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COMMUNITY NEWS
Merchant offers parting advice to CSD board
Published
Sunday, January 21, 2007
John
Merchant, outgoing Community Services District board
president, offered parting advice to the board at its
Dec. 20 meeting.
In
his 45-minute presentation, Merchant offered opinions
on development issues, the financial challenges facing
the CSD, the board’s accomplishments during his
four-year term and whether CSD board meetings should
be televised.
He
also drew on his six years as a member of the Rancho
Murieta Association board where he served as treasurer
and as president.
The following
are some of Merchant's comments:
The pedestrian bridge
“If
I look back on everything that we were able to accomplish
while I was a member of this board, this really is the
primo accomplishment and really will go a long way to
integrate this finally into one cohesive community.”
“I think as a board we recognized we had one more
chance to make this happen. … The CSD stepped up
and really went out to the edge and made a deal … to
take control and ownership of the property that that bridge
sits on.”
Televising CSD meetings
“My
personal opinion is the TV forces people to perform ....
A lot of what goes on at a meeting is posturing for the
television as opposed to good government.”
Development issues
The “polarizing issue of development” affected
the way the district is perceived. “We’re here
as the protector and the provider of infrastructure. … In
1997 we knew this development was coming and we knew we couldn’t stop
it.”
“Upfront negotiation and dialogue with the developers … is
the way that you need to do this to effect change and get
what you need in terms of infrastructure in the community.
If you don’t do it, you relegate it to the county. … Negotiation
requires movement and a recognition of what you want.”
“If you disagree, be nice and talk with your government.
We made repeated overtures for years to bring the anti-development
community into the process … but they don’t
think it’s important to talk to the government that’s
making the decisions.”
Mutual Benefit Agreement
“… In the case of the RMA, your own lawyers
have already told you that number one, it’s valid,
and number two, it’s pretty good. … The
PTF would love to be out of the MBA. … That (developers)
would like to ditch this agreement tells me even more that
it’s a lot more valid and
a lot more meaningful than it was when we did it.”
Financial challenges
The
Country Club’s diversion
plan for the cease and desist overflow issue is “a
poor spill solution. … I think it spells long-term
disaster and there are long-term impacts on the district.”
“The
tank solution (is preferable) at whatever the cost.”
The
recent loss of property tax revenue taken by the state
for a two-year period, low growth, “the financial
drain of the cease and desist order,” and the effect
of current and future employee costs have to be addressed.
Retirement
benefits for district employees will eventually mean “we’re
paying for a whole other staff of employees in addition
to the ones that are working for us.”
“For
every two employees that we hire here, we pay for three
because of the fringe (benefits).”
Suggestions to the new board
- Form an advisory body to the
board to tap community expertise.
- Find a leader on the board
to establish consensus and keep making decisions.
- Don’t
let the RMA take over gate security – “Do
you want the same guys running your gate that are running
your cable system?”
- Recognize
changing demographics of Rancho Murieta -- provide
a community center, “embrace the skateboard park.”
- “I
think you need to have an upfront dialogue with the
public on rate increases.”
