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Hi Kenley - great find. I bumped it up to a Top Story. Thanks for staying on this issue, on behalf of the citizens of Ojai Valley.

A municipal water district is a great idea. We need some solution. Brown water, expensive filters, and no investment mean Ojai will have to deal with it sooner or later. The likelihood that this city council could wrap its hands around something like this is nil however. Could it be done by initiative?

The Ojai City Council is aware of this outrageous rate increase request, not because Golden State Water had the courtesty to notify City officials in advance. City Manager Jere Kersnar, Public Works Director Doug Breeze and I have been meeting with representatives from Golden State Water Company and the Ojai Basin Groundwater Management Agency to address the proposed rate increase and other water supply and quality issues. We appreciate continued feedback and will keep citizens posted. Please feel free to email your concerns to me directly at rhanstad@aol.com.

Thanks Rae, and feel free to run any community-destined information through myself or Kenley.

Rae-
Thanks for the update, and welcome to the Ojai Post. I believe you're the first member of the city council to post a comment here. I commend you. This site has become the most important venue for free speech in the Ojai Valley. It's a great way for council members to have a dialogue with the public. Hope to hear more from you, and I hope the other council members will chime in.

I'd like to see this item added to the agenda for the Feb. 6 city council meeting. Can you make that happen?

Please note that the regular meetings of the Ojai City Council are the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month. Therefore, the next scheduled meeting is February 13 (not 6). I believe the agenda is filling quickly as we all look forward to a comprehensive report and recommendations on the Ojai Skate Park -- as one example. I will check with staff and Mayor Smith today to see when this might best be agendized but will ensure there is at least an Information Item available.

Thanks, Leslie. I have commented here briefly before and will continue to share information -- but remind readers that I speak as one, not five, and more as a citizen than a Council Member.

Rae, thank you for the correction on the City Council meeting date. That means we'll have to do what we can as citizens and help get the word out to the community to send their feedback to the PUC by February 8.

Maybe at some future date we can explore the idea of municipal water?

Rae, great to hear from you! i'm really appreciating your leadership, your involvement, and - perhaps most importantly - your clarity regarding your scope and role when you comment here.

my sense from the sometimes-acidic comments we've seen directed at the City-level government is that more human-to-human connection (and this counts) and more transparency will go a LOOOOOONG way toward a relationship between citizens and City Hall that ultimately strengthens our community and builds trust.
for example, i absolutely ADORE that Elton Gallegly responds by letter to every single communication i've ever had with him, be it by phone, email, or letter. i ALWAYS disagree with him, but i LOVE that connection.

i imagine that it might be scary for public, elected figures to open themselves and their organizations up like that, but i believe strongly that over time it will result in more unified, trustful community and a stronger democracy.

(i dont want this to sideline the discussion...this is about water. carry on.)

Hi evan - i don't want to sideline the discussion either, but might i offer that Elton's office (and not Elton himself) sends out a form letter broadly covering whatever issue is specifically raised with them, often not addressing the specific question or comment. Furthermore, his office won't communicate via email, where it would be much easier to cut-and-paste his reply for wider dissemination to the community.

A better model of communication is Barbara Boxer's office which is far more targeted in their replies, and will send replies via email. (Boxer also linked to The Ojai Post during the Day Fire as an essential resource).

I am pleased that you (Rae) join in this conversation. I wonder how many other "silent observers" from officialdom there are. In the absence of "light" talk, the silent ones cause "heat," precisely because of the vacuum they create. Public officials expose themselves because they have to. It goes with the job. Unfortunately, they usually build up asbestos walls to shield themselves from the heat, because they don't know how to handle it.

Fearful officials are like deer caught in the headlights. It's understandable. They've got things flying at them from all sides, and the best defense mechanism is to shut down to a narrow window they can handle.

The way out is the way in--into public discussion like happens here. If more of us just jump in, we find the water is fine. Some of that is beginning to happen in council chambers with the clarification of the Brown Act which DOES allow officials to carry on a BRIEF discussion with the public. However, there is a drawback because it adds a lot of time, and "the mind can only tolerate what the seat can endure." After two hours my mind starts to go numb.

Back to the topic water. Water is big business, like gravel, chains, and housing. Herein is the rub with officialdom. They are caught in the headlights. The financial and developer interests are beaming floodlights on them. The activist public is shining the light on them. And that silent majority who elected them is too. What do the poor deer do?

The easiest thing is to play political, which is to say play dead. Oh, of course, use plenty of verbiage to cover the corpse, and focus on all the business as usual stuff as a distraction. But any DOE who is not caught in the headlights can see what is happening to those who are. Even when the DOE outside the headlights is sued by the terrified deer in the headlights.

Proactive progressive preservation action is needed. The life of Ojai and the nation is at stake. The blinded, frozen deer have to get out of the blinding light, and behind it, in fact, because they are holding the light.

So, to hear a public official participate here is most encouraging. It shows an individual who is thinking for herself/himself and sharing publicly. She or he is putting distance between themselves and the system. It's risky because the system doesn't like free thought. Freedom of speech is the wild card that can bring the whole house of cards down. It's a breach in the dam of water all right but it can be controlled by reason. The outlet of water does not have to turn into chaos.

The underlying dilemma with water is private ownership versus public good, the same issue we have with Frostie, Mallory, the DOES initiatives, the gravel trucks, water, etc., etc., all the way to our very quality of life.

The central post to all this is political will and public information. The post is all askew and out of balance because of the weakness of government, at the local and national levels. Government is intimidated like deer in the headlights by the false, self serving propaganda of greedy developers with their market fundamentalism, and other such lies.

The price of water is rising. Why? As with economics, follow the money. Who is profitting? Who is suffering? It's not hard to see, unless you're in those blinding headlights. To use poetic license: money is the headlights; enlightened people are the heartlights.

One more day to submit your objection to this proposed rate hike. Send you comments to public.advisor.la@cpuc.ca.gov

The rate hike proposed by Golden State Water Company will be an agenda item at the Ojai City Council Meeting of Tuesday, February 13, 7:30 PM.

The meeting agenda, staff report, and the City's letter of protest to the Public Utilities Commission should be posted at the City's website by tomorrow. http://www.ci.ojai.ca.us/ There is also coverage on the GSW increase request on Page A1 of today's OVN.

I encourage concerned citizens to attend the meeting or email comments to me at rhanstad@aol.com.

Thank you.

Councilperson Hanstad:
As a resident of Ojai for some 17 years, I am appalled at the outrageous request by the Golden State Water Co for a 43-95% increase. I presently pay about $23 per month--not for 2 months. I am a single person living in a 1 bedroom apartment. I feel the present rates are gouging at best--how can we allow this increase?
Your efforts on our part are greatly appreciated and I would be most interested in receiving status reports and notices of council meetings when this matter is on the agenda. I will contact City Hall for information on council meetings.

I know it's kind of short notice, but a friend of mine is here in town visiting with his cousin and he just happens to be a representative with Food & Water Watch. Their website is http://foodandwaterwatch.org/ . They specialize in helping cities overthrow their private water contractors. His name is Aden Scow and he is one of the Food & Water Watch California organizers. He's in the area because he is helping Saticoy organize against their private water contractor and his cousin lives here in Ojai so he's up visiting this weekend. He learned that our water company is planning a 43+% rate increase and started to inquire if there was support here in Ojai for a campaign to return water to the public domain. I told him there was most definitely interest in that regard. He's agreed to have an initial meeting with anyone interested today at 1 p.m. at Java and Joe's. So if anyone would like to come talk about giving the boot to Golden State Water and starting a municipal water company here in Ojai, come on down.

Aden Scow - California Organizer
Food & Water Watch
1 p.m. Sunday 2/25
at Java & Joe's

SPK