Board drops water portion of contentious water and fire tax
June 22, 2022 \u2014 The Board of Supervisors took a drastic change of course on a proposed water and fire tax at a meeting that erupted once in the morning and then dragged on until after 6:30 pm. The proposal at the beginning of the day was for a three-eighths of a cent sales tax, with 40% going to fund water resiliency projects and 60% going to fund fire services. The tax was projected to generate $7 million a year.\nSupervisor Maureen Mulheren met with the fire districts board and further honed the fire portion, so that 40% of the projected $4.2 million a year for fire services would be distributed equally among the districts. The remainder would be allocated among them using a formula modeled after the state\u2019s distribution of funds generated by Prop 172.\nHer formula for allocating the water portion of the tax is now moot, since supervisors discarded the plan to include water projects. \nSupervisor Dan Gjerde vigorously opposed the water tax, calling it \u201c\u2018ridiculous and offensive.\u201d During the discussion to approve the county budget, which appeared on the consent calendar, he objected to how the Inland Water and Power Commission was using the money it receives from the county. The county is one of five dues-paying public entities that are members of the Commission, which exists in part to protect the Potter Valley diversion. Gjerde spoke about the records from the Commission meetings, which reflected polling and research expenses, \u201ctesting public support for a parcel tax to finance what Inland Water\u2019s minutes, throughout 2021 and 2022 have repeatedly called the PVP, or Potter Valley Project ballot measure,\u201d he reported. He added that the cost of polling services to a firm called Godbe Research was estimated at between $28,000-$31,000, depending on how long the survey took. A scope of work describing a two-phased approach lays out the cost of feasibility studies, strategy, and education and outreach by two additional political strategy firms associated with the Godbe Research Team, TBWBH and NBS. The total costs for Phase I were estimated at $76,450, with a Phase II fee of $45,000, plus three informational mailings priced at $43,491, and optional digital services at $10,000. \u201cSo my question is, what is the total amount that Inland Water has paid, or will pay?\u201d to the three firms, Gjerde asked. \u201cThese are our tax dollars, so we deserve to know.\u201d\nCounty Counsel Christian Curtis said he always advises caution when it comes to political activity on the part of publicly funded bodies. \u201cThere is a prohibition, not just on county funds, but on any public funds, for any sort of campaign purposes,\u201d he said. \u201cI don\u2019t know that that prohibits any sort of polling, where what you are essentially doing is research to determine in advance whether or not the public entity should even invest the resources to go ahead and prepare an ordinance and submit it to the voters. This is an area I generally advise caution\u2026there is an exception to the rule regarding campaign activity that allows a public agency to put out purely informational items that do not advocate for or against on a matter that may be submitted to the voters.\u201d\nSupervisor Glenn McGourty said legal fees make up the bulk of the Commission\u2019s expenses. \u201cIf you look at what IWPC is spending their money on, it\u2019s mostly legal assistance from Scott Schapiro, who is our legal counsel, trying to negotiate the purchase of the Potter Valley Project from PG&E,\u201d he said.\nGjerde insisted that the Potter Valley Irrigation District and the Russian River Flood Control and Water Conservation Improvement District, which are also members of the Commission, have a valuable commodity for sale. \u201cThose two entities by themselves could produce well over a million dollars a year,\u201d he said. \u201cProblem solved. A million dollars a year. Just those two boards. Take action. Nobody\u2019s stopping them. But instead, nope. They want to ask everybody in Mendocino County to bail them out, because they don\u2019t want their own customers to pay the going rate.\u201d\nMcGourty said a regional entity of Russian River water users is beginning to coalesce around some fundamental principles. \u201cPrimarily, the use of the money is to negotiate the water right transfer from PG&E to the community of the Upper Russian River watershed between Potter Valley to Healdsburg,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s really what this is about. Eventually, the agriculture people will pay a reasonable amount of money for water. It won\u2019t be cheap, as you imply now, but it\u2019s going to take some time to get that together\u2026it costs to be there. It costs like a million dollars to participate in the discussions, in legal fees. And it\u2019s extremely important.\u201d\nPaul Moreno, a spokesman for PG&E, wrote in an email on Tuesday afternoon that \u201cPG&E is not in negotiations about water rights associated with (the) Potter Valley Project and has not been approached about any such negotiations.\u201d\nThe Ukiah Daily Journal and the Mendocino County Observer have come out agai...