GRoK This!
SMWD Directors vote to double their compensation
In a 5-0 vote on Wednesday, the directors of the Santa Margarita Water District(SMWD) doubled the maximum compensation that they are allowed to receive. This goes into effect immediately. Prior to this, the five directors were allowed $175 per meeting, up to six meetings a month. For the board as a whole, this was a maximum of $63,000 per year. Now they receive $210 per meeting, up to ten meetings a month. For the board as a whole, this is a maximum of $126,000, which is double the previous amount.
There was a public hearing section of the meeting, where we were allowed to speak. For my turn, I mentioned that they may want to consider the following items:
- The nation is in a recession, and tens of thousands of people are losing their jobs,
- The district has just received their first fine ever for sewage spills, in the amount of $133,190, for 800,000+ gallons of sewage spilled last year,
- And for the very first act after the election, where all of the incumbents got re-elected,
- They are going to double their compensation
My arguments were rationalized away and the board went ahead and gave themselves a raise.
See also the article in the OC Register.
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Posted at 08:27PM Dec 18, 2008 by Gary Kephart in General | Comments[1]
SMWD in the news
The Santa Margarita Water District usually keeps out of the news, even when there's 100,000 gallon sewage spills. Not this time. There's a sewage spill that they're getting fined for, plus, the directors want an increase in pay.
From the OC Register: The Santa Margarita Water District was fined $133,190 Wednesday for two sewage breaks that occurred in 2007 and spilled more than 800,000 gallons of raw sewage. The fine by the San Diego Region of the California Regional Water Quality Control Board is the first of its kind against the district...The board vote was 6-2 to levy the fine against the district. The two Orange County representatives on the board, Gary Thompson, the mayor of Rancho Santa Margarita, and Kris Weber of Ladera Ranch voted against the fine.
Also from the OC Register: The Santa Margarita Water District's board of directors will hold a public hearing to consider giving themselves a raise, after going five years without one. The hearing on the proposal is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 17, at district headquarters, 26111 Antonio Parkway, Las Flores. The proposal would increase board member's pay from $175 for each day's service to $210. The proposal, if approved, would also increase the number of meetings a board member could be paid for each month from six days to 10.
I'll be there at the meeting. Come and join me.
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Posted at 07:07PM Dec 13, 2008 by Gary Kephart in General |
Homework for SMWD customers
If you're a customer of SMWD, take a minute and go to their website and find out the date of the December Board meeting. Go ahead. I'll wait.
Find it? If you looked under Leadership, you'd find a note stating "held every fourth Wednesday of the month at 7 p.m. in the boardroom at District headquarters". First, why is that on the leadership page? Why not on the front page, to make it as easy as possible for people to attend the meeting? Second, that would be December 24, which is the day before Christmas. Hmm. Sounds like they might want to move that. Well, they did, but you wouldn't know that from the website. You'd have to open the agenda for the November meeting and scroll to the bottom. There you would see that the meeting had been moved to December 17. Again, why isn't that information on the front page?
I'm glad that the district has finally decided to start adding agendas to the website. Note that they only have June through November listed. Not having agendas and meeting minutes on the website was something that I was campaigning about. I'm hoping that my campaign had something to do with the district deciding to post the agendas. I just hope now that the election is over that they'll keep posting the agendas.
Speaking of that, where's the December agenda? We're ten days away from the meeting, and it's not listed. They managed to post the election results quickly enough, but haven't gotten around to this month's agenda yet.
Well, I'll be there at the next meeting. I'm hoping you'll join me. "Water is the new oil" and we all should be aware of what's happening in our own water districts.
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Posted at 07:49PM Dec 07, 2008 by Gary Kephart in General |
Governor Oblivious
I'm a meat-eater. And I understand where our meat comes from. Haven't been to a slaughterhouse before, but wouldn't object to visiting one because I think it's important that we really do understand what happens. I think that our society has a sterilized view of what happens to get that cow, or turkey, onto our plate, especially compared to our society just, oh, 100 years ago. However, I understand that a lot of people do want that sterilized view. So, we should be a bit sensitive to that.
This is where Governor Palin comes in.
How could she not know what's happening in the background? And if she did know, how could she not know that some people could object to seeing it?
Posted at 05:24AM Nov 29, 2008 by Gary Kephart in General |
Tap, tap, tap...is this thing on?
It's been a while since I blogged. Probably close to a year. Now, though, my campaign is done and I have time to do this. First things first, though. Gotta check to see if all this still works.
(Crossposting to LiveJournal, tribe.net and WordPress using Crossposter)
Posted at 09:02PM Nov 22, 2008 by Gary Kephart in General |
Earthquake
Had a medium-sized earthquake today. It was a 5.4 centered near Chino Hills.
I had just sat down in my car to run some errands at lunch when it hit. For a split second, I though it was just the normal effect of when you sit in the car and it moves. But it kept going. I've never felt an earthquake in a car before. The shocks worked great. 
So I got out and made a quick call to Laura, not realizing where the quake was. She said she was ok but had to check out her building and residents, so I said bye and hung up. Lots of Twitters after that for a while from various people.
Being a SoCal native, you can just wake me up when we get a 6.0+.
Posted at 12:06PM Jul 29, 2008 by Gary Kephart in General |
I'm convinced that the only remaining purpose of the little toe
is to get stubbed on big, heavy outdoor furniture.
Posted at 06:30AM Jul 21, 2008 by Gary Kephart in General |
Coyotes
This is what I sent out to my neighbors a couple of weeks ago.
Neighbors,
After *two* encounters today, I think I should write you all a warning.
This morning, when walking my dog, we passed by the Oak Knoll clubhouse. The crows were really agitated. When I got around the bushes, I saw them dive bombing a coyote in the parking lot. The coyote finally went on its way, and according to another dog walker, found its way back into the canyon.
This evening, when I got home, I took my dog outside to the front lawn (we live on the corner of Dawnwood and Calm Creek). I was standing next to our tree, which is near the corner of our lot, and our dog was not too far away. I was looking around when I realized that on the other side of the fence on the sidewalk at the corner, a coyote was just standing there. I yelled at it and it ran away and I got my dog inside, but I consider that a very close call.
So please watch your pets carefully! The coyotes are no doubt hungry. And remember that they can jump 8 foot fences.
Posted at 04:40AM Jul 08, 2008 by Gary Kephart in General |
Bread and circuses
Just learned about this phrase, and here's the definition from Wikipedia.
"Bread and circuses" (panem et circenses) is an ancient Roman metaphor for people choosing food and fun over freedom. It often appears in commentary that accuses people of giving up their civic duty and following whichever political leader offers to satisfy their decadent desires.
Posted at 10:20AM Jul 07, 2008 by Gary Kephart in General |
Another good side effect of the new job
So, not only by having this new job in San Clemente am I near the southern precincts of SMWD, but it appears that I'm down the street from the Surfrider foundation. I'd heard about them before, and so I wasn't surprised when I started researching the proposed Huntington Beach desalination plant that their name popped up. The assumption from various websites is that the clean water from the desal plant is going to SMWD which is going to feed it to the new development of 14,000 homes in Rancho Mission Viejo. Surfrider opposes the HB desal plant, and when I got on the phone with them, they suggested that I look on their website for specifics (here). They are a 501 c(3) and so can't endorse political candidates, but I'd still like to talk to them.
Posted at 12:42PM Jun 24, 2008 by Gary Kephart in General |
Elected!
I'm officially a publicly elected official. I've been elected to the OC Democrats Central Committee (CC) for Assembly District 71. I'm surprisingly unexcited, though. I was already appointed to the CC a year or so ago. I didn't campaign for this spot, being instead focused on my SMWD campaign. I figured that if I didn't get elected, then I could always be someone's alternate and therefore still be involved. I also figured that my chances were good of being one of the top six of the nine candidates. I came in fifth with 2583 votes.
What I am surprised about though, is that we had nine, count 'em nine, candidates! Usually, there's a shortage of candidates for AD71 and it doesn't even make it on the ballot. Four of us who made it are part of our Canyon Democrats club. I know the other two: Dave Sonneborn and Joe Kerr.
The sad part of the election was that Ron Shepston did not win his primary for CD42. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but I do appreciate the efforts he put into it. Go for it next time, Ron.
Posted at 09:00PM Jun 03, 2008 by Gary Kephart in General |
Encyclopaedia WoT comments
When originally creating the Encyclopaedia WoT, it was mainly because I thought it would be really handy to have a site like that and I thought others might like it as well. I never thought it would be as popular as it has become. Tor Publishing knows of the site, and it's listed in one of the books in the series. I've also had the chance to meet with the author (had dinner with him and a few others) and get an autographed pre-printing copy of one of the books. We've also had a number of wonderful comments like the following, which arrived the other day:
Thanks so much for making a website that is exactly what I need when reading these books. Im a huge Robert Jordan fan, and have read and reread most of the series, and no matter how much you read, there are always things you miss, dont remember, or dont fully unerstand, and this tool has been invaluable. Its not often when you find exactly what you need, and even when you do, its not always easy to find what you are looking for,but your site is easily navigated and a pleasure to use. Im saddened by Roberts passing, and i hope memory of light flows seamlessly with the rest of the series, but even if it doesnt, im sure your site will continue in its path of helping readers decipher events. Thanks again!
I'm just amazed and also very glad that I could contribute something that many people find very useful. And as always, I thank Bob Kluttz for writing a lot of the content.
Posted at 06:30AM May 23, 2008 by Gary Kephart in General |
Presidential race
I was originally a supporter of Gov. Bill Richardson, as he had the best resume, and was the only one who wasn't a Congressman. I even donated a bit of money to him. However, unfortunately, he didn't measure up when it came to presenting himself as presidential. So, when he dropped out on Jan 10, I switched to Sen. Edwards. I think I donated a little to him as well. But then he dropped out on Jan 30, right before our California primary on Feb 5. So, I voted for Obama. Since then, I've been waiting for Obama and Clinton to duke it out until there was only one before contributing any more money. I'd be happy with either of them in the White House, really. Then Richardson endorsed Obama on Mar 21, and now today, May 14, Edwards is going to endorse Obama as well. Sorry, Sen. Clinton, but this looks like the end. I'm still not going to donate until there's a winner, but I have a strong feeling I know to whom I'll be writing the check.
Besides, I still want to give to some local candidates.
Posted at 01:16PM May 14, 2008 by Gary Kephart in General |
Myanmar cyclone
We lost around 3,000 people in the 2001 terrorists attacks, with the deaths made even more tragic because it was humans killing other humans. However, nature has once again shown that it can do far worse on a whim: "The death toll from the cyclone that ravaged the Irrawaddy delta in Myanmar may exceed 100,000".
Posted at 12:07PM May 07, 2008 by Gary Kephart in General |
Treo 650 rebooting when receiving text messages
A while ago, I bought a Treo 650 to replace my dying Treo 600. However, I've been recently having it reboot when receiving text messages. No real pattern. I finally found what I hope is the answer to my problem: What to do when sending an SMS makes your Treo 650 reboot. Oh, and I found out that if you dial #*377 on your Treo after a crash, it'll give you the error message.
Tonight, I go see Ironman.
Posted at 09:42AM May 06, 2008 by Gary Kephart in General |