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Desal Advocacy and Conflict of Interest - Santa Cruz and Soquel Creek Water District
Last week at the so-called special joint study session, the City of Santa Cruz and Soquel Creek Water District rolled out their advocacy campaign to build political and public acceptance for the desal EIR study and approval of the regional desal plant.
All eyes are now on Santa Cruz , which should be considered the litmus test for the Monterey Bay Marine Sanctuary’s desal future. If the Santa Cruz “expandable” regional desal plant is approved, then desal industry leaders can easily pursue building a string of both boutique and large-scale installations along this environmentally sensitive coast. Although desal opponents always have been concerned about the environmental effects, the main focus of our current campaign will shift towards political-economic and violation of public trust issues. Of course, we will be continuing to advocate for the development of proven and much cheaper water management options, including groundwater replenishment, inter-district water transfers, wastewater reuse, capturing rainwater, water neutral development, and aggressive conservation.
A lack of transparency, overall exclusionary attitude, and cozy industry relationship by of our water agencies, is inspiring desal opponents, not only to challenge their political hegemony with renewed vigor, but to question the nature of regional water resource planning and growth management as a whole. From a preliminary examination of public records (see below), an inconvenient reality is coming into view that raises serious questions about the appearance of conflict of interest, cozy relationships, aggressive advocacy and lobbying, and lack of oversight and accountability.
All eyes are now on Santa Cruz , which should be considered the litmus test for the Monterey Bay Marine Sanctuary’s desal future. If the Santa Cruz “expandable” regional desal plant is approved, then desal industry leaders can easily pursue building a string of both boutique and large-scale installations along this environmentally sensitive coast. Although desal opponents always have been concerned about the environmental effects, the main focus of our current campaign will shift towards political-economic and violation of public trust issues. Of course, we will be continuing to advocate for the development of proven and much cheaper water management options, including groundwater replenishment, inter-district water transfers, wastewater reuse, capturing rainwater, water neutral development, and aggressive conservation.
A lack of transparency, overall exclusionary attitude, and cozy industry relationship by of our water agencies, is inspiring desal opponents, not only to challenge their political hegemony with renewed vigor, but to question the nature of regional water resource planning and growth management as a whole. From a preliminary examination of public records (see below), an inconvenient reality is coming into view that raises serious questions about the appearance of conflict of interest, cozy relationships, aggressive advocacy and lobbying, and lack of oversight and accountability.
Preface
CalDesal membership is divided about evenly between public agency officials, such as the directors of the Santa Cruz City and Soquel Creek Water districts, and a mixture of corporate CEOs and consultants looking to profit in the client-rich environment that CalDesal was designed to provide. CalDesal lobby’s extensively for desal projects and regulatory “streamlining” -- code for rolling back fundamental environmental protection and permitting rules that stand in the way of desal and unbridled development.
Based on a preliminary examination of public records, it might appear to an already skeptical community Bill Kocher may be spending too much of taxpayers’ and ratepayers’ time and money promoting desal and not enough looking out for the interests of residents and businesses of the cash strapped city paying him over $184,000 per year.
Desal Advocacy and Conflict of Interest - Santa Cruz and Soquel Creek Water District
Prepared by Paul Gratz
Co-author of Measure P
May 13, 2013
The City of Santa Cruz and Soquel Creek Water District are founding members (2010) of the 3-year old lobbyist organization CalDesal. The water industry organization politically advocates for desal development/deregulation and opposes anti-desal legislation. Registered with the Secretary of State (http://cal-access.ss.ca.gov/Lobbying/Employers/Detail.aspx?id=1336512&session=2011), CalDesal is a secretive organization and is not required to disclose its executive committee, membership or business plan. The general public and news media are not allowed at CalDesal meetings nor is it generally given meeting agendas and minutes. Also, the Public Records Act does not apply to CalDesal.
The CalDesal Board of Directors has private sector members as well as public agency members and it sponsors legislation (http://www.caldesal.org/about-caldesal/our-coalition/). According to the organization’s business plan, “It is the mission of CalDesal to be an advocate at the political, policy and regulatory level for desalination as a vital new source of Water for California . Our goal is to create a positive environment statewide for the acceptance of desalination and to reduce the impediments to its implementation.”
Bill Kocher, City of Santa Cruz Water Department Director , is Vice Chair of the CalDesal Board of Directors Executive Committee. Laura Brown, former Director of the Soquel Creek Water District, also served on the CalDesal Board of Directors. The annual membership fee for each agency is $5,000.
The CalDesal Regulatory Workgroup includes Mr. Kocher where he actively participates in making presentations, membership recruitment, meetings/conferences, workshops, planning retreats, hearings, and conference calls. Also he serves on the Program Workgroup.
Heidi Luckenbach, City of Santa Cruz Water Department Program Coordinator , is a member of the CalDesal Policy Research and Technical Paper Review Workgroup.
CalDesal advocacy activities/tactics include regular “CalDesal in Action” alerts sent to members only when letters, calls, and participation are needed on legislation and regulatory developments.
Mr. Kocher and City of Santa Cruz Water Commissioner Walt Wadlow are CalDesal executive committee members. Also, Mr. Kocher staffs the Water Commission (http://www.cityofsantacruz.com/index.aspx?page=3880). In 2012, Mr. Kocher and Mr. Wadlow assisted in the preparation of the desal advocacy document for the City of Santa Cruz entitled “Request for Proposals for a Public Education and Communication Plan for Water Supply Reliability.”
(http://www.cityofsantacruz.com/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=29401).
The City of Santa Cruz contracts an array of consultants (http://www.santacruzlive.com/documents/consultlist.pdf) to study, plan, and promote the proposed desal project who along with Mr. Kocher are also members of the CalDesal Board of Directors. They include: Carollo Engineers, Black & Veach Corp, Camp Dresser &McKee, Dudek, Kennedy-Jenks, and Tenera Environmental.
In 2006, Kennedy-Jenks and URS Corp. co-prepared the EIR for the UCSC Long Range Development Plan (LRDP) setting forth the campus growth objectives and the need for expanded water services by the City of Santa Cruz . URS Corp. is SF based multinational engineering & construction firm specializing in military, oil & energy/fracking, nuclear, mining, and dams and water infrastructure systems. At the time, on the board of directors of URS Corp. for 30 years was Richard Blum a UC Regent. Still a regent, he also manages a multi-billion dollar portfolio for Blum Capital and is the husband of Senator Dianne Feinstein.
In 2010, Kennedy-Jenks and CalDesal made political contributions to oppose Marin County ’s Measure T -- the community-driven “right to vote on desal” ballot measure. Also, Kennedy-Jenks and URS Corp. were the principle consultants working on the EIR for proposed Marin County Water Department desal project (http://www.marinwater.org/controller?action=opennews&id=43). At the time, the City of Santa Cruz and Soquel Water District were members of CalDesal and authorized the use of public and water ratepayer funds to support a variety of CalDesal political activities.
At the behest of CalDesal Executive Director Ron Davis, a registered lobbyist, Mr. Kocher wrote on September 8, 2010 to the State Water Resources Board indicating opposition to the adoption of specific environmental protection regulatory actions designed to limit hazardous seawater desal practices.
Last year, Mr. Kocher presented at both CalDesal’s Annual Conference sessions held in Sacramento (Oct. 25-26) and Irvine (Oct. 29-30). Closed to the public and news media, the conference came only a week before the passage of Measure P (http://www.caldesal.org/downloads/Kocher%20CalDesal.sc.portfolio.pdf). As a City of Santa Cruz employee, his travel, lodging, and food costs were allowable expenses.
The City of Santa Cruz awarded $4,000,000 in service contracts through 2013 for consultants to conduct desal EIR evaluation, preparation, and promotional activities. The firms are Kennedy-Jenks/Data Instincts ($1.8M), URS Corp ($1.7M) and Dudek Consulting ($0.5M). Kennedy-Jenks and Dudek representatives are CalDesal Board of Director members together with Mr. Kocher (http://www.santacruzlive.com/documents/consltlist.pdf and http://www.cityofsantacruz.com/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=25847).
Dr. Brent Haddad is a prominent UCSC faculty member and Director of the Center for Integrated Water Research (CIWR) -- the nation’s first publicly supported desal think tank. Haddad is one of the conceptual architects of the regional desal system. Kennedy-Jenks Senior Engineer, Jean-François Debroux, is a CIWR fellow. In 2009, Haddad received a private consultant contract ($89,257) with the City to establish the scwd2 desal partnership.
Former Director of the Soquel Creek Water District, Laura Brown hired Kocher 25 years ago when she was Santa Cruz 's assistant city manager. Both Brown and Kocher were instrumental in establishing CalDesal. In 2012, when Brown stepped down from her top job at the district, a close relationship at the top remained in place for the two agencies -- as the interim manager, Taj Dufour, is Kocher's son-in-law (http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/desal/ci_21655154/how-desalination-works-siting-plant-intake-critical-permitting?IADID=Search-www.santacruzsentinel.com-www.santacruzsentinel.com).
In August 2011, the Fair Political Practices Commission determined that Vice Mayor Don Lane and Soquel Creek Water District Board President Don Kriege violated ethic rules governing the use of public funds for distributing an advocacy newsletter. The April 2011 mailing to water agency customers promoted the controversial desal project contained a letter signed by both elected officers. Mr. Kocher claimed that he signed off on the newsletter developed by the city’s desal marketing consultant Mark Millan, President of Data Instincts. At the time, Lane and Kriege were co-chairs of the joint agency desal task force partnership
(http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_18737290?IADID=Search-www.santacruzsentinel.com-www.santacruzsentinel.com).
CalDesal membership is divided about evenly between public agency officials, such as the directors of the Santa Cruz City and Soquel Creek Water districts, and a mixture of corporate CEOs and consultants looking to profit in the client-rich environment that CalDesal was designed to provide. CalDesal lobby’s extensively for desal projects and regulatory “streamlining” -- code for rolling back fundamental environmental protection and permitting rules that stand in the way of desal and unbridled development.
Based on a preliminary examination of public records, it might appear to an already skeptical community Bill Kocher may be spending too much of taxpayers’ and ratepayers’ time and money promoting desal and not enough looking out for the interests of residents and businesses of the cash strapped city paying him over $184,000 per year.
Desal Advocacy and Conflict of Interest - Santa Cruz and Soquel Creek Water District
Prepared by Paul Gratz
Co-author of Measure P
May 13, 2013
The City of Santa Cruz and Soquel Creek Water District are founding members (2010) of the 3-year old lobbyist organization CalDesal. The water industry organization politically advocates for desal development/deregulation and opposes anti-desal legislation. Registered with the Secretary of State (http://cal-access.ss.ca.gov/Lobbying/Employers/Detail.aspx?id=1336512&session=2011), CalDesal is a secretive organization and is not required to disclose its executive committee, membership or business plan. The general public and news media are not allowed at CalDesal meetings nor is it generally given meeting agendas and minutes. Also, the Public Records Act does not apply to CalDesal.
The CalDesal Board of Directors has private sector members as well as public agency members and it sponsors legislation (http://www.caldesal.org/about-caldesal/our-coalition/). According to the organization’s business plan, “It is the mission of CalDesal to be an advocate at the political, policy and regulatory level for desalination as a vital new source of Water for California . Our goal is to create a positive environment statewide for the acceptance of desalination and to reduce the impediments to its implementation.”
Bill Kocher, City of Santa Cruz Water Department Director , is Vice Chair of the CalDesal Board of Directors Executive Committee. Laura Brown, former Director of the Soquel Creek Water District, also served on the CalDesal Board of Directors. The annual membership fee for each agency is $5,000.
The CalDesal Regulatory Workgroup includes Mr. Kocher where he actively participates in making presentations, membership recruitment, meetings/conferences, workshops, planning retreats, hearings, and conference calls. Also he serves on the Program Workgroup.
Heidi Luckenbach, City of Santa Cruz Water Department Program Coordinator , is a member of the CalDesal Policy Research and Technical Paper Review Workgroup.
CalDesal advocacy activities/tactics include regular “CalDesal in Action” alerts sent to members only when letters, calls, and participation are needed on legislation and regulatory developments.
Mr. Kocher and City of Santa Cruz Water Commissioner Walt Wadlow are CalDesal executive committee members. Also, Mr. Kocher staffs the Water Commission (http://www.cityofsantacruz.com/index.aspx?page=3880). In 2012, Mr. Kocher and Mr. Wadlow assisted in the preparation of the desal advocacy document for the City of Santa Cruz entitled “Request for Proposals for a Public Education and Communication Plan for Water Supply Reliability.”
(http://www.cityofsantacruz.com/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=29401).
The City of Santa Cruz contracts an array of consultants (http://www.santacruzlive.com/documents/consultlist.pdf) to study, plan, and promote the proposed desal project who along with Mr. Kocher are also members of the CalDesal Board of Directors. They include: Carollo Engineers, Black & Veach Corp, Camp Dresser &McKee, Dudek, Kennedy-Jenks, and Tenera Environmental.
In 2006, Kennedy-Jenks and URS Corp. co-prepared the EIR for the UCSC Long Range Development Plan (LRDP) setting forth the campus growth objectives and the need for expanded water services by the City of Santa Cruz . URS Corp. is SF based multinational engineering & construction firm specializing in military, oil & energy/fracking, nuclear, mining, and dams and water infrastructure systems. At the time, on the board of directors of URS Corp. for 30 years was Richard Blum a UC Regent. Still a regent, he also manages a multi-billion dollar portfolio for Blum Capital and is the husband of Senator Dianne Feinstein.
In 2010, Kennedy-Jenks and CalDesal made political contributions to oppose Marin County ’s Measure T -- the community-driven “right to vote on desal” ballot measure. Also, Kennedy-Jenks and URS Corp. were the principle consultants working on the EIR for proposed Marin County Water Department desal project (http://www.marinwater.org/controller?action=opennews&id=43). At the time, the City of Santa Cruz and Soquel Water District were members of CalDesal and authorized the use of public and water ratepayer funds to support a variety of CalDesal political activities.
At the behest of CalDesal Executive Director Ron Davis, a registered lobbyist, Mr. Kocher wrote on September 8, 2010 to the State Water Resources Board indicating opposition to the adoption of specific environmental protection regulatory actions designed to limit hazardous seawater desal practices.
Last year, Mr. Kocher presented at both CalDesal’s Annual Conference sessions held in Sacramento (Oct. 25-26) and Irvine (Oct. 29-30). Closed to the public and news media, the conference came only a week before the passage of Measure P (http://www.caldesal.org/downloads/Kocher%20CalDesal.sc.portfolio.pdf). As a City of Santa Cruz employee, his travel, lodging, and food costs were allowable expenses.
The City of Santa Cruz awarded $4,000,000 in service contracts through 2013 for consultants to conduct desal EIR evaluation, preparation, and promotional activities. The firms are Kennedy-Jenks/Data Instincts ($1.8M), URS Corp ($1.7M) and Dudek Consulting ($0.5M). Kennedy-Jenks and Dudek representatives are CalDesal Board of Director members together with Mr. Kocher (http://www.santacruzlive.com/documents/consltlist.pdf and http://www.cityofsantacruz.com/Modules/ShowDocument.aspx?documentid=25847).
Dr. Brent Haddad is a prominent UCSC faculty member and Director of the Center for Integrated Water Research (CIWR) -- the nation’s first publicly supported desal think tank. Haddad is one of the conceptual architects of the regional desal system. Kennedy-Jenks Senior Engineer, Jean-François Debroux, is a CIWR fellow. In 2009, Haddad received a private consultant contract ($89,257) with the City to establish the scwd2 desal partnership.
Former Director of the Soquel Creek Water District, Laura Brown hired Kocher 25 years ago when she was Santa Cruz 's assistant city manager. Both Brown and Kocher were instrumental in establishing CalDesal. In 2012, when Brown stepped down from her top job at the district, a close relationship at the top remained in place for the two agencies -- as the interim manager, Taj Dufour, is Kocher's son-in-law (http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/desal/ci_21655154/how-desalination-works-siting-plant-intake-critical-permitting?IADID=Search-www.santacruzsentinel.com-www.santacruzsentinel.com).
In August 2011, the Fair Political Practices Commission determined that Vice Mayor Don Lane and Soquel Creek Water District Board President Don Kriege violated ethic rules governing the use of public funds for distributing an advocacy newsletter. The April 2011 mailing to water agency customers promoted the controversial desal project contained a letter signed by both elected officers. Mr. Kocher claimed that he signed off on the newsletter developed by the city’s desal marketing consultant Mark Millan, President of Data Instincts. At the time, Lane and Kriege were co-chairs of the joint agency desal task force partnership
(http://www.santacruzsentinel.com/ci_18737290?IADID=Search-www.santacruzsentinel.com-www.santacruzsentinel.com).
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Damn good journalism!
Wed, May 15, 2013 12:45PM
Venn diagram of Desal and TBSC?
Tue, May 14, 2013 7:39AM
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