what happened there it is so I want to welcome you to our probably a 30th candidate's forum maybe the 10th maybe the 15th we've kind of been doing it for 30 years but not every year so I'm Lynn McKibben I'm the president of the Valley Women's Club and I want to make sure that you have coffee and a cookie and a napkin and a seat and we would get started we've got a really tight timing for this we've got six people who have certain amounts of time to answer questions and the way that you can ask a question is we have students here in the back who will be circulating around we have little cards that you could write a question on I think most of you stop to write the question if you need a card put your hand up and all the candidates will answer one question so when we have the moderators the League of Women Voters that will that will sort the questions and batch them so that we try to get to as many questions as possible cell phones please turn them off me too and hold your questions until the end of the applause to the end okay thank you and the restrooms are back in the back ladies and gentlemen and did I forget anything I just did that okay all right and I'm gonna turn it over to Ashley who is the moderator from League of Women Voters well thank you everyone we actually have two items on the agenda tonight we're opening with the San Lorenzo Valley water district election forum there are three open spots and they run for four years we would ask that you please submit questions for this forum first thereafter we are going to be doing the state assembly seat for the 29th district hold your questions for that one and submit them after this one is over just makes it easier on us while we're batching this forum is nonpartisan and is being put on by the Valley Women's Club as you already heard is being co-sponsored by the League of Women Voters my name is Ashley Wheelock and I am the president of Women Lawyers of Santa Cruz County a local family law and civil petitioner and a member of the League of Women Voters it is being videotaped as you can see in the back by local access television and it will be posted on CTV's website as well as on the League of Women Lawyers website and League of Women Voters website there are six candidates running for the three open spots Chuck Bowman Karen Brown Bob Foltz Eric Hammer and Larry Prather and Jean Radcliffe we drew straws at the beginning and their order up here is the order that they will begin to answer questions in as one person opens then the next time will rotate so the next person will answer first there will be two minutes of opening statements for each candidate they will each have 90 seconds to answer a question and I do have a timekeeper sitting up front who will keep them on time and a one minute closing statement I choose the questions that are asked tonight submitted from the audience I make the sole decision on whether to ask a question as we are limited by time I may modify your question to try to group questions together to have as many questions answered as possible as I mentioned before we have a timekeeper the Takamado she'll be displaying the cards the candidates we have various high school students who are helping us out tonight as ushers who will pick up your questions or deliver you paper and pencils to write questions if you'll just raise your hand either to hand off the card or to ask for paper and pencil they'll bring them around to you and then I have several ladies who are sitting up front here from the League of Women Voters who will be assisting me in sorting the questions into categories so that we can hopefully get to many as many as possible that is Sue Becker Dotty Fry and Eve Robertson thank you to all of these helpers the other members of the Valley Women's League and the League of Women Voters who are here so let's go ahead and begin with opening statements Karen you're first Hi my name is Karen Brown I don't think I'm going to need the microphone can anybody not hear me alright I have a very good speaking voice and I've been in this valley for 35 years some of you may recognize me I was out at Johnny's I was out here in Ben Lowman I was out here at the Felton Corner with my picket sign and my petitions giving all of you rate payers the right to say no we do not want to increase our rate of pay for a new campus we do not want our rate increase just because the bullies on the block have told us we want to increase everything I fought back in 2008 to stop the rate increase I fought for your rights back in 2013 as well and I am what they consider the people's candidate I want to fix the water system I want to fix this water district so that we have good clean water stored correctly delivered correctly not leaking like a sieve through the pipes underground leaking like a sieve through our old used up Redwood tanks and that is the nature of Redwood tanks I want to fix all of them thank you very much thank you I think I will use the microphone ladies and gentlemen thank you for attending tonight I want to thank the League of Women Voters in the Valley Women's Club for sponsoring this event I think it's a very important thing for the community to learn about their candidates ladies and gentlemen I have served this community for 16 years on this board I am the only incumbent in the race I think there are several things that the community should be proud of that the water district has done on my watch including the sale and protection of the bottom and gap property acquisition of key watershed properties to protect our water sources the formation of the education grant program and acquisition of the Felton waterworks from Cal Am with support from the Felton community during my tenure the SLV water district has taken a lead role in protecting cons conserving and restoring the vitality of our streams tributaries and watersheds I am committed to balanced budgets and maintaining prudent reserve funds the timely upgrading and replacing of aging infrastructure and strategic planning for future needs I'm also committed to the best use of rates and investment income for the long term benefit of the community the district has long enjoyed a reputation as a proactive leader on environmental matters I serve as chair of the environmental committee which guides the development of the watershed management plan which sets policies and practices for how the district manages its watershed the plan also demonstrates to regulatory agencies that we are serious about protecting and restoring our aquatic resources my experience will provide continuity context and institutional memory for the board I ask for your consideration and continue to continue this important work for our community hello it's good to be here this evening I just like to introduce myself I moved to the San Lorenzo Valley water the San Lorenzo Valley 10 years ago when I retired from a 25 year career as an electronics engineer my retirement has allowed me to give back to my community in ways that I had always hoped to but did not have the time I chose to volunteer in habitat restoration and I am now involved in long-term successful projects with both county and state parks and I've been recognized by the board of supervisors for my efforts at Coil Hollow this effort brought me to the water district in 2011 when I worked with the district to help protect endangered species habitat and afterwards I donated my time to two education grant recipients helping them map the flora at Olympia after the rate hike protests last fall I returned to a high level of involvement with the district I wanted to understand the situation as well as I could and decided to attend as many board and committee meetings as possible I've attended more than 90% of those since the beginning of 2014 when the community outreach citizen advisory committee was being formed last spring I applied and I'm now the chairperson of that committee there's no shortage of topics and issues to address water supply infrastructure finances and communications or some and these will all need to be dealt with simultaneously in order to reach good decisions and getting there will take time energy and commitment but I believe that the important issue that ties these altogether is communications the district should communicate well to the public explaining its operations and its successes and has recently taken good steps in that direction but equally important is listening the district has had two unpleasant experiences in the past year the rate hike protests and the release of a critical grand jury report in June I feel both of these could have been avoided if the public's concerns had been heard in the district's course adjusted appropriately in the process my commitment if elected is to remember during the decision making process what it is like to be a member of the public and to listen and learn from them I hope to serve on the board is a hardworking open minded problem solver who brings commitment knowledge and energy to the most most important role thank you very much Eric good evening my name is Eric Hammer like to thank everybody for coming tonight a little about myself I'm 4th generation center in the valley native I grew up in a family that was dedicated to the preservation of our environment our waterways our river our community and from that I'm passing that same tradition on to my kids I currently serve on the community bridges board of directors I was appointed by the governor to the Santa Cruz County Fair Board I served on the Boulder Creek Parks and Rec for eight years where we took a dysfunctional organization and turned it in to the best small special district in the state and along those lines we also built a Garahan Park with bringing together volunteer labor to do over two hundred thousand dollars worth of work what I bring it running for the for the board of the water board is leadership and understanding of our community and an amazing commitment I just love it I mean as a kid I walked the watersheds I had the privilege of walking them again this last weekend and I'm sitting here telling you how lucky and fortunate we are to have had the leadership that we've had to preserve our watersheds and to do the environmental protection that has been done we have fantastic drinking water yes we need to make make some changes and yes we need to tweak the system we have and I feel I'm just a person to help oversee that and for me I think it is equally important that we hire the best possible district manager we can and I come with a lot of experience in hiring CEO's and district managers of nonprofit organizations and I think I can help here so I look forward to your support thank you thank you Jean good good evening I'm Jean Radcliffe thank you for the opportunity to tell you about my qualifications and to explain my priorities if elected as a director for water district water is our most critical resource and in Santa Cruz County we are in a situation unique in the state since we import no water unlike other California water districts we rely entirely on local supply making responsible management of this resource especially important I have a combination of academic and national and community service experience that will allow me to guide the district in a economically and environmentally sustainable manner in an open and transparent manner I've worked in business as a teacher and a and an ecological restoration which gives me a broad perspective I've served for many years as a planning commissioner and a housing advisory member in Orange County despite being the only Democrat and usually the only woman on the commission I worked cooperatively with a very diverse group of colleagues and we completed many successful community projects my academic background in geology and botany makes the important role of watershed steward and natural for me we have sensitive and habitat and we have threatened endangered species and I understand environment regulations I understand the constraints they impose on district operations and the capital improvement process as a planner and a contract manager are worked on many long-term projects and this would be an asset to the board of directors my immediate goal as director is to improve transparency and community engagement my intermediate goal is to ensure financial sound these two are the foundation for the long-term goals which are infrastructure improvements and watershed stewardship I believe local control of water is an important public trust and a wonderful opportunity thank you very much thank you Bob good evening everybody I appreciate the opportunity to talk to you about my candidacy and to talk about more importantly the issues that face us over the last 25 years that I've lived in Boulder Creek and San Lorenzo Valley I've gained a lot of expertise in senior management roles in working in technology companies over the hill as well as in the public sector volunteering and serving on boards within our community and I believe it's those skills and experience that will allow me to be a good board member for the San Lorenzo Valley Water District I think it is my responsibility as a candidate to go beyond the campaign platitudes that you hear a lot about upgrading infrastructure and transparency in the lake and to provide you with very specific information which can be found on my website about what I mean by these things and more importantly the how and why I reach the positions that I do I think it is imperative that candidates demonstrate that kind of respect to you the voters by offering more than just the one liners and the throwaway campaign lines in addition I'm asking you to do something as well and that is to exercise your power as the ultimate oversight of the board that is you are the PUC for this water district to demand of all the candidates that they be very transparent very clear in what their positions are about all the issues and actually go into depth about what it means to go through a process of upgrading infrastructure or being financially sound or talking about transparency because when I talk about transparency I don't mean the minimum required by the state law I mean the maximum that we can do within the technology that we have available to us today and it is this focus and this drive that I will bring to the water district board if I'm blessed enough to be elected by yourself thank you very much thank you very much the first question shall be answered by Larry you will only get one thirty second morning for the questions before time is called the first question will be answered by Larry infrastructure improvements are always needed however in three parts one why are there so many leaking tanks two is there a plan to replace or fix the tanks and three what is your position on the campus project a new central facility site as it stands now and please also note that I'm only going to read the questions one time thank you Larry boy I'll do my best with that compound question first of all there are we recognize that right now that they're on the order of forty three of this number I've heard several times either forty two forty three or forty five quoted by our own staff so forgive me if you know we're plus or minus on that one we're discovering new tanks in our our water district from time to time all the time the interesting thing is that we've had a CIP plan that that I'm aware of since nineteen ninety seven when I first came on the board 98 that CIP was planned for an update in 2010 we updated in 2010 we've made progress all along and replacing tanks redwood tanks in fact we've just completed several of those replacements and we also have had a long-term commitment to doing an organized prioritized replacement of infrastructure that minimizes the burden on the rate payers so you know to put things in context we have a hundred and fifty miles of mainline to replace all of that at once would be a hundred and eighteen million dollars in today's dollars just not possible with a six million dollar income from our rate base thank you thank you check the leaky tanks are part of the problem there's there's many of them they're very visible you know the public attention is focused on them but there's estimates that's something like maybe 14 to 18 percent of the water that's produced does not get delivered to eventual rate payers and maybe 14 percent of that is due to leaks and we're finding now that much of that is probably underground recently the district has started a program of testing for leaks and has found ones that are significant so I believe the tanks should be prioritized in the sense that they should be worked into the plan but other things such as the leaks underground perhaps are lower hanging fruit the capital improvement program that was created in 2010 had a recommended update in 2012 and that has not happened and it is now 2014 and may be drawing close so this those projects need to be integrated into an overall plan of prioritization that is smart and one of the things that is needs to be integrated in with it with it is the administrative campus administrative campus is on that capital improvement plan as a five point five million dollar project three million has been spent so far on land and studies but there's another six million to be spent I recommend a reasonable size project for that thank you lengthy question couple short answers the if you take a look I'll buy it off at the the campus project quickly I think that what needs to happen and it is currently gonna start happening on Thursday is a feasibility study needs to be done so we can go out to the ratepayers and say here's the cost analysis based on what our expenses are going to be over the next 10 to 20 years over what our expenses are if we build a new facility if we do not build a new facility and consolidate this is where expenses are going to be and that can be outlined that can be measured and that can be brought to the voters so that they can see it I think it's tangible some benefits of a campus can be reduced in our carbon footprint gives us the ability to continue to continue with solar programs for power and it can definitely bring things together if I take if we talk briefly about the infrastructure we have been quoted anywhere from 15 to 18 percent leakage is out there underground I think the underground leak detection that they have started is the foot in the right direction what I have seen is I have seen targets being put into place from the capital improvement plan I have seen the board not want to spend more money than what they're budgeting as far as going out and trying to to spend a huge chunk of money to do the underground it's a hundred and fifty dollars a foot to replace pipe it's going to take a little while to fix that thanks thank you gene well I'll start with infrastructure tank replacement is the topic of the day it's like a squeaky wheel or a photo up if you will you know squeaky wheels are a problem but if you're transmissions giving you trouble that's what you need to fix they have prioritized capital improvement projects if you look in the website they've got a three-stage capital improvement program and they're going for the most cost-effective projects first those are the projects that may not be visible but that save the most amount of water and or money these are projects where the district can easily go in and get those projects accomplished like the Nina tanks have been replaced other projects probation tank is a notorious one endangered species not our property lots of other complications there so that's they have done a good job prioritizing tank replacement and tank replacement is certainly a visible problem but it's not our big problem our big problem is systematic problems quickly onto the campus thing I took a tour this weekend with the rest of the candidates and boy there are some real structural seismic problems operational problems so we do need to look at some sort of conciliate consolidated facilities I don't know what that is the current board at the rate hearing last year decided yeah it's not a great idea people are not in favor of the big project so we need to examine that in some form or another it's inevitable thank you thank you Bob yes I this in 90 seconds will be very challenging but let me give a one-word answer for the campus project no I think that is very I mean it's just way too much for us folks let's let's get real it is it is way too big a project and if what we're doing is starting a needs assessment now after we've been after we've spent three million dollars as the PUC for the board that's a massive failure of oversight and I don't know how else to put it because that really should have taken place way before that money was invested so we have to really I think back up quite a ways on this project and if what we're doing now is is putting it to a committee let's stop politics for a while that's just to get it past the election and then the thing will start again remember it's not stopped it's only shelved at this point with respect to our infrastructure it's like your house you have to paint it you have to replace the roof you have to replace the carpets every now and again you have to do maintenance to it and unfortunately what we've done is we've deferred all that maintenance or the vast majority of that maintenance for one reason or another and it could be good reasons but we have deferred it and as a community we have to step up and accept that fact we have to figure out where we are now by doing a complete inventory of the system matching up age type of pipe type of tank what it's going to cost to replace the priorities and then we have an extended conversation with the community about what to do thank you thank you Karen let's talk about this project no I would never go for this campus project putting all our trucks all our resources into one spot is ridiculous if any of you have ever done any kind of military or military family you don't put all your troops in one place we have floods we have trees we have disasters we need our vehicles and our generators dispersed throughout the valley so that they can attack it from all the sides not all be stuck in Boulder Creek even though we all need to be educated as the current board has put it so that we will allow them to do this campus project as far as capital improvement has been since 1997 and the only tanks have been replaced are up there were two of the board of directors live we need to repair all of them we've got a liner in the tanks right now because of the pressure of the people who have been attending these meetings and they are very visible it's not because the board of directors are so concerned thank you thank you on to the next question this one will be answered first by Chuck what are your qualifications to be an SLVWD board member what do you believe would be your legacy as an SLVWD board member and how would you work with other public agencies and the public if elected Chuck I'm a retired engineer this by nature I'm a problem solver I come to the the water district trying to figure out how to make it work I've taught myself in the past how to be an engineer having come from a science background and I'm in the process of learning how to be an excellent director for the San Lorenzo Valley Water District I've also spent the last year going to all of the board and committee meetings except for maybe 10 percent of them so in this process I've come to know the workings of the internals of the district as well as I possibly could and intend to hit the ground running when I and when and if I'm elected to the board I'd like to be my for my legacy to be a history of having brought all the people the public the board the staff together to have a well-functioning well-run district that is free from criticism taking on the last 45 years of my life walking the streams cleaning up garbage having an understanding of our environment by by living it my qualifications come I'm a general contractor I understand how to read blueprints I understand how to build major construction projects such as all the infrastructure that needs to be done I have experience working with local agencies and have great connections whether it be at a state level or a local level I have the support of Assemblyman Mark Stone I have the support of all the current Water Board members and Border Creek Rec board members I currently serve on Border Creek Business Association I have the ties at the county to bring in the infrastructure I have attended meetings for years with for two years in particular with the Santa Margarita Committee in Scotts Valley as a legacy I would like to leave this board with an updated infrastructure with a strategic plan or capital improvement with goals and outcomes that have been achieved I want to continue with the financial security of the district and updating of the two updating with the most current technology in our treatment plants thank you thank you very much well I have two two different areas of qualification the first one is personal I've served on a lot of public boards before I was a teacher and I worked in customer service for many years so I don't get easily fended I'm easy to get along with and I don't get mad and that's always helpful in a public forum secondly I have some technical skills I got experience with get grant administration I'm familiar with the sequel process I've done a lot of contract work both with public agencies and cities I'm familiar with resource agency work and those are all things that directors will have to learn I'm advantage because I've already had some of that experience so that's very useful and I do have a lot of experience in the environmental sector both as a contractor and in the field person and so I think that's sort of a combination of traits that will be practical as far as getting work done and will also make it easy to work with other people because I've worked with a lot of very different people different from myself and we were always very compatible and we got along very well which I think makes the the whole process more productive thank you Bob sure well my qualification started out when I was a teenager I actually learned about the water business from underground up my family owned a water company before there was a public agency in the area and so I had the pleasure of installing pipes meters cleaning reservoirs going out in midnight service calls during summer vacations so I understand at a very fundamental level exactly what it means to deliver safe clean affordable water to a community because I've lived that I've been a senior manager at many companies so I understand finances planning planning processes how to go about through that and how more importantly to focus on the big picture not the details we have people that that work for the district a great team there that can handle those it's the board's job to focus on the details and set the strategy in the big picture with respect to a legacy I very much like Eric want to have a process by which we start working for real on upgrading our infrastructure not continuing to defer the maintenance on that I think it is really important that we recognize that we were given a gift by the people that came before us and we need to give that same gift on to our children and grandchildren in a form that that makes it so that they don't have to pay for the entire cost of upgrading the system thank you thank you Karen what makes me qualified to be on the board is I have run a water company I ran a small mutual before SOB took us over and when we had our earthquakes when we had our mud slides I was out there digging up pipes putting in brand new pipes I was the one taking the water samples to the salt control lab for testing I was the one who was running the books collecting all the building I was the one who was there whenever there was a problem with the water company I was the one who was getting the contractors getting the bids from the contractors having the pumps replaced finding out who could work the best I've always done the non-traditional girl roles when I work for Texas Instruments I started in as quality control when I was pregnant I did documentation so I can be your voice for documentation I can look at the quality of things I ended my career at Texas Instruments as an emergency response that which makes me cool and level-headed in crowds I was always the person that people would go to to answer the questions and if I didn't know the answer I know where to find it thank you very much thank you Mary thank you as qualifications I will offer up my 16 years of service to the community in this position in addition to that I would say that my 10 years as director of Genesis microchip director of engineering puts me in a unique position as far as my technical know-how and analysis skills and I demonstrated that in the past I put together a capital equipment replacement fund that the district still uses that I was told at the time was impossible to implement thank you very much that was a fairly fairly easy analysis for a trained professional in addition to these qualifications I've served this community most of those 16 years as chair of the environmental committee and I've had the responsibility and the pleasure of working with other agencies in that role so fish and wildlife and no fisheries or no strangers to me and we work very closely with them in a proactive way and continue and will continue to do so as far as a legacy I would put I would hope that my work on the watershed management plan and I encourage all of you to go to SLBWD.com and go to the watershed link and read that documents amazing document it's not finished and I hope to finish it during my tenure if re-elected thank you thank you Chuck well I'm sorry I already have a question give him another shot another slice of the apple this question will first go to Eric I'm sorry Jean no sorry describe how you view the environmental policy of SLBWD for the past 10 to 15 years do you think the district has been enough to reduce our carbon footprint and how would you change the current environmental policy if at all thank you Eric I think SLBWD district has been a leader and innovator and in environmental protection if we take if you get an opportunity just to walk the Olympia Circle and see the work that's been done out in the watershed the plant restoration the the cleanup of garbage that's out there a lot of that work was done with Chuck and others that were on the committee fantastic job if you go to several of our sites you see top notch solar technology that's being utilized that is using our resources renewable resources tapping into it it reduces our carbon footprint great job I would actually like to see that that furthered the purchase of watershed land and the preservation of such land has allowed us to to maintain the quality of surface water that we have we have top-notch policies and the only thing that I would do to change those would be to to reach out and take a look at some other districts and see what they've done and and what they've done to reduce their print I think we're I think we're a leader I'm very happy at the work that the district has done and being a leader thanks great gene well I think the district's commitment to reducing the effects of climate change and greenhouse gases and so forth to reflect in a lot of the documents compliance with AB 32 is a very important factor there's a lot of other things the district does such as the solar power that is a small part of sort of greenhouse gas reductions that allows to meet the state standard I think there's a lot further that we can go certainly it's not our top priority our watersheds in great shape we're doing a very good job on watershed management so we shouldn't forget about it I think there are more urgent problems at the moment since we're in such great shape with a watershed and we are in compliance with the state regulations I think we need to continue in that very productive very successful thing and turn some of our energies and some of our finances towards solving more immediate problems that have the public concerned I think everyone feels good about the environmental stewardship I think people feel good about some of the other environmental actions the district we need to address some of the controversially controversial problems that people are currently upset about thank you Bob sure I I don't think that environmental issues are really a major campaign issue for this race I think we have other issues that are that are very much more pressing and I'd be willing to bet that probably couldn't put a sheet of paper between any of us on the issue of protecting our environment our important watersheds and making sure that we can continue to deliver safe clean and affordable water one thing that I think we might be able to do is reach out to the county and as we work on storm drains and improving our drainage system there may be some things that we can do to help channel that water and to recharging our aquifer which I think would be a good thing to do and perhaps working with the county on how that might be done with any kind of new construction or remodel but but like Jean I think that there are much more serious issues here that we need to address and I think part of that is making sure that when you're evaluating the candidates and looking at websites and other material that you're really looking not only just at the one liners but also what is the detail and the thought process that was put into coming up with the position that the candidate has on any of those issues and I would encourage you to do that throughout the campaign until November 4th. Thank you. Thank you Karen. On the environmental issues are being well represented by the Board of SLP. I have ridden my horse in this valley for 35 years. I've ridden on the Waterman's Gap watershed. I got probably one of the few people who's actually walked this as well as Eric and there is nothing but beautiful pristine nature out there and I plan to keep it that way. Thank you very much. Thank you. Larry. How do you address this one? The environmental? Yeah. Didn't we open with Eric? I think I started with Eric. You can address it again. Thank you for this extra 90 seconds. Well as chair of the environmental committee and I mentioned this as part of the legacy that I'd like to see the watershed management plan is a very important tool to the water district. It's kind of a fulcrum for not only how we manage our watershed but how the water district maintains clean water for its system. How the water is managed for the benefit of not only the people but the fisheries. It really is an overarching and very important document and as I said before I encourage you to read it and comment on it. Two parts have already been completed. A third part has been started the Olay watershed and now we're working on the Felton watershed management plan. In addition to these things as Jean mentioned we are on track for being in compliance with AB 32. Our carbon we've been working with the carbon registry for years now and we're consistently a climate change leader and so I'd like to the community to be proud of that as well. I think it's very important to recognize the the leadership that that this district has shown in that area. Thank you Chuck. Hi I agree that the water district has had a pretty good history environmentally. The watershed document is a good document but occasionally one needs to bring the attention of matters to the board. When I worked with the district back in 2011 to bring protection to the endangered species habitat it was necessary to point that out to the district and then get action by the district to address those issues. There are there are challenges coming in the future. Water supply especially during this drought we realize is tight and the fisheries may require us to take less water from some of our surface streams. So balancing those two things is going to be a challenge and we need to we need to take both the environment and the realities of supplying water to the district into consideration and getting there. There is one environmental challenge on the table now and that regards the administrative campus. There are wetlands jurisdictional wetlands on that property and they need to be mitigated in order for that project to go forward and there are studies indicating that that might happen on the Olympia property where I was involved in the endangered species habitat and I'm a little bit concerned that that mitigation is done only to meet the legal requirements and is a questionable project from a environmental standpoint. So that will need to be resolved in the near future. Thank you. Thank you. The next question will start with Jean. How will you address the grand jury's recommendation? Well, I'm urging people to read the grand jury report posted on the district's website along with the board of directors response and I read the grand jury report before I decided to take on this election and I did quite a bit of research because I didn't want to buy a pig in a poke so to speak. I'm actually reassured after hearing the findings of the grand jury. I did speak to a number of people who had more personal insight into the process than I did but I also did a lot of research just with public documents on the website. Since I am fairly new in the area I don't know all the backstory and I was also reassured by the board of directors response. I was at that meeting. They elicited public comment nobody had anything to say about their response. They are restricted so they can't say a lot. They have to have a very strict format in their response but I thought it was appropriate. They are some things they disagreed with and they gave their valid reasons. Some they agreed with. They admitted there were problems and some they were impartial disagreement with and many of those things are perhaps lack of oversight staffing problems was another one. There were certainly some procedural problems that have now been addressed and corrected. I think we can't relax or vigilance. That's something very important. We have to be diligent and I would do that. Thank you. Bob. No I think it I think the grand jury report does cut to the heart of the relationship between the ratepayers and customers and the board. And one of the one of the major tasks that I think the board needs to undertake is to work on items from large to small to get that back into better balance. I think the board response I think I probably would have listen more to director Randall Brown who had some input into the board response that was not accepted by the majority and in my view regretfully. But I think that overall the bigger picture here is how do we reestablish that. The board is the board in and rate payer relationship has gone through some stresses and turbulence over about about the last year for sure. And I think the drought kind of intensified that because of the demand for for conserving water. And so I think it's really incumbent upon us as board members to reach out to people to be more embracing of folks even if they come in to criticize us to make sure that we're modeling good behavior good body language really thanking them for coming in and taking the time out of their very busy day to offer comments to us even if the about things that we may find a little uncomfortable. And I think that's the kind of tone that I want to bring to the board. And I think if we do that there won't be another grand jury report like that. Thank you. Thank you. I'm talking to many of the meetings with the board. I found the grand jury report very accurate. I found the board to be in denial. And their response for it wasn't quite accurate. Instead it was to pacify everybody and nobody even had a chance to put in their opinion for the board to change their minds as usual. Thank you. Thank you. Mary. I would encourage all of you that who are are interested or concerned about the grand jury report to read the board's response. It was very thorough and well thought out and researched. They didn't disagree. We didn't disagree as a board to everything in that report. We actually agreed with several things and we have actually implemented or had already implemented many of the things that they were recommending. We did find merit in some of the things that we disagreed with and we've taken action on that. We've instituted a citizen's advisory committee to find and in fact Chuck has mentioned that he was his chair of that committee to find deficiencies in our communications with the public and to identify ways for us to improve those things. The board has already taken action on some of those things. For examples seeking certification from a third party as a transparent agency that's a process is just beginning and I look forward to it being completed. The grand jury report can be summarized in four statements. Are the finances properly managed? Are the operations well managed? Did the board violate the Brown Act? And are the operations of the district transparent to the public? I would say the answers are yes, yes, no one yes respectively. Thank you. Mostly perhaps almost completely in agreement with the grand jury report. The matters that the grand jury addressed in their opinions were those of many of the members of the public who were attending meetings. I found well it's not several items that the board agreed with it was two out of nine. So the board ended up disagreeing with seven of the nine items and four of those were on very legalistic terms in which various statutes in the law were quoted. So I find it disappointing. I think that would have been a good turning point. It brought about I believe the dismissal of the district manager. At least the district manager was dismissed shortly after the grand jury report came out. And recently the four person of the grand jury when she heard that I had been attending so many of the water district meetings asked if I would be interested in speaking with her. And I did. I went down to Soquel and I had a three hour meeting with Nell Griscombe the four person of the 2013-2014 grand jury and she has chosen to endorse me. And I think that is a vote saying that this intelligent civic minded group that found problems with the district would find me to be a person on the board who could address those issues. Thank you. When you take a look at the grand jury report and the response from the board and how they came up with that response. It's how all districts government districts have to work. You know they they brought their they've been as a committee they brought the committee recommendations back to the board. They gave ample opportunity for a public to speak. Several members of the public spoke and several members of the public were not happy with the way the board addressed it addressed these issues. They went back to have another committee meeting and they instituted some of those changes not necessarily everything that everybody wanted. What I think is more important is what we're going to do moving forward. We can't correct what has happened in the past but we can do is learn from it and move forward with that. What I have seen a strong leadership in the last six to eight months in regards to doing a search for a new executive director district manager. I think that's fantastic. We talk about transparency. I was walking precincts today and I talked to one homeowner who said you know I went on your website and looked at it. It's amazing what this water district is doing because they reviewed the documentation. What's unfortunate about it is not everybody has seen it. So I think it's not about transparency. It's about the community how we communicate that out to the public. I think we have an opportunity to strengthen our communication skills with the public. Thank you. The next question will begin with Bob. Most issues discussed so far cost a lot of money. How will you pay for renewing infrastructure that needs to be replaced every 50 years? Will the district's real estate be sold to pay for this and where did the 25 million in existing capital funding for projects come from? Do we have an hour? Or more? Man, I'm not even really sure how to get through all that in 90 seconds nor maybe if each of us took a piece of that we could probably get through it in each of our 90 seconds. So you know there's no question that operating a water district costs money. And what I found in talking to people throughout this campaign is not that people are afraid to spend money they're skeptical I would say about how it's being spent and in what fashion it's being spent. And so I think this goes back to the transparency question and the operational sustainability which I see are the two big areas. And that is we need to demonstrate to all of you and people that aren't here, people that are watching us at home at some point that we're being as frugal and as focused on spending the district's money as you are with spending your household budget. If we can do that and we can demonstrate that then I think that gives you the foundation to be able to have that adult conversation about what it's going to take to replace the infrastructure that so urgently needs to be replaced and for which we have deferred maintenance on it for so very long. There's probably a half dozen different ways to do that and that's part of the conversation with the community. Thank you. Thank you, Karen. What I would like to see happen is for us to cut corners in house. So I would like to see everybody go back to the every other month of the building. We could save another $30,000 right there a year. We could stop giving raises by giving raises and reevaluating people's job title while everybody's missed the point that it's going to cost the district another hundred thousand dollars. So we need to cut the cost in house first and this 25 million dollars I don't see how they can even imagine that they have that much money to do these repairs. Half of that is in inventory of what they have. It's not actual cash that they have to spend. So as far as spending more and more and more I say stop it, stop it, stop it. Look in house first. Thank you. Thank you. Mary. Boy, where to start? First of all, it's a 27 and a half million dollar CIP not a 25 million dollar CIP and that was in 2010. It's about to be updated in 2014 no doubt more projects will be added to that. Some of the 2010 projects have already been completed. So give or take it probably will be about the same going forward they really are meant to be 10-year horizon plans not five-year horizon plans. So it's really about organizing the tasks that need to be done in stages and prioritizing the women's that need to be done first the ones that need to be done on a lower priority basis and so on. So necessarily things keep getting pushed from one CIP to the next one to the next one and those tend to be the lower priority items. But things are getting finished. Now to get to the to the point clearly 27 million dollars worth of infrastructure projects are not going to be supported on a six million dollar income that's our revenue per year. If you just look at the income to debt ratio we can't support that even if we doubled rates and I'm not suggesting that the community would tolerate that we couldn't do that. So I think we're doing it the only way we can in a staged well-thought-out metered approach. Thank you. Thank you. Chuck. There are about 55 I think exactly 55 items on the 2010 capital and improvement program and maybe half a dozen of those have been addressed but they've tended to be very large projects. They enter ties are on there. The campus is on there as one of those although well three million has been spent on that already. So the thing that has been difficult for the district has been addressing the nuts and bolts of getting things done and I think that's what the public really wants is the feeling that the water district is dealing with the the ongoing maintenance rather than building big special projects. The district is also worth something on the order of 25 million dollars and by virtue of the amount of depreciation you take on that you have an estimate of what it costs to keep the district in a status quo and that's about 1.25 million dollars. So to keep things even we have to figure out a way to get 1.25 million into the budget and that's not easy but to get it you need to get it through the public and you need to get it past the prop 2 to 18 process where people who feel like that some of that is being spent and appropriately nixes a rate increase. So we need to communicate with the public communicate that we are doing the best job of prioritizing what is important and not undertake larger than necessary capital projects. Thank you Eric. I think we have to do several things at the same time. Chuck hit on a couple of them Larry hit on a couple of them. I think that we need to establish trust in the community by taking a look at our capital improvement plan prioritizing out of that plan the top five or six items which they've done and they've actually been checking those off taking a look at what the budget is for those items and then making smart decisions when raising rates and when I say when raising rates it's not a surprise that our rates are going to go up some more and anybody who is up here or anybody who's out there says that's not going to happen you need to think about that. What I think is important is how you're informed and the process in which we interact when that happens. If we raise the rates and have capital improvement plans and say hey if we go up this much we will complete these tasks and when that happens and we complete those tasks then we can ask for some more. We are very fortunate in this community we pay on the lower end of what for water rates now there are other ideas at the same time I'd like to put together an outside finance committee that's not looking just at our investments but that's looking outside the box how can we get a loan maybe a federal loan low-income loan to kick off a couple of these ideas and then again once we have the trust then we need to maybe go out and take a look at some bonding I mean that's how you complete twenty five million dollar capital improvement plans you don't do it a little bit at a time I mean that's a huge amount of money. Thank you Jean. Well I like this question it goes right to act to my introduction with priorities my first priority was establishing trust my second priority was ensuring financial soundness because those are the foundations for all the important expensive projects that need to be done that's why I put them in that order they're not going to trust us with their money as rate payers until we prove that we're going to be good stewards of that money there's other ways besides disception trust and having a transparent process which I think the district needs to work on their website because there's a lot of financial information there that's hard to get out hard to locate but there's also useful information in the urban water management plan and some of the other project plans about grant money going after the department of water resource grants and loans going after more prop 50 grants that's money that doesn't have to come out of your pocket as a rate payer and the district is already exploiting some of that for the enterty projects that's certainly another possibility so it's a combination of proving that we're going to do the appropriate thing with our money that we're going to manage it well looking for outside sources like grants and working cooperatively to accomplish these things and yes part of it is going to be increased rates whether we like it or not so I think lots of different factors will have to come into play to get these important projects done that segues it to my next question which will open with Karen what steps if any would you take to make water conservation more understandable and doable for the public and could rate hikes be part of any of that plan I feel the community is already taking all the steps that they can in order to save water we have signs everywhere hosting I'm doing my part to save the water the water district has proved put out many many pamphlets with information as to how you can do these steps to conserve water and they're everywhere and everybody is doing their part to save water and I have talked to many people they do not object to the rate going up what they object to is the how the rate increase is being used and as long as the rate increase is done for infrastructure for fixing tanks for fixing pipes not for frivolous little projects that somebody's worked 16 years on then they have no problem with it thank you very much thank you Mary thank you I just want to acknowledge the district in its efforts to conserve water the bill inserts have been a fabulous thing I think all of you who live in the district hopefully everybody in this room has received bill inserts from the water district that's been a fabulous way of getting the message across and very successful by the way as a district district wide we're meeting our goal of 20% reduction in water use at the same time we haven't taken a 20% hit in revenues and that's because our finance committee and I see one of my former finance committee colleagues in the audience tonight were wise enough to foresee this event and put together a rate structure that is heavier on the base rate than larger districts such as the city of Santa Cruz that has gone a long way to mitigating how much revenue we lose in such in droughts like this in addition to that we have a wonderful program and I invite you to go on onto the website the district website we have lawn replacement credits gray water irrigation credits toilet replacement credits high efficiency washer credits and it goes on and on thank you thank you Chuck yes the district has done pretty well the rate payers of the district have done pretty well in reducing consumption by about 20% but it's unclear to me from whom that has come I have in my household has probably one of the lowest usage rates of anybody in the district we use three units of water for three people last month so we haven't been very impressive in the amount of usage that we have accomplished you know reduced it by but we're very low in consumption so I think more effort needs to be placed upon addressing larger consumers of water and unfortunately I disagree with Larry about the wisdom of having so much of the revenue based upon the base rate it does as long at one time helps stabilize the revenue coming into the district but it sends the signal to the people that your consumption isn't going to affect you very badly in your pocket book and that can't be good in the long term the other thing by moving towards less dependence on the base rate it would help people who have low incomes and people who couldn't afford the rate increases would have more of an ability to cut back their usage and and drive more fiscal benefit from that thank you Eric as a district our repairs to a pretty good job of conservation across the board I think that that there are other things that we can do I think we can do more incentivizing incentives on changing out toilets and shower heads I think that when we take a look at remodeling projects that the county needs to put into place the fact that you have zero or or neutral usage when you're swapping out toilets and and shower heads and faucets you see that and so Cal Creek has done a great job with that you know they have a zero water usage on that and you have to take one unit if you have 18 units of water you're going to bring online you have to reduce the system by 18 units I think that's fantastic I think we need to take a look at more is some of the water storage and utilizing and mainstreaming rainwater catchment systems harvesting rainwater I think we need to have more detention retention system so that we can replenish the aquifer we need to have bioswales we need to we need to take advantage of the amount of rainfall that we get here when we get it and because we do get it and we have a ton of runoff and I think that we need to take a look at it needs to be mainstream it's not mainstream right now you know people talk about it but not everybody's doing it so I think we need to incentivize that and everybody should have a rainwater catchment system at their house and they should get tax credit for doing it thank you Jean well this is right up my alley water conservation is how I came into my interest in water I come from an agricultural background an horticulture background but I was hired to teach water conservation classes for water districts in southern California and I worked for about six different water districts teaching homeowners and landscapers about water conservation and every water district has a slightly different approach depending on their demographics and their water supply issues but I kept thinking man if I were in charge this is what I would do so I have lots of great ideas and I've seen wonderful projects that worked and other projects that seem like a good idea that weren't terribly effective so I have a lot of practical exposure to water conservation that being said I'll go back to the base rate thing when people pay their water bill they have to realize that what they're paying for is not what's coming out of the tap what they're paying for is the cleanliness and reliability of the water that's what the water district spends most of its time and energy on the water comes out of the sky we need to treat it we need to transport it we need to store it and that is going to be true whether we're conserving or not and I think we need to communicate that better for our rate payers and perhaps it'll be less frustrated as a result thank you Bob well yes I think in general the rate payers have done a great job on conserving water and I know we've all done our best and as I've been talking with people throughout the campaign I see an awful lot of brown lawns and dead landscaping so when you see that you know that there's water conservation going on and I think the community has owned a owed a big thank you and hopefully the rains will come this fall and this winter I think in addition to some of the incentives that have been talked about I'm also sensing at least in in the businesses that I'm in that people are starting to realize that water is in fact the new gold and that if there's money to be made out of coming up with new products that people can more easily conserve and more quickly install and more inexpensively install because all these things cost money I think industry is going to come up with new products over the next decade that'll probably blow our socks off on what they can do now with respect to rate increases I think one of the key things we whoever is on the board needs to keep in mind is that 30 percent almost 30 percent of the population in the San Lorenzo Valley makes under $50,000 a year so any kind of money that they spend on anything is big money a $50 a month water bill to somebody like that is big money and so we need to make sure that as we're going through the process of focusing on our cost structure particularly with outside vendors we respect that the next question will start with Larry has the educational grants program worked to the benefit of the district is it worth the money and should it be continued yes yes and yes is the short answer let me be a little more specific it's been a fabulously successful program in that the district has been able to get the message out about a watershed stewardship and how important it is to take into account your impact as a resident here in the valley on the watershed we live in I think a very successful program has been for example have been the watershed walks those have very often gone in the valley press after the before and then after the water after the walk summarizing what happened it's it's two things for one we get people that actually go on the watershed walk and learn from the experts and then we get write-ups about it in the papers so that's been hugely successful second we have that's more in the classic watershed grant which also by the way has benefited the watershed academy here at SLB in addition to that there are identified gaps in our knowledge in the watershed plan and we now have a program that augments that thank you Larry thank you Chuck yes I think the education grant program has been very good for the district the classic ones educating the public about the watersheds is good I think it's helped San Lorenzo Valley High School it's helped people to understand the importance of having a watershed that's in good shape so that our surface waters are well protected and I participated in the new category of data gaps and restoration type events I haven't benefited personally from those I donated my time to others who were able to accomplish some of those things at a very cost-effective price through that but the mapping of endangered species highly valuable in my opinion and the mapping of the invasives so that those could be removed from those properties is quite valuable too and by and large they're done at a very cost-effective price so I favor going forward with them thank you Eric I also favor going forward with the grants anytime that you can take and leverage money with people's initiative to go out and to good and improve our environment to improve our watershed to improve our knowledge of what works and what doesn't work in our ecosystem I think is fantastic when you get high schoolers that are out there doing fish counts and walking the river and really studying what is out there I think you can't put a price on that I mean they talk to their parents they talk to their friends they take the exhibits to the county fair where more people see it and the word that's going out there is all about PR it talks about how cool our district is and how great it is to live where we're at so you know I think that is money well spent and I would definitely continue it thank you Jean well of course it's water education so I'm a big fan but I do think it's cost effective because it works sort of as social media it has a you know an outward fanning an outward rippling if you will affect and I think the important part about community education is it gives people a stake you know they've got skin in the game it's your water you're drinking and here's what's affecting you people there's this this sort of you know cliche of stakeholders well you know we talk about rate payers well there's a limited class of rate payers and you know who you are but everybody's a stakeholder in water because we all drink it all the people are stakeholders the wildlife are stakeholders the resource agencies are stakeholders so having everybody interested in water quality is really important because the more people are interested the safer our water is going to be because it's going to be a community value and I think an important community value so I definitely think that the educational grants are probably one of the most effective methods we have of protecting the watershed in the long range thank you Bob yes I support them as well and I think anything that can increase our understanding of water including any kind of scientific research that might be done even things that would go to the state science fair would also be of high interest to me as well I think there's a number of things that could benefit the district through those grants and I'd like to see them continue thank you Karen I definitely approve of the educational grants it's only a couple of thousand dollars a year and our young people learning about the conservation of water learning about how the system works and what is needed are our future and we definitely need to keep them educated thank you that seemed to be a softball question at this point in time I'm going to close the questions for the water district and ask that any questions you send forward be for the state assembly and I will now ask the next question it will open with Chuck for the 2012-2013 fiscal year the district did not conduct a performance review of the district's manager what method metric and guideline would you create to use for such a review in the future and what are important qualities you would look for to make sure the manager is doing his or her job during your term is elected the district manager needs to have the skills to do the job so they need to he needs he or she needs to have skills in finance in project management in relationships with people with the environment etc so I would establish a consistent evaluation standard which is what the grand jury found was not present so that the board was able to if they chose to tailor the review to the times so we need to have a way that is independent of the current circumstances to judge whether the district manager is doing their job so I would go out perhaps and look at other districts and look at what their evaluation standards are and collect those from perhaps Soquel and Santa Cruz and Scotts Valley and use those as templates from which to get started thank you Eric one of our main roles as district as members of the water board is to conduct evaluations of the district manager it's one of our top three if not the top one I've had several opportunities to conduct such processes the review process for CEOs you need to have a peer review process you need to have a very streamlined oh boy do this all the time I should have it nailed okay the reality is you have to set down goals and objectives of the manager and then you need to evaluate those goals and objectives on a six month usually three months six months one year timeframe and you have a series of outcomes that are developed by the board through the job description and when you do that evaluation process you need to bring in all the stakeholders those stakeholders are the staff number one they interact with the staff on a daily basis two you need to evaluate the community members in which they're they're working with community partners whether that be the county whether that be Soquel Creek water whether by Scotts Valley water and you need to have a way of rating it from one to five and then you have to go back to that after the six months to say you hit these outcomes here this is what you need to achieve next time and if they don't achieve it you have to have the outcomes if they don't thank you Jean well Chuck stole my thunder because of course I was going to say look at similar agencies and they have a successful HR strategy and a model our evaluation method on theirs this is one point on which the board of directors response said yes the grand jury got it right they said we haven't been doing this evaluation correctly it's been inconsistent so they're currently I'm sure thinking hard about that I certainly don't know much about human resources but there are people out there who do and obviously other water districts have been more successful at formulating a consistent fair method of evaluation I do think that we should look at prioritizing the district managers responsibilities in line with the district strategic plan the district has a long-term plan where they have a mission statement and priorities and I think that should guide the priorities of the district manager as well and beyond that this is the case when I would defer to the experts I don't know human resources I know natural resources so I would certainly rely on experts for additional assistance thank you Bob well I think everybody will agree that hiring a district manager is incredibly important for the San Lorenzo Valley water district I kind of view it as table stakes in that I don't think it's the most pressing issue that we have overall with respect to this campaign but it's definitely a very important issue relative to making sure that when you turn on the faucet the water flows the manager is going to set the tone for the culture of the district how the district staff and community are going to work together and interact together and so it's really important to me that we get the right kind of person in to make sure that that happens personally what I'm looking for is someone who's committed to maximum transparency at the board and at the district level and by that I mean again going way beyond the minimum required by state law because I think what's required in this day and age is for district manager and boards to go way beyond that so that's what I'd be looking for in the district manager in addition to that we do need to make sure they're competent and capable of running the district and that we do set goals and objectives for them that we evaluate and do so in a very business-like fashion it's like an employee and so that's the nature in which the review has to be conducted in a very friendly, courteous but business-like fashion and so that's what I would intend to do if I were on the board thank you Karen if you elect me to the board I have done evaluations and reviews on people I've worked in teams and the district manager will have to be a team player he will have to take direction and instruction from the board as well as have his own ideas to bring to the plate so that he can maintain and continue to repair the infrastructure and to work with Caltrans to get the bidding process done and when you do a peer evaluation it's very simple and basic are they doing the job or not if they're not doing the job you then let them know that what their performance is is not quite correct and you give them a specific amount of time to fix their problems that they've shown through their lack of ability or you reward them for a good response and let them know what they're doing is correct or what they're doing is not correct thank you very much thank you, Mary thank you as Gene mentioned this was one of the areas that I agree with and the board agreed with that we do not have a structured review process and haven't for many many decades and at least the 16 years I've done it every single president of the board has their own style for doing the review now in all of that time we've never been late with a review until this last year now there are many I can offer up excuses I'm not going to there are a lot of things going on within the district staff shortages and etc I will say this I think it was mentioned earlier that you know there's some connection between the dismissal of the former manager and recent events and I can tell you that that is not the case it's purely coincidental however it is an indicator that the board was not happy with the manager's performance and I can also say that so it's very important that this board have timely reviews and I think it's important for the manager reports to the board he's really our only employee all the rest of the employees answer to the manager so it sets the tone for the entire organization and evaluate our current staff make recommendations of the direction that we need to go the board it's really not our role to interfere with staffing and staff needs but we also need to be supportive I believe that that as technology changes we need to be able to continually train our employees and give them every opportunity we need to have a large budget for training and certification one of the things I was extremely impressed by when I did a tour of the of the district last week was how how amazing the staff we have are and the certifications that they currently maintain and I don't think people realize how difficult it is to run this district how complicated it is and the fact that they're able to do it 24 hours a day seven days a week on call and fix the problems that are out there you know we should really appreciate the staff that we have I think we should train them I think we should look out outside the box of what the new technology leap is going to be and give them what they need to succeed and if there is a need that that that needs to be filled let's make sure that we put it in the budget to fill it thanks thank you Jean well I can say a couple of things came immediately to mind one of which is we're finally back apparently close to normal staffing levels I understand that there were several long-term vacancies and I think that's one of the problems that the district has had the last couple of years is long-term critical vacancies that were not filled I think that the staff that they've hired recently are certainly confident but it really does rely on the general manager district manager because it has to be people that he wants to work with work effectively with people are going to fit in with the team and to address specific operational lacks I think the field staff for example it's a very challenging district it's very spread out it's very difficult to get to and I do think they're doing an excellent job I have heard some people say that they were dissatisfied with some of their staff interactions nothing specific no names were mentioned but that's something that the new district manager should look into and I think that's part of being a personnel manager but it's also important for the board of directors to make sure that we get somebody and we let him or her know that that's a high priority is keeping the staff that we've got competent evaluating any voids we have in the organization and making sure that everybody we have is up to standards thank you Bob yeah I think this is you know great question for everybody to talk about how challenging our district is and how great our staff is and I'm doing it because I share the same opinion when you think about the length of the district and the elevations that they have to deal with you know the roads that aren't necessarily you know those big city boulevards and all that and we were on a few of them this this past weekend anybody that's lived here for any period of time knows it's a very challenging environment and to be able to have water when you turn the faucet on is really great a good thing I think this does come to a general manager type role and in addition to looking for someone that has maximum transparency on their mind I'm also going to be looking for someone that's creative someone that is going to stay on top of the new technologies the new techniques the new ways of doing things so that we can be more productive so we can deliver better water and clean water at an affordable price and I think that is exactly the kind of person that we need to hire they will then determine how to organize the operation so that we can't actually deliver that and I'd be very happy to support them in that thank you thank you Karen mine too was on this this drive as we went around from place to place viewing all the different areas where we are filtering our water where we have large tanks located and it was definitely automated which was a very nice thing that it had we have computerized systems that are connected together so that all the employees can monitor and watch all these different areas where our water is being processed so it's really important that we diversify all our people who are working for the district so that they can monitor these systems there was even an incident in one of these places where it wasn't quite working correctly and the person was able to call who was driving our van and let the person know that this isn't quite working right have you seen this on your monitor and they were able to say yes I have so the staff that we have currently is doing a wonderful job and I thank them very much thank you Mary well I didn't hear much that I would disagree with there our staff of 22 people are serving the community of approximately 22,000 people they wear a lot of hats they really do and it's I'm sorely missing Jen Mickelson who is on maternity leave right now our watershed plan activities have come to a screeching halt and in fact when the drought hit hard we diverted her activities mostly to water conservation awareness and publicizing and coordinating so she has been working very hard for months now and not much effort has gone into the watershed plan as a result from my perspective we need more staff and we need to augment in place as one of the first priorities for the new district manager will be reviewing the needs on our staffing needs and maybe redefining some of the job positions we have reassigning and hiring new people eventually as the district grows so do our needs for staffing so I think this this new position this manager is going to be a very important role going forward thank you Chuck if I were going to suggest a new position for the water district I would be hoping to hire somebody into the role of managing projects going forward in the future with the with all the capital improvement program items that need to be done utilizing our current revenues and the water rates that are coming in the future increases in the water rates that are coming and getting all this done not just one year into the future looking at one year's budget but looking multiple years into the future is very important so I don't know whether that can be done with existing staff I sort of doubt it and when you talk about creating a new position you of course are taking on an obligation of expense so you need to be careful about that but I'd like to see somebody produce the parts of the website that explain to the public where your money's going or it's going to go to into the future how we spend it in the past and I think doing something along those lines who do a lot to bring confidence back to the rate payers of the district so that the revenues that the district needs in the future would be more reasonable to obtain thank you we're going to now move on to closing if anyone has a little note lost the necklace that's going to be up here and the closing will start with Jean you have one minute first of all that's my necklace oh mystery solved well on that humor for coming one of my real concerns in this community in general and the water district in particular is increasing participation attendance at meetings participation in the grant programs people visiting the website this is a really high priority of mine it's public involvement community services have been very important to me I want to make it easy for everybody to participate whether it's to click on the website coming to meetings or participating one of the field activities I came into this region only about 18 months ago and I started attending water desal meetings enjoyed serving on the the citizens advisory committee I've learned a lot about the water district and I'm very excited about the possibility of serving as a director thank you thank you Bob well this evening has been for you it's not been for us because what at least I'm trying to do here this evening is make sure that there's clarity in your mind about the positions of the candidates and you know talk is one thing really urge you to go to websites take a look at what's specifically written down because that is the record upon which the candidates including myself are going to be judged when it comes time for you to mark that vote there are three positions open six candidates you don't have to vote for a block you vote for three individuals and I think it's really important that you consider very strongly that on many issues there's universal agreement among the candidates but in the three that are most critical transparency infrastructure and operational sustainability there's a very clear distinction between myself and the other candidates that are up here running as a slate and so when you're evaluating that come November I appreciate your vote thank you very much Karen I hope that I have reached a few of the people here and I definitely would like to work and serve the public the rate payers on this water board and I will be your voice I will not be the stone cold wall that just sits there and ignores everybody as they come in and talk so please consider me as part of your team to work for the district to work for you thank you very much thank you Mary I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the Valley Women's Club and the League of Women Voters for sponsoring this event and for community TV for filming it so that we could reach a broader audience and that the audience can have a chance to review what the candidates have said and make up their own minds I encourage you to visit our website it's hammer prather ratcliff fourwater.com it's the numeral four on there you'll find bios of all of all three of us I think the three of us represent the best choice for the district and for the rate pairs and voters of this district we've shown leadership qualities and experience that I think is valuable and you should hopefully will agree with me that I bring that unique quality at the board thank you check I too would like to thank our host for giving us this opportunity to speak to you the voters this evening as evidenced by the number of candidates running for these positions this is perhaps one of the most important elections it's going to come along in a long time for us and the decisions of the voters in this election are likely to affect the operations of this water district for many years into the future I believe I can help the district navigate these times well my interest and commitment to this district is strong I really want it to run well I'm by nature an engineer a problem solver and I want to understand the workings of the district and to help it find good solutions but getting to these solutions requires more than the technical abilities that I bring it requires working with people people who sometimes bring different perspectives and as much as anybody running I believe I can draw on my experience as a highly interested member of the public this past year and make it happen and I ask you to give me this opportunity on November 4th thank you Eric I too would like to thank everybody for coming tonight I know most of you out in this audience and I've worked with most of you out in this audience in one capacity or another whether it be building a park putting on the redwood mountain fair coaching your kids in baseball whatever it happens to be what I am is an effective community leader here I am approachable I have an office downtown Boulder Creek and that door is always open I try to run a construction business but most of the time I'm dealing with community-based issues that's who I am and that's the dedication I have I have been endorsed by several civic leaders such as Assemblyman Mark Stone tax collector past Assemblyman Fred Keely I've been endorsed by several of the local water board members actually all the current several of the past I've been elected I've been endorsed by the entire board of Boulder Creek Parks and Rec because of the leadership and the work that I've done in this community I ask you for your vote come and talk to me thank you thank you everyone for attending this debate it obviously would not be possible if all of our candidates did not show up so we do appreciate and thank them all for coming I also want to remind you to vote November 4th and I too want to thank the ladies of the League of Women Voters and the Valley Women's Club for putting this on and helping make the public a little bit more informed finally please send your questions forward for the State Assembly we're going to take a short break and be back on at 8.20 and also if you want to stay and talk with the candidates I'll ask you to do it during the break and if it needs to go beyond the break go outside and so we can start the assembly forum in about five minutes thank you with that I'd like to have Ashley open the forum thank you hi everyone I've moved up here just for ease we have a slightly different format for the State Assembly I have Palmer and Mark here we're going to have a two-minute opening for each of them and then again we're going to have 90 seconds per question but we're going to allow them each a three-minute close and we should wrap up by 9 p.m. please please please please forward your questions up to me and we will proceed so I'm going to start with Palmer and Palmer you get to open first good evening ladies and gentlemen my name is Palmer Kane I'm running for the State Assembly and what I am trying to do what I have been doing for the last six months knocking doors and talking to people is listening to their issues and making them part of my campaign platform what have the people told me education crime poverty jobs and water are their issues that is what I have made this campaign about this is what I will continue to make this campaign about all the way to November I look forward to answering your questions this evening and I look forward to engaging with you and further discourse outside of this venue we have serious problems in California and we need we need new solutions and new faces in Sacramento to represent the people's will in Sacramento and that is why I'm here thank you and I look forward hearing your questions this evening thank you Mark thank you I'd like to thank the Valley Women's Club for putting on the form and the League of Women voters for always doing a great job of moderating and running the forums here as well as the high school students here from SLV picking up the questions and all my name is Mark Stone I've represented you for quite some time now nine years of the board supervisors last two years in the assembly before that five years in the next valley over on the school board and it has been my pleasure to represent you and in Santa Cruz County you sent me to Sacramento to work on a number of things things that come from my experience as a local elected I've been very involved in the human services area in fact I chair the human services committee I've been engaged in the poverty discussion in Sacramento hasn't been too much recognition in Sacramento that of poverty in California and I co-chair the caucus that is looking at that and you may have seen also that I was recently named the co-chair of the legislative environmental caucus and I know that it's something that's very very important to you as we have all worked together on very strong environmental goals for the San Lorenzo Valley and for Santa Cruz County the state looks great these days four years in a row with a balanced budget the last two years with a surplus that we have been investing and using to pay down debt and long-term obligations for the state we haven't been healthier in a long long time so I'm very excited to continue representing you up in Sacramento and getting things done that I know you value thank you thank you Mark you'll be answering the first question recycling is crucial to reducing the consumption of valuable natural resources on the west coast recyclers depend primarily on exporting the recycled materials to China and elsewhere but this is becoming less viable as China recycles and processes more of its own waste what can the legislature do to stimulate local processing of materials to ensure the long-term health of this vital industry well that's a very good question and of major concern when I was on the board of supervisors here with the electronic waste we made sure that the the companies were coming in to take the electronic waste were responsible recyclers at the state level there have been quite a few initiatives done over the last few years and we continue to make sure that recycling is done in each of our locations it's a local decision and you'd be surprised I've learned quite a bit about the state of California how little there is in some parts of California as well as we do around here in Santa Cruz County with recycling all measure of goods the most recent initiative that West Chesbro has pushed and we will continue this effort next year is green materials organic materials that's a major filler for our landfills and it is not a healthy use we need to be making sure that we're taking our organic waste and putting it into the stream either generating energy or utilizing it in a much more productive way in agricultural fields as home compost other things instead of just throwing it on the top of the landfills as has been the practice so we've been working in electronic waste making sure that that the waste is properly handled in California the organic waste as well as reducing the amount that goes into landfills on a regular basis thank you Paulmer well I think that you know growing up in Santa Cruz and being a local recycling is part of our community and it is important to our community but when I served in the United States Army overseas in Germany in the late 90s the German industries had already transitioned to tax incentives for their businesses if they turned out recycled materials in their cars in their products they were actually they were incentivized from the governmental standpoint to do that I think that you know I would agree with the assemblyman that you know more can be done in California in relation to recycling and we need to give our businesses the tax incentives to be able to do that too grow our green economy in the state of California thank you the next question we'll start with Paulmer how can we effectively improve ground rudder recharge while allowing adequate runoff for endangered fish and other species well I think that the issue of water is very important and especially up here in the San Lorenzo Valley I've done some research on the water issue on my own to try and better understand what you're facing up here I live in Aptos so our situation is a little different down there but this is what I found 99% of the water from the San Lorenzo River runs straight into the ocean we need more transparency in how our water district spends their money especially when it comes to the valley I am quite a proponent of desalination and the reason that I am is because the water needs of our state are not going to be met if we continue to take ground water if we regulate ground water we need to come up with new solutions I looked at the feasibility study that the city of Santa Cruz did in relation to their desal plant it would cost roughly 70 million dollars and it would cost 300,000 dollars a year in maintenance going forward I think that's money well spent I think that our community to grow itself and to sustain itself for the future needs that resource the one thing that I would add is that the federal government gives away 5 million dollars a year in grant federal grants to any community that wants to start a desal plant in their community California has 38 projects in the state currently under this program why hasn't our community asked for that money why hasn't our community built these resources to further Santa Cruz and the valley we have serious issues and we are in the middle of our worst drought thank you Mark thank you well this this is a great question this is something that as a county supervisor was working on pretty closely with the local water agencies we have a number of quarries in the San Lorenzo Valley which are probably great sites for groundwater recharge and if we take the flows the high surface flows put them into some of the quarries let it settle down and then send that water to recharge sites we probably have a pretty good process of being able to store water underground aquifer storage and recovery is a mechanism throughout the the state actually throughout the world that has shown to be successful the challenge that we've had is coming up with the resources to be able to do the feasibility studies and implement the projects pipelines grading the things that would need to get done and the environmental impact reports that would need to get done around the quarries but I think we have a pretty good sense of where it's going to be and in the water bomb that's going to that will be on your ballot this November the central coast came out pretty well in a lot of the different categories even the categories where we normally compete statewide we have competed extremely well because our water agencies have had some of the fights we've needed to have over time we have a sense of the kinds of projects that we need so from a groundwater standpoint which the there is now legislation that requires groundwater basins to have a sustainability plan over a number of years that is going to be implemented on the state the statewide level and with the resources and the water bonds we can start to see these projects get implemented thank you the next question we'll start with mark what action do you plan to take to protect the people in the 29th district and specifically the san lorenzo valley against fire danger against fire danger that's that's a boy a great question and the right now with the fires that have been going on in northern california calfire has pretty much tapped out the budgets that they have one of the challenges that we have here we have four volunteer fire companies in the san lorenzo valley and they work very well and they work effectively in fact the work that they've done over the last decade or so has allowed them to be able to jointly respond and do mutual aid when we had the the summit fire that was raging on you probably all know that quail hollow also there was a fire that started there but because we had teams here that knew how to manage and handle the kinds of wildland fires that that did crop up we were able to stop and control that fire before it reached any residences so being adequately funding local fire doing the brush clearances to support the the support from the state one of my biggest problems is the fire fees that you all pay and i've been fighting that for the last two years it's not something that we're going to get rid of unfortunately from the governor but that money should be coming back to to the local jurisdictions to calfire and to the local agencies to do the kinds of brush clearing and fire prevention the fire maintenance that needs to happen here in the san lorenzo valley to keep our denser urbanized communities safe thank you palmer so our fire danger i've been doing some research on it just reading articles and looking on calfire's website and the governor has consistently made environmental regulations that does not allow at the state level for property owners to be able to clear their land of fallen brush and things of that nature at this level at the local level assemblyman stone was the author of a b 1867 which allowed it was the governor and calfire approved this bill that would increase defensible space from 150 feet to 300 feet around the perimeter of people's homes because of the fire and the drought season i'm sorry assemblyman stone was not the author of that bill but he was the only member of the state legislature to vote against it and i am curious to know in a serious drought year you know why is the increase of defensible space not a priority in our community secondly i would agree with assemblyman stone that the fire fees are an issue that need to be addressed locally california can do better our state firefighters need the resources but also at the local level the property owners need to be given control of their land and they need to have the ability to decide what happens on their land about 10 or 15 years ago okay thank you my time's up thank you the next question we'll start with palmer do you think anything needs to be done to protect our property rights further and if so what that's a wonderful question and i would say yes most definitely more things need to be done to increase our property rights or at least the protections therein so when my opponent was the member of the county board of supervisors the regulation said that if you had i believe it was five acres of land or more that you could walk it in certain periods of time and when he was a member of the county board of supervisors he wanted to increase that from the five acres up to 80 acres the county board of supervisors came back and said no that's not correct let's settle on 40 right so what has happened is there was also a 10-year moratorium on logging in our community i truly believe that the property rights riparian water rights and land rights are critical to california they're critical to our region and they need to be returned to the people not more regulation to keep their rights from them i mean the community works with the state and it should be a cohesive relationship not an aggravated one and that is what we have in the samarensa valley you have people that can't maintain their fire roads or bridges on their private property because they cannot they don't have the resources from the timber harvest that they would normally have i believe that anything that can increase property values equity and also money in their pocket to maintain these resources that calfire uses is critical thank you thank you mark well thank you then since this is question sort of seems to be focused around around timber something to recognize in santa cruz county two-thirds of the county is forested and about three two three-quarters of that is already zoned for timber harvest production and the issue with property rights and the issue with timber harvesting here which is very different from the rest of the state is that we have a lot of people living in the forest and interacting with the forest and when trees are cut adjacent to communities that's what leads to a tremendous amount of tension the reason that i proposed and and negotiated with the rest of the board and with the fire agencies that the zoning limitations was because that it tends to be the smaller properties tend to be closer in where we're more urbanized and larger properties tend to be further out where timber harvesting is more appropriate the patterns of land use in santa cruz county really dictated that that was good policy that's the same reason that i voted no on mr paterson's bill that was referred to earlier because his bill was talking really about pine forests and pine forests burn very differently than the redwood forest that we have here using that's the same standard for any different types of forest didn't make any sense to me and i had tried to interject that into the bill and asked that the bill be reflective of the different kinds of forest it's not the trees that are the threat and that's what this bill would allow to be cut down but it's the ladder fuels that are around them and if the bill had addressed the ladder fuels and the different kinds of the next the next question we'll start with you mark are you happy with the new legislation on single use plastic bags what benefits could result and what problems might arise yes and no yes and no we did a great deal of work around now the entire monorail bay with very very solid plastic bag ordinances and with very few exceptions almost all the jurisdictions have the same kind of ordinance which is very very important for the retailers to have consistent kinds of ordinances that they that they know how to work with the state bag ban is one that only applies to the larger stores not to all retail and what we found in santa cruz county when we implemented the bag ban even just having the conversation about the bag ban was people changed their behavior the statutes the ordinances aren't going to have the impact that we all have when we change our behavior that was the reason that we started that conversation here in santa cruz county and it proved to be very effective the state ban is remarkable because it's a landmark for body the size of california and this was being watched around the world california actually passing the bag ban and what i had to deal with in the legislature was making sure that the statewide ban was not going to preempt the work the hard work that that was done and was being done around the monorail bay not just santa cruz county but monorail county and minor county and virtually all of the cities there have adopted their ordinances with the bag ban it's been effective for the monorail bay area and it's it is a very very successful program i would like to see the state's bag ban be a lot stronger but that's something that we'll have to wait for another day thank you palmer well i agree with the assemblyman the change of behavior is good but at what cost i mean uh we are talking and this is a doctrinal difference nothing more you know i believe in limited government i believe in small government i believe people should have the right to choose i don't believe that people should be dictated to by our government any more than they need to while i understand the environmental argument for the plastic bags ban i do not believe that it's in the citizen's interest to be continually dictated to by either all local or state government this is just another example of that and i don't think that it's constructive but going forward what do we do you know the 30% of the general public votes and then you get an election in the primary in this election cycle only 18% of california voted you know if the citizens of our state really truly want to have a say in the matter then they need to get off their politely their butts and they need to do something they need to show the people they need to show the state government what they care about how they care about it and why they care about it and i believe that if the state if the people do that the government will have to respond because the government are you know they are politicians they do supposedly serve the will of the people and that needs to be they need to be kept in check and that needs to be the status quo not the government dictating to the people thank you thank you the first this next question will start with you palmer what is your position on disclosures of campaign contributions and transparency in elections well the the old joke about in politics is that you know water money is to politics as water is to a sidewalk that it will find the easiest least form of resistance historically we have tried many times to limit the contributions to political campaigns in america the supreme court has unfortunately taken those all down in this in the last five to ten years i think the campaign finance reform is critical to our democracy because it allows the average citizen to be a part of process personally you know in this i'm not a wealthy person i'm a veteran i'm a i just finished my bachelor's degree and you know this entire process has cost me to the tune of ten thousand dollars show me an average citizen that can afford that show me an average citizen that can put forward their ideas in a public venue such as this i think that if anything campaign finance reform needs to be taken more seriously in the public good for the public benefit not the other way around thank you thank you mark we have to get money out of politics there's just no two ways about it money is the way that the system works it's very very unfortunate and every attempt that has been made to seriously try and winnow that down and make sure that the disclosures are happening and to put transparency in the system really gets denuded we saw that just this last year with three senators being accused of corruption and the senate's response was to put some bills forward and if you really look at those bills and you read those bills you'll understand that they don't do a whole lot to really show what money is going where and why we need instantaneous disclosure we need disclosure of the packs and the the independent expenditures and if there was a way to get rid of the independent expenditures so that we all know exactly who's funding what candidate and why then we as voters would be able to make much better choices pay attention when you see a radio ad when you listen to a radio ad or you see a tv ad who's funding it where it's coming from you're not always going to know they change the names they they refer to these associations and you can create an association that then funds a pack that then buys tv ads and you're not necessarily going to know where that money's come from where that money's coming from that's a major flaw in our system and until we address that and get deeper into the transparency and disclosure it's the voters who are left hanging thank you mark you'll start with this question if elected this term what issue or item would be your pet project pet project I want the legislature to work on three and I will continue to work on those the human services area especially with respect to kids families foster care that includes the issues that I'm working on on poverty environmental plastic ocean pollution is a major issue of my coastal protections that's why I chair the select committee on coastal protection that's a large issue and then prison reform with all the realignments that have been happening and we've pushed much more responsibility down to the local level we've done a great job here in Santa Cruz county implementing that realignment but there's still some major challenges in a lot of counties but also at the state level those are the areas I went to the legislature to work on those are the areas that I will continue to work on on your behalf I know those are values that you share with me because in our little part of the world here in Santa Cruz county we've made some great strides I'd like to be able to carry that to the rest of California through the legislature and make our communities stronger throughout California thank you Paul Mer thank you so as I said in my opening education crime and jobs is what I've heard from you I'm as I said before a veteran of the United States army I'm a local I served overseas even with the GI bill and being a state resident I could not afford the fees of the University of California I had to find my education outside of the United States and when I got on that plane to leave my home our community I promised myself that I would someday find a way to make that right for someone else because thankfully I had saved enough money I could afford to do this and for three years I lived literally in a war zone I got my education I came home I had the opportunity to run for the state assembly and I chose to make education the priority K through 12 and the UC system what I did I went to educators parents and teachers and I said what do you see what's working what's not working I created an eight point plan based upon that it's on my website you can check it out the crux of the issue is funding funding for the UC system and the K through 12 system we have very serious problems in our education system one thing about the funding in the 1960s when the lottery commission was established in California 70% of that money was supposed to go to public education in California out of the six billion dollars that's garnered in your name currently only 25% of it goes to public education in California I say enforce the law make it a priority return California education to the pinnacle that it was to the high cost I'm sorry the high quality low cost product that it was thank you thank you this next question you'll be starting with Palmer do you feel that individual liberties have been infringed upon and if so how and what would you do about it yes most definitely our individual liberties whether it be from the federal the state or the local level have been slowly taken away we have been asked to become consumers instead of citizens we have been asked to deny the fact that we have people in our streets that are homeless and that are hungry in the name of being happy and safe in our neighborhoods when the reality of the fact is is that all of these things crime, education, jobs these issues are going to come knocking at our door and they're going to come knocking at our door in what we see in the newspapers every single day it will continue it will not desist and we need we are the community we created the we didn't might not have created these problems but we will create the solutions and that has to be the priority we must allow there has to be a feedback loop between the issues of the people the legislature and the state government and I when I've been out knocking doors talking to people what I have heard is anger frustration they don't feel listened to they don't feel validated they don't feel that anybody cares and you know what even if they don't like my politics even if they don't like my face you know what the one thing they do say is thank you Palmer thank you for listening and I will keep doing that and I will keep listening to you and I don't care how many elections it takes I will continue to listen to you and I do want to serve you thank you Mark we do live in a very complex society and from a broader liberties standpoint the federal government has been probably the biggest challenge and we end up responding time and time to the federal government here in California and one of the areas that is key that we've been very much in the middle of is the debate on privacy and what is happening with the data that gets collected from you on a day-to-day basis we know very very little about it and if you look at the major data aggregators that are out there it's a completely unregulated market and there are three or four of them and I I only know a couple of them I think this is something that most folks probably don't really understand what gets done with that data how that gets managed is something that is very very critical to us so many people have smartphones your license plates get read on a regular basis the question of drones has come up time and time again in the legislature that we've been trying to make sure that you have the same ability to protect your privacy and understand what's being done with information that is generated by you information that is about you that is now proliferating really throughout the government and throughout the private sector and without some guidelines and without some real education that's an area where we are losing ground with respect to personal liberties personal privileges and that sense of who we are and our ability to manage and maintain it so that is a conversation going on in the legislature right now and this will be the last question what solar initiative programs can we put forward with you any fresh and forward money any fresh ideas and what about photovoltaics for individuals and businesses and this will start with Mark yes you've probably been aware of the community choice aggregation conversation that's been happening here I started that when I was on the board of supervisors and we've now included most of Monterey County and looking into San Benito County for us to get control of our energy the sources of our energy solar is a critical component to that rooftop solar distributed solar is the way that we're going to be able to have some energy independence around the Monterey Bay I've been working with a number of the different solar companies to make sure that they're getting funded that they have the resources to be able to offer to their customers and to all of the constituents around the Monterey Bay the ability to get low cost solar on their homes we also need to break through the regulated environment from the energy sector because they control they not only control the transmission lines but they control policy there was just a bill this last year that we were successful in in modifying that would have increased the the net based amounts on your energy bills and if that happens if that net the higher that net is the less your investment in a solar system will pay off especially over time the high cost of putting a solar on and being able to recover that through your energy rates is something that is critical to folks around the Monterey Bay if we're going to be installing more solar so it's a rate issue question it's a regulatory question and it's a resource question Palmer so in relation to the so yes to answer the questions I just came back from living in the Middle East for three years 97% of all homes in the Middle East at least in Israel have states subsidized solar panels on the roof right state of California we're not a poor state we might have a lot of debt but at the same time we have a lot of money coming in let's create incentives to business owners and homeowners to allow for more solar activity within the community so they can sell the money back to the grid and we can continue to move our power infrastructure forward I remember when the industry the electric industry was deregulated in California and all the problems that created and you know we ended up buying more energy from Texas than we did creating ourselves and it cost the cash taxpayers in California a lot of money and I don't want to see that happen these are your resources they should be allocated correctly and one of the ways that they can be allocated correctly is by assisting homeowners and business owners to have those installed at a subsidized rate the other thing is I am a firm believer in desalination that's hydroelectric or solar power I believe that California and our community have the technology we have the ability we should put it into practice thank you thank you and now we're going to close and I misspoke before when I said it was three minutes it's actually a two minute close and since Palmer answered the last question last last time he'll start with the close ladies and gentlemen I want to thank you for taking the time tonight to sit here and listen to both of us talk and to also be able to answer your questions if you want fresh ideas and fresh choices then you need to look at other people and you know we have a lot of issues in Sacramento we have a lot of issues in our community I'm a local I've seen these issues all my life and they have only grown they have not decreased and if you want someone who will work for your needs concerns on a daily basis I will every day and that is what state legislature the state that's what service is about I dedicated my life to the service of not only our community but our country I've been a policy maker for Mike Rotkin I was able to help create policy that's still in effect 14 years later and it's still saving the cities of Santa Cruz money I've served our nation overseas in uniform and now I wish to serve our district in Sacramento I really truly believe that I have the knowledge the understanding and I might not have all the legislative experience of my colleague but you know what I am willing to try and I'm willing to listen and I'm willing I'm not going anywhere so thank you ladies and gentlemen for your time please check out my website palmercain.org and there is some literature over there of course and I will be here afterwards thank you very much great thank you Mark thank you I'm excited about the next couple of years the legislature has really been changing and with the 12-year term limit we've changed the tone in Sacramento it is much more bipartisan it is much more cooperative and I have used that to great effect to to advance policies in each of the areas that I am interested in and that I know you're interested in with that environment we can do great things for California the economy's turned around the state budget is balanced and moving forward we're starting to do significant investments in education in early care and education in the kinds of things that make our communities much much stronger I've been representing you now for almost 16 years and it's been quite a ride it's been very interesting I have to say that I really enjoyed working at the local level but at the state level my task has been to make things better and easier at the local level where we've realigned health and human services we've realigned the prison system down the local level and we've realigned the education system through the local control funding formula which has worked out really very well and if you look at the school districts here you'll look at the systems that are in place Santa Cruz County Monterey County Santa Clara County we're doing pretty well from that standpoint letting local jurisdictions make their own decisions with that attitude up in Sacramento we have a lot more cooperation and bipartisanship and the future for California as a governor as a governorable state is strong and is there and I look forward to a number more years representing you in the legislature working on issues that are important to you you know how to get in touch with me many of you do on a regular basis my staff in the district is all about constituent services as we have done as I had done as a member of the board of supervisors so I look forward to another term working for you in Sacramento on issues that are important to you and thank you for being a part of this again thanks to the Valley Women's Club the League of Women Voters who are putting on this forum thank you everyone for coming and thank the candidates for being here I thank the candidates for coming the audience for coming Ashley your moderation was fabulous thank you for the League support and work on the questions