C I T Y L I G H T S
pointment: “I love Borrego and visited three times the past nine months. I never travel without bottled water because many areas have nasty-tasting tap water, which often smells of sul- fur,” says Reenie Shea. “The water in Borrego
now tastes terrible,” says Don Jones, who goes to Bor- rego each year with his wife. “I don’t remember that being a problem two or three years ago, but now I say it tastes like horse piss.” “I have a home in Bor-
rego Springs and spend about 40 percent of my time [t]here,” says David Lewis. “I have no problems with the water, but my wife does.” The wate r qual it y
depends greatly on the water’s location in the aqui- fer, says Kathy Dice, super- intendent of Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and wife of James Dice. The aquifer has three levels. “The really good layer is the top one. The middle is a bit more mineralized. In the lowest
C I T Y L I G H T S
C I T Y L I G H T S UNDER THE RADAR There be dragons in the desert (Borrego Springs sculpture)
level there has to be treat- ment,” she says. Kathy Dice is on the
advisory committee trying to come up with a plan to match inflow and outflow. “If we fail to do that, the state steps in and we go to court,” she says. “We have been in overdraft since the 1960s, when people first came here; they would dig a well and within a few feet get water. It gave the impres- sion the water was unlim- ited.” Farms sprung up in the area, and now they use
70 percent of the water. It wasn’t until the 1980s that Borrego realized the water situation was critical. Says Poole about the
citizens’ group seeking a solution, “The very exis- tence of our community depends on what we are working on. Nobody else is in our position.” An obvious solution is
to shut down farms; that is already happening. “One of the strategies is to fallow land,” says Poole. A large water user, such as a golf course, pays to fallow farm- land and gets a water credit. If Borrego doesn’t come
up with a sustainability plan, water could become so expensive that people, busi- nesses, and farms “could be forced out,” says James Dice. Borrego’s water situa-
Anza-Borrego Desert Creek emanates from a natural spring.
tion could do two things to real estate values: optimists who think the rainfalls are boosting the town’s future might pay more for homes than they would have dur- ing the drought. Contrarily, those educated on the reality might be less willing to pay for Borrego homes. Actu- ally, home prices have been rising moderately. However, David Cragoe, broker-owner of Road Runner Realty, doesn’t think prices are rising because of the rain. Those values were going up before the rainfall. “People are feeling better about the economy and have more equity in their [coastal and continued on page 28
SDSU big birdies’ tab San Diego State University, its future clouded by a brew- ing fight for control of Mission Valley’s Qual- comm Stadium site, along with the immi- nent departure of president Elliot Hirshman for greener financial pastures at Maryland’s Steven- son University, is also worried about fund- ing its public broad- casting empire in the era of president Don- ald Trump. “We are a critical part of our community here in San Diego, and any cut in federal fund- ing would damage that,” KPBS general manager Tom Karlo was quoted as saying in a March 18 Union-Tribune account, which added that Karlo had gone all the way to Washington to lobby Congress against the president’s proposal to zero out funding for the federal Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Of his attempt to hit up Repub- lican House member Duncan Hunter, Karlo complained, “It was 1:30 in the afternoon on a Wednesday and the door was locked.” The paper said that in fiscal year 2016
KPBS got about $3.2 million in federal funds, with additional cash being had from “con- tributions by about 55,000 families, annually bring- ing in $8 million to $9 million, and corporate donors who supply about another $5 mil- lion a year.” But the U-T failed to mention the KPBS tab picked up each year by Califor- nia taxpayers in the form of the SDSU opera- tion’s six-figure salary and benefit packages, including Karlo’s cool $309,883. That was way up from the $215,262 in total compensation that the KPBS honcho received back in 2011. Other SDSU costs for the stations have been rising as well. “Direct financial support received from the University for the years ended June 30, 2016 and 2015 was approximately $2,211,000 and $2,170,000, respectively, and consisted primarily of salaries for management, space rental and utilities,” says the latest KPBS annual financial report, dated last Novem- ber 22. An additional $5,823,856 was spent by
Some might say Tom Karlo earns his $309,883 salary — after all, he went to Washington on a lobbying mission. But, local House rep Duncan Hunter’s office was
closed...at 1:30 in the afternoon.
SDSU for KPBS in so-called indirect funding, which the audit says “relates to a portion of the University’s gen- eral overhead costs that directly benefit the programs of the Stations. Such items are allocated based upon square footage percentage or pro- rated costs includ- ing administra- tion, maintenance and repairs.” Besides Karlo,
other high-dollar public employees at KPBS, per 2015
State of California pay data posted online by nonprofit Transparent California, include sta- tion manager Deanna M Mackey, $199,553, and associate general manager Trina Hester, $182,290.
Election-runoff killers San Diego’s Republican county supervisors say they are gunning for legislation introduced by the local Democratic Assembly delegation that would allow for charter amendments requiring a general-election runoff for the top two finishers in primary supervisorial races. A similar provi- sion was approved for San Diego City Council races by voters here last year. Also opposed by the supervisors is a redistricting mea-
sure that would allow for elimination of a panel of retired judges
from the supervisorial district line-drawing process. Based on the amount the county spends for lobbying in Sacramento, the supervisors may be able
No car-sleeping in Encinitas, say lobbying city fathers
to raise a significant bar- rier to the bills. Through January 2015 to December
2016 alone, the influence-peddling firm of Nielsen Merksamer got $439,688, and JGC Government Relations was paid $240,880, according to a January 2017 disclosure filing. The latter lobbying shop is run by Jonathan Clay, whose now-retired father Ben did simi- lar chores for the county, port, water authority, and other government agencies. Other cur- continued on page 28
San Diego Reader March 30, 2017 3
PHOTOGRAPH BY HARRY PHERSON
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