

· Franklin County Sewer District: Ranchwood excavated two additional percolation ponds in a field west of Santa Fe Road north of Highway 59 to service a subdivision Ranchwood is building in the Franklin-Beachwood area. The public has requested documentation on this project.

· Land swaps in Planada:

On April 22, 2003, J&J Family Trust sold a parcel of approximately 20 acres on Gerard Road to the Central Valley Coalition for Affordable Housing for $300,000 (approximating from the tax assessment of 1 percent).

On October 10, 2003, CVCAH sold the parcel to the Merced County Housing Authority for $300,000 (according to what MCHA official Nick Benjamin told members of the Planada public).

On Dec. 2, 2004, a complex land swap took place in Planada.

A. MCHA sold the same parcel (APN# 053-145-024) to the Pacific Holt Corp. for $550,000 (according to the tax assessment).

B. A.K. Karmangar, a Planada farmer, sells two parcels (approximately 20 acres) to the MCHA for $550,000 (according to the tax assessment).

C. Pacific Holt sells parcel APN# 053-145-024 to Mr. And Mrs. D. Tatum (CEO Merced County) for $269,500.00 (according to the tax assessment). This is apparently a savings of $280,500.00 to the Tatums for a piece of property Pacific Holt bought the same day for approximately twice as much as they sold it to the Tatums.

On Sept. 29, 2005, Hostetler Investment, LLC filed a memorandum of right of option to Pacific Holt Corp to purchase 50 percent of any or all Wallace and Karmangar property actually acquired by Hostetler, and at the actual gross per-acre price. “For instance, if, as expected, Hostetler actually acquires the entirety of the Karmangar Property containing 410+/- gross acres, the Option would apply to 205 +/- acres. The purchase price for both the Wallace Property and the Karmangar Property shall be the actual gross per acre price paid by Hostetler to purchase the Wallace Property and the Karmangar Property which shall be payable in cash on or before the close of escrow.”

On Dec. 23, 2005, a new entity, Pacific Holt Residential Communities, filed for a county General Plan Amendment for residential construction as the owner of 1,390 acres to be added to the Planada SUDP and to be known as the Village of Geneva at Planada. The acreage is composed of Karmangar and Wallace contiguous parcels.

Pacific Holt Residential Communities consists of Hostetler Investments LLC, Pacific Holt Corp., Premiere Partners III of Illinois, Bear Creek Ranch Inc. and local land holders, Bud Wallace, Inc, Opie and Elizabeth Wallace, Partners, and Hare &Sessions Development, Seattle WA.

The County approved the 2003 Planada Community Plan Update to the Merced County General Plan. The PHR Communities property lies outside of the Planada SUDP except for a 20-acre parcel. The Planada Community Plan has been legally challenged and the case is now in state appellate court.

This is by no means all the Ranchwood Homes projects, even in Merced County alone. It’s just a few examples the public has been able to collect from the east side of the county.

Could county CEO, Dee Tatum, fill in the public (after he’s explained it to Supervisor Crookham) on leapfrog, chaotic, unplanned development – the low, cowboy standards of Merced County planning with an out-dated General Plan, speculation-driven development and a new, incompetent planning director? Why does the County routinely disregard proper public process and the protection of public resources? Why has it shown neither the political will nor the ability to plan coherently in the midst of a speculative real estate boom that began before UC Merced was a “done deal”?

Would CEO Tatum explain why he hired a planning director from Nevada who is incompetent in California environmental law or public processes like the Public Records Act?

Could Supervisor Kathleen Crookham illuminate the public on her special relationship with Ranchwood Homes? Would Supervisor Jerry O’Banion of Los Banos explain how Ranchwood Homes does business, since O’Banion knows all things that occur on the west-side turf he shares with Ranchwood?

The Merced County public should ask how county government can do anything but build a reputation as the most corrupt local land-use authority in the state when the top Democrat opponent of environmental law and regulation in the House of Representatives and one of the key fixers behind UC Merced, Rep. Dennis Cardoza, Shrimp Slayer-Merced, is welcome to sit on the third floor of the county administration building.

The University of California, aided by Cardoza, former Rep.Gary Condit, Blue Dog-Ceres, the Condit children, Gov.Gray Davis and compliant state resource agency heads, railroaded (the term “fast-tracked” was substituted) UC Merced through environmental law, regulation and took local land-use authority, set the cowboy standards for development in Merced County. UC also acquainted local land-use jurisdictions with the magic of legal indemnification against legal challenges brought to protect Merced County natural resources, air, water, agricultural land, infrastructure, public health and safety, and endangered species as well as protecting proper public process.

Bill Hatch

November 27, 2006

Dear Supervisors Pedrozo, Crookham, Nelson, Kelsey and O’Banion:

Thank you, Supervisor Deidre Kelsey, for scheduling three town-hall meetings this week to address the immediate impacts that the proposed Riverside Motorsports Park will have on your district. We would ask that supervisors Pedrozo, Crookham, Nelson and O’Banion also schedule meetings in their districts and listen to their constituents’ concerns about the RMP project.

Town-hall meetings are not formal hearings and we question how much impact they will have. However, the Board of Supervisors has closed the public hearing. At this stage, town-hall meetings appear to be the best way we have to afford citizens the opportunity to participate in the process.

At the close of the public hearing on RMP, there was still no traffic plan. The traffic study that had been done was based on a flawed, deceptive traffic count in the wrong season for either agricultural harvests or auto racing. This is unacceptable to the public.

The RMP project proposes that District 4’s rural two-lane roads be used as highways for thousands of cars to reach the raceway site. The RMP project will negatively impact the roads, environment and public health and safety of other districts as well. Districts 1, 2, and 3 (Livingston, Atwater & Merced) will be impacted by traffic congestion, slowed response by emergency vehicles, noise, and air quality threats of the project.

All residents will be impacted by road deterioration. Our nationally recognized air pollution could ultimately cause the federal government to stop highway funds until we make greater efforts to clean up our air. We will then be asked to raise our taxes to fix the roads because development does not pay its way.

All Merced County residents will be impacted when the Board of Supervisors lowers the standards of our out-dated General Plan to accommodate the RMP project. The Board should not even consider projects with the massive impacts of RMP before it updates the county General Plan.

We request that the Board of Supervisors do the following:

· hold meetings in all the districts and be accountable to those that elected you to represent our County, not developers’ interests;

· re-open the public hearing on RMP, since about 50 people were not able to testify at the last hearing;

· re-circulate RMP environmental documents to allow the public to review RMP’s and the Planning Department’s responses to public testimony;

· re-circulate RMP environmental documents to allow the public to review the traffic study, which was not finished at the time of the public hearing;

· not decide on RMP or other large development projects before the County has finished updating its General Plan.

Thank you.

Tom Grave
Merced County- Citizens Against the Raceway

The general environmental interest in the San Joaquin Valley is strong because it concerns basic health and safety issues. Anger is stirring in the public against rampant air pollution-producing development and the politicians who promote it.

In a recent article, Stockton Record political reporter Hank Shaw ended a look into the post-Pombo world with a quote from a professor:

"I am dubious that this will be a productive Congress," Pitney said. "I think there's going to be a lot of posturing."

If the professor's crystal ball is clear, and Shaw's interview with Pombo’s Ghost, Rep. Dennis Cardoza, Merced, is any indication, we predict that Cardoza will rise in Congress like an untethered helium balloon.

But where will that balloon go, exactly?

The Congressional Progressive Caucus is almost twice as large as Cardoza’s Blue Dog Coalition. Other factors might spook Pombo’ s Ghost into striking aggressive postures. The CPC is led by two progressive congresswomen from the Bay Area. If that sounds familiar, it could be because the speaker-elect of the House and California's two US senators are also progressive women from the Bay Area.

Cardoza claims to be positioning himself in the political center.

Lipstick.

Senators Dianne Feinstein, Barbara Boxer, and congresswomen Nancy Pelosi, Lynn Woolsey and Barbara Lee represent the center of the nation, which just voted the Republicans out because we the people are sick of this catastrophe of a war and corruption in Congress.

Cardoza told the Stockton Record he and the Blue Dogs are forming a coalition with a group of Republicans to influence policy.

This reminds me of a funny story that occurred one morning at a congressional breakfast held by former Rep. Gary Condit, Ceres. Condit was one of the founders of the Blue Dogs, a group of Boll Weevil congressmen that split from the Democrats when Newt Gingrich became the Republican speaker of the House.

Condit had invited Pelosi down to speak. She arrived with a friend, a small Hispanic woman in a neat city suit, whom she introduced only as "my friend, Dolores." She and her friend sat down at the head table with Condit and some lords of agribusiness and broke bread.

Meanwhile, a local Democrat with a living memory, a good camera and a sense of humor, took a number of pictures of the head table, Pelosi and Dolores chatting with the czars of wine, milk, and cotton.

As the event was breaking up, he offering the pictures to the great men who had been at the head table, suggesting that a picture of such-and-such a captain of agribusiness exchanging pleasantries over croissants with Dolores Huerta, the famous leader of the United Farm Workers, would look good on their boardroom walls.

The vignette could indicate how much influence Pombo's Ghost will have with the speaker.

State Assembly Speaker Willie Brown, D-SF didn’t like the Valley any more than the Valley liked him. State Senate Pro Tem John Burton, D-SF, called UC Merced the biggest “boondoggle” he’d ever seen. They are long-time Pelosi political associates.

The Record reporter speculated that Cardoza might get a subcommittee chairmanship in the House Agriculture Committee that would permit him to advance the agenda of California's "specialty crops." It will be interesting to see if Pelosi will give it to Cardoza, after he was one of the five nominators of Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-MD, for majority leader, against Pelosi's choice, Rep. John Murtha, D-PA. Some might have suggested that if California's crops were so important to Cardoza, he should have kept his mouth shut.

It’s fun to imagine Cardoza in a panic, fearing the San Francisco women in power, rushing to the club of “real men in the center.” But, you can’t know that’s how it is happening. It could be that his special interest clients are dictating his every move and using their money in other venues to bring about advantageous results for themselves. After all, to them it is business, and they take business far more seriously than they take Cardoza. Pombo’s Ghost can pose as he wishes; meanwhile wine, dairy, cotton and development will make their deals where they think best. His aggressively Blue Dog strategy is a gamble. It may be a smart play or it may be a desperate leap. The nation moved politically to the left, so only time will tell.

Then comes the recent green paint job: starting with installing solar panels on his home roof (we wonder who paid for that), and talk about ethanol, etc.

"I'm just so committed to getting us out of the Middle East, with our dependence on foreign oil," he said. "We have to come up with alternatives."

While this sounds fruity and nutty enough for any wannabe chairman of a subcommittee on specialty crops, the nation prefers the direct approach of Pelosi, Lee, Woolsey and other mainstream Democrats: Get out of Iraq as soon as possible. Cardoza claims he is being “strong” posing in his imaginary middle, waiting until America is energy self-sufficient before ending imperial invasions of oil-rich countries.

More lipstick.

A powerful cabal of special interests in the northern San Joaquin Valley – Cardoza’s special interest clients – were able to arrange a free ride for him in this election. Residents of the 18th congressional district ought to ask themselves why a man as unpopular as Pombo’s Ghost represents them. Large landowners, developers, major agribusiness interests and the real estate financial and sales industries, along with UC Merced and the Great Valley Center, have ruled so absolutely that they think the region’s voters and the rest of the nation shared their agenda. In fact, even the voters of the district don’t share that agenda. For one glaring example, they thought the rest of the country hated the Endangered Species Act and loved developers, too. That isn’t even true in Cardoza’s district. So why is he representing the district? Did voters get sold a bill of goods here?

Rep. RichPAC Pombo, R-Tracy, was defeated because the opposition told the truth about him: he is corrupt, pro-Iraq War and radically anti-environmental. In the Sacramento area, Rep. John Doolittle, R-Roseville, crept back to Washington with less than 50 percent of the vote in his district, because the opposition told the truth about him: he is corrupt, pro-Iraq War and radically anti-environmental.

Cardoza is in the same pockets and, at least until a week or two, held the same views. His recent interviews with the regional press are lipstick. The intensity and quality of the collaboration and protection he enjoyed with Pombo can’t be replicated in this session of Congress, which will have a different agenda and some different faces, like Rep. Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton, for example. McNerney and Cardoza belong to the same party in name only. McNerney, in two brutal races against Pombo, got no help from Cardoza at all. At least Pombo stood and eventually fell for something. Cardoza is now peddling the fiction that the gut-the-ESA bill he co-sponsored with Pombo was “too radical.”

Lipstick.

When Pombo lost, Cardoza -- corrupt, scared of the Iraq War and radically anti-environmental – lost a lot of influence he had with corrupt rightwingers. However, Pombo’s Ghost and a gang of old-time Boll Weevils and bitter Republicans could be strong and mean enough to block anything good for the people or their environment in the 18th congressional district and elsewhere. If they want him to represent them, rather than the same-old special interests that want low wages and resource-destroying urban sprawl, they are going to have to fight for it. Right now, Pombo’s Ghost looks totally bought-and-sold by a few people with no interest in the people of the district or their environment, public health or safety.

Bill Hatch
-------------------------------

Nov. 19, 2006
Stockton Record
Top Blue Dog looking to lead from the center
By Hank Shaw

SACRAMENTO - With Tracy Rep. Richard Pombo ousted, Rep. Dennis Cardoza of Merced has become the region's big dog in Congress.

Cardoza, a member of the new Democratic majority, is a leader of a conservative group of Democrats calling itself the Blue Dogs. Cardoza says he hopes the 44-member group can influence Congress from the center, much as he did as a member of the "Mod Squad" when he was an assemblyman in Sacramento.

Cardoza intends to lead the charge for California agriculture in next year's rewrite of the Farm Bill, a job left undone by the ousted Pombo. Like Pombo, Cardoza also wants to reform the Endangered Species Act, although not as radically as the Tracy Republican had wanted.

Cardoza's reach may extend beyond Pombo's by virtue of his position in the Blue Dogs, so named because they felt "choked blue" by what they saw as the dominant faction of their party's too-liberal ideology.

Newly expanded from 36 members to 44, the Blue Dogs were instrumental in getting Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Maryland, elected majority leader Thursday; Cardoza campaigned for Hoyer when Cardoza attended the University of Maryland in the early 1980s.

The group, whose focus centers on fiscal restraint in federal spending, is also expected to coordinate on budgetary matters with its Republican analog, the Tuesday Group. Combined, the two blocs represent 80 members of the 435-member House - enough to influence policy, if they stay united.

There's the rub: House Speaker-elect Nancy Pelosi of San Francisco is far more liberal than Cardoza or his colleagues, which include Rep. Ted Costa of Fresno and Ellen Tauscher of Alamo. And she has many like-minded colleagues: The Congressional Progressive Caucus has twice as many members as the Blue Dogs.

Cardoza says it will not be easy to drive policy, but then again, it was not when he and moderate Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg outmaneuvered their liberal colleagues from San Francisco and Los Angeles in Sacramento years ago.

"You have to be strong," Cardoza said. "Strong enough to stand up for what you believe in, because both sides will push you very hard. You have to be polite but immovable."

Chief among Cardoza's goals is a constitutional amendment requiring Congress to balance its budget; California and nearly every other state live under similar constraints, which forces lawmakers to live within their means.

Shorter-term moves will be to restore pay-as-you-go guidelines for federal spending, as well as rule changes making it tougher to increase the federal debt limit, insert parochial goodies into budget bills and hide votes on spending bills.

Nonfiscal goals include expanding incentives to study embryonic stem cells, a position the Blue Dogs and the Tuesday Group share with their progressive colleagues.

Personally, Cardoza wants to secure new incentives to open markets for California's "specialty crops," which in congressional parlance means everything except corn, soybeans, rice and wheat.

He may win himself a coveted spot in the Agriculture Committee as chairman of the subcommittee that oversees specialty crops. That determination is expected soon.

Cardoza also wants to craft a bill that would use federal tax receipts generated from fossil fuel production to expand renewable-energy research, such as solar, wind or biofuels. Cardoza just installed solar power at his home in Atwater.

"I'm just so committed to getting us out of the Middle East, with our dependence on foreign oil," he said. "We have to come up with alternatives."

One thing stands in Cardoza's and the Blue Dogs' path to influence: the assumption that the Democratic majority actually wants to get something done in the 110th Congress.

To do so, it must work closely with Republicans and President Bush or face filibusters in the Senate and a veto in the White House. Governing over the next two years must come from the center.

But governing is only one of the things Congress does. It also prepares itself for biannual elections, and 2008 is likely to be a humdinger. Several congressional seats won by Democrats this year are already being targeted by the GOP, including the 11th District won by Rep.-elect Jerry McNerney, D-Pleasanton.

And then there is the presidential election, which will be for an open seat with no heir apparent for the first time in a generation.

Claremont McKenna College political scientist Jack Pitney said he expects Congress to bog down into dysfunction rapidly. He said it is far more likely that Democrats will be happier sending legislation for Bush to veto than to accommodate him and his fellow Republicans on matters of importance.

"I am dubious that this will be a productive Congress," Pitney said. "I think there's going to be a lot of posturing."

Contact Capitol Bureau Chief Hank Shaw at (916) 441-4078 or sacto@recordnet.com.

When I look at the debate growing about the mascot for UC Merced (setting aside all the laws broken to get the living mascot bobcat incarcerated at the city zoo), I see an identity crisis. But, as local sentiment against the choice of the fairy shrimp over the bobcat grows, I see that the identity crisis is a little more complex than it first appears.

At the moment, students at UC Santa Cruz, whose mascot is the banana slug, are in a feisty mood and resisting their administration’s attempts to grow and convert what was designed as a collection of colleges into a genuine UC public research university. In this struggle, since UC is planning growth to accomplish its aims, the students are allied with people in the city of Santa Cruz. The UC administration is encountering stiff opposition to its growth plans in Santa Cruz.

It seems likely that the UC Merced students’ interest in the fairy shrimp as a mascot reflects a similar rebellious spirit in the emerging undergraduate group, trying to define themselves as conscious human beings on an environmentally degraded planet, living and studying in the shadow of the Sierra Nevada and of John Muir.

Meanwhile, there is an element in “town” that is critical of the students’ attempts to define the campus they live and study on. While this, too, is all part of the “town/gown” identity problem Merced has now saddled itself with in perpetuity, the town’s approach seems so horribly hypocritical. But, that’s totally understandable because the political leadership that got the campus located adjacent to the largest, biologically richest vernal pools in the nation did their famous political deed by complete denial of the existence and of the importance of that landscape except as a bureaucratic problem with certain state and federal resource agencies, amenable to pressure. The UC administration’s eagerness to go along with local developers and landowners on this point was a disgraceful moment in academic history, given the tremendous expertise UC biologists have in the biology of vernal pools. There was also the little problem of the Endangered Species Act, since the pools are habitat for 15 endangered species. But that was handled at both the state and federal levels by former Assemblyman and present Rep. Dennis Cardoza, Merced, formerly known as Shrimp Slayer, presently known as Pombo’s Ghost.

But, still your beating hearts, oh mighty free marketers of Merced, ye who spend such inordinate time and energy on lobbying for government aid. UCSC, that great nest of subversive political forces, produced both Victor Hansen and Rep. John “Build-the-Auburn-Dam” Doolittle, Rightwinger-Roseville. Hansen is a distinguished conservative commentator whose book, Mexifornia, brought howls of approval from people who think like its author. Doolittle, a loyal friend of Jack Abramoff, has never been able to decide which he loved more: developer contributions or a dam on the American River in Auburn.

So, don’t worry, UC Merced Boosters, let UC do its magic on a few classes and you’ll get your allotted quotient of corrupt hypocrites in office and academics to lend respectability to their views.

Bill Hatch
--------------------------------

Nov. 16, 2006
Merced Sun-Star
Fairy Shrimp or Bobcats...students want to decide...Victor A. Patton
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/local/story/13021941p-13681252c.html
A group of students has expressed an interest in ditching the bobcat mascot in favor of another creature indigenous to Merced County: the fairy shrimp. Josh Franco, UC Merced's associated student president, said although the issue of changing the school mascot is primarily confined to a handful of students, the movement has definitely gained momentum....said the mascot-change supporters are miffed that the school's current mascot was not chosen by students. Justin Duckham, editor of "Fury Shrimp Times," a student-driven independent publication, said he definitely is in favor of using the shrimp as the school's mascot..."I don't think (a bobcat) reflects the originality that the school is pushing for," "I think it really sounds too much like a high school mascot... Lorena Anderson said changing the mascot would most likely involve petitions from students and a referendum -- neither of which have occurred thus far. Franco said. "For me, the fury shrimp represents that movement to include the students in the decision-making processes of the university. "And I think that's why it's important to keep it alive."

Nov. 20, 2006
Merced Sun-Star
Letter to editor
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/opinion/story/13035349p-13693139c.html
Editor: Just think; after these students vote on the mascot Merced will be stuck with the "fairy shrimp" way after those who thought to vote for this mascot will be long gone. But Merced with a beautiful college and campus will be stuck with the "fairy shrimp" representing Merced's university.
We can be up there with the banana slug.
TED REEVES
Merced

The Badlands editorial staff is not among the members of the Merced community advising UC Merced students to "love it or leave it." We remember that one from another era and another futile imperial war.

We also remember from that period a great educator, Clark Kerr, president of UC, who designed the "knowledge factory multiversity," whose latest outcropping the UC Merced students now occupy, like ducks land in a Los Banos duck club wetlands, and with possibly not much better chance of a successful migration on the life path.

What we remember most about Kerr was his rueful reflections on the monster he created, with increasing allusions to prostitution the older and more reflective he got. Thoughtful UC Merced students might consult the web on Kerr: he, more than any, is the individual who created the pond you're floating in now, and you will benefit from understanding his life and his own understanding of what he created.

A thoughtful obituary, at http://www.aaup.org/publications/Academe/2004/04ja/04jalust.htm
is a good place to begin.

Meanwhile, as you lament the lack of multiple malls, consider ditching the bobcat in favor of the fairy shrimp as a mascot, and tastelessly bash Mr. Gallo for not building a larger recreation center for you, we urge you to study this tale of the origins of your campus, perhaps not as outdated as it appears. For lack of any commitment on UC's part -- or any ability -- to build a real university, we still think that eventually, UC Merced will turn into an adjunct for Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory's work on behalf of the perpetual war for perpetual peace, or whatever it will be called next month.

Nevertheless, you could take the challenge as an opportunity to recognize that Merced is a good place to study because of its lack of venues for achieving serenity through consumption of familiarly branded items. Perhaps you are of a generation in which this kind of familiar consumption is more comforting than a family Thanksgiving.

Meanwhile, if you don't like Mr. Gallo's recreation center, you'll love his Yosemite Lake Estates.

Bill Hatch
-----------------------------

UC Gravy Train
Friday, September 9, 2005

In this week of fabulous mythologizing about the origins and development of UC Merced, the Badlands editorial staff thought it might republish an alternative origin myth, written by the anonymous authors of the Dumb Questions series in November 2002.
-------------------------------------------

FOR YOUR ENTERTAINMENT!! Another Dull-witted boy.

DQ -- UC Gravy Train
Nov. 26, 2002

One morning, when the dull-witted boy and his friend, Hector, reached the railroad tracks while biking to school, they encountered a stalled train. Behind them, as far as they could see, were automobiles waiting to get across the tracks. Looking down the tracks in both directions, they saw thousands and thousands of sheets ofpaper littering the gravel, the yards beside the tracks and the streets behind them and beyond them.

They saw it was a strange train, made up of cars they had never seen. Instead of flat cars, box cars, lumber cars, cattle cars or car cars, each car of this train looked like a passenger car with a suite of offices inside it. Before them was a suite with large, corner offices with big windows for bosses at both ends of the car and little cubicles with tiny windows for secretaries in the middle.

But what caught their attention most of all was the name of the train. Little Hector, as some readers may recall, was a train fanatic who knew the names of a lot of different railroad companies by heart. But he had never seen this one.

It was called the "UC Gravy Train." The gold letters were painted on royal blue. It didn't even have any graffiti on it. Hector was amazed.Just then an old brakeman passed by, walking up the track through the paper litter.

"Why's the train stopped?" the dull-witted boy asked.

"Son, it's derailed but that ain't half the story," the brakeman said. "This is the longest train in the history of California gravy trains. It's got 47 locomotives. This train is actually goes all the way to Sacramento, stalling car traffic all the way."

"Wow, this UC Gravy Train is one long train," the dull-witted boy said.

"You can say that again," the brakeman said.

"Wow, this UC Gravy Train is one long train," Hector said.

"Where is it derailed?" the dull-witted boy asked.

"Right here in Merced, wouldn't you know it?" the brakeman said. "Three blocks from City Hall."

"Why here?" Hector asked.

"Human error," the brakeman said.

"What are all these offices doing on it?" the dull-witted boy asked.

"Well, that's your staff," the brakeman said.

"What's staff?" "Well, your staff is what makes up most of your gravy train," the brakeman explained. "You can't have a gravy train what without you have staff, see. The two go together."

"Well, where's the gravy?" Hector asked.

"And where's the potatoes to put the gravy on?" the dull-witted boy said.

"This is pretty deep stuff for youngsters your age, mebbe it's out of your depth," the brakeman said.

"Try us," the dull-witted boy replied. "We ask dumb questions."

"You too?" the brakeman asked. "OK, I'll give it a try. Where to begin?

"Well, you see, you got your taxpayer -- that's the ones that work for their livings, like me. And your taxpayer pays his taxes to your government. Your government is run by those crooks we elect every two or four years or six years and, of course, their staff. You still with me?"

"You mean like Mr. UC Merced and Senor UC Merced, that Rusty guy from Los Banos, who thought about selling his water to LA once, and them others?" the dull-witted boy asked.

"Say, you're well informed for a youngster," the brakeman said. "You must read the newspapers."

"Nope, I can't say as I do," the dull-witted boy said. "I got uncles."

"Well, anyways, as I was saying, "you can't have your gravy train without your politicians making a pork barrel. It's your pork barrel that attracts your gravy train. Those are the essential ingredients," the brakeman said. "To repeat: politicians, pork barrel, gravy train."

"What's a pork barrel?" the dull-witted boy asked. "A pig in a bucket?"

"You pour the gravy in the pork barrel?" Hector, who was still only in the second grade, asked.

"You boys have your dumb questions down real good," the old man said. "You're pretty close there but -- on account of it's a government thing -- it's not as simple as it sounds. But ..." he paused and scratched his head, "actually it is as simple as that but they make it look as complicated as they can because the taxpayers don't like to see their money turned to gravy but your politicians are trying to get all the tax money they can to build projects in their home districts they can put their names on. For instance, since Senor UC Merced won the election, he's gonna want his name on the football field at the new UC Merced, right up there with Coca Cola and your state Holstein Breeders Association. But he can't get his name up on it if it don't exist so he has to get his pork barrel going, see.

"Your pork barrel is kinda like home brew," the brakeman said. "Your uncles make home brew?"

"Yep," the dull-witted boy said."It sort of smells, don't it? And it attracts flies?"

"Yep. Well, your political pork barrel ferments just like your home brew," the old brakeman said. "But in the beginning, it's just an idea, an idea that looks like it's going to make money for people who like to make money, see? But what makes the greed turn sweet, taste fine and go down like velvet is that it ain't gonna cost them nothing. The money is gonna come from somebody else's taxes. That's your gravy. You got to have the pork barrel to get the gravy, understand?"

The dull-witted boy and Hector found this more interesting than a book full of fractions.

"Now, the way it works is this: once you get your pork barrel working in your district and your politicians working in government, the next thing you know you got a gravy train full of staff."

"Yeah, but what's staff?" the dull-witted boy asked. "I don't understand staff."

"You staff just shows up," the old man said.

"Where from?" Hector asked.

"Nobody knows the answer to that," the brakeman said, scratching his head. "It's just a fact of nature that when your get your pork barrel filling with tax money, your staff shows up. It's like them mud holes out east of town. When you got your pork barrel working, here came the scientific staff came in on the gravy train and the next thing you know, them mud holes are being called "vernal pools" and new little critters are being discovered every day. Every year, when they fill up with water, here come them fairy shrimp -- just like staff to a pork barrel, see?"

"I think so," the dull-witted boy said.

"Then, when the mud holes dry up, the fairy shrimp go away. Some say they go into the mud and go to sleep in little seeds. Nature's a mysterious thing, boys. Mebbe it's the same with staff. You can never tell. But when you got your pork barrel and your tax dollar working together, they produce staff and a gravy train. Fact of life."

"What's a pork barrel look like?" Little Hector asked. "I never seen one."

"Well, of course your essential pork barrel is an invisible Wish. It could start working anywhere -- like in a donut shop or over a steak dinner or at a service club lunch speech. But it starts as a wish, a dream, a fantasy.

"It's just like an invisible little seed in the beginning, see," the old brakeman continued. " It starts out in somebody's mind like an itch. He can't see it, it itches and he wants to get rid of it so he starts broadcasting it here and there around town, telling his friends and bankers. But it won't ever amount to anything unless it's fertilized."

"How do you make something invisible grow?" the dull-witted boy.

"That would be your application of large quantities of bullshit," the old man said. "Your farmers will say horseshit's good for trees, old chicken shit works for other crops but to get your pork barrel out of the conceptual stage, liberal quantities of bullshit is the only form of fertilizer ever known to work.

"But once you get germination and growth, your genuine political pork barrel comes to life in many different forms," the old brakeman said, "oftentimes in the form of roads, paid for by federal highway funds.

"In fact, in Washington, DC, where they make federal highway funds, they have a cult of religious visionaries called The Lobbyists. These mystics believe federal highway funds are the Mother of the Pork Barrel and the Grandmother of the Gravy Train.

"Other times it's your dams. Lord, how the politicians love a dam, particularly out here in the West. You have no idea how much bullshit mystical lobbyists have been spread around trying to grow dam wishes. They say there ain't no river around that couldn't be improved by putting a tax-paid dam on it.

"Then you got your irrigation canals," he continued. "You have to have your canals so you can grow your cotton so the taxpayer can pay the cotton grower the difference between the world price of cotton and what the American cotton grower can get his congressmen to get the taxpayer to believe it should be worth to a patriotic American cotton farmer to grow it.

"Now, this is too deep for you or me, boys," the old brakeman paused. "Some call your water and your agricultural subsidies the highest, most mysterious of all pork barrels. When you talk water and agricultural subsidies you're talking about the highest mysteries of tribal cults. Nobody but members of the tribe understand them or get any benefit from them. These subsidies don't leave a trace except in the US Treasury and some local bank accounts.

"Take rice," he continued. "See, your genuine, patriotic American farmer can't be expected to grow cotton or rice for what they'd pay a Chinese or an Indian farmer to grow cotton in their countries, could they? That ain't American. So we pay for the canal and for half the crop. Same for rice, only rice takes more water. And then there's your ranchers. Everybody knows the cowboys are true-blue red-blooded Americans. Just look at their hats. So whenever they have a drought -- or staff says there might be a drought coming -- your taxpayer pays your rancher something for the grass that didn't grow.

"Like I said, those pork barrels surpass human understanding because they involve tribal religious issues. But here in this congressional district, they dreamed up one helluva pork barrel, mebbe the best pork barrel ever invented -- a public, tax paid university campus and a nuclear research lab, so mebbe some day soon you boys will be playing Nintendo on nuclear energy.

"See, it's better than a dam because it's new technology. A dam just produces energy from water making a turbine spin and everybody knows how to do it now. Nuclear energy is better because it's new technology."

"Why is new technology better?" asked the dull-witted boy.

"Because when you get new technology you get more staff and a longer gravy train and that's what your politicians and your business leaders call Real Good," the old brakeman said. "See, when nobody knows how to use a new technology and it could be dangerous, your staff gets bigger and your gravy train gets longer.

"Why?" Hector asked.

"In words you might understand, son, 'just because,'" the brakeman said. "The other thing is the project gets so big and expensive nobody can calculate how much tax money is going to go into it. Then you have to hire on more and more staff to contain costs.

"Then you got your locals standing around the pork barrel watching it boil, bubble, sprout and grow," hecontinued. "Your locals come in two varieties.

"In a pork barrel like this, the people who support it are called Leadership and the people who ask questions about it are usually called Environmentalists. Your leadership is Real Good because they got Faith and your environmentalists are called dog doo because they have Doubts."

"I don't get it and I gotta go to the bathroom," Hector said.

"Third willow on the right," the brakeman said, pointing to bushes plastered with pieces of paper beside a fence. Hector departed the conversation to answer the call of nature.

"That's a real smart little kid," the brakeman said. "Always glad to meet a youngster interested in the railroad. It's getting so that young people don't learn about railroads anymore."

The dull-witted boy agreed that Hector was an intelligent boy.

"Got a sense of history, that kid," said thebrakeman. "You can't teach that anymore. It's illegal these days, I think."

"Mister, do you know who are those people in that car up front staring out the window at Little Hector taking a pee?"

The brakeman squinted at the car for a moment, then said, "That's just another urban planner car. I think they said there were more than 300 urban planner cars on this gravy train."

"What do urban planners do?" the dull-witted boy wanted to know.

"It's like I'm trying to tell you," the brakeman said. "They're just staff. It don't matter what they do or if they do anything at all. What matters is they are staff and they show up. Urban planner staff are the ones that stand up in front of your elected officials and give your power point presentations of boxes and arrows and especially of maps: subdivision maps, annexation maps, specific plan maps, urban development plan maps, spheres of influence maps and the like. Your power point presentation is one of the strongest ingredients of your bullshit, see?

"You look at that thing and it looks just like a train, any old train," he continued. "But, Bud, that train has mystical powers: a genuine gravy train can stop most human thought for 50 miles either side of the track it sits on."

"Why?" the dull-witted boy asked.

"Because people go mad when they get near it. See, son, they just gotta get on it! This derailment was caused by the last lawyer in the state that wasn't invited to the party. They say he was so upset he drove his car right into this here gravy train in the hope somehow he'd get in on the deal. All he achieved was a few hours of posthumous fame and got me a little overtime," the brakeman said, chuckling.

Now the car he drove into was one, just one of a dozen cars packed with lawyers on the UC Gravy Train. Those are special cars. They got "On Retainer" written on their cars."

Little Hector returned from the willow bush.

"Better zip up, kid," the brakeman said, "you're exciting the secretaries."

Hector, a fastidious second grader, blushed, turned around and zipped up.

"See, boys, your real gravy train -- like this UC gravy train -- just goes on and on," the old man continued. "Right now, even as they're sweeping off the mortal remains of that unpopular lawyer, they're putting on 15 more cars full of land speculators at the other end -- right next to the plutonium cars full of nuclear weapons researchers -- your 'academic component.'"

"What's that?" Hector asked.

"Well, this is a UC gravy train, so a university campus is involved," the brakeman explained. "You have a university, you got to have your faculty and you have to have something for them to do -- that's your academic component. Don't get me wrong, it's just one part of it and not a very large part of it, unless it blows up, of course.

"The biggest part is your development community that's going to build houses around the nuclear research laboratory. Some people like to live near plutonium, I'm told. Personally, I prefer sagebrush, roadrunners and coyotes when I can get them. But that would be your water problem which, like I said before is an issue of tribal religions too deep for you or me."

"But, what do staff do?" the dull-witted boy asked, trying to get the old man focused on the original question, just once.

"Well, you see how all these cars are connected?"

"Yeah, just like on a regular passenger train."

"You got it," the old man beamed. "They've got people in there, the conductors say, that do nothing but go back and forth talking to each other. A little known fact about gravy trains is that no one ever gets off them unless they get pushed because they're afraid that if they get off them, they'll never be able to get back on. So, to keep their places, they have to constantly talk to each other. The conductors say this is what staff calls 'staying on the same page.' There's only one thing that can get a staffer upset -- he's got his salary, his benefits and his position on the car -- but if he's even once accused of not 'staying on the same page' with all the other staffers, your staffer is gonna have a panic attack because he knows what's next. That would be when they push him off the train."

"I don't understand what 'staying on the same page' means," Hector said.

"Well, the conductors tell me it means that everybody constantly has to be talking to each other to make sure nobody gets any ideas of their own or even looks out the window much."

"So, what do they actually do?" the dull-witted boy asked, again.

"I tole you twice," the old man said. "They run back and forth between all those thousands of cars agreeing with each other for fear if they don't, somebody will push them off. When everyone is in full agreement -- they call that 'consensus' -- somebody writes up a memo and makes a diagram with boxes and arrows on it and they make a power point presentation out of it to put on their computers and then they show it to each other."

"It sounds sort of stupid," Hector said.

"Hush, boy. There is one thing you cannot say about people on the UC Gravy Train and you just said it. You can't say it because every one of them but the secretaries has not only one but two or more degrees from universities, and their studies were mostly subsidized by taxpayers.

"Now UC has its tribe of lobbyists too, just like the highway and the water people and the farmers and ranchers," the old brakeman said. "They all dress in simple robes of blue and gold. They look like monks. There are hundreds of them, each with a begging bowl, swarming over your seats of government. I ain't saying educational funding is any less mysterious than highway money but the approach is different. There's a holiness about educational funds that's lacking in highway deals. I actually feel sorry for the politicians when they get in the clutches of the Holy Order of Higher Education Lobbyists promising salvation and better school grades in their districts.

"But back to your highly educated staff," he said. "Every one of them studied Gravytrainology and each and ever' one knows deep in his heart, mind and marrow that anyone who isn't on that UC gravy train is dumb as a post -- like all the taxpayers that paid for their campuses and their professors. Once again, it comes from learning in school how to stay on the same page by talking to people like themselves and nobody else. They ain't like you and me, just friendly strangers sitting by the side of the tracks talking till the train clears. At your departments of gravytrainology in institutions of higher learning, the first thing they teach you is who to talk to and who not to talk to. That's the secret of professional success and the fundamental premise of gravytrainology."

Just then a huge rumbling and crashing split the air like the biggest thunderclap in the universe. Both the boys jumped a foot off the ground.

"No need for worry, boys," the old brakeman yelled, "That's the sound of a gravy train starting up again."

"Where's it headed if the project is here?" the dull-witted boy screamed. "Why aren't they getting off?"

"Kid, you're not as bright as you look," the brakeman bellowed. "I tole you: nobody gets off unless they get pushed off. In a pork barrel project like this UC Merced, the last place a staffer wants to end up is in the barrel, on the ground, at the project. You want to be ON the gravy train, not UNDER the bottom of the pork barrel."

"Why?" Hector asked.

"Because then that staffer ain't going to be talking to other staffers. He's gonna have to talk to the public, the people who live here where they're gonna build this radioactive pork barrel with a college attached to it. Now the staffers don't know the public don't know much about the project. The reason they don't know that is because that ain't their department. That's your public relations department, also known as the Mothers of the Power Point Presentation.

"Like I say, the staffer only really knows one thing: he's got to stay on the same page with all the other staffers. But they think the public knows all about the project. And since the public can't be on the same page with all the staffers because the staffers ain't dumb enough to share the page with the public, they figure the public is mad."

"Why don't they share the page with the public?" asked the dull-witted boy.

"You don't get to see the page until you get on the gravy train," the old man explained.

"Well, how do you get to see it?" Hector asked.

"That would be your 'emerging community leader' deal, which is a multi-step deal. Your first step would be to start parading around your town calling yourself an emerging leader. That's a wannabe leader. Then you borrow some computer time from your boss and look up 'emerging leader' on the Internet and get connected with the People Who Can Help You, that's a non-profit foundation that gets its money from people who build huge factories and want to save what they call signature landscapes and quaint rural people. The step after that is buying a lot of clothes that make you look like you really don't come from your town -- Ceres, Livingston, Red Top, Fowler, Goshen, Orosi, Buttonwillow, Arbuckle, Gridley, Williams, Lamont, Strathmore, Clements, Milton, Hilmar, Denair, El Nido -- places like that. Then you gotta quit sounding like you come from places like that. When you're really almost ready for the Interview, you gotta quit thinking like you came from places like that. Finally, if you're lucky, you get a call which would lead you to the Interview. So then you would go up to Modesto to meet the Rich Ladies, aka The People Who Can Help You. If the Rich Ladies decide you really, really don't look or think like your neighbors anymore, they'll give you a peek at one little corner of the page -- something so old it's been released to the public -- and ask you if you can get on it. Now, there's three ways you can make it. You can talk your way in, you can write your way in, but the best way is to make some charts, graphs -- they love numbers -- put a bunch of boxes and arrows around them, and maybe you'll make it."

"Make what?" the dull-witted boy said.

"Make it on the UC Gravy Train, stupid," Little Hector said.

"OK," the dull-witted boy said, "but what's all this paper littering the tracks and everything?"

"That's different from your page," the brakemansaid. "This is your flak. There's cars and cars up there full of writers that do nothing but write flak. Then they got other staff people to print it. When they print it they chuck out the door into the world. It's part of the reason people go mad for 50 miles around a gravy train.

"See this one here," the brakeman said, picking up one of the sheets of paper.

"'Chancellor Tests First UC Merced Building.'

"Hmmm," he read on. It seems that 25 of the state's finest civil engineers designed a 'non-chemicalized, totally self-contained personal sanitary depository of wood in a style sensitive to prevalent local aesthetic design standards, including a moon-shaped window.' Then they hired a construction company out of Orange County to build it. Prominent university, local, state and federal officials did a tour and the chancellor was given the honor of being the first person to test it."

"What is it?" Hector wanted to know.

"Boys, this is good flak," the old brakeman said. "The essence of good flack is that it leaves you with important questions, like 'what is it?' Real Good Flak -- and the UC Gravy Train has the finest flak staff tax money can buy -- is kinda like the old-time Chinese Buddhists. What they say all points to what they haven't said. Real deep and mystical.

"Now in the case of this latest flack release now littering the entire Central Valley, what you got is the announcement of the completion of an outhouse on a cow pasture. It has to be an outhouse because they don't have any sewer lines. It can't be a chemical outhouse because the environmentalists would get after them for pollution. Now the chancellor of these cow pastures which the pork barrel, the gravy train and the staff are going to transform into a university, and the high officials apparently went out to this outhouse. Then, if I am translating the flack accurately, the chancellor went in the outhouse and used it. It doesn't mention if other high officials also used it. However, it does say that when she emerged from the outhouse, there was a 'warm round of applause.' Good flak always has a happy ending."

The three of them stood beside the tracks and watched endless cars full of offices lurch slowly past them.

"Where'd you say it was going again?" the dull-witted boy asked.

"Where it goes, nobody knows, kid," the brakeman said. "It just keeps going until the money runs out."

As if to confirm the wisdom of the ancient brakeman, a window opened in the office car inching through the intersection and a young man, kicking and screaming, his hands desperately grasping at the window casing, was being slowly ejected from the opening by a crowd of men and women insistently pushing and pushing until, finally, he fell to the gravel bed of the railroad tracks below.

The young man, scratched and bleeding, immediately leapt to his feet and began pounding his fists against the slowly moving office car, imploring his former office mates to let him back in.

"For God' sake, it was just a simple observation," he cried. "You can't be serious! Let me back in immediately. I have a masters degree from UCLA. I didn't write it down. I didn't do any analysis on it. IT WAS JUST A SLIP OF THE TONGUE."

His former office mates closed the window and drew the curtains.

As his office inched away, he hobbled along beside it, pounding it, crying out in despair until it was clear he could expect no pity from those within. He was off the UC Gravy Train.

The kindly old brakeman led him away from the train, fearing he might throw himself under its wheels, something similarly ejected staff had done before, causing a time-consuming mess for railroad employees when they did. The old man brushed off the fellow's khakis and pressed blue oxford shirt and picked up his briefcase for him, saying, "There, there, the world ain't come to an end. There's more than one gravy train come along these tracks. Just you wait. Life ain't over," and soothing things in this vein.

But the young man was hysterical.

"I am a certified traffic consultant," he stated wildly. "Certified, I say. I have advanced academic degrees and certification. I am a professional."

"I can see that myself," the old brakeman said. "You look every inch the professional traffic consultant. If I saw you in a crowded Starbucks, I'd say: 'By Golly, that man is a professional, certified traffic consultant.'"

"That's right, I am," said the gravy-train reject. "I want that clearly understood."

"It is perfectly clear," the brakeman said. "No arguments here, right boys?"

The dull-witted boy and Hector shook their heads.

"Well, why did they do this foul, unjust thing to you?" the brakeman asked. "It was just a casual, totally unquantified observation based on anecdotal information," the consultant said.

"About what?" Hector asked.

"All I said, and absolutely all I said -- and just to my secretary, that bitch Irene -- who blurted it to my supervisor because ... well, I won't go into the social habits of the people in that office. Beasts, absolute beasts. But all I said was that since the UC Gravy Train had derailed, it was blocking every intersection in Merced and streets in every city from here to Sacramento. Judging from the line of cars of people trying to get to work this morning at this one intersection, I said I would have to call the LOS -- that's the Level of Service for you lay persons -- unacceptable this morning. Then I said something about Merced City not having been able to afford to have more than one overpass on one of its two sets of railroad tracks in town, and no underpasses. Then I wondered -- out loud, in front of Irene, what a fool I was --if this might pose a problem we could look into.

"It was meant as a kind of joke, don't you see?" he whined. "It wasn't serious! I mean who cares about traffic congestion in Merced or anywhere else along the route of the gravy train. Certainly not UC. We're building roads around Merced. I personally have -- had -- total control of the planning for six feet of that beltway. Did I say that I have a masters degree and am a certified traffic planning consultant?"

"Yes, yes, you mentioned that several times," the old brakeman said gently. "Please go on."

"Every certified traffic consultant on the UC Gravy Train at the moment is totally focused on the traffic congestion for Phase 1 of its project -- that's the part that won't impact anything except the golfers who lost their municipal course. Forget the rest! Forget the other phases, the new town, the nuclear lab and all the development around it. That's what I said: Forget it! Forget it! Forget it!

"But they wouldn't and they pushed me out and that Irene was right in there with the rest of them, laughing as she did it. The last one we pushed out was at night when the train was doing about 40 miles an hour. He screamed when he landed. I think he died or something."

Suddenly, the rejected consultant sobbed, grabbed his briefcase and dashed up the tracks to begin his fruitless pounding on the sides of his former office car on the UC Gravy Train.

"Boys, that's the saddest part of the gravy-train business you're looking at," the old man said. "You might wonder how come I know so much about what goes on inside those offices. It's from dusting off young fellows like that one, the rejects you find wandering along the tracks, mumbling to themselves, crazy as loons. Sometimes you can see their camp fires at night in the old jungles where the fruit tramps used to gather. They all got a tale to tell about their part of the project and they all tell the same tale: once you're off the UC Gravy Train, they never let you back on it."

The old man paused and scratched his head, trying to remember something. "Oh yeah, I should tell you this. I hate to mention it -- it ain't sad, it's just mean -- but if them little backpacks of yours contain any paint cans, don't do it on this train. Personally, I have enjoyed the peoples' art ever since it started, but if you're artists, consider another canvas. They got a private crew of graffiti dicks, all former Texas Rangers, that have zero tolerance for taggers. I mean zero and I seen the bodies to prove it. They'll track a tagger all the way to Utah and do him in and age is no consideration. Younger the better, is their motto. Each one of them has a special authorization letter from very high officials to enforce this no-tolerance policy. UC definitely don't like anybody defacing its Gravy Train."

Little Hector said, "I never."

"Me neither," said the dull-witted boy.

"Good," the old brakeman said.

"Tell us about some of the other cars," the dull-witted boy said.

"That's a tall order, boy, and we'd be here for months if I told you about all the cars on the UC Gravy Train.

"There's your Governor's car and your Legislature cars. There's specially made out of bullet-proof, foot-thick black glass. Nobody can see in. Nobody can see out. They're blocked at each end and nobody can get in or out either.

"But the fanciest cars are for the high UC officials," he continued. "The paint on those cars is so clean and shiny it blinds the eyes. Hundreds of little businessmen, all dressed in blue suits with gold ties are constantly washing and polishing the UC officials' cars. You can't see inside those cars because they have thick, brocade curtains of blue and gold. The businessmen who clean the cars say the thread in these curtains is made of pure gold. Every once in awhile one of the high officials opens the window to give an official address. Official UC addresses are done by the official dangling his or her backside out the window and permitting the businessmen and prominent local officials to kiss it.

"Down the line you might see more than a hundred cars with fly-specked little windows. That would be your secretarial pool cars. You'll see women answering telephones behind the little windows. They all say the same thing to whoever is calling. The message is: 'whoever you're calling is out of the office.' That's an essential component of a gravy train and staff."

"Why?" Hector wanted to know.

"Well, your key difference between staff and ordinary people is that staff has secretaries to tell anyone trying to call that staff is out of the office. Otherwise you wouldn't be staff. Get it?"

"No," Hector said.

"Well, you're young yet," the old brakeman said. "You see those plumes of smoke up ahead, looks like burning rice fields?"

"Yeah," the dull-witted boy said.

"That's your public records cars. See, to get back to the beginning, your pork barrel, because it's a public project using tax money, has to comply with all local, state and federal regulations. That means about half the staff on the gravy train are constantly writing reports on the development of the pork barrel so the public will know what's going on. Get it?"

"Oh."

"But since your leadership don't want the public to know anything about the pork barrel except flak, as soon as those staff reports are written and read by leadership, they run them over to the incinerators in your public records cars before the environmentalists get hold of them. Get it?"

The dull-witted boy bit a finger nail and said nothing.

"I know it takes awhile," the old brakeman said. "But all the public records don't get burned up because copies of them go to place like the natural resource agency cars. Now these cars look kinda like old-time Pullman cars, a little worse for wear. The blue and gold paint is chipped and you can see the old Pullman green underneath it. That's because there's more money in pork barrels than there are in resource agencies. And there's only a handful of people in each car. But you can't see these people because the windows are blocked by signs. Each sign is just one big letter. Put all the letters together and they spell, 'Sue us, please!'

"Then you got your punishment cars," he continued. "There done in an Old West motif, real graphic and meant to show the public what can happen if anybody asks any dumb questions and does anything that displeased any powerful person on the gravy train.

"You got a few emaciated journalists prowling around open cages begging food from passers-by. Then they've got a former congressman tacked up to a cross with real nails. Then they've got the skin of a baby black bear tacked up for some reason, right over the hide of the guy who shot it, making a charming Western tableau. Then they've got their wanted posters -- mainly pictures of vernal pools. They've got see-through padded cells for consulting biologists who went nuts trying to prove they could build the project without threatening endangered species.

"Then you have your road-kill panels," he continued grimly. "Oh, yes. Car after car fitted out with tall, white walls on which they tack up dead squirrels, skunks, coyotes, mice, dogs, cats and whoever else they can scrape off the roads. If you look at this project from a raptor's point of view, it looks like Sherman's march to the sea, burning crops all the way or maybe what the Spanish did in Peru when they burned all the amaranth.

"Next to the flak cars, you find your newspaper cars," the old brakeman explained. "The newspaper cars are connected to the flak cars by fax machines. In the beginning of the gravy train you could still see through the windows into the newspaper cars but that hasn't been true for a year because fax flak has filled the newspaper cars entirely. Sometimes, if the train is stalled and you're near a newspaper car you can still see movement inside. Sometimes the paper seems to move about and you can imagine there are editors within but you never see them anymore and they sure as hell can't see you. Every once in awhile some editor gets so burned out, his frying mind sets fire to the fax flak and one more local newspaper uncouples from the line.

"Next to the newspaper cars, you have your dog-and-pony cars. They're set up like theater stages, complete with adoring audiences of reporters and local leaders hanging on every bark and whinny. One stopped near where I was working on the track for several hours. It drew a crowd because people are naturally curious when they see dogs and ponies dressed up like college professors.

"So, we're all standing there watching the dogs bark, the ponies whinny, the local leaders acting like they understand every word and asking important questions about growth and prosperity and the reporters scribbling away in their notebooks. But, boys, none of us out here on the track could speak either dog or pony so we couldn't make head nor tails out of it.

"My personal favorite car on the UC Gravy Train is a special glassed-in car full of naked lawyers who were too stupid and corrupt to be of any use on the project. They don't feed them anything so every couple of days or so they hold a trial, convict one of their mates and eat him. It's something to see."

"Then, of course, you got your boosters -- confetti and pompom girls. A lot of those cars are filled with school kids and your ethnic minority groups. No gravy train can do without your smiling children and your smiling, grateful minority people -- just glad to be here in the US improving themselves through education. They tend to work on your politicians' hearts and minds. Who ain't gonna vote for more tax money for a university in their region after your school children and your minority leaders have come to them begging for the chance to be Real Successful Americans like that traffic consultant and telling you that if you don't vote for that campus and the nuclear research lab in your backyard you're just condemning those people to ignorance and privation.

"Then you got your school teachers and your school administrators cars," he continued. "These look like floats at the homecoming parade. They are alters made of wire and blue and gold paper napkins. It ain't Christian exactly because they're worshiping a Golden Bobcat, a creature that does not occur in nature but which they highly exalt anyway. They kneel all around it and pray 24/7.

"The UC Gravy Train goes on and on," the old brakeman said. "You got your developer cars and your land speculator cars. The only way you can tell the difference is your developer cars have little slit windows about an inch thick that double as rifle ports. Land speculators don't have any windows at all.

"Boys, you see that boxcar coming up?"

"Yep," the dull-witted boy said.

"Well that's my car and I'd better hop it or I won't get any lunch. See you later."

With that the spry old brakeman disappeared in the open door of the boxcar.

The boys were hoping to see the cannibal-lawyers cage but gave up after a couple of hours and went home.

Lydia Miller, President
San Joaquin Raptor Rescue Center
P.O. Box 778
Merced, CA 95341
(209) 723-9283, ph. & fax
raptorctr@bigvalley.net

Steve Burke
Protect Our Water (POW)
3105 Yorkshire Lane
Modesto, CA 95350
(209) 523-1391, ph. & fax

Merced County Board of Supervisors November 14, 2006
2222 M Street
Merced, California 95340
Fax: (209) 726-7977
Ph: (209) 385-7366 Via Hand Delivered and Email

Re: Public hearing on Riverside Motorsports Park General Plan Amendment No. GPA03-005, Zone Change Application No. ZC03-007, the Board of Supervisors’ override of the Castle Airport Land Use Commission, the Environmental Checklist, the Notice of Application, Draft Master Plan, Draft EIR, Final EIR, Appendices to Vol. 2, Response to Comments, Vol. 1, Staff Report, Findings, Resolutions and Overrides, and Indemnification.

1. Development Plan and Administrative Permit

The Riverside Motorsports Park Development Plan and Administrative Permit are the second stage of project approval following adoption of the Master Plan, as required by Merced County’s Planned Development Zone. When submitted, the Development Plan will include a precise plot plan, elevations, landscaping, lighting and other more detailed plans for development of the entirety of the project. The Development and Administrative Permit implement the goals, vision and requirements of the Master Plan. The Administrative Permit will provide the “entitlement” for the RMP project and include a list of conditions of approval under which the facility will operation. All development will be required to be consistent with the Development Plan and Administrative Permit (as may be amended.)

Modifications to the Development Plan and Administrative Permit may be approved administratively by the Planning Director if determined consistent with the intent of the Master Plan, the RMP EIR, and the procedures and finds defined in Section 18.50.02(D) of the Merced County Zoning Code.

-- P. 7-1, RMP Draft Master Plan

The public finds this “implementation” completely unacceptable. Merced County seems to be following the policy that if a sizeable portion of the supervisors’ constituents oppose a project, the final master plan could include changes so substantial to it that they would nullify the project description of its final EIR will be done administratively, without any further public or even legislative review. How excellent a technique for elected officials to wash their hands of the problems this project will cause their own constituents. “Sorry, we can’t do a thing,” the supervisors will be able to say. “It’s all being decided ‘administratively.’”

So, the “master plan” referred to by the county Planning Commission on Oct. 25, either does not yet exist or has not been made available to the public. For example, under the present “administrative” set up, the proponents and the County could create another Pacific Comtech industrial park in RMP final master plan, approved under an EIR to build a racetrack. It would be a radical violation of the project description, but on the other side of Merced we have the UC Community Plan, which every day looks more like the area where the UC Merced campus expansion will go, instead.

2. Disqualification of some supervisors for voting on the RMP project

Coupled with whatever indemnification agreement the County and RMP has reached (not available to the public), this “implementation” insures that once again the elected supervisors will have shielded themselves from any accountability for their decision. The last handicapping of the board of supervisors’ vote was written by RMP CEO John Condren in a letter to his investors last year:

Although it’s too early to start planning a ground-breaking party, we can report that RMP has won the support of 4 of the 5 members of the Merced County Board of Supervisors … and we may succeed in securing the unanimous support of the Board once the EIR is released. In addition, RMP has secured the approval and support of State Senator Jeff Denham, US Congressman Dennis Cardoza, 5 Chambers of Commerce within Merced County, the City Councils of Atwater and Merced, and RMP has the support of the California Builders Industry Association. Added to this list are over 1,500 local Merced County citizens who have signed to be on our project update mailing/e-mail list.

-- Riverside Motorsports Park, 1 January 2005 “To all our valued investors and supporters, Happy New Year!”

Although Foster Farms representatives reported last month being unable to meet with supervisors about their concerns with the project, Condren had apparently met with supervisors nearly two years ago. But the public isn’t as cynical as the RMP boss; we expect surprising acts of good sense from our supervisors.

To begin, it would be a surprising act of good faith if the board disqualified two of its members from voting on the RMP final EIR: Jerry O’Banion and Kathleen Crookham. O’Banion is widely known as having steered the project from the west side to its present location. Crookham gave a promotional talk on the RMP project before the Clipper Club at Central Presbyterian Church. Their involvement with the project ought to disqualify them from voting on it. The appearance of conflict-of-interest mars the deliberations on this extremely important decision in advance.

The board of supervisors needs to recall that it is not required by law to approve a fatally flawed EIR.

3. Airport Land Use Commission decisions

On Oct. 24, the Board of Supervisors voted to override a decision by the Castle Airport Land Use Commission that the RMP project is inconsistent with state Department of Transportation guidelines on projects near airports.

Under the California Environmental Quality Act, this “decision” is in fact a project. As presently proposed, it is an unanalyzed and unmitigated segment of the Riverside Motorsports Park (RMP) environmental impact report.

There is a basic flaw in the description of this project and the approval process is being illegally segmented because two parallel, unrelated planning processes are going on.

According to Planning Department staff, the ALUC met last week to reconsider the decision overridden by the board on Oct. 24.

The County has obstructed public access to the airport commission’s decision, although Planning Director Robert Lewis is secretary of the commission. The commission met last week and reached a decision that the public is obstructed from knowing. Apparently, the Planning Department takes the minutes, but they were not available for view on Monday. Therefore, the public, including state and federal agencies, have no chance to analyze the commission’s recommendation. The public does not know if this recommendation requires state and/or federal approval and if that approval is or is not forthcoming, or when it might be. Yet, according to planning department staff, whatever the decision of the ALUC may be, whatever state and federal approval or disapproval it requires, somehow the reduction in size of the noise zone around the airport will appear in the final RMP EIR after the public hearing is closed, at the board’s Dec. 12 meeting.

This project should not go forward until the public and agencies have had a chance to analyze the impacts of the proposed changes at the airport. The FEIR needs to be recirculated, incorporating all documents related to the ALUC recommendation. The airport decision must be treated as a separate project now, because throughout the development of the RMP project, it has been on an unrelated track and cannot be joined at this late date.

According to testimony by the airport manager, the RMP would bring a significant increase in air traffic to the airport. There is no environmental analysis of this significant increase. In fact, there is no environmental or economic analysis of this significant increase. However, in terms of RMP project, it represents a significant, unanalyzed change in the project.

Just because the RMP project cannot go forward without adjustments to the airport noise regulations does not mean that the FEIR and the ALUC decision are part of the same project for planning or bureaucratic purposes. Under CEQA, the needs of the public for access to information and public debate, not the needs of the developer, define the description of the project and proper legal processes in the decision-making.

We submitted the same packet of material to the county Planning Commission on the following day, Oct. 25. We were unable to finish our testimony orally in the time permitted. At the end of the meeting, after the planning commission had made its decision to advise the board to approve the project, our packet was still lying in the basket beside the podium – one more example of the failure of the county to respect and properly consider important information about this project submitted by the public.

4. Immediate issues of public information access

The County has failed to provide the public with a copy of the indemnification agreement between it and RMP. The public has been unable to obtain a copy of the indemnification agreement, therefore the citizens of Merced County do not know what is and what is not indemnified by the developer of this project, who will pay what to whom in case of litigation on a number of possible problems, including fire and police protection, public safety and environmental issues.

The board public hearing on the RMP project was scheduled on the Tuesday following a three-day weekend. Normally, the public would have had access to the staff report for the hearing on Friday. On Friday, the office was closed. But, on Monday, at noon, the public and state and federal resource agencies were unable to get a new staff report, unable to get the ALUC decision, and was not given the opportunity to review the public testimony submitted, the summary report or the minutes of the planning commission hearing. The County is once again obstructing public access to vital information as if the County were above the laws of CEQA and public process.

The County did not make the new staff report to the public (including state and federal agencies) until 4:30 p.m. on Monday, the day before the hearing. Nothing could better express the County’s complete contempt for the public and favoritism for special development interests. It also perfectly expresses the County’s lack of respect for law and elemental fairness.

5. Failure to consult federal resource agencies

Canal Creek, along with its associated wetlands and limited tree cover, passes through the northeast corner and to the east of the RMP site. From the project site, Canal Creek flows southwest through Atwater into Black Rascal Creek and eventually into Bear Creek and the San Joaquin River. Canal Creek is a perennial tributary.

Just beyond the northeast boundary is the Castle Dam, a 6,400 acre-foot capacity dry flood control facility operated by the Merced Irrigation District.”

--P. 2-3 Riverside Motorsports Park Draft Master Plan.

This statement, in conjunction with state Department of Fish and Game directive, triggered the necessity of County and proponent consultation with federal resource regulatory agencies. The County and proponents failed to engage in that consultation, fatally damaging the environmental review of the RMP project.

The RMP project lies inside the federal Endangered Species Act critical habitat designation for the 15 endangered species associated with vernal pools. It also lies directly across an endangered San Joaquin Kit Fox migration corridor. The creek running through the project area connects with navigable waters of the US.

However, there is no evidence that – despite the state Department of Fish and Game advise to the County and project proponents – that either the County or proponents ever consulted on these three important federal resource issues, growing more critical in Merced County by the month with the cumulative impacts caused by development induced by UC Merced on valuable eastern Merced County wildlife habitat.

The recent federal court ruling upheld the critical habitat designation. The project area lies well within the US Fish & Wildlife Service Recovery Plan for Vernal Pools, and the Service has designated the project area as part of a vital corridor for kit fox east-to-west migration. Until the issue of the connectivity of the creek running through the project site is established by the US Army Corps of Engineers, this project cannot go forward just because the County and proponents have ignored their legal obligations under ESA and the federal Clean Water Act to consult with the federal resource regulatory agencies.

In addition, this project lies within the boundaries of UC Merced and state and federal agencies’ Contiguous Band of Natural Lands and Wildlife-Compatible Farmland that Should Be Maintained. UC Merced regards the existing orchard on the project site as important agricultural land for protection and for the mitigation of take of wildlife habitat. In addition to failing to consult with federal resource regulatory agencies, the Merced County Department of Planning and Community Development failed to consult with the UC Merced Development Planning office.

Merced County, home of UC Merced, is long past the point where it can claim ignorance of federal resource agency jurisdiction over large parts of eastern, as well as western Merced County. The County was notified in September by the state Department of Fish and Game to consult with federal resource agencies.

The RMP project should be re-circulated because the federal agencies were not properly notified by either project proponents, which is understandable, or by the land-use authority, Merced County, which is neither understandable nor legally defensible.

There is no analysis of the impact to species associated with wetlands immediately north of the project at Castle Dam. There is no environmental analysis of the effects of the proposed sound berm on water flowing toward the site.

In the draft EIR, p. 4.4-1 project consultants refer to the Merced Basin Groundwater Management Plan. In fact, the plan does not exist and cannot be used as an authoritative policy document.

6. Failure to do economic analysis on impacts to the Castle Commerce-Aviation & Economic Development area.

A Castle airport manager testified to the planning commission that the RMP project would increase traffic to and from the airport. The RMP final EIR lists 34 significant, unavoidable environmental impacts. The board will have no basis on which to override them but economic. This it will done without any analysis of the economic impacts to the Castle economic development area from being adjacent to a regional auto racing facility subject to periodic traffic jams that, if the track is successful, can only increase in number over time. How will the racetrack economically impact the Castle enterprise with its foreign-trade zone designation, conducive to a number of enterprises that could have provided thousands of jobs fitting the skill level of tens of thousands of Merced’s existing residents? We don’t know and this EIR doesn’t mention the subject. An economic override that lacks any analysis of the economic impacts of the project is not legally compliant.

7. Moratorium until General Plan Update

Planners in Merced County – whether they work for the county planning department, UC Merced, Castle, Merced County Association of Governments or the various cities – have failed to consider the cumulative economic as well as environmental impacts of rapidly sprouting commercial zones, particularly along the Highway 99 corridor. Following on the section above, this is working an economic hardship on plans for the development of Castle, but, overall, it is creating a series of disconnected “anchor tenant” areas, which will induce growth around them. In light of the third failure to pass a sales tax increase to fund road construction and improvement in a county with a general plan so weak and out- of-date it is useless as a planning-guidance tool, these competing commercial zones will soon create traffic-circulation havoc, adding measurably to air pollution, and may produce economic havoc as well. But we don’t know, because there has been no analysis of the economic impacts of chaotic growth in a county with a moribund general plan.

The lack of analysis of cumulative economic and environmental impacts from the chaotic growth in Merced requires the public to demand a moratorium on any more projects not already approved by appropriate local, state and federal agencies. RMP is not approved by the appropriate agencies, therefore the board should not approve it before the county general plan has been fully updated in a legally compliant fashion.

8. Conclusion

The board of supervisors must deny the Riverside Motorsports Park General Plan Amendment No. GPA03-005, Zone Change Application No. ZC03-007, the Board of Supervisors’ override of the Castle Airport Land Use Commission, the Environmental Checklist, the Notice of Application, Draft Master Plan, Draft EIR, Final EIR, Appendices to Vol. 2, Response to Comments, Vol. 1, Staff Report, Findings, Resolutions and Overrides, and Indemnification.

The process that produced these documents was seriously flawed by

· an inadequate project description that can be modified at will by administrative decision without public review;
· serious conflicts of interest involving at least two members of the board voting on the project and the applicant’s claims nearly two years ago that he already had a super-majority of supervisors in his pocket;
· segmenting and peacemealing the entirely different project of the override of the Castle Land Use Commission decision, which requires its own EIR;
· deliberate failure of the County to make essential project documents available to the public in a timely manner;
· failure of the land-use authority to perform its mandatory duty to consult federal resource regulatory agencies on the environmental impacts of the proposed project;
· failure to do any analysis on the economic impacts of the proposed project on the Castle Commercial-Aviation Economic Development area;
· failure of the County to do cumulative economic impact studies on the impacts of this proposed project and other commercial, growth-inducing anchor tenants;
· failure of the County to consider the negative impact on the proposed project of the third failure of the transportation tax measure.

Sincerely,

Lydia Miller Steve Burke

Attachments:
TNC Predicted Vernal Pool Taxa
Dept. F&G San Joaquin Kit Fox Approximate Distribution
UC Merced San Joaquin Kit Fox Habitat Map
UC Merced Vernal Pool and Related Wetlands Map
“Supervisors override ban on building near airport,” Merced Sun-Star
Eastern Merced Bird List
US Fish and Wildlife Service Recovery Plan for Upland Species Map
US Fish and Wildlife Service Recovery Plan for Vernal Pool Ecosystems
( hard copy of Service recovery plan and above items delivered by hand along with this letter to the Board of Supervisors at its public hearing, Nov. 14, 2006)

All other attachments submitted electronically:
Eastern Merced Bird List
Silviera Bird List
UC Merced San Joaquin Kit Fox Habitat Map
UC Merced Vernal Pool and Related Wetlands Map
“Supervisors override ban on building near airport,” Merced Sun-Star
RMP articles
BadlandsJournal.com Riverside Motorsports Park CEO Letter to Investors
Vernal Pool Critical Habitat Lawsuit
Pacific Comtec lawsuit petition
Coalition Statement
US Fish and Wildlife Service Recovery Plan for Upland Species Map
TNC Predicted Vernal Pool Taxa
Dept. F&G San Joaquin Kit Fox Approximate Distribution

Cc: Interested parties
BadlandsJournal

Our questions this evening for the McClatchy Chain's Washington correspondent are:

1) Didn't the federal Bureau of Reclamation, the Department of Commerce and representatives of 15,000 Friant irrigators settle with local, state and national environmental organizations on the question of letting water flow in the San Joaquin River again on behalf of the Chinook salmon, which is listed as a threatened species under the Engandered Species Act?

2) Hadn't the spring run of Chinook on the San Joaquin River been entirely wiped out in the 1950s as the result of drying up a 60-mile stretch of the river downstream from the Friant Dam and the Friant-Kern Canal?

3) Since when did Rep. RichPac Pombo, Realtor-Tracy, give a damn about that river, those fish, the San Joaquin River settlement agreement, or the ESA?

4) At least the way the Chain's DC correspondent wrote the story when it was happening, wasn't it Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-CA (whose reelection this year passed almost unnoticed in the revolt of the people against fascism) who put the little Valley congressmen together and made them pass a bill to fund part of the settlement?

5) Isn't Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-CA, now chairwoman of the Senate Enviroment and Public Works Committee?

6) Won't Feinstein's fellow San Franciscan, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, soon be the Speaker of the House?

7) Didn't the federal district court just reject the latest assault on the critical habitat designation under the ESA for 15 endangered species living in and around vernal pools, the richest fields of which lie in the congressional district of Rep. Dennis Cardoza, Pombo's Ghost-Merced?

8) Hadn't Pombo's Ghost written two unsuccessful bills to wipe out the critical habitat designation?

9) Haven't San Francisco Democrats known how to handle what are now called Blue Dogs since the days when Assembly Speaker Willie Brown put Assemblyman Gary Condit in a broom closet in the famous "Gang of Five" affair?

The doubts this story casts over the prospects of getting a bill through to partially fund the settlement has the fingerprints of the Modesto and Merced irrigation districts and Westlands Water District all over it, transmitted to the Chain's DC fabulist by Cardoza. While Democrat West Virginia Congressman Nick Rahall, to be the new chairman of the House Resources Committee, is unlikely to listen to Pombo's Ghost, wouldn't he be likely to listen to three extremely well placed Democrats from the San Francisco Bay area, all with demonstrable records favoring the environment, including the state's second longest, worst polluted river?

The only Valley congressman that performed any positive role in the settlement at all was Rep. George Radanovich, R-Mariposa, whose district contains the Friant Dam, Lake Millerton and the beginning of the canal. The McClatchy Chain clobbered Randanovich for his constructive role and applauded Pombo's Merced Ghost and the irrigation districts for attempted obstruction. Meanwhile, Rep. Devin Nunes, Rightwing Raver-Visalia, failing to impeach the federal judge who heard the case, howled on in Mcclatchy pages at the top of his lungs while his constituents quietly faced reality.

Cardoza gambled away his future the day he walked out of developer Fritz Grupe's Lodi ranch, arm-and-arm with Pombo, the man he then called "Mr. Chairman," and split a reported $50,000 with him of developer cash. The next thing we knew, the Pomboza, as we called them then, had fashioned the "aggressively bipartisan" bill to destroy the Endangered Species Act. The special interests then cleverly gave Cardoza a free ride to another term, hoping the Blue Dogs would still have some leverage. They won't. All Cardoza is now is Pombo's Ghost.

The feds are even looking at Merced County's Voting Rights Act violations now. We welcome any and all investigations into activities in the Merced County Administration Building, where Pombo's Ghost has his district office. Cardoza is all that's left of the powerful machine that railroaded through the UC Merced boondoggle and erected a splendid stonewall around Mad Cow Disease.

That machine -- "Honest Graft" is a good working title for it -- corrupted every environmental law and regulation and agency it could lay its sticky fingers on for the special interests of developer. Not content with environmental law, it corrupted every public process it could at the local, state Legislature and Congress level for the benefit of the same few special interests. This Honest Graft Machine brought us the worst air quality of any major farming area in America, a river -- the San Joaquin -- that has become an agricultural waste channel for almost 100 miles, reckless urban sprawl, mounting urban debt, and gigantic losses of some of the most productive agricultural land in the world. And the Honest Graft Machine did everything it could to obstruct the San Joaquin River settlement negotiations and attacked the agreement through the McClatchy Chain the moment it was signed.

So, to repeat, what makes the McClatchy Chain figure Pombo -- heir of Pombo Real Estate Farms in Tracy and, until two days ago, chieftain of the Honest Graft Machine -- would do or would have done anything to help the San Joaquin River settlement? This is an absurd news story.

Badlands editorial staff
-------------------------

Fresno Bee -- Nov. 9, 2006
Environmentalists happy to be back in the national conversation...Michael Doyle / Bee Washington Bureau
http://www.fresnobee.com/263/v-printerfriendly/story/12150.html
The "Western rebellion" that propelled California Republican Rep. Richard Pombo to power now has receded, leaving many of its most important goals unmet and possibly beyond reach. Democrats will run the House Resources Committee, which Pombo has led for the past four years. That will mean new priorities for parks, public lands and Western water. It could mean less attention to a proposed San Joaquin River restoration in California's Central Valley. The Western rebellion, also known as the Sagebrush rebellion, involves people in the West who think the federal government oversteps itself on property rights issues, especially regarding enforcement of the Endangered Species Act. They also chafe over the fact that half the West is owned by the federal government instead of private interests. The probable new chair of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee is California Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer. She's one of the Senate's most liberal members; the current chairman, Oklahoma Republican James Inhofe, is among the most conservative. The changing cast of characters will play out in many ways: The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge oil-and-gas drilling perennially championed by House Republicans won't go anywhere in the next Congress. Drilling off the coast of Florida or other states becomes a real long shot. The Endangered Species Act, which Pombo built his career on combating, has a new lease on life. The Democrat who's poised to become House Resources Committee chairman, Rep. Nick Rahall of West Virginia, voted against Pombo's Endangered Species Act legislation. As a lame duck, Pombo will have much less clout in moving the legislation that's needed to implement a multihundred-million-dollar San Joaquin River restoration plan. The legislation, yet to be introduced by Mariposa Republican Rep. George Radanovich, is needed to finish settling a long-running lawsuit that would return salmon to the river. Backers of the San Joaquin River plan had hopes of getting the bill introduced and passed during the upcoming lame-duck session; that now seems remote.

The Badlands Journal editorial staff has few opportunities to defend the honor of the Merced Sun-Star. But, fair is fair. A working girl's got rights, too. On Primary Election night, the Sun-Star committed an act of photojournalism. It took a picture of Jesse "The Crestfallen" Brown, director of Merced County Association of Governments and manager of the failed Measure A campaign. Brown's face expressed bewilderment and despair in a painful moment of political defeat. But the special interests behind the measure to raise sales taxes to pay for the UC Loop Road, maybe the Los Banos By-Pass, and at least for the potholes in front of Brown's office, plunged fiercely forward with a new campaign in the General -- Measure G. As predicted by the campaign's own polling, Measure G also failed. The Sun-Star worked as diligently for both measures as an escort service in duck season. But, it's not good form to invite the party girl to the funeral.

From the Sun-Star's blog, "Sunspot":http://sunspot.mercedsunstar.com/

Nov. 7, 2006
Speaking of Measure G ...
Submitted by Joseph Kieta, Merced Sun-Star editor

Each election night, Sun-Star reporters and photographers patrol various political parties to get photos and talk with the winners and losers. Just about every newspaper does this ... they're not the most exciting photos and the comments can be predictable, but sometimes we get something surprising and interesting for you, our readers.

Don't expect to see a photo out of the Measure G party. Jennifer West, the Measure G campaign manager, said the gathering of supporters will be held at a private home (we hear it's her house) and a Sun-Star reporter and a photographer are only welcome if Measure G wins.
------------

Nov. 9, 2006
Measure G not likely to come back soon...Leslie Albrecht
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/local/story/12988694p-13639087c.html
If Merced County votes on a transportation tax measure again, it probably won't happen until the country selects its next president...2008 is the earliest. Measure G, which failed Tuesday, was the third version of a transportation tax that voters have decided on in the past four years... earned 60.66 percent of the vote, falling short of the "super majority," or 66.7 percent, approval it needed to pass. "I think obviously we need to do a better job of education," Spriggs said. "We need to do a better job in the next couple of years of educating folks." Whether voters will see the measure again is up to the Merced County Association of Governments governing board... All five county supervisors and one elected official from each of the county's six incorporated cities serve on the board. But the public will have a chance to weigh in too, said Jesse Brown, executive director of MCAG. Starting early next year, MCAG will hold a series of public workshops to update the transportation expenditure plan, the document that lists the county's top transportation priorities. During the transportation plan's 2001 update, public input drove the decision to pursue a transportation tax ballot measure and the long list of projects the tax would fund, Brown said. Now the public will be asked to help form a new plan that doesn't include the sales tax as a funding source, Brown said.

Upon receiving the terrible news of the defeat of Rep. RichPAC Pombo, not-yet-indicted-Tracy, developers were alarmed at the possible loss of the Pomboza, that giant wannabe Endangered Species Act Slayer that stalked the north San Joaquin Valley casting its dark and menacing shadow over every square foot of remaining open space and wildlife habitat.

Rumor has it the Pomboza lives on, if only in mutation.

At a recent fundraiser, Rep. Dennis Cardoza, Gofer-Merced, reportedly roasted a staffer in front of a large crowd for about a half an hour. Robin Adam, the victim, had either left Cardoza of his own accord or with an assist, to join the staff of Assemblywoman-elect Cathleen Galgiani, Blonde-Stockton. People who attended the fundraiser found the roasting distasteful in view of the fact that Adam had served Cardoza loyally since their days as lady-mudwrestling impresarios at the Cardoza family bowling alley.

This morning we may have found out why Cardoza had made room in his staff. The hush-hush inside skinny that his next chief of staff could be Pombo.

According to the unverified rumor, the developer directorate that arranged Cardoza would run essentially unopposed in this election will rename the Pomboza as they renamed Measure A of the Primary Election Measure G of the General Election.

Enter Cardombo the Gofer.
-----------------

Nov. 8, 2006

Merced Sun-Star
Thanks to voters, Cardoza cruises back into Washington...Corinne Reilly
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/local/story/12984801p-13635531c.html
California's 18th Congressional District wasn't whether Dennis Cardoza would win, but rather by how much. By a landslide. "It's a great night for America, it's a great night for California and it's a great night for Merced," Cardoza said Tuesday night, speaking before a crowd of about 100 people at a victory party at the Branding Iron restaurant in Merced. "We have a great margin of victory and I couldn't be more pleased."... said he looks forward to serving another term in a now Democratic House, a shift that he said will mean a more fiscally responsible and productive Congress. As a popular incumbent in a Democratic leaning district who outspent his opponent by more than six times... He names his ongoing efforts to overhaul the national Farm Bill as a top local priority for his next term. 18th Congressional District includes San Joaquin, Stanislaus, Merced, Madera and Fresno counties.

Modesto Bee
Democrat McNerney unlikely winner over GOP Rep. Pombo...Erica Werner, AP
http://www.modbee.com/state_wire/story/12984781p-13635497c.html
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Jerry McNerney was an unlikely candidate to take down a powerful GOP committee chairman. McNerney did not even have the support of Democratic Party leaders in the primary, and he lost badly two years ago to the man he soundly defeated Tuesday: House Resources Committee Chairman Richard Pombo, R-Tracy. He beat Pombo 53 percent to 47 percent. The unconventional resume didn't matter as national environmental groups made the race a referendum on Pombo, angry over the incumbent's support for energy and gas drilling, privatizing public lands and rewriting the Endangered Species Act to add protections for landowners. The Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife and other groups spent more than $1 million to defeat Pombo and declared victory when they succeeded. After Tuesday's victory was secured, McNerney got a congratulatory call from former President Bill Clinton. His son, Michael, also spoke briefly with Clinton.

Sacramento Bee
Pombo loses his bid for eight term...Herbert A. Sample, Bee San Francisco Bureau
http://www.sacbee.com/111/v-print/story/73511.html
With nearly all of the vote counted, Democrat Jerry McNerney held a 53 percent to 47 percent lead in California's 11th Congressional District, which includes much of San Joaquin County and portions of Contra Costa, Alameda and Santa Clara counties. Though political observers rated the contest a toss-up before Election Day, a McNerney victory came as a surprise because Republican voters constitute a plurality in the 11th Congressional District. Pombo...has contended that whatever difficulties his re-election drive encountered had little to do with Iraq or Abramoff, and more to do with concerted efforts of environmental groups and other critics who targeted his race.

Challenge to habitat rejected...Denny Walsh
http://www.sacbee.com/378/v-print/story/72586.html
U.S. agency correctly designated vernal pools, judge says. The home-building industry had challenged the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's designation... U.S. District Judge William B. Shubb in Sacramento ruled that the agency's work passed muster on every point except when it did not designate as critical habitat two tracts involving ongoing public projects.

Stockton Record
McNerney topples Pombo in close House race...Hank Shaw and Zachary K. Johnson
http://recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061108/A_NEWS/611080361
Rep. Richard Pombo met his electoral end at The Waterloo on Tuesday night to a little-known wind energy consultant from Pleasanton. Jerry McNerney declared victory at 12:15 a.m. today, leading 52.3 percent to 47.7 percent with 90 percent of the precincts reporting, including 100 percent from San Joaquin County. For the first time in 14 years, Pombo had met an opponent able to match him ad for ad, volunteer for volunteer, issue for issue. Pombo was supposed to roll over McNerney a second time. The 11th District leans Republican; Pombo is a seven-term incumbent with a huge money advantage and an opponent considered too liberal even by the national Democratic Party. McNerney never quit. He mortgaged his house, dropped everything and set his career on hold for two years to campaign for Pombo's seat.He hired a staff skilled in running grass-roots, ground-level campaigns and tapped progressives from Manteca to Maine for more than $1 million in small checks - enough to offset Pombo's advantage with Washington, D.C.-based political action committees. And McNerney was not without friends. A slew of environmental groups, led by Defenders of Wildlife, the Sierra Club and the League of Conservation Voters, kept up a constant attack on Pombo's environmental record for more than a year.
EDITOR'S NOTE: In the final edition of Wednesday's printed version of The Record, we made an error. We had Jerry McNerney's first name incorrect. It happened as we rushed to get the final results into the paper at about 1 a.m. While we did not catch the mistake until after the newspaper had been printed, we have corrected the story on our Web site. We apologize for the error. Mike Klocke, editor
Reader Reaction
NavyVet...November 08, 2006 11:42 AM
The election results are disappointing to me, but not necessarily surprising. Now we'll just have to wait and see if the democrats can actually put a plan in place to fix some of these problems, or if all of the political hype and rhetoric was just that. Was I the only one who found it odd that the democratic party wouldn't take any steps to make "improvements" before the election? That shows that the country and it's best iterests play second fiddle to politics and power grabs.
eyewhitie...November 08, 2006 11:34 AM
Well, richie rich pobomb, your family is going to have to find another job, unless you're allowed to funnel leftover campaign funds to them. When the Dems take the Senate, the Grand Jury will want to be talking to you soon. Your family can always go back to stealing more land in Tracy.
mike_coleman...November 08, 2006 11:30 AM
I am a life long Republican and voted for Richard Pombo many times, but not this time. Mr. Pombo forgot why we sent him there. He became more concerned with things that were important to him and his land rich family than to the people he represented. But Mr. McNerney should take note. Remember who sent you to Washington and why. Be true to the environment and to the people of this district and bring our soldiers home or suffer Mr. Pombo's fate.
chink...November 08, 2006 11:12 AM
THIS MAKE DAY GOOD. EAT SWEET CAKE NOW. EVEN RAINY DAY NOT GET ME DOWN.

Tracy Press
Pombo defeated...John Upton, Danielle MacMurchy, Phil Hayworth
http://tracypress.com/content/view/5501/2/
In a night that saw Democrats sweep to power in the House of Representatives, little-known challenger Jerry McNerney unseated Tracy's Rep. Richard Pombo from his perch as one of Congress' more powerful chairmen. In a stinging defeat, voters dumped Tracy’s 14-year congressman, Rep. Richard Pombo, from power Tuesday... Robert Benedetti, University of the Pacific government and politics professor, said the campaign was fought on national issues instead of local issues. He said Pombo’s agricultural base has been eroded as more people moved from cities into the district, and said McNerney had limited involvement in local politics to tout. Pombo encouraged the formation of a coalition that’s never worked together before,” said Defenders of Wildlife President Roger Schlickeisen. “It was really Pombo that drew us into this.”

San Francisco Chronicle
Challenger defeats Pombo in a stunner...Rachel Gordon
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2006/11/08/MNG9LM8JDV4.DTL&type=printable
Pombo-McNerney matchup got the most attention, due to Pombo's high-profile as chairman of the powerful House Resources Committee. The Sierra Club and other environmental groups targeted him as an "eco-thug" who once proposed selling off some national parks, led the drive to open Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling, wants to let states drill for oil and gas off their coasts, and has pushed to revamp the Endangered Species Act to provide more rights for property owners. "We're thrilled," said Roger Schlickeisen, president of Defenders of Wildlife Action Fund, which made Pombo its top target in the congressional races. "Not only was he a vote against the environment, but as committee chair he could push his agenda.''

Inside Bay Area
Pombo's defeat recharges environmental movement...Douglas Fisher
http://www.insidebayarea.com/portlet/article/html/fragments/print_article.jsp?articleId=4624962&siteId=181
Finally the environment has a voice in Congress. Activists, emboldened by Democratic gains across the nation Tuesday, savored what Carl Pope of the Sierra Club called "the most successful mid-term election for the environmental movement" since at least 1974. And the "sweetest victory of the night" was the toppling of Republican Rep. Richard Pombo by wind-energy consultant Jerry McNerney. McNerney captured "Pombo country"...Pombo, a once-and-future rancher and real estate developer, chairman of House Resources Committee and easily Public Enemy No. 1 of Sierra Club & Co., goes home after 14 years in Congress. Pope, the Sierra Club's executive director..."This sends a clear message to those who might share (Pombo's) ideology: When it comes to elections, the environment is a giant killer." And not just in California. Environmental groups targeted more than 30 "top of the ticket" elections across the nation and came up winners in almost all cases...

Contra Costa Times
In huge upset, voters oust Pombo...Lisa Vorderbrueggen, Thomas Peele and Ryan Huff
http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/15955890.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
U.S. Rep. Richard Pombo, once thought invincible in a safe GOP seat, has been turned out by voters in the Democratic storm that roared across the country Tuesday. With all the precincts tallied, Democratic challenger Jerry McNerney of Pleasanton held a solid lead of 6 percentage points and more than 10,000 votes. The race will go down in California history as a massive upset in a district... Pombo aides said they would wait until all votes had been counted. Pombo is expected to hold a press conference sometime Wednesday. But it was a bitter loss for the proud incumbent who had easily won re-election six times and rose to become the chairman of the powerful House Resources Committee, where his conservative policies made him a prime target of environmentalists.

Mercury News
Pombo defeated by challenger McNerney in House fight...Barbara Feder Ostrov
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/politics/elections/15955541.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp
With more than 99 percent of precincts reporting at 2:30 a.m. today, seven-term Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Stockton, faced defeat by Democratic challenger Jerry McNerney..t. Political observers predicted that Pombo could be swept from office by a national tide of anti-Republican sentiment. Washington Post ranked Pombo's campaign among the 10 worst-run incumbent campaigns in the country, and the Tracy rancher faced a last-minute onslaught of campaigning by well-financed environmental groups supporting McNerney. The race looked like many across the country, with an upstart Democrat becoming a serious challenger in what previously had been considered a safe Republican district. National politicians on both sides of the aisle considered it a high-stakes battle, with former President Bill Clinton stumping for McNerney and both President Bush and first lady Laura Bush rallying the party faithful on Pombo's behalf in the campaign's final stretch. As recently as three months ago, McNerney, a left-leaning wind energy consultant, was an underdog not even supported by his own party. But more recent polls showed McNerney gaining as Pombo faced anger from voters over his stay-the-course stance on Iraq and links to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. The race was an expensive one, with campaign contributions of more than $2.5 million pouring in on both sides.

Los Angeles Times
Feinstein wins 4th term, Pombo defeated...Rone Tempest and Dan Morain
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/politics/cal/la-110806calcong,1,2830985,print.story
In the most competitive of California's 53 congressional contests, seven-term incumbent Rep. Richard W. Pombo (R-Tracy) was defeated by Democratic challenger Jerry McNerney to represent what had been a comfortably Republican district stretching from Stockton to the Bay Area's eastern suburbs. With 99% of the votes counted, Pombo trailed his challenger by 47% to 53%. Pombo angered environmentalists last year when his committee staff proposed selling off 15 national park sites, including more than 15 million pristine acres in Alaska...also urged more offshore oil drilling, a step that incurred Feinstein's wrath...his effort to weaken the Endangered Species Act went "to the core of what we fight for," said Mark Longabaugh, political director of Defenders of Wildlife, which joined with Americans for Conservation to spend more than $1 million to oust Pombo. Texas financier David Bonderman, a business associate of Feinstein's husband, Richard Blum, gave at least $375,000 to the groups. Getty heiress Anne Earhart of Corona del Mar gave $100,000, and Julie Packard of Soquel, Calif., gave $50,000. Pombo and his supporters gathered Tuesday night at the Waterloo restaurant outside Stockton and acknowledged that the race was tight. "I wouldn't change a thing," he said, referring to his political stands. He also took a swipe at Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco), probably the next speaker of the House, saying: "I hope she does a better job as speaker than she did as minority leader." According to pollster Ben Tulchin of Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research...Pombo's stands on the environment were to the right of most voters in his district, one that has become less conservative as the suburban population has grown east of the Oakland hills in Pleasanton, Danville and Livermore. "The reality is that Pombo gave all the environmental groups a lot of things to work with," said Tulchin, retained by Defenders of Wildlife to survey the district.

Informed Comment
by Juan Cole
http://www.juancole.com/2006/11/is-bush-unhinged-calling-hannah-arendt.html#comments

Tuesday, November 07, 2006

Is Bush Unhinged?
Calling Hannah Arendt

Journalist Bill Gallagher of Detroit's Channel 2 News joins Andrew Sullivan in asking the increasingly unavoidable question: Is George W. Bush Criminally Insane? Gallagher writes:

' Bush's fantasies are even disturbing his fans. In a sit-down with wire-service reporters, Bush assured them that Rumsfeld, the most incompetent man on earth, would keep his job for two more years. Maybe in the last days of the Republican-dominated Congress, Bush can get him declared Defense Secretary for Life, sort of an American Raul Castro.

Gushing over Rummy and Dick Cheney, the two principal thugs who lied to get us into Iraq and designed the disaster, Bush claimed they "are doing a fantastic job and I strongly support them."

The remark prompted conservative columnist Andrew Sullivan to raise the question of Bush's mental fitness. Sullivan told CNN Bush is so delusional, "this is not an election anymore, it's an intervention."

Sullivan, long a cheerleader for the war in Iraq, said Bush is "so in denial" he simply can't come to grips with his failure: "It's unhinged. It suggests this man has lost his mind. No one objectively could look at the way this war has been conducted, whether you were for it, as I was, or against it, and say that is has been done well. It's a disaster."

Sullivan added, "For him to say it's a fantastic job suggests the president has lost it. I'm sorry, there is no other way to say it."

The president's nanny corps -- his mother, his wife, State Department hands Condoleezza Rice and Karen Hughes -- know he's unhinged, but are too loyal to share that disturbing truth with the world. Republican House Majority Leader John Boehner tried to shift responsibility for the Iraq disaster away from Rumsfeld. Boehner quickly filled the disgraced Tom DeLay's shoes as the most loathsome member of Congress.

Boehner told CNN, "Let's not blame what's happening in Iraq on Rumsfeld. But the fact is, the generals on the ground are in charge, and he works closely with them and the president." '

My own answer: Bush is not insane, he is just not very good at putting policy into effect. That is, he is a mediocre leader who has to cover up his horrible mistakes with optimistic slogans because his lack of leadership skills leaves him with no practical alternative. Give me an example of any positive and successful accomplishment of his presidency, unmarred by substantial failures. Afghanistan? Israel-Palestine? Lebanon? Iraq? Al-Qaeda? Domestically, he has, by cutting taxes on billionaires, run up the national debt by trillions, and boasts in that insane yet just mediocre way of his that the deficit is "coming down." He put the expense of the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars off-budget, and somehow the business page journalists haven't managed to notice that the deficit is not actually less than $300 billion if you count the wars. Nor is adding even $290 billion a year to the national debt a positive accomplishment. We pay interest on that debt, folks.

posted by Juan @ 11/07/2006 06:34:00 AM

If, as is widely prophesized, the Democrats take control at least of the House of Representatives, even without a policy on the war, out of sheer partisan vindictiveness, they will remove odious Republican committee chairmen like Rep. RichPAC Pombo, Crook-CA, and James Sensenbrenner, Numbnut Knucklehead-WI, reduce the power of lunatics like Rep. Tom Tancredo, Racist-CO, and put congressmen like Rep. Dennis Cardoza -- "I never heard of Pombo," Merced, in their appropriate political broom closets. They will also replace Rep. Dennis Hastert, Graft-IL as speaker.

In the nation we live in, these are positive gains. While they will not in themselves restore democracy, they are a step toward restoring a republic.

Meanwhile, of course, the debate on the sanity of the president will rage on, begging the question of trying to establish dynastic succession in the American system of government.

Bill Hatch