Further discussion of night meetings not on Cambria CSD’s March 24 agenda

As usual, directors of Cambria’s services district will hold their monthly meeting on the fourth Thursday of March, which this year is today, March 24. What isn’t usual is the starting time for the regular meeting: 6 p.m.

Responding to input from some members of the public, Cambria Community Services District directors decided at their February meeting to hold an evening session instead of beginning the meeting at 12:30 p.m., the usual start time called for in the bylaws. They made that change official for today’s meeting at a brief special session March 3.

The board members originally anticipated discussing today whether to make the time change permanent, intermittent, occasional or not at all. However, that conversation and possible decision has been put off until at least the April 28 meeting, according to Jerry Gruber, the CSD’s general manager.

He wrote in a March 22 email that he believes the board intended “to conduct a night meeting to gauge the level of response and interest for future occasional night meetings. Once we have one night meeting under our belt, further deliberation relating to an occasional night meeting will be part of the April agenda.”

Another change

But that’s not the only twist to the timing of today’s meeting. The agenda lists near the start of the session a notation that the district counsel is to provide reports from closed sessions held Feb. 18 and March 24. However, no closed session is included on the regular meeting agenda.

About 4 p.m. Tuesday, March 22, the district released the agenda for a special meeting at 4:30 p.m., prior to the regular meeting. The special meeting (to be held in the district offices, 1316 Tamsen Drive, Suite 201), includes two labor-relations-related, closed-session topics. The separate items are about General Manager Jerry Gruber and the International Association of Firefighters.

Items on the agenda for the regular meeting that starts at 6 p.m. include:

▪  Possible renewal of lot-retirement program with Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo County, a resolution to accept retired lots from LCSLO and appointing citizens to a committee to review funding options to acquire those lots for the district’s stalled build-out reduction program.

Gruber said, “The main purpose for reducing build-out potential in Cambria is to maintain a balance between potential growth and the sustained availability of resources and public service.”

▪  Approving applications for CCSD fire grants toward buying a Type 1 engine, personal protective equipment for firefighters and fire prevention/public education. Two of the grant applications have already been submitted, in response to tight windows of opportunity.

▪  Applying for low-interest $800,000 state loan to replace Fiscalini Water Tank.

▪  Amending an agreement with consultant firm Michael Baker International to complete an extensive report on how the Sustainable Water Facility will affect the environment if allowed to operate on a permanent basis.

▪  Receiving an auditor’s annual financial report for fiscal year 2014-15.

▪  Swearing in new full-time firefighters Benjamin Shank, Michael Castellanos and Ian Van Weerden Poelman.

▪  Presentation about trails on district property.

▪  Separate proclamations to the Cambria Historical Society, highlighting the 150th anniversary of Cambria’s founding, and another honoring Rudy and Michelle Rodriguez.

For details, go to www.cambriacsd.org or call 927-6223.

This story was originally published March 23, 2016 at 10:27 AM with the headline "Further discussion of night meetings not on Cambria CSD’s March 24 agenda."