Sparsely, Sage and Timely
By David V. MitchellHousekeeping, not grandstanding & staffing needs the attention, Steve
California’s local governments – cities, counties, and special districts – are supposed to perform society’s housekeeping chores – patching potholes, running police departments, supplying drinking water, providing garbage-pickup service etc.
Naturally, these agencies have some policy-making functions, land-use planning being the most obvious, but primarily they exist to ensure that communities are kept clean, attractive, and safe.
From time to time, local governments take symbolic stands on foreign and national affairs. The County of Marin, Stinson Beach Water District, and Inverness Public Utility District, for example, have declared their opposition to the police-state powers of USA Patriot Act. IPUD has also voted to fly the UN flag and, like county government, has declared itself anti-nuclear (meaning the district tries to avoid patronizing companies that also make nuclear weapons). In the 1960s, Bolinas Public Utility District was the first governmental body in the US to come out against the war in Vietnam.
As far as I’m concerned, it’s fine if local governments take stands on war, peace, offshore oil drilling, fisheries, and other matters usually left to state and federal government. But I want local governments to focus their attention on the tasks for which they were created.
In the case of Supervisor Steve Kinsey, a number of us who like and have supported him have begun to wonder if he isn’t spending too much time grandstanding on "big issues" and not enough time on the mundane duties of county government. We certainly know where he stands on restoring coho-salmon fisheries but not much about his long-range plans for encouraging more tourism here.
Worse yet, although the County of Marin is short of revenue as a result of the state’s financial crisis, county officials are struggling to lay off as few county staff as possible – even when this means assigning staff to civically disruptive activities. The types of federal and state grants which are now available determine what projects certain county departments undertake.
Epitomizing this absurd situation is the $5 million sewage system Supervisor Kinsey and the county Environmental Health Division have proposed for the village of Marshall. Such a project would bring in grant money, some of which could be used to keep current staff on the payroll. The cost to Marshall residents, however, would be astronomical when compared with the cost of carrying out the few improvements that are needed.
Meanwhile, Kinsey’s working hand-in-glove with Waste Management (so that county government can avoid providing a garbage-dropoff facility in West Marin) stinks to high heaven. After initially treating Waste Management with proper caution, Kinsey is now rolling around in bed with the garbage conglomerate.
Readers should remember that only two summers ago, Waste Management and its notorious accounting firm, Arthur Andersen, paid $229 million to settle a shareholders’ lawsuit. The two corporations had inflated Waste Management’s earnings by $1 billion over five years; the misrepresentation caused USA Waste shareholders to pay too much for Waste Management stock when those corporations merged in 1998.
In addition, the US Securities and Exchange Commission slapped Andersen with a $7 million fine for "knowingly or recklessly" issuing misleading audit reports on behalf of Waste Management.
Here in Marin County, a 1998 audit carried out at Kinsey’s request found that Waste Management had over-billed customers by at least $244,000 that year. Waste Management then paid the county – not the over-billed customers – that amount, and the county said it would spend the money studying garbage and recycling.
Common sense should tell Kinsey that Waste Management has shown it can’t be trusted and that siding with the conglomerate against his own constituents is a serious mistake.
The need for a county-run, trash-dropoff site in West Marin is obvious to many voters. Roadside dumping has mushroomed in West Marin ever since the landfill in Point Reyes Station closed in 1998. In the three years immediately following the closing, five of the six 24-hour recycling sites in West Marin had to shut down because of all the trash and garbage they had begun receiving.
A Point Reyes Light check this week of the one surviving recycling site (other than fenced-in bins at Toby’s Feed Barn) found garbage strewn all around the facility, which is on Lagunitas School property. Stoves, refrigerators, and computer parts were illegally dumped here and there.
Last week the Park Service noted there has been extensive illegal dumping in Hamlet. The week before, Marin sheriff’s deputies asked the county Department of Public Works to pick up "a huge amount of packing material" illegally dumped at the intersection of Sir Francis Drake Boulevard and Nicasio Valley Road in San Geronimo.
In public meetings recently, Supervisor Kinsey has begun portraying the questions of whether West Marin needs a trash-dropoff site and whether Marshall residents need a $5 million sewage system as merely minor disagreements between county staff and me.
If enough voters agree a huge sewer is needed for the tiny town while a trash-dropoff site is not needed for the 400 square miles of West Marin, Kinsey should win reelection easily next year.
However, if Kinsey is guessing wrong, North Marin Water District Director Dennis Rodoni of Olema may have a good shot at replacing him.
Rodoni, along with Rigdon Currie of Inverness Park, organized the Saturday, Oct. 25, cleanup of trash dumped along Tomales Bay roads.
Having volunteered for previous Cleanup Days, I’m here to report that the litter is not limited to old beer bottles and cigarette packs thrown from cars. Piles of prunings, discarded car parts, and worn-out appliances are also part of the mix.
Currie and Rodoni have signed up 15 organizations and businesses to take part in this Saturday’s cleanup. With so many residents picking up roadside trash, just how bad illegal dumping in West Marin has become will likely be evident to yet more voters.
Kinsey and Rodoni are already circling each other warily although Rodoni has said that for the moment his only concern is being reelected to the water board.