Record Metro Columnist Michael Fitzgerald's Blog

“The economic pain being suffered by people on the west side results from decades of decisions by absentee landowners to maximize profits over sustainability.”

Bingo. Deirdre Des Jardins, a researcher with California Water Research Associates, and Jane Wagner-Tyack, a policy analyst with Restore the Delta, wrote that line in a SacBee guest editorial. The absentee landowners planted permanent crops because they pay more. They knew they’d have to further impair the Delta to stabilize a water lifeline to which they have no right. But they were greedy enough to do it anyway.

Adn they want more.

Straight arrows miss a lot of fun — drugs, adultery, running porn sites, and other edgy pleasures.

What you also miss: shootouts with prostitutes.

We recenty wrote a column or two about the underground water pipelines that parallel and blemish March Lane.

Now, SacBee columnist Dan Walters muses on whether there’s something in that water that makes East Bay politicians crazy.

It’d serve ‘em right!

The Stockton doctor who appeared in TV ads opposing a tobbaco tax hike has been removed by Gov. Jerry Brown from a state health advisory board, Capitol Alert reports.

La Donna Porter, a doctor with San Joaquin General Hospital, generated protests outside the hospital after she appeared in ads funded by the tobbacco industry.

She had every right to do it. She had valid arguments against the tax. But the right to disagree with her includes the right to see her as a useful idiot for a genocidal industry. Or to can her from a health advisory role. 

Rep. Jeff Denham’s bill to kill salmon restoration in the San Joaquin River, which just passed the House, is a classic example of how selfish and provincial south-Valley ag can be.

Salmon restoration was agreed upon by all the parties to the historic San Joaquin River lawsuit. These exporters got protections and water guarantees in return. Denham’s bill keeps the benefits but undoes the obligations — it breaks ag’s promises, pure and simple.

The NRDC nails Denham here.

Speaking of Trinitas (see item, below), the golf course two Mother Lode scofflaws built illegally, and which, after inane and protracted court battles, was reposessed by the bank, I see the male scofflaw has been hired by the bank as a groundskeeper.

Apparently the bank wants to maintain Trinitas as a golf course, pending the scofflaws’ appeal. So if the scofflaws win, and golf is somehow recognized as a form of “agri-tourism,” the bank can sell, or operate, a good-to-go golf course.

While I enjoy the idea of the scofflaw chasing gophers a la Caddyshack as penance for doing his level best to undermine the laws protecting farmland, the appeal gives me the creeps. It holds out the possibility, albeit unlikely, the scofflaws will prevail, and trigger a rush of ag property owners to build who-knows-what. But you have to take your modest pleasures while they last.

Interesting issue. County officials want to keep farms from becoming event centers. It’s a legitmate concern. Let events at wineries build too big, and you open the door to absurdities such as Trinitas, a golf course two mother Lode entrepreneurs tried to justify as “agri-tourism.”

Allow that, and farms are history.

On the other hand, building small winery brands helps increase the price they can ask for wine. That, in turn, increases the price big grape growers can command when they sell in bulk to Napa. A facet of the industry conty officials may not have appreciated when they proposed freezing winery events.

The foolishness at Monday’s town hall meeting was not limited to the incidents reported in the column.

–A suspicious woman irately demanded to see the budgets “the public was never allowed to see.” Budgets are public documents. The last 10 years’ worth are posted on the city’s website.

–The man I quoted who was so indignant that the city wouldn’t immediately implement his proposal to pay cops $40,000 a year actually got quite emotional. Recounting how he has twice been the victim of burglary, he rose from his seat and approached wary city officials, his voice rising to operatic volume. Before all, proclaimed he would kiss the city manager’s feet if crime were controlled.

–Everybody dismissed city figures out of hand. This, though they have been corroborated by a reputable independent audit company, Management Partners. They dismised Management Partners, too.

–Not in that league, but still sketchy, a member of the San Joaquin Taxpayers Association urged leaders not to declare bankruptcy until state Controller John Chiang finishes his audit. That is a defensibe position. But following this advice could delay urgently needed cuts for months, deepening city debt, and complicate the process of sumitting a legally required balanced budget by July 1.

And cuts are necessary.

–To properly fund the city’s $417 million retiree health cost, the city would have to set aside 30 percent of its payroll. An unattainable figure.

–Since the recession began, city debt payments have increased 600 percent.

–7 of 9 employee groups agreed to concessions. But 2 did not. They are suing the city, which could take a $40 million hit if the unions prevail in court.

–And City Hall can’t raise taxes. For two reasons, one they discuss and one they do not. First, it’s a recession, Stocktonians are unlikely to approve higher taxes, especially since Gov. Brown is putting a tax increase on the ballot. Two — what they don’t like to say — voters could approve a tax increase, but if the unions win in court, the money goes into their pockets and buys taxpayers nothing.

Martha Cisneros of San Jose, the sister-in-law of the man killed at Lost Isle, writes that Lost Isle is not the victim of excessive regulation, as I wrote here.

Instead, it is a scofflaw outfit that asked for trouble by ducking its responsibilities for years. Cisneros also says her family will sue the resort.

For a counterpoint to my take, read her Lost Isle letter.

State agencies are releasing hundreds of young salmon into the San Joaquin and tracking them. Another step in the glacial revival of the once-majestic river, and in the restoration of Stocktonians’ right to a health river. The process apears to be falling behind its timetable. Sigh. But at least the glacier is moving in the right direction.