7-23-09

 
7-23-09
Badlands Journal
Liability?...Bill Hatch
http://www.badlandsjournal.com/2009-07-22/007331
I agree with the general point of today's Sun-Star editorial: the Delta levees certainly need to be fixed as quickly as possible.
However, a faint memory of Paterno v. the State of California and five minutes on Google looking up state liability issues on the Delta levees reminded me that, regardless of the size of the infrastructure bond and the extent of the repairs to the levees, if one or more break, the way things presently stand, the California taxpayers are responsible for paying for the damage. It looks as if each dollar invested in levee repair ends up incurring an unknown amount of liability in case of flood, which could be caused by a number of factors even the state Legislature could not be held responsible for.
The alternative that has been developing -- not enough state investment in levee repair and more effort spent on promoting a peripheral canal -- appear to be a combination of choice and response to the drastic state financial and natural resources crisis. If there is any lesson in it, it might be that decades of failure of political will to deal with this, admittedly, thankless, punishing political issue, may not be forgiveable or reparable today. There were three wake up calls in a dozen years: the 1997 floods, Jones Island and Katrina. But the speculative real estate boom during those years was simply dazzling and the future horizons shrunk down to the next flip.
Bill Hatch
7-22-09
Merced Sun-Star
State budget's impact on levee system
A failure in San Joaquin Delta system would put California's entire water system at risk...Our View
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/181/v-print/story/961043.html
Massive program cuts, state worker salary reductions and IOUs aren't the only consequences of California's budget stalemate.
The deadlock is also preventing the state from selling bonds needed to fund initiatives that have already been approved by voters.
A case in point is Proposition 1E, passed overwhelmingly in November 2006, which provided $4 billion for Delta levee repairs and Central Valley flood control.
In normal times, the levee repair projects that 1E was written to finance wouldn't be scrambling for funding. But these are unusual times and they are impacting Delta levees, as well as projects in the rest of the state.
New projects have stalled for lack of financing. Old projects, financed by private levee districts on the understanding that the state would reimburse half the costs, have had to wait five months longer than usual for reimbursements.
This may come as a surprise to those who recall the hoopla surrounding the state's sale of about $13 billion in infrastructure bonds last March and April.
The bond sale reportedly allowed the state to restart about 7,000 infrastructure projects that had been frozen by the 2008 cash crunch -- including making good on what was owed for completed Delta levee repairs. But new levee repair projects were all but shut out of that money.
That's very unfortunate. The levees don't just keep Delta farmland safe from flooding. They allow fresh water to flow south to cities and farms, and keep that water untainted by tidal saltwater.
A Delta levee failure wouldn't just create floods. It could put the state's water system at risk. With experts questioning the levees' capacity to survive a major earthquake or flood, that catastrophe is far from unimaginable.
Hopefully, neither disaster will arrive before a budget deal is reached. Because funding the levee repairs that Proposition 1E called for will require a new bond sale -- that sale won't happen unless the Legislature produces a budget balanced with more than smoke and mirrors.
With California's credit rating flirting with junk status, there's no guarantee that even that budget deal will be enough to attract the bond buyers needed to make the levees whole. But one thing is certain: A bad budget will keep the levees teetering on the brink.
Merced Sun-Star
Civil grand jury criticizes MCOE's past business practices...Scott Jason
http://www.mercedsunstar.com/167/v-print/story/965106.html
Merced County Office of Education has strengthened its oversight of construction projects after the cost of building an automotive training center dramatically went over budget.
"(The office) agrees that there were areas where better oversight could have been provided," Superintendent of Schools Lee Andersen wrote to the Merced County civil grand jury last week.
The civil grand jury's annual report was released last week and included two investigations surrounding the relationship between the Merced County Housing Authority, MCOE and Firm Build, the nonprofit that went bankrupt three years ago.
One report focused on the automotive training center, a project that went over budget and failed to pass building inspection. It was built by Firm Build.
The other report criticized three of the Merced County Board of Supervisors' appointments to the Housing Authority.
It urges the supervisors remove the people from the board and take care to make sure no one is appointed who has previous problems with the authority or who has a conflict of interest.
Close relationship blamed
In 2005, MCOE decided to build an auto training center (ATC) after hearing that Merced County needed such a vocational school for students.
The office chose to renovate part of Castle Commerce Center, which it believed would cost $559,000 and funded through a federal bond to refurbish buildings.
MCOE and Firm Build had already been working together, as the office would send students to the nonprofit to learn construction skills.
The office never put the project out to bid and instead named Firm Build as the general contractor. No contract between the office and the nonprofit was ever written up.
The ATC coordinator was Patrick Bowman, an MCOE employee who also served as Firm Build's board president.
The project's cost grew to $1.25 million during construction, which lasted from summer 2005 to October 2006.
Firm Build declared that the project was done and students began using it.
The next summer, county inspectors found construction defects, forcing MCOE to spend another $10,000 to bring it up to code.
In its response to the report, the office agreed the project should have gone out to bid. Under new guidelines, all projects must go through the office's facilities department.
The office faulted its close relationship with Firm Build as causing the problem with the center. It agreed that more oversight of its dealings with the nonprofit were needed.
The office adopted a resolution to prevent further conflicts of interest between its workers and its projects.
Board overhaul suggested
The civil grand jury also called on the Board of Supervisors to remove three Housing Authority commissioners.
The authority's board should be free from anyone who was associated with Firm Build or previously worked for the authority, it recommends. Though it doesn't name anyone, its suggestions target Patrick Bowman, who served as Firm Build's president, Mary Stillahn, who worked as a secretary, and Charles Reyburn, who worked as the human resources director. The board already has two positions open.
Stillahn said she wasn't interviewed by the civil grand jury or contacted for an interview. She declined to comment.
Katie Albertson, county spokeswoman, said the board takes great care with its appointments, adding that there are 150 boards or commissions under it. The interview and appointment process is open to the public and broadcast on television.
She couldn't say whether the supervisors would follow any of the recommendations. A formal response will be approved next month.
The jury asks that the board pass resolutions to prevent it from "stacking" boards, though there's no evidence presented by the jury of that happening.
"The democratic process is the safeguard against any sort of stacking," she said.
Modesto Bee
Jardine: Plan to spread pond sludge in orchards raises stink...Jeff Jardine
http://www.modbee.com/local/v-print/story/791223.html
OAKDALE — Here in the valley, agriculture is a way of life. It's part of our fabric.
You don't have to own a dairy to smell one, and your kids love milk.
You don't have to own an orchard to enjoy almonds, peaches, walnuts or anything else that grows on trees.
Every spring, we wait for the roadside produce stands and farmers markets to reopen. Even the most citified folks among us must admit that ag plays a huge role not only in the county's economy, but also in their daily lives.
Yet, whenever another chunk of the world's most fertile land is transformed into a housing tract, the new residents invariably complain about the dust and smell from the neighboring farms that were here first and whose owners, in many cases, once owned the land where those homes now stand.
That is what makes a plan to spread cannery byproducts in orchards around Oakdale so interesting. Homes bordering these orchards have been there for more than a decade and, in some cases, two. The owners learned to live with the periodic dust and signed a right-to-farm understanding when they bought their places.
Now agriculture wants to change the ground rules, essentially putting the residents on the defensive instead of the other way around.
ConAgra Foods is Oakdale's largest seasonal employer, with 1,000 people at the peak of the canning season and 300 year-round. It needs to dredge its three cannery water runoff ponds along Greger Road at the south end of Oakdale.
For at least 15 to 20 years and maybe longer, tomato residue and other sediments have been piling up on the bottom of the pond. No one seems to know when the last clean-out took place (if ever). ConAgra acquired the cannery in 1991, when it bought Beatrice Foods.
This much is certain: The ponds are filling with sediment, leaving less room for the waste water. ConAgra needs to dredge the muck to free up more space.
But what do to with the sludge? We're not talking about a few yards here and there. Try an estimated 60,000 tons, or roughly 2,400 truckloads.
There are two options. They can haul it out to the county's Fink Road Landfill on the West Side, using up space Stanislaus County Environmental Resources wants to reserve for nonrecyclable materials.
Or they recycle it because the pond sludge contains nutrients. ConAgra has an agreement with Oakdale rancher John Brichetto to dump the stuff on his orchards — 13 parcels, all around Oakdale. He would spread the sludge throughout his orchards and disk it into the soil within 72 hours. The sludge couldn't be dumped within 300 feet of homes, under the terms of the permit ConAgra is seeking.
Residents fear the stuff will stink for several weeks, even after it is disked into the soil. If the plan is approved as is, it would take about five weeks of intensive dredging to complete the project, ConAgra spokesman Bob Kula said. After that, the company would dredge the pond every other year or so.
Kula said the process will leave little or no odor, based on trial assessments.
"The results have been very good," he said. "We want to do what's best for everybody. (Smell) should not be a significant issue, if an issue at all."
But any smell would blow into many Oakdale neighborhoods. The majority of Brichetto's parcels are west, northwest or north of town. About 95 percent of the time, the wind blows in from one of those directions.
More than 70 people packed the Oakdale library branch's small conference room Tuesday night to hear the county's presentation.
Vicki Jones, a senior resource management specialist for the county, promised she will review all of the comments received about the plan before sending it on to the Board of Supervisors for a vote, likely in September.
A few spoke in support of the plan. A strong majority — ranging from homeowners to farmers to business professionals — railed against it or want a decision delayed until more testing is done to ensure the sludge is safe and stink-free.
They warned about increased traffic from the trucks hauling the stuff to the various sites.
They worry it might contaminate the groundwater. They believe it will attract mosquitoes, flies and rats. They worry that the smell will hurt the resale value of their homes.
No matter how residents view it or smell it, though, this is one of those rare cases in which agriculture could encroach on neighborhoods and not the other way around.
Fresno Bee
Stimulus money for Valley no sure thing
Valley projects will get funds if grants are applied for, approved...Tim Sheehan
http://www.fresnobee.com/business/v-print/story/1554009.html
The wish list in Fresno County for how to spend federal stimulus money is already long and ambitious: better roads, energy-efficient offices, cleaner-burning vehicles.
On Wednesday, builders, engineers and manufacturers gathered at Fresno State to learn about American Recovery and Reinvestment Act money for local agencies and the kinds of clean and green projects in the works.
But millions of stimulus dollars expected for the Valley are no sure thing. They're subject to competitive grant applications, leaving some disappointed by the slow pace of putting the money to work.
"It looks like there's a lot of projects that are [still] unfunded," said Bill Hargis of CAL Lighting, a company that represents manufacturers of commercial lighting fixtures. "I think we have to wait and see what's on the horizon."
One of the biggest pending grant applications would aid a statewide, $30 billion high-speed passenger rail system. About $8 billion in stimulus funds are available for such projects nationwide, said Peter Weber, executive director of the California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley.
Stuart Seiden, capital projects manager for Fresno County's Public Works Department, acknowledged the waiting game for federal money.
"We're watching our labor pool continue to grow ... and we're still waiting for the money," Seiden said of $35 million for work the county wants to do.
But there are projects that have funds in hand.
In Clovis, about $1.75 million in work is due to be bid this fall for more energy-efficient computers, lighting and air conditioning, said Larry Louie, a representative from the city's General Services Department. Margaret Arechiga, Fresno's deputy city manager, said her city has about $9 million in projects ready to go using stimulus money.
Tony Boren, executive director of the Council of Fresno County Governments, said more than $58 million in stimulus-related funds is earmarked for the county and its cities, most for road construction.
Valley ozone violations down despite heat...Mark Grossi
http://www.fresnobee.com/local/v-print/story/1552719.html
Despite a torrid heat wave and some stifling July pollution, the San Joaquin Valley might set a clean-air record this summer.
Those balmy, breezy days in June and early July have kept the number of ozone violations down to 45 thus far this summer - down from at least 60 during comparable periods in each of the previous three years.
And the high heat last weekend may actually have helped prevent unhealthy levels of ozone from spiking into more dangerous concentrations. But don't misunderstand: The air is still dangerously smoggy. Doctors warn people to avoid outdoor activities in the afternoon when authorities forecast unhealthy air, as they have for many days this month.
"Be smart about when you go outdoors during the heat," said Dr. William Ebbeling, a Fresno allergist-immunologist. "Your outdoor activities should take place in the morning. Staying inside in the afternoon protects you from ozone."
The Valley led the nation last year in ozone violations with 127. The South Coast Air Basin was second with 119. No other metropolitan area in the country was even close.
Ozone is an invisible, corrosive gas that attacks the skin, eyes and lungs. It is known to trigger lung problems, such as asthma.
The Valley is an incubator for ozone, which forms best in sunlight, heat and the light breezes of an air basin surrounded by mountains, such as the Valley. Fumes from dairies, paint and vehicles combine with oxides of nitrogen from vehicles to create ozone.
Long, sunny, hot days make July one of the worst times for air quality. State records for the last decade show the Valley's air violated the ozone standard 93% of the days in July.
The Valley's cleanest summer on record was 2005 with 102 violations. Yet there were 29 bad July days that year.
Curiously, the highest July heat can prevent a big buildup of ozone and slightly improve conditions, said Shawn Ferreria, senior air quality specialist with the San Joaquin Valley Air Pollution Control District.
On days when the mercury rises to 110 and above, the heat creates a strong updraft that pulls ozone away from the Valley floor, as it did over the weekend.
That upward movement prevented the ozone from reaching much more dangerous levels closer to the ground, though the ozone still violated the federal health standard.
"With these high temperatures, you get a lot of air mixing and moving," Ferreria. "It kept the ozone in check."
The Valley would need cooler weather in either August or September to break the record for fewest ozone violations.
No one knows if there will be cool weather in August and September, but Ferreria said he is noticing some encouraging signs - a little less traffic and more people bicycling to work. He suggested people might be driving fewer miles, which would reduce ozone-making vehicle emissions.
Another sign: The Valley has not spiked ozone high enough to create a violation of the now-defunct one-hour standard. Even healthy people often feel the effects when the old one-hour standard is breached, experts say.
"We've been flirting with one-hour violations, but they haven't happened," Ferreria said. "Something seems to be going on, but nobody knows exactly what it is yet."
EPA wants better monitoring of airborne lead...The Associated Press
http://www.fresnobee.com/news/national-politics/v-print/story/1552887.html
WASHINGTON The Environmental Protection Agency wants better information on how much lead is in the air of large cities and industrial areas.
The EPA proposed Wednesday an expansion of its monitoring for airborne lead levels in communities where harmful amounts of lead are most likely to be found in the air.
The agency said it has no plans to change the lead air quality standard, which was tightened last year. But EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said more monitoring may be needed to make certain that the tougher requirements are being followed. Exposure to even very low levels of lead in early life has been linked to damage to a child's IQ, learning disabilities and memory loss.
The EPA expects to issue the new requirements early next year.
More homeowners defaulting...Sandy Nax, News Blog
http://fresnobeehive.com/news/2009/07/more_homeowners_
defaulting.html
The number of borrowers defaulting on their home loans in Fresno and Tulare counties climbed 11% and 19% respectively in the second quarter compared with the same period a year earlier.
Statewide, the increase was 2.4%, prompting officials at MDA DataQuick to conclude that foreclosures will probably jump in the July-through-September period.
"There is a perception that the housing market is dragging along bottom, that it probably won't get much worse, and that the lenders need to get serious about processing the backlog of delinquencies, either with workouts or foreclosure," DataQuick president John Walsh said in a statement.
"We're hearing that some lenders and servicers are doing just that, hiring more people to do the necessary paperwork. That means the foreclosure numbers will probably shoot back up during the third quarter."
Foreclosures were 54.9% of all home sales in Fresno County in June, down from 56.1% in June and from a peak of 68% in February. The last time it was lower was in September 2008 when it was 54.4%, according to Andrew LePage, DataQuick spokesman.
Most of the loans that default last quarter originated in 2006, which also was the case a year ago. That year was the peak of the housing market - and was a particularly "nasty" year for loans, DataQuick said.
But the market tracker also noted that the slow progress is evidence that lenders haven't kept up with new delinquencies.
More developer troubles...Sandy Nax, News Blog
http://fresnobeehive.com/news/2009/07/more_developer_
troubles.html
This real estate-caused recession continues to pile up victims. The latest: a proposed residential community planned west of Riverside Golf Course in northwest Fresno.
Riverfront Ventures LLC, which proposed 230 houses, filed for protection from creditors last week in Los Angeles, two days before the land was to be sold at auction. The developer had defaulted on a loan of $19.1 million, according to a notice filed in Fresno County.
The Chapter 11 petition was filed less than a year after the developer asked the City Council to dedicate a portion of the right-of-way along Bryan Avenue near Alluvial Avenue.
The filing comes when sales of new houses are dismal. Statewide, permits for single-family houses were down almost 40% in May from a year earlier. The decrease in Fresno County was 7.4% - despite the boost builders received from tax breaks given to buyers of new houses.
Tulare Voice
Vote Not Critical Yet to Racetrack
http://www.valleyvoicenewspaper.com/tv/stories/2009/tv_
racetrack_149.htm
Tulare - Special counsel Tim Sabo is advising the City Council this week to take no action on the development agreement in connection with the proposed Tulare Motor Sports Complex (TMSC).
The council rejected the agreement in a 2-3 vote on June 30 after Bud Long, general partner for the TMSC limited partnership, said his group could not and would not repay the $1 million it owes the city within two weeks.
The council then directed Sabo to continue talks with the developer and bring the agreement back to the council this week for further reconsideration.
The $1 million owed the city is for preparation of the project's environmental impact report (EIR). At one point, a majority of the council thought the money was being reimbursed as the city paid the bills.
It appears likely the council will agree to put the development agreement on hold when it meets Tuesday, the day after the Tulare Voice goes to press.
Councilman Richard Ortega, the deciding vote in rejecting the agreement but a strong proponent of the racetrack project, said Monday he had no problem with delaying the development agreement.
“Not a bit; not a bit,” Ortega said. “It makes things a lot easier down the line.”
City Manager Darrel Pyle said it is unknown when the proposed agreement would be re-submitted to council.
Like others, Ortega said he had thought the financing for the off-sight improvements required for the project was contingent on getting the development agreement, but that apparently is not the case, he said, adding Sabo is expected to brief the council in greater detail on the matter in a closed session prior to Tuesday's meeting.
'Most Probable'
In his June 14 letter to the council, Sabo said talks with the developer made it “obvious that there are other critical matters of concern to any potential lender to TMSC, including the release of the Williamson Act Agreements, obtaining a tentative parcel map and commencing the formation of the Community Facilities District (CFD) together with the preparation of a comprehensive financing plan for this project.”
He also indicated it was “most probable that nothing less than the actual CFD formation and the imposition of the special tax obligations [upon the landowners] will be adequate to provide a level of assurances to the council members that the city EIR costs will be reimbursed.”
Ortega and council members David Macedo and Wayne Ross have been insistent the city get its $1 million before a development agreement is approved.
They were particularly upset to learn the fate of an agreement that said the developer could withdraw the $1 million sitting in an account set up to guarantee repayment only with the city's permission.
That agreement did not – as the city had required – travel with the money when it was transferred from a Tulare bank to one in Fresno earlier this year.
Long, as recently as three weeks ago, maintained the agreement was in place, but Kabot reported bank officials told him that was not the case even though the city had approved the move only on condition the agreement remain intact.
A TMSC attorney had drafted a new agreement with essentially the same terms and Mayor Craig Vejvoda had signed it at the Fresno Airport earlier this year, but it was never delivered to the Fresno bank with his and Long's signatures as promised, Kabot said.
Long said at the June 30 special council meeting that the terms in that document were not the same as the original, to which Kabot disagreed.
Ross, who opposes the racetrack, said he had read Sabo's request to delay action of the development agreement.
“I guess my million dollar question is why? Can he [Long] not come up with the money? Ross said.
Also on this week's agenda, is a request from Sabo to start the process to establish Community Facilities Districts to provide the infrastructure for the racetrack project and the construction of a railroad grade separation at Cartmill Avenue.
“Isn't that getting the cart before the donkey?” Ross said. “He [Long] needs to get the CFD in place to get the bridge financing. I just don't think he has the financing available and I'm not of the opinion in a capitalist society we need to set everything up for everybody.”
Only a taxing authority with the authority to assess value and impose taxes, such as the city, can set up a CFD, which are created to sell bonds to pay for improvements, Pyle said.
Property owners within the district pay their assessment as part of their tax bill and the city is not at risk, even if a property owner defaults, as long as the districts are established correctly, he said.
In the case of a default, the city would initiate foreclosure proceeding and, because the liability for a CFD is superior, would notify the trust company or mortgage owner that unless the outstanding debt is paid, the city will sell the property, he explained.
The council adopted CFD policies in late spring and these would be the first the city has ever issued.
Those policies state that before bonds are issued, the improvements in a CFD must reach $10 million, which Pyle said means the TMSC developer must put in at least $10 million of improvements before bonds are issued.
“The value of the property has to stay higher than any outstanding CFD issuance,” Pyle explained.
Ortega said he met with Long and others involved in the TMSC project last week.
“They were all upbeat,” he said, adding they felt they could get their financing and be ready by Sept. 15 to start the infrastructure work.
Pyle said he has seen the letters of intent the developer has received from hotels and commercial retail businesses that want to build on a portion of the 711-acre site adjacent to the International Agri-Center.
“And I've talked to the folks,” he said. “They've come in and we've had conversations about how long it would take to review their plans for their building.”
Sacramento Bee
Sacramento-area foreclosure total nears 42,000...Jim Wasserman
http://www.sacbee.com/business/v-print/story/2048441.html
Two and a half years into the foreclosure crisis still engulfing the Sacramento region, the number of households surrendering keys to lenders has blown past the 40,000 mark – hitting a new housing bust high of 41,903.
It's the newest count in a growing tally of foreclosures that claimed 4,448 more area homes in April, May and June, researcher MDA DataQuick reported Wednesday.
Statewide, lenders have taken back 410,744 homes since the start of 2007, including 45,667 in the second quarter, when they also sent default notices to 124,562 more homes. DataQuick said 10,682 of those defaults were in Amador, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties.
Lenders issue the formal foreclosure warnings when homeowners fall three months or more behind on payments.
Analysts on Wednesday called the numbers a sign that the foreclosure crisis remains grim as the economy stumbles and unemployment has risen to 11.6 percent in the capital region and statewide. Widespread state government furloughs amounting to 14 percent wage cuts in thousands of area households – and the resulting economic contraction for other businesses – are also tightening the vise.
At area loan counseling centers like ClearPoint Financial Solutions, unemployment and lost income are now the new face of the loan crisis, said spokesman Bruce McClary.
"It doesn't matter what kind of mortgage they have. It's the change in income and financial circumstances," he said.
The firm recently merged with By Design Financial Solutions, a nonprofit counselor with offices in North Highlands.
DataQuick's quarterly report shows that many borrowers getting into trouble with mortgages aren't escaping.
"It's proof that there hasn't been this huge shift toward workouts, whether that's been a short sale or a loan modification," analyst Andrew LePage said.
Santa Ana-based First American CoreLogic reported recently that 9 percent of home loans in Sacramento, Placer, El Dorado and Yolo counties were delinquent in May. DataQuick said that June counts of foreclosures and notices of default were up sharply from those in April and May, suggesting worse numbers in the third quarter.
In Roseville, Penny Krainz fears she will be one of those statistics. This week she got a 90-day notice that she would be losing her job at an area high-tech company.
"That ought to be right around the time they foreclose on my house," she said Wednesday.
Krainz stopped making payments months ago, she said, on a house she bought in 2002 for $210,000.
A bigger house next door – a bank repo once valued at $379,000 – recently sold for $114,000, she said. That drove her into a category of borrowers who simply give up because they have high payments and owe so much more than the house is worth.
"This is so out of the realm of my upbringing," Krainz said. "I would never in a million years not paid my mortgage."
DataQuick reported that half the loans that defaulted in the second quarter were made before July 2006 and half were made afterward. Lenders that originated the majority of the troubled loans were Washington Mutual, a failed thrift taken over late last year by JPMorgan Chase; Wells Fargo; and Countrywide, the failed lender taken over by Bank of America in mid-2008.
Second-quarter foreclosures and defaults in area counties:
• Amador County: 29 foreclosures and 85 defaults.
• El Dorado County: 202 foreclosures and 632 defaults.
• Nevada County: 98 foreclosures and 286 defaults.
• Placer County: 515 foreclosures and 1,570 defaults.
• Sacramento County: 3,019 foreclosures and 6,862 defaults.
• Sutter County: 154 foreclosures and 355 notices of default.
• Yolo County: 216 foreclosures, 541 defaults.
• Yuba County: 215 foreclosures and 351 defaults.
Capital Press
Shrew's critical habitat to grow
84 acres isn’t enough for endangered rodent, judge rules...Mateusz Perkowski
http://www.capitalpress.info/main.asp?SectionID=67&SubSectionID=616&ArticleID=53031&TM=47775.98
The federal government plans to expand the designated critical habitat of an endangered shrew as part of a legal settlement with an environmental group.
A federal district judge in California approved the agreement between the Center for Biological Diversity and the U.S. Interior Department on July 13.
Under the settlement's terms, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will propose to increase the critical habitat designation of the Buena Vista Lake shrew from about 84 acres to more than 4,600 acres in Kern County, Calif.
The rodent, one of nine subspecies of ornate shrew, received federal protection under the Endangered Species Act in 2002.
According to the Fish and Wildlife Service, farming and water management contributed to the loss of the shrew's habitat.
When an area is designated as critical habitat for an endangered species, federal activities which may harm the species are subject to restrictions.
Realistically, restrictions usually aren't limited to federal agencies, said Robert Kunde, chairman of the Kern County Farm Bureau's endangered species committee.
"In practice, that's not the case," said Kunde, who is also assistant engineer manager at the Wheeler Ridge-Maricopa Water Storage District.
Under federal law, it's illegal to kill or "take" endangered species without a permit whether the habitat is on private property or public land, he said.
If an area is designated critical habitat, mitigation measures aimed at preventing harm to the species are generally much more stringent, Kunde said.
That means the Fish and Wildlife Service could potentially restrict pesticide applications within the critical habitat, since the rodent relies on robust insect populations and brush, he said.
Reduced management of flood channels could also increase the risk of flooding on farmland and in residential areas, Kunde said.
Because insect populations need a lot of moisture to thrive, water from the Isabella Dam - which controls flows in the Kern River - could be allocated for habitat improvement, he said.
"That water would probably come at the expense of agriculture water users," Kunde said.
The Kern County Farm Bureau opposed the decision to list the shrew as an endangered species, and filed suit against the Fish and Wildlife Service in 2002 for violating administrative procedure in making that determination.
The complaint was dismissed in 2004 as part of a federal judge's order, which the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals later upheld .
In addition to ruling against the Farm Bureau, the federal judge ruled in favor of the Center for Biological Diversity, which intervened in the case.
That order required the Fish and Wildlife Service to designate a critical habitat for the shrew.
Later that year, the agency proposed designating 4,600 acres in five areas as critical habitat.
When the Fish and Wildlife Service made its final decision in 2005, however, only one area with about 80 acres was included in the designated critical habitat.
The other four areas were excluded because the agency determined they had sufficient conservation measures in place to protect the shrew.
The Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit challenging the decision in October 2008, claiming the agency violated the Endangered Species Act by drastically cutting the critical habitat's size.
As part of the settlement resolving that lawsuit, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agreed to pay the group more than $5,000 for legal expenses.
Stockton Record
Lodi faces fine for wastewater issues...The Record
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090723/A_NEWS/907229984/-1/A_NEWS
LODI - The city faces a proposed fine of $21,000 for alleged violations of standards at its wastewater treatment plant.
The seven new violations are on top of 28 earlier incidents dating back as far as 2000, according to a complaint by the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board. The city discharges treated wastewater into the Delta.
City spokesman Jeff Hood said some of the violations in question already have been reviewed and addressed.
Indybay.com
Million Boat Float to Stop Arnold’s Panama Canal North
Peripheral Canal opponents will hold a “Million Boat Float" from Antioch to Sacramento on August 16 and 17 to save the imperiled California Delta...Dan Bacher
We've a message to deliver
To the legislative cabal
Don't destroy our Delta
With your peripheral canal.
- from “The Guerrilla Flotilla” by "the Compleat Angler"
http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2009/07/22/18612057.php
As the Department of Water Resources begins drilling locations for possible intakes for the peripheral canal, canal opponents will be holding a “million boat float” on August 16 and 17 to save the California Delta and stop the construction of a project that would rival the Panama Canal in size and length.
The event, sponsored by the Sportsmen’s Yacht Club in Antioch, will start in Antioch on August 16 and conclude in Sacramento on August 17. The exact times and locations for the massive historic protest will be announced soon on the website, http://www.millionboatfloat.org/index.htm.
“The purpose of this mass flotilla on the Sacramento River to the State Capitol is to show our legislators that we are united in the defense of our precious Delta,” said Bruce Connelley, Float Chairman and Oakley City Councilman. “We want to bring national attention to this issue with this dramatic protest.”
“We are saying no to the ‘alternative conveyance system,’ since it’s just another version of the peripheral canal, no to interference with the natural flow of our waterways, and yes to saving the Delta!” Connelley exclaimed.
Restore the Delta, the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, the Contra Costa Board of Supervisors and other groups are co-sponsoring the float. More groups are expected to join "the guerrilla flotilla" as planning for the protest proceeds.
The boats are scheduled to arrive in Sacramento on August 17, since that’s the day the Legislature is scheduled to go back into session after recess, according to Connelley.
“Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is very clear that soon as he finishes with the budget, he wants to get back to working on the water bond, including the peripheral canal,” said Connelley. “There is too much back room dealing at the Capitol. The Legislators are trying are trying to push through the Governor’s mandate to build a peripheral canal through the Bay Delta Conservation Plan process.”
While the Nature Conservancy is outright backing the canal and some “Big Green” groups are waffling on the issue, boaters, recreational fishing groups, commercial fishing organizations, Delta farmers, Indian Tribes, principled environmental groups and elected officials in the five Delta counties are adamantly opposing the canal for its enormous financial cost and environmental catastrophe that it poses to the Delta and its ecosystem.
“It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to figure out that diverting most of the water out of the Sacramento River into the canal will destroy the Delta,” stated Connelley. “Certain legislators in Sacramento are determined by any means to destroy the Delta by moving legislation ahead to construct a water conveyance system, comparable in size and length, to the Panama Canal, that will surely nail the coffin closed for the greatest estuary in the western hemisphere.”
Plans for the canal and more dams are being ramrodded through the Legislature as Central Valley and Delta fisheries continue to approach the abyss of extinction. Central Valley Chinook salmon, green sturgeon, Delta smelt, longfin smelt, striped bass, Sacramento splittail and other fish populations have plummeted to record low levels in recent years, due to massive water exports out of the Delta and declining water quality.
Connelley strongly criticized Legislators and the Governor for refusing to allow Delta stakeholders, including elected officials from the five Delta counties, a voice in the process.
“It’s time to wake up the Governor and the nation and expose this great tragedy,” said Connelly. “The drilling in search of the best place to start the canal just below Sacramento is about to get underway. Therefore, plans are in the works to bring the people together to speak with one voice and demonstrate to our lawmakers that we will not sit idly by and let this destruction take place.”
A planning meeting for the float will be held on Wednesday, August 5, at 6:30 p.m. at the Sportsmen’s Yacht Club in Antioch.
For more information, contact:
Contact Bruce Connelley
Chairman of the Million Boat Float
bconnelley [at] comcast.net
925-625-7467
P.O. Box 523
Oakley, CA 94561
Websites:
The Million Boat Float: http://www.millionboatfloat.org/index.htm
Sportsmen Yacht Club: http://www.sportsmenyc.org
Restore the Delta: http://www.restorethedelta.org
California Sportfishing Protection Alliance: http://www.calsport.org
Fish Sniffer: http://www.fishsniffer.com
The Guerilla Flotilla
We're going to Sacramento
In every kind of boat
Shiny motorboats, and old dinghies
Any vessel fit to float.
We're cruising up the river
To California's capitol
In whatever boat'll float us
Catamaran, dory, scull.
We've a message to deliver
To the legislative cabal
Don't destroy our Delta
With your peripheral canal.
You'll rob fresh water from the Delta
Killing fish and hurting farms
It isn't right that Sacramento
causes us this distress and harm.
So listen to us boaters
Take heed of all our boats
If you stick us with the P canal
You're losing all our votes.
by the Compleat Angler
Los Angeles Times
L.A. parks want exemption from citywide drought rules...David Zahniser, L.A. Now 
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/lanow/2009/07/la-park-grasses-draw-exemption-from-citywide-drought-rules.html
One month after the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power barred residents from watering on days other than Mondays and Thursdays, city officials are looking at loosening the law for the city’s parks department and other large landowners.
With temperatures topping 100 degrees in the San Fernando Valley, the parks department secured an emergency exemption allowing it to water its parks, golf courses and athletic fields on any day of the week until the law is rewritten, said Jon Kirk Mukri, general manager of the Department of Recreation and Parks.
“All the Valley parks are turning brown,” said Mukri, whose agency received the exemption Monday. “It’s not that one is worse than the other. They’re all showing stress.”
The City Council is scheduled to meet today to discuss the effect of the drought rules on park facilities. Tuesday, the DWP's Board of Commissioners forwarded to the council a proposal to change its watering law to allow cemeteries, colleges, school districts and other larger property owners to irrigate more frequently -- as long as they show they have reduced their water use by 20%.
Mukri said his agency has cut water consumption by 40% over the last two years and will continue installing drought-friendly irrigation systems. Facilities including Griffith Park and five city golf courses already use recycled water and are therefore allowed to water on a daily basis, he said.
Still, the notion of an emergency deal for the parks department drew fire from one outspoken critic of the DWP’s water policies, who complained that the average ratepayer does not get such consideration.
“I think the city needs to follow its own rules,” said David Coffin, a member of the Westchester-Playa del Rey Neighborhood Council.
Last year, the DWP banned watering between 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. and prohibited restaurants from serving water unless a customer specifically asked. On June 1, the DWP also limited outdoor watering to Mondays and Thursdays. The new changes proposed by the DWP would give flexibility to ratepayers with more than three acres of land that need landscaping, said Tom Erb, the DWP's director of water resources.
Although the parks department is now allowed to water its facilities on additional days, that option will not be available to other large property owners until the council approves the changes to the law, Erb said. A council vote is not expected for a few weeks.
Councilman Tom LaBonge, who introduced a motion to allow daily watering at city parks and golf courses, said the existing rules have affected not only the grassy turf but also the health of the city's trees and the greens at its golf courses. If the grass on those greens dies, replacement could be costly, according to park officials.
Councilman Tony Cardenas, who represents part of the Valley, said he had noticed the effect of the drought on Richie Valens Park in Pacoima and Bradford Park in
Arleta.
Coffin, who is also a candidate for state Assembly, said the city would take its conservation policies more seriously if it experienced their effects firsthand.
“As much as I hate to say it, the only way to force them to address the overall water situation is to let those things turn brown,” he said.
Mukri disagreed, saying parks deserve special consideration because they are open to anyone to use. “I couldn’t just come up with a picnic basket and jump on your front lawn,” he said.
“As people’s lawns die, they’re going to need a refuge and we can provide that,” he added. “I live in North Hollywood and I adhere to the [water conservation] ordinance. And I can tell you right now, my lawn is dead.”
New York Times
Climate Loopholes...Editorial
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/22/opinion/22wed11.html?_r=1&sq=conservation&st=cse&scp=6&pagewanted=print
The House’s approval of the Waxman-Markey climate change bill earlier this month was a remarkable political achievement and an important beginning to the task of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. But in all the last-minute wheeling and dealing, the House bill acquired two big loopholes that the Senate must close.
The first loophole involves coal-fired power plants. Coal is the world’s most abundant fossil fuel — producing more than half the electricity in the United States — and also its dirtiest, with twice the carbon content of natural gas.
The House bill would limit emissions from coal-fired power plants in two ways. It imposes a cap on emissions from all industrial facilities that tightens slowly over time. It also sets tough performance standards on new power plants permitted after 2009, requiring emissions reductions of 50 percent or more. The bill would help underwrite advanced technologies capable of capturing carbon dioxide and storing it underground.
The bill does not, however, impose any performance standards on existing power plants. And it explicitly removes these plants from the reach of the Clean Air Act. This is a mistake. The overall cap on industrial emissions will not be fully effective for a long time, and, meanwhile, the government should be able to impose lower-emissions requirements on the older, dirtiest plants.
There is little doubt that the Clean Air Act authorizes the Environmental Protection Agency to require existing plants to reduce emissions by, say, using cleaner fuels or increasing efficiency. But the House bill says otherwise, at least when it comes to carbon dioxide. The Senate must fix this problem by writing standards for existing plants into its bill or restoring the E.P.A.’s authority to do so. The old plants simply cannot be let off the hook.
The second loophole involves the tricky matter of offsets. Offsets allow polluters who cannot immediately reduce their own emissions to get credit for reducing emissions elsewhere. A rich country can earn credits by helping a poor country save its rain forests. Domestically, a power company can earn credits by, say, helping farmers capture methane emitted by animal waste ponds or cultivate land in ways that help absorb carbon.
Offsets are an important cost containment mechanism since it is usually cheaper for a company to buy offsets in the near term and gain time to install the new technology necessary to eventually meet its targets. But they can be easily manipulated. Academic studies have found that many of the offsets purchased by industrialized countries under the Kyoto treaty turned out to be bogus or produced far less reductions than advertised.
This is a very real danger with some of the offsets in the House bill. For instance, the bill would allow polluters to meet their requirements not by paying farmers to put new conservation techniques in place but by paying them to keep doing things they were already doing. The result is that money changes hands, but the atmosphere is no better off. Offsets must be real and verifiable, or the integrity of the entire scheme is at risk.
There are risks here. The Senate has already rejected much weaker bills. But the political climate is more favorable now than it has ever been, and Senate Democrats should not settle for half-measures.
CNN Money
Fannie & Freddie: The most expensive bailout
Efforts to use the troubled mortgage finance firms to fix housing market problems are likely to push the taxpayer bill for Fannie & Freddie above $100 billion...Chris Isidore...7-22-09
http://money.cnn.com/2009/07/22/news/companies/fannie_freddie_
bailout/index.htm?section=money_latest
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The first big government bailout of the financial crisis -- the takeover of mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac -- is poised to be the most expensive and complicated to complete.
Since Congress essentially wrote a blank check to the Treasury Department in July 2008 to do what needed to be done to inject capital into the two firms, Fannie (FNM, Fortune 500) has received $34.2 billion of direct government support while Freddie (FRE, Fortune 500) has received $51.7 billion.
While that's lower than the $117.5 billion poured into insurer AIG (AIG, Fortune 500) by the Federal Reserve and the $200 billion given to the nation's largest banks through the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, the current cost of the Fannie and Freddie bailouts dwarfs original estimates from a year ago
When Congress was debating the bailout of Fannie and Freddie last July, the official estimate from the Congressional Budget Office was that a bailout would most likely cost taxpayers $25 billion, with only a 5% chance of the price tag reaching $100 billion between them.
In addition, both Fannie and Freddie are likely to need billions of dollars more after they report second quarter results in the coming weeks. Experts believe the cost will only continue to rise in the next year.
"We're assuming they each will cross the $100 billion mark fairly soon. They could be hitting the $200 billion barrier by the end of next year," said Bose George, mortgage analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods, an investment bank specializing in financial services firms.
The direct government aid has helped keep the two troubled firms solvent. The amount of any additional aid will be determined by their ongoing losses and reserves for future losses on the trillions of dollars in mortgage loans they own or guarantee.
Fannie and Freddie were originally created to help ensure that financing for homes would be available and affordable to more consumers. The two firms buy mortgages from banks and other lenders and bundle them together into securities. They then either hold those securities or sell them to them to investors with a guarantee that they will be paid the money owed by homeowners.
But as more homeowners continue to default on mortgages, the two firms will likely book additional losses well into next year.
Neither firm has given an estimate as to how high losses will reach. But the original limit of $100 billion in losses set in place when the government put Fannie and Freddie into conservatorship, essentially a form of bankruptcy, last September was quickly raised early this year to $200 billion each because of concerns about looming losses.
In return for pumping taxpayer dollars into the two firms, Treasury received preferred stock, which is designed to give the government a healthy 10% to 12% dividend. But few expect that Fannie or Freddie will be able to pay that dividend, let alone return the money handed to the firms to cover their losses..
Even James Lockhart, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the government body that has overseen the two firms since they were placed into conservatorship, said it will be a challenge for Fannie and Freddie to make their scheduled payments.
"Obviously the 10% dividend is a high rate," he said, but added that this is probably below what private market investors would demand to own preferred shares in the two companies.
Lockhart also agrees with experts who believe that the government will eventually have to write down at least a portion of the money that has been sunk into Fannie and Freddie. He would not estimate how much, saying it will depend upon housing prices in the future.
But Lockhart maintained that the loss of taxpayer money is worth it in the long run because Fannie and Freddie have continued to be vital parts of the housing market during the credit crunch.
"They really have been the backbone of the housing market throughout this period," he said. "The money spent, we can at least say has gone to a good cause -- keeping the housing market much more stable than it would have been [without the bailout]."
And it's precisely for this reason that experts think the ultimate bailout cost will climb much higher. The money allocated for Fannie and Freddie is being used not to simply return the firms to profitability, but to try and fix the broader housing market's problems.
Using Fannie and Freddie for housing policy
Both the Bush administration and the Obama administration have used government control of Fannie and Freddie to implement various policies to try to address rising home foreclosures and falling prices. The firms are a key part of the Obama administration's efforts to refinance mortgages of at-risk home owners, in some cases making loans for up to 125% of the home's current market value.
"The way to think of the cost is not as a loan," said Phillip Swagel, a professor at Georgetown's business school who was the assistant secretary for economic policy in the final months of the Bush administration. "It's really a way of spending taxpayer money for policy purposes."
In contrast, other companies receiving federal bailout dollars, such as automakers General Motors and Chrysler, money-losing banks and AIG, were given the charge by Treasury Department officials to stem their financial bleeding so they could eventually be returned to full ownership by the private markets.
But unlike the rapid six week bankruptcy process at GM and Chrysler, the conservatorships at Fannie and Freddie won't be coming to a conclusion any time soon. Even as it laid out its plans to reform the nation's financial regulatory system last month, the Obama administration said it would not put forward a permanent plan to fix the mortgage finance firms until February 2010.
After that, it's uncertain how long it will take to get the necessary approval from Congress for any changes to the current structure of Fannie and Freddie. There is a case for maintaining the status quo since Congress and the Obama administration have been able to use the two firms to deal with broader problems in the housing market.
What's clear is that there will continue to be a need for companies like Fannie and Freddie to keep mortgage costs relatively affordable by packaging loans into securities, placing a guarantee on them, and selling them to investors.
Some experts believe that this business can become very profitable again, especially if Fannie and Freddie maintain tight underwriting standards from now on.
Fannie and Freddie "may own the securitization game for the next decade," said Jaret Seiberg, analyst with Concept Capital's Washington Research Group. "They'll have a duopoly, a smaller portfolio and a profitable business model."
But before any of that happens, taxpayers will likely take an even bigger hit on the Fannie and Freddie bailouts first.
June home sales rise, but prices plummet
For the ninth straight month, home sales were below the bench mark 5 million rate. Average home price falls 15.4% from last June...Les Christie
http://money.cnn.com/2009/07/23/real_estate/June_home_sales/
index.htm?postversion=2009072312
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Sales of existing homes disappointed again in June, coming in at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 4.89 million, up just 3.6% compared with May, according to a monthly report from the National Association of Realtors.
Home sales peaked in August 2005 at an annualized rate of more than 7.2 million, but sales have not surpassed the 5 million mark since last September, despite a large number of homes on the market, low mortgage rates, a tax credit for first-time homebuyers and low, low prices.
The median price for a home sold during the month was just $181,800 -- 15.4% lower than 12 months earlier. Sales were down, oh so slightly, from 12 months ago, from 4.90 million in June 2008. Mortgage rates back then were about 6.3% for a 30-year, fixed-rate mortgage loan. They stood at 5.42% last month, which was still a step up from the 4.86% rates available in May.
The sales figures were slightly higher than industry expectations. A panel of analyst forecasts compiled by Briefing.com had predicted that sales would come in at 4.84 million units.
NAR chief economist Lawrence Yun expressed hope that the industry could build upon the modest gain. "We expect a gradual uptrend in sales to continue due to tax credit incentives and historically high affordability conditions," he said.
There was some reason for optimism, according to Stuart Hoffman, chief economist for PNC Financial Services (PNC, Fortune 500) in Pittsburgh. Three months of gains in a row indicates to him that, "The downturn is probably behind us. There should be a period of [market] stabilization and a creeping up of sales."
One possible problem, however, is that affordability may not continue to improve as fast as it has. Price declines are flattening out and mortgage rates are less favorable than they were.
"Mortgage rates were much lower in April and May, when many of the deals [reflected in this report] were negotiated," said Hoffman. That could mean disappointing results during the next few months as higher rates tamp down momentum.
"It's still not great, but we're no longer poised for Armageddon," said Mike Larson, a housing analyst for Weiss Research, in a prepared statement. "We're seeing sales rates steadily and gradually climb at the same time the supply of homes for sale is falling, We're also seeing the pace of home price declines ease up. None of this is great news. But it's a noticeable -- and welcome -- change from the free-fall we witnessed in 2007 and 2008."
Drag on the market
The main culprit for the tepid report was the economy. Job losses have taken many potential homebuyers out of the market entirely and discouraged others from buying.
"Affordability improvement brought out some homebuyers," said Hoffman, "but sales are still pretty flat. A more favorable job picture and we wouldn't be swimming so hard against the tide."
Another problem, according to Yun, is that home sales are being lost as a result of new appraisal standards that recently went into effect. Too many inexperienced appraisers are using poor comparisons when evaluating homes, which can sabotage deals.
The NAR release reported that a June survey of its members found that 37% said they lost a sale as a result of appraisal problems, with seven out of 10 reporting an increased use of out-of-area appraisers.
"In many cases," Yun said, "normal homes are being compared with distressed homes sold at a discount, which often are in subpar condition. This is causing real harm to both buyers and sellers."
Larson, however, downplays this problem. "Clearly tighter appraisal standards will limit some sales, but to suggest the appraisals are not being realistic because they used distressed properties is not right. Distressed sales are a large part of the market." 
Jobless claims bounce up
Initial unemployment filings jump to 554,000, up 30,000 from prior week but slightly lower than estimates. Continuing claims fall...Julianne Pepitone
http://money.cnn.com/2009/07/23/news/economy/initial_claims_
jobless/index.htm?postversion=2009072311
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The number of Americans filing for initial unemployment insurance rose last week, but the jump could be due to continued volatility from the auto industry meltdown.
There were 554,000 initial jobless claims filed in the week ended July 18, up 30,000 from an upwardly-revised 524,000 the previous week, the Labor Department said in a weekly report released Thursday.
The number was slightly lower than the 557,000 consensus estimate of economists surveyed by Briefing.com.
The 4-week moving average of initial claims was 566,000, down 19,000 from the previous week's revised average of 585,000.
In a research note, Ian Shepherdson of High Frequency Economics noted the jump "reflects the seasonal adjustment problems" seen last week when initial claims hit a 6-month low.
Last Thursday, the Labor Department warned that in their adjustments, government statisticians try to predict the timing of auto industry layoffs -- many of which usually occur in the first two weeks of July. But this year, many of those layoffs occurred earlier.
"Hence, seasonally adjusted claims plunged," Shepherdson wrote. "Now this effect is reversing."
Shepherdson said he expected "another hefty rise in claims next week," with total initial claims rising back above 600,000 before stabilizing over the next few weeks.
Continuing claims: The government said 6,225,000 people filed continuing claims in the week ended July 11, the most recent data available. That's down 88,000 from the preceding week's revised 6,313,000 claims.
The 4-week moving average for ongoing claims fell to 6,541,500, down 132,500 from the preceding week's revised average of 6,674,000.
The initial claims number identifies those filing for their first week of unemployment benefits. Continuing claims reflect people filing each week after their initial claim until the end of their standard benefits, which usually last 26 weeks.
The figures do not include those who have moved to state or federal extensions, nor people whose benefits have expired.
State-by-state data: Six states reported initial claims fell by more than 1,000 in the week ended July 11, the most recent data available. Michigan's claims fell the most, by 6,648.
Conversely, 23 states reported claims increased by more than 1,000. New York reported the most new claims, at 12,504, which the state said was due to layoffs in the construction, service and transportation industries.
 
7-23-09
Meetings
MCAG August Calendar
http://www.mcagov.org/
August 06 - Technical Planning Committee Meeting
August 07 - Citizens Advisory Committee Meeting
August 12 - Technical Review Board Meeting
August 20 - Governing Board Meeting