Agenda

By Alan Alexander Burns

Current election issues include high water bills, waste, unresponsiveness. Future issues include development and the need for the continued existence of one the smallest and most inefficient districts in the area.

On Monday, 22 October, the President of the LTCWD Board of Directors disseminated a lengthy and severe personal e-mail attack on me. Since our neighborhood has been wracked recently by divisive "e-mail wars", I want to use this forum to explain my 'personal agenda'.

My agenda was to remind everybody that the LTCWD Board is an elected body, get the issues out in the open, and obtain a real reading of community sentiment. Because there were three Board positions open, it would have been very easy to 'sneak' nto the Board merely by signing up, just as the incumbents did. But because both Alex and I registered, we forced the first contested election in anyone's memory.

Obviously, this touched a very raw and sensitive nerve. But it succeeded in smoking out the long-time Board President. We have had more information from the LTCWD in the last few weeks than we have in the past 20 years. The whole reaction reminds me of some small town mayor filling the potholes before a municipal election. But the potholes did need fixing. It seems that I already succeeded in accomplishing more than one of my original goals.

I want to make sure that this activity was not just a pre-election flash in the pan. There are other issues that are likely to come up soon. First, how will the LTCWD deal with the possibility of demands for water service to additional below-market housing developments in Blue Oaks? Second, it appears that the LTCWD is planning to develop the considerable property it holds in Los Trancos Woods. Do we want this? Third, do we want independent voices on the LTCWD Board? Finally, we need to examine carefully whether or not the LTCWD district is a costly anachronism that we no longer need and have to pay too much for. I will solicit the sense of the community and act on your desires.

If voters are happy with the way the LTCWD operates, they should follow the direction of the President and vote for his incumbents. If they want an independent voice, they should consider voting for Alex Kostrikin and myself.