Considering the recent growth of “salt mining”

by Brian Leubitz

Even with recent rains, California is continuing to suffer from a historic drought. This lack of water has opened up a new front of attack on fracking technology, which suddenly is coming under scrutiny for the massive consumption of water it requires in order to break apart shale to release oil.

Anti-fracking activists are beginning to connect the dots between the drought and fracking. In addition to my own writing on the subject, a opinion piece in the community newspaper Oakland Local  shows how grassroots opposition to the fracking due to its effect on water supplies is gaining traction.

And it’s not just at the local level. Just a  few weeks ago, the Los Angeles Times examined how fracking is creating water supply issues in Colorado, and predicted the same may happen in California. And in Sacramento, Senators Mark Leno (D-San Francisco) and Sen. Holly Mitchell (D-Los Angeles) have introduced legislation to put a moratorium on fracking in California in part because of its potential impact on water supplies.

“A moratorium on fracking is especially critical as California faces a severe drought with water resources at an all-time low,” Leno told Reuters News Agency, “We are currently allowing fracking operations to expand despite the potential consequences on our water supply, including availability and price of water, the potential for drinking water contamination and the generation of billions of barrels of polluted water.”

Meanwhile, Assemblyman Marc Levine (D-Marin) has unveiled a fracking moratorium bill that he ties directly to the drought.

“We have to decide what our most precious commodity is – water or oil?,” Levine told Reuters. “This is the year to make the case that it’s water.”

Nationwide, the impact of fracking on water supplies has been staggering. The Environment America Research and Policy Center estimated last fall that at least 250 billion gallons of water has been used in fracking operations for 80,000 wells in 17 states.

That’s why a Tetra Technologies project in Southern California is beginning to attract attention. The Texas-based company has filed paperwork for a project in San Bernardino County with hopes of adding five additional production wells in order to expand its sodium chloride (aka salt) and calcium chloride mining production by 20 percent. (Both sodium chloride and calcium chloride are widely known to be chemicals used in fracking.)

The company’s January 2013 Mining Plan Amendment would seem to fit in with Tetra Technologies’ recent growth in the fracking industry. Earlier this month, it bought WIT Water Transfer, a firm that provides water services for fracking. Last year, it purchased Patterson-UTI Energy Inc.’s fracking services unit for $42.5 million in 2012. Yet the company has said little, billing itself as a “salt mining operation” to anyone who asks.

These moves haven’t gone unnoticed on Wall Street. Analyst Travis Holom of the popular Motley Fool financial column focused on Tetra’s recent stock gains by noting:

“Investors clearly like the growth opportunity the larger company has ahead. Texas is the big growth market right now in fracking, and TETRA’s services will be a key piece of that growth. It’ll take a while to see the financial impact, but given the growth expected next year, I think shares have room to run higher, especially as natural gas drilling picks up nationwide.”

Tetra clearly has high hopes for expanding its operations in San Bernardino. That’s why the potential environmental impacts, both locally and globally, of the proposed expansion may be cause for alarm.

Yet San Bernardino County hasn’t seemed to be taking the necessary steps to ensure full Tetra Tech’s full compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act. It’s unclear what, if any, mitigation be required. Hopefully, answers will emerge soon.

SB City Councilwoman Wendy McCammack Finishes First in Mayoral Vote, Gets Recalled

by Brian Leubitz

Recalls generally come in waves, and the wave in San Bernardino is no different.  While the last 24 hours featured more Calitics coverage of the city than the previous year, it certainly has been an interesting year.  City Attorney James F Penman’s long tenure in office, over 25 years, has come to an end after his recall last night. But that isn’t even the most interesting part of all this. The recall supporters also recalled two of his allies, Wendy McCammack and John Valdivia.

Valdivia was ultimately able to fend off the challenge in a very poor turnout election. Epicly poor, really. As of the latest tallies last night, which hopefully will go up a lot by the next update tomorrow afternoon, turnout in the San Bernardino election was standing at 7.75%. Yes, well under 10%, which seems like a hopeful target for the final tally.  How low? Well, that’s substantially less than the 15% of voters needed to get the recall on the ballot. This is an odd situation: More people signed the recall petition than voted in the recall election.

But I digress, Valdivia is leading at (609-343) to keep his job. On the other hand, Wendy McCammack is looking like she is in trouble at 1,256-944 in favor of recall. The irony of that is the fact that McCammack is now leading the mayoral vote, and appears set for a runoff with businessman Carey Davis:

Councilwoman Wendy McCammack led all mayoral candidates and will face accountant Carey Davis in a February run-off, even as voters in McCammack’s 7th Ward decided to recall her from the council.

With all precincts reporting in unnofficial results Tuesday night, McCammack led Davis by 136 votes, with candidates Rick Avila and Rikke Van Johnson trailing by more than a 1,000 votes and others in the 10-person field further behind. (SB Sun / Ryan Hagen)

The tumult and odd results in this election shouldn’t really be a huge surprise, as the city is going through bankruptcy. And perhaps voters were simply turned off by the whole process, but really, people, now is the time to engage, not ignore your local government. But hey, maybe we can make some trivia questions out of this.

Local measures, officials to be decided

by Brian Leubitz

Here in San Francisco, the ballot is, shall we say, not all that interesting to many voters. As I was on the street last night passing out slate cards, I heard several “there’s an election?” and flat out “I’m not planning on voting.” But, in many ways, you can’t blame them for the apathy, as three of the the four candidate elections are unopposed. But throughout the state, there are some interesting elections, including several important ballot measures.

In San Bernardino, voters will choose a new mayor to help the city recover from its current bankrupt state:

Despite the problems, 10 candidates are vying for votes Tuesday to replace two-term Mayor Patrick J. Morris.

Aside from Korner, the candidates are: developer and former two-time candidate Rick Avila; retired high school coach Richard Castro; city public works employee Draymond Crawford; accountant Carey Davis; City Councilman Rikke Van Johnson; City Councilwoman Wendy McCammack; rail analyst Henry Nickel; and real estate broker Karmel Roe. There’s also a write-in candidate: Concepcion Powell, a business development consultant and founder of the San Bernardino-based U.S. Hispanic Women Grocers Assn. (LA Times)

And there are other problems in San Bernardino, as two of the candidates had to step out because of corruption issues. (And one apparently regularly speaks to her deity) But the big issues facing the city aren’t going away. A runoff seems likely given the big pack of candidates, so there will be more time to consider the issues. Republican Councilwoman Wendy McCammack and Businessman Carey Davis seem to be slight favorites to be in that runoff.

Elsewhere, Palo Alto will consider its housing density future and San Francisco will consider waterfront height restrictions. Anything else you are watching?

I’ve spent some time covering the Bill Postmus story in San Bernardino County. It’s actually quite the fall from grace tale.

But this goes beyond Postmus’s personal problems. He, and a cabal operating out of the San Bernardino Board of Supervisors, allegedly used their office to secure bribes of several hundred thousand dollars in exchange for voting to authorize a $102 million land settlement with Colonies, a developer.

Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. and San Bernardino County District Attorney Michael A. Ramos today announced the filing of criminal charges against former Chairman of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors William Postmus and James Erwin, former Chief of Staff to Supervisor Neil Derry, on “conspiracy, corruption and bribery” charges related to a $102 million land-development settlement paid by San Bernardino County.

The complaint alleges that Erwin took $100,000 for inducing the Board of Supervisors to pay $102 million of taxpayer’s money to Colonies, a development company, in a fraudulent settlement and that Postmus took a $100,000 bribe for his vote to approve it. If convicted of all charges, Erwin faces a maximum of twelve years in state prison, and Postmus faces a maximum of eight years in state prison.

***

The complaint alleges those votes were obtained as part of a broad conspiracy which involved extortion and bribery, culminating in acts of public corruption that cost San Bernardino taxpayers tens of millions of dollars. The investigation uncovered four bribes totalling $400,000 paid by the Colonies to secure the settlement. (AG Press Release)

The whole tale is very sordid. The press release and the complaint (PDF ) are definitely worth a skimming. Even the SB County Young Republicans were in on the racket.

Public corruption is a terrible crime, no matter if it’s a sketchy Republican like Postmus or William Jefferson. It erodes the faith of the people, and makes the country more difficult to govern. It steals from us all, and loots the money intended to serve the community. In this case, the corruption stole millions from the parks, schools, and other important county programs.

Congrats to the AG’s office and to SB DA Mike Ramos. If he is able to win a statewide primary, that guy is going to be a strong Republican candidate for whatever office he chooses to pursue.

The Bill Postmus story is really a sad one, not only for the County of San Bernardino that he abused, but also for the man himself. This is a movement conservative that was undone by fear of his own identity that lead to a spiraling descent into meth addiction.

But there always seems to be another layer in this tale.  One of the issues that always hung around Postmus, even before he was elected Assessor, was from his days as a Supervisor.  He helped to negotiate, and then get approved, a settlement with a developer over a land use lawsuit.  Colonies Partners sued San Bernardino County for $300 million. The case seemed to be proceeding slowly until Postmus intervened.  In a meeting where he and fellow supervisor Paul Biane kicked out county attorneys, he negotiated a settlement for $100 million.  I guess you could say, hey, that’s only a third of the value, but the fact is that the case was hardly a sure bet. Far from it. In fact, Postmus and Biane were only able to squeak it past the Board of Supervisors with a 3-2 vote.

But now it seems that Postmus may have had another reason to settle the lawsuit: cash.  From the (rather conservative) Victorville Daily Press:

In a landmark legal settlement, San Bernardino County supervisors agreed on a 3-2 vote to pay $102 million to the developer Colonies Partners in November 2006. The lawsuit involved a dispute over flood control improvements at an Upland development.

Within six months of the settlement, Colonies contributed $100,000 each to PACs tied to Biane, Board Chairman Gary Ovitt and then-1st District Supervisor Postmus – the three supervisors who voted in favor of the settlement.

According to the informant in the search warrant affidavits – identified as Aleman in three e-mail strings in support of the warrants – those contributions were payments to the supervisors and their staffs for their help facilitating the settlement deal.

In May 2007 Colonies Partners contributed $100,000 to Alliance for Ethical Government PAC, controlled by Ovitt’s chief of staff, Mark Kirk. Kirk then withdrew $10,000 from that PAC as a consulting fee, the informant told investigators.

Both Ovitt and Biane are still serving Supervisors.  Biane will even issue you a sort of creepy video welcome to his county website. This is hardly an irrelevant issue to what is going on right now in the County.  It appears exceedingly unlikely that Bill Postmus acted alone in the Colonies settlement.

And there is more beyond the 100 grand to each of the supervisors PACs. Colonies gave $100K to the San Bernadino Young Republicans, controlled by Paul Biane’s chief of staff, Matt Brown. And toss on $50K to two more PACs controlled by Postmus, and you have a cool $600,000 donated by Colonies Partners for their $100 million settlement.  All in all, a pretty good deal for them.  Not so much for the people of San Bernardino County.

Incidentally, Adam Aleman, Postmus’ longtime aide and so-called “confidante,” was supposed to be a confidential informant, but some copies of released information accidentally included Aleman’s identity.  Postmus’ relationship with Aleman, was very interesting, to say the least.

Congratulations to the Democrats of San Bernardino County!  As you can see from these numbers, which are apparently from this morning at 6am, Democratic registration exceeded that of the Republicans in the largest county (by area) in the nation.

Blue County’s Dream is half realized!  We have become a Blue County again!  According to the San Bernardino Register of Voters, the number of registered Democrats now outnumbers registered Republicans by 312,000 to 311,000 Countywide.  Since Blue County was organized in February 2007 there have been over 50,000 new registered Democrats due to the great efforts of voter registration drives by clubs, individuals, and candidates throughout the county.  

The effort was facilitated by Blue County, a PAC set up for the effort. I’ll let them explain their mission over the flip. You’ll also find the SB Dems press release there too.

Another one bites the dust as we turn Red California into a nice shade of purple on the way to blue. Good work!

Blue County is a Political Action Commitee that financially supports great Democratic Candidates in San Bernardino County.  The focus of our fundraising is for the direct and indirect contributions to candidates and supporting clubs with voter registration.   Our events support these efforts along with good times and networking with great people.

And the SB Dems press release:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Monday, Oct. 13, 2008

791 words

San Bernardino County turns “BLUE”

  SAN BERNARDINO, CA — San Bernardino County, the largest county in the United States, has officially turned “blue” with more Democrats than Republicans registered to vote for the first time in more than seven years.

  Weekly statistics released this morning by County Registrar of Voters Kari Verjil reported 314,452 Democrats and 311,576 Republicans, giving the Democrats a lead of 2,876 registered voters throughout the county.

  Democrats registered 4,423 new voters last week and gained 2,976 on the Republicans who registered only 1,447 new voters.  It is the largest weekly gain for San Bernardino County Democrats in more than a decade.

SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY-WIDE REGISTRATION, 10/13/08

Party                            Total                Pctg.                Added              Difference

DEMOCRAT              314,452            39.55%         +4,423             +2,876

REPUBLICAN            311,576            39.19%         +1,447            

NP                               139,137            17.50%        

OTHERS                     29,859             3.76%

TOTAL                        795,024

  “This is the fourth week in a row we have turned in more than two thousand Democrats,” County Democratic Party Vice-Chair Patrick Kahler said. “This even tops last week as our single largest weekly gain since the February Presidential primary.”

  Long touted by Republicans as “the largest red county in the nation,” San Bernardino leaves the ranks of red counties such as San Diego, Orange and Riverside, to join the ranks of blue counties along with Los Angeles, San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Napa, Marin, Sonoma, Monterey, Santa Cruz and Mendocino.

  On Saturday, Oct. 11, the Democrats hosted a “San ‘BLUE-nardino’ County Celebration” which featured actor and activist Ed Asner, Lt. Gov. John Garamendi, Congressman Joe Baca, California Democratic Party Chair Art Torres, Assembly Majority Leader Alberto Torrico and Los Angeles County Democratic Party Chair Eric Bauman.

  “The steady progression of Democratic voter registration reflects this County’s dissatisfaction with the Republican incumbents, the lack of leadership they have provided, and the hope offered by Democrats of restored principles and attention to middle class values,” said Tim Prince, Democratic nominee for the 41st Congressional District.

 “The Democrats have superior headquarters, superior clubs involving grassroots people, and a focus on restoring jobs to America, opportunity to the economy, and hope inspired by new voters,” Prince said.

  “Democrats are energized and people are waking up to the fact that voting Democratic is in their best interest,” said Carol Robb, Chair of the County Democratic Party.

  “Narrowing the gap of registration is just the tip of the iceberg,”  Robb said.  “We expect a ‘Big Blue’ tsunami in November.”

  Kahler manages an organization known as “Blue County” and manages its website at www.BlueCounty.net.

  “Since Blue County was organized in February 2007 there have been over 50,000 new registered Democrats due to the great efforts of voter registration drives by clubs, individuals, and candidates throughout the county,” Kahler said.

  “In the last 15 months there have been 52,000 new Democrats registered in this County,” said Kahler.  “Democrats now have the two largest counties in the nation, this one and Coconino in Arizona, are now blue.  Nye County in Nevada is now the largest red county in the country.”

  The dramatic shift in registration has been attributed to the wide-spread corruption of locally elected Republicans, the popularity of the Obama Presidential campaign, the condition of the region’s economy, and a backlash against massive voter fraud recently committed by a crew of Republican contractors who disappeared after county Democrats caught them committing felony violations of the state elections code.

  In the four weeks since Mark Jacoby and his Young Political Majors fled the county to avoid criminal prosecution, leaving only volunteers to register Republicans, Democrats have registered 6,165 more voters than the Republicans have.

  San Bernardino County covers more than twenty thousand square miles, stretching from the border of Los Angeles County on the west to the Nevada state border on the north and the Colorado River and Arizona state border on the east.

  In 1810, Franciscans gave the name San Bernardino to the highest peak in southern California, in honor of St. Bernardino of Siena, and named the county San Bernardino.  The county was formed from parts of Los Angeles County in 1853.

  Residents of note include Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, and the Earp family.  Wyatt Earp lived in San Timoteo Canyon, Colton, Vidal, and Earp, named after him, where he owned a gold mine in the nearby Whipple Mountains.

  His father, Nicholas Earp, was a Justice of the Peace, coroner, judge and preacher.  His brother Virgil, a U.S. Marshall, lived in Vanderbilt,  and his brothers James and Morgan are buried in the county.

 Other famous residents include McDonald’s founders, Dick and Mac McDonald, Taco Bell founder Glen Bell, and professional soccer player Landon Donovan.

  San Bernardino County has been a predominantly Republican county, with Bill Clinton in 1996 being the last Democrat to win a plurality in the county. However, the county is split between heavily Latino and Democratic areas, and more conservative areas.

end

Note: Title edited as per a suggestion in the comments

To expand on the voter fraud in San Bernardino County that the CDP alerted us to yesterday, funded by would-be governor Steve Poizner, Carol Robb of the San Bernardino County Democratic Central Committee has provided more details, including Republican DA Mike Ramos’ unwillingness to even return Democrats’ calls:

Here’s what has happened:

·Immediately after the Labor Day weekend, we saw a large increase in San Bernardino County in Republican Registration, as compared to Democratic, for the first time in 14 months

·The office of the Registrar of Voters was alerted to this situation by Carol Robb.

·The Secretary of State’s office was also alerted by a phone call from Carol Robb.

·Knowing that voter registration fraud was taking place in Riverside County, Carol Robb got a list from the Registrar of Voters, containing new registrations and re-registrations between Aug. 18 and Sept. 3.  That file was used to identify over 400 voters whose registration changed from Democrat, or “declined to state,” to Republican.

·Calls were made to about 100 randomly selected voters from the 400+ on the list.  Because of incorrect phone numbers, only 33 interviews were completed.

·Phone interviews determined that 27, of the 33 voters reached had been “slammed”  — their party affiliation was improperly changed.

·The advice of the California Democratic Party was sought, and Bob Mulholland was designated to assist us.

·Carol Robb, Patrick Kahler, Sam Clauder, and Phil Robb (Carol’s husband, retired Deputy DA) met with Kari Verjil and her key staff on Friday, September 12.  The Registrar was given all information, including copies of our 33 telephone interview forms.

·Carol Robb also filed an on-line complaint with the DA’s Public Integrity Unit.

·Carol and Sam kept in close contact with Bob Mulholland, who constantly urged us to “go public.”

·When our calls to the DA’s office were unreturned Monday and again Tuesday morning, Mulholland took matters into his own hands, and sent out a press release from the state party linking San Bernardino’s situation to State Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner’s repeated press releases, about his personal funding of Republican voter registration bounty programs.

·In the meantime, the Registrar’s office has handed over all information to both the District Attorney and the Secretary of State, with her request for immediate investigation.

·Congressman Baca was asked to call DA Mike Ramos to urge immediate action.

·Supervisor Josie Gonzalez has pledged to contact the DA’s office and urge immediate action.

·A copy of our press release and other information has been shared with a representative of Assembly Speaker Karen Bass.  Karen Bass will be meeting with both Secretary of State Debra Bowen and Attorney General Jerry Brown in the next day or so, and will share our information directly with them.

SBD Republicans are trying to cast this as Democratic sour grapes but it’s clear that there is something worth investigating here. Democrats are holding a press conference at 11 AM today to explain the matter to local media and demand an investigation and accountability.

It’s worth keeping in mind that this isn’t just about the 2008 cycle – but that the involvement of Steve Poizner, a leading candidate for the GOP gubernatorial nomination in 2010, suggests this could be a long-term strategy for Republicans in California. Certainly the track record of YPM, the Republican firm at the center of the scandal and with many years of voter registration fraud dating back to at least 2004, suggests this to be the case.