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Good afternoon, ladies and gentleman and members of the regional water board. My name is Howard Smith and I am chairman of the Board of the Ventura County Economic Development Association, or VCEDA as we are commonly known. VCEDA represents 350 of the largest businesses in Ventura County, including Amgen, BMW of North America, BHP Billiton, Haas Automation and Rockwell Scientific. Our members do not support “Option Four,” they support it unanimously as you well know from the thousands of e-mails and letter that have been sent to your staff.

Not a single resident of Ventura County has said, "Bring on the salt, I need it for my beefsteak tomatoes."

Even though we represent an impressive list of companies and have a fair amount of clout with in Ventura County, coming here before you today to go up against the LA Sanitation District, I can’t help but feel a little bit like Daniel in the Lion’s Den or David versus Goliath.

You have heard a lot today about the technical issues from growers, farmers, agronomists and so forth. My role is to talk a little bit about the economic impact, or better yet, economic repercussions of the decisions you make today.

Agriculture not only represents the heart and soul of Ventura County, it is a 1.3 billion dollar industry. Ag also fuels another 1.3 billion in direct support services, so that brings us to 2.6 Billion dollars a year. Factor in standard multiplier effects and you talking about Ventura County taking a hit of some $7 Billion dollars a year,

I my own practice as a financial advisor I work with one our local sanitation districts. I know the people who work there. They are as dedicated to their jobs as any other public safety employee such as police or fire. It’s an often forgotten and overlooked fact that Sanitation Districts probably do more to safeguard public health than all of our police, fire and rescue personnel combined. And even though they don’t often get the public respect and acclaim that other public safety workers do, I know from working with these people that they feel that they are entrusted with securing the safety of the public. To them you might even describe it as a sacred trust to preserve the community’s health and welfare.

I respect them for it. I also have a great deal of respect for the people and staff of the LA Sanitation District. It is a hard job, often thankless and certainly without the glory that police and fire agencies receive. Still, it is a sacred trust between the people who work at these agencies and the public.

As a stockbroker and Chair of an Economic Association, I also know that most every political decision comes down to one of money. Every one in this room knows that’s why we are all here. There is a problem with salt contamination working its way into our watershed. Jim Stahl, head of the Los Angeles Sanitation District, who testified earlier, can delay, deny, or deem to study it, but the reality of this inconvenient truth is not going to go away. It’s coming from LA and it is getting dumped into Ventura. And that is something else we all know to be true.

And I’m sure if money were not an issue, if unlimited funds were available, Jim Stahl and the other dedicated public servants at LA Sanitation would not hesitate to do the right thing. Of course they’d build or upgrade their facilities to safeguard the water supply. They are after all public servants whose only duty is to the citizenry of California.

So when I look across the room at Mr. Stahl and the folks from LA Sanitation, I know they mean well, I know they want to do their job on our behalf, but for the life of me I can’t understand how any sense of public responsibility, how any interpretation of that sacred public trust to safeguard health and welfare can be judged to end at the county line.

When Santa Clarita was burning two years ago, the Ventura County Firefighters didn’t stop at the county line and say, “Wait till the flames cross the blue line.” They fought the fire where it was. They honored that sacred trust.

This is about money and the total lack of moral – and legal – responsibility to clean up your own mess and not dump into your neighbor’s back yard.

So let’s talk about money. It’s been estimated that it would cost LA $350 million dollars spread out over 11 years to do the right thing.

And if they do the wrong thing, which means… Well we all know what that means… they will destroy not only the water quality of the Santa Clara River and the farmlands that depend on it, they will also put an economic hit on Ventura County of some $7 Billion dollars a year. And why… because it is deemed inconvenient by Mr. Stahl and a handful of public employees to do the right thing.

Now LA has the deep pockets to fight indefinitely against rational standards for salt discharge. But does that money do anything to improve water quality or honor their sacred trust to the public. No, it all goes to the lawyers.

LA can try to delay the imposition of rational standards and throw up a million arguments against it but the truth always comes down to dollars.

A decision one way will cost LA $350 million, if it goes the other way it will cost Ventura $7 billion.

So I will conclude my remarks by asking everyone in this room to weigh the scales of justice – 350 vs. 7 billion - Who has the greater incentive to fight to the bitter end, David or Goliath?

I know the answer and so does everyone on this side of the room. My message to LA Sanitation is this, you can continue to delay, deny and fight, or you can start spending the dollars to do the right thing. Remember, we have no choice but to fight for our survival. But you do… All it takes is doing the right thing.

Thank you…

Oh, and one last point. These are fresh avocadoes from the orchards of Ventura County.

Enjoy them. If Mr. Stahl and LA Sanitation have their way, they just might be last you’ll ever see.

Thank you.