Rice voted in as CCSD president; Farmer joins board

Amanda Rice is the new president of the Cambria Community Services District Board of Directors, and Greg Sanders will serve as vice president.

A motion putting Sanders at the helm and Rice as VP drew forceful objections from four members of the audience and new Director Harry Farmer. An online petition also included comments about why Rice should be president now.

They said Rice’s experience chairing North Coast Advisory Council meetings, connections at the California Coastal Commission and in-depth knowledge of the issues more than qualified her to lead the board.

Don Archer said of yet another time when it seemed the board would “overlook” Rice for the post, “This seems like déjà vu all over again. I’m really upset.”

Even Rice said, “It’s time for me to be president.”

Director Mike Thompson said he would not be a candidate for either position.

Farmer’s nomination motion for Rice failed on a 3-2 vote. After long discussion, Director Jim Bahringer’s motion for the Sanders-Rice ticket also failed, this time unanimously. Then Bahringer immediately nominated Rice for president, which was followed by a quick, unanimous vote of approval, as was Sanders’ nomination for vice president.

He quickly congratulated the new president with a handshake, as did General Manager Jerry Gruber, who handed Rice a new gavel.

With a long agenda ahead, the directors agreed to postpone one item, a quarterly budget review for fiscal year 2016-17. The delay won’t matter, according to Gruber, because no action was needed on the information-only item.

Biomass project

Dan Turner, manager of the county Fire Safe Council, sought approval from CSD directors about a concept-proposal application he’s prepared for a $381,700 Cal Fire Urban and Community Forestry Program Greenhouse Gas Biomass grant.

The board gave the concept and the application unanimous approval.

If the grant ultimately is awarded to the district, it would go toward buying a nearly $600,000 plant in which about 4 tons of wood chips per day, 24 hours a day, from the many dead trees in Cambria’s forest would be heated to just below combustion temperature. The process chemically breaks down the wood into “wood gas” (primarily hydrogen) and bio char (essentially activated charcoal).

The wood gas would fuel an engine that turns an electric generator, producing energy to provide power to the wastewater treatment plant. The biochar is considered permanently sequestered carbon, and is used as a commercial soil amendment, among other uses.

No chipping or grinding would take place at the wastewater treatment plant. Two to three times per week, a dump truck would deliver wood chips during business hours and store them within the fenced area of the plant.

Turner said noise levels and any emissions would comply with county regulations, and that county planning, PG&E and the Air Pollution Control District are all aware and supportive of the concept proposal.

The manufacturer, All Power Labs, estimates the district could realize energy savings of $75,000 to $100,000 a year and would get full return on the investment purchase price in three to four years.

The district would have to meet a 25 percent “soft match” requirement of $215,250 for the grant. However, Turner has told the Cambria FireSafe Focus Group that the match wouldn’t have to be cash, and that salaries of district Water Department staffers operating the plant would apply as an in-kind match.

Urban Water Management Plan

After holding an officially noticed public hearing that included a presentation by district engineer Bob Gresens and consultant Lisa Maddaus of Maddaus Water Management, the directors approved on a 4-1 vote the district’s 2015 Urban Water Management Plan.

The long-range planning tool, which is required by the state water code, considers current and future water supplies versus anticipated demand. Any urban water supplier in the state, such as CCSD, which serves more than 3,000 customers is required to prepare and periodically update such a study.

The plan is available at http://bit.ly/2hcMdrf.

Director Harry Farmer voted no after mentioning that a district that is still officially in a Stage 3 water emergency, is “short of revenue … and with all these expenses coming up,” the CSD should be enforcing penalties for excessive water use.

Four audience members brought up their concerns about the plan. Laura Swartz noted that the plan has some inconsistencies that should be corrected, and “it needs to be really, really clear for the community, and it’s not.” Also, “I think we’re over-counting the supply and undercounting the demand.”

Leslie Richards said it was premature to vote on the plan, because it has incomplete, incorrect data. She said it would be a great idea to hold a workshop on the plan before voting to approve it.

Rice said, “I’d rather have this put off, get corrections and public input, but the next update process” begins in 2018. “I think we can address the issues then.”

Other business

In other actions, the board:

▪  Unanimously approved a 2017 board-meeting schedule that includes eight meetings that start at 12:30 p.m., three that start at 4 p.m. and one that begins at 6 p.m.

▪  Unanimously rejected bids received for work on the Fiscalini Ranch Preserve Community Park Project, and sent the project back to the district’s Parks, Recreation and Open Space Commission for modification and reopening of the bidding process. The range of bids received was higher than anticipated. Gruber said that might have been because some of the firms bidding on the job already have lots of work on their schedules and no real desire to do the project.

▪  Approved on a 3-2 vote having Gruber investigate the possibility of financing some of the construction costs for the Fiscalini Water Storage Tank. The district is able to pay outright for the project.

Rice and Farmer voted no. He said, “We either take money from ourselves and saddle people here with the problem, or finance it and saddle people in the future with it.”

▪  Approved giving 11 percent raises to Fire Chief William Hollingsworth, engineer Gresens, resources/facilities supervisor Carlos Mendoza, administrative services/district clerk Monique Madrid and confidential administrative assistant Haley Dodson. The first raise of 5.5 percent will become effective Jan. 1, and the second raise will apply starting July 1.

The vote was 4-1, with Farmer voting no. He had advocated reducing the raises somewhat, “meeting this halfway.”

Gruber also told the board that starting Jan. 20, the district office will be open two Fridays of the month. For some time, the office has been closed Fridays.

After the four-hour-plus meeting ended, Gruber praised Rice’s handling of the session.

This story was originally published December 21, 2016 at 10:19 AM with the headline "Rice voted in as CCSD president; Farmer joins board."