Holy Cow!!! Wish you could all have attended the PUC meeting this afternoon. Lake Merced is certainly on their radar now.
Pat Martel spoke for about 10 minutes in her report to the Commission on Lake Merced. She promised, among other things, action soon, a new community liaison to be hired within the next two weeks, a new development team. Granted, we've heard this before, but she sounds as though she means it.
It was clear that Pat had read our monthly progress report, as she responded to nearly all of the issues we raised.
Commissioner Normandy followed with an impassioned plea to get a new team, to quit planning, and to do something.
I followed with a thank you to the Commission and PUC staff for their $1 million support of the Daly City recycling plant, and Tim followed echoing that thanks, then pointing out the need to stabilize the lake quickly.
Not that we back off now, but I hope that we see some action soon.
On another score: For those of you who missed it, Tom Stienstra wrote a column in Sunday's Chron in which he claimed to have been provided confidential documents regarding the restoration plan for Lake Merced. Josh Milstein jumped to the conclusion that it was our fault. In a widely circulated e-mail (Pat Martel, CalTrout, et. al.) Josh reported that "I don't know who released these documents, but suspect it was one of the Friends of Lake Merced."
I prepared a response, in the form of a letter to Dennis Herrera, objecting to this unfounded and prejudicial conclusion. Apparently I wasn't the only one who felt that way, and apparently Josh has come under some fire for this comment, as Josh approached me to apologize at today's PUC meeting. I now think that a letter to Herrera is not appropriate.
Still, Josh's quick and extemporaneous response is clear evidence of the prejudice with which he has dealt with FoLM. Josh has consistently attempted to divide us from the PUC, and from other individuals and organizations, as when he sent a heated e-mail to Patrick Sweetland complaining that the hydrologists Gus Yates and John Fio were supporting FoLM. If we can figure out how, perhaps now is the time to address this issue.
I assembled a wish list of actions to be supported by the City Attorney's office:
1) Katie Pilat and David Dawdy should be invited to participate as full members of the Scalmanini team. Personally I see no reason why they shouldn't be paid for these services as well.
2) Patrick Sweetland should be thanked and congratulated for encouraging his consulting hydrologists to work with the community organization, and Gus Yates and John Fio should be made to feel welcome to continue and enlarge this participation.
3) The PUC Commission, and Dennis Normandy especially, should be advised, by Josh, that he now understands that his actions have undermined Normandy's request that a close working relationship be established between the PUC and the community, and that Josh will take the lead in remedying that problem.
4) Scalmanini should be instructed to cooperate fully with the community. For example, when I called their office to ask if I could use a slide from their presentation at a Neighborhood Parks Council seminar I received no reply, even after a second request. That's rather ironic considering that Scalmanini ripped off the picture from our web site to illustrate their presentation.
5) Josh should offer, to Dennis Herrera, to step aside as the attorney representing the City re: Lake Merced, and to cooperate with a new attorney assigned to this case. Should Dennis then decide to reject that offer I would have no major complaint, given that the other actions take place.
I took advantage of Jerry Cadagan's legal perspective to ask if these might be reasonable demands. Jerry quite reasonably replied that while the demands may be reasonable the chances of achieving these goals is likely to be quite slim. I'm pretty sure that's right.
However, if we think about it carefully, maybe there is some way to take advantage of the dual event, Pat Martel's and the PUC's emphasis on Lake Merced as a high priority, and Josh Milstein's need to make some sort of amends, in order to accomplish the better PUC/FoLM working relationship this wish list contemplates.
I'd appreciate your advice.
A final item: I was asked by the new CalTrout Lake Merced project manager to meet with him at the CalTrout office Tuesday morning. It's not my party, so I can't enlarge the invitaion list by myself, but if anyone would like to join me I'd be happy to call and see if we can all show up together.
That's all for now.
John
