PERC, on the other hand, is a privately owned and run company based in Arizona. Alinda, who is in partnership with PERC to help provide the financing, is a privately-held fund company whose major investors include pension and endowment funds from all over the country including the one into which our own city employees invest, CalPERS.Let’s face it - neither company is going to do everything perfectly. Both are run by human beings, and therefore, something will go wrong. But who is more likely to care about the consequences to Santa Paula – a smaller company whose reputation is their best advertising or a huge conglomerate whose annual financials barely mention Santa Paula as a footnote?Anyone who has ever worked for or worked with a large company knows what it feels like – you’re one small cog, and nothing matters but the bottom line. Veolia’s local employees are probably great people – but when decisions come from above, they are going to be at the mercy of their higher-ups just like we are.If Veolia is picked as our partner for the next 30 years, I admonish the Council and our city attorney to make sure that every contingency is covered, every ‘I’ dotted and ‘T’ crossed, because when, not if, something does go wrong, no matter how much their local employees might want to help us out, the corporate office is going to say, “a contract is a contract.”Maybe Veolia is the way to go, but Santa Paula, for better or for worse, is a small town, and we ourselves tend to be entrepreneurial as well as relational, and we want to know, on a personal level, who we’re doing business with. So given the choice between Veolia and PERC, I’d rather take my chances with the company whose president knows where Santa Paula is on the map.And whichever way the Council decides to go, whether it’s PERC or whether it’s Veolia, I want to say to them and to the city staff, “great job!” You all have put a ton of work into this process trying to do the very best for Santa Paula, and it really showed during the meeting on Monday. Thank you for all your hard work and your heart for Santa Paula.Mary DollSanta PaulaHonoring those who serve AmericaTo the Editor:Let’s say a word of appreciation to Mayor Bob Gonzales and other members of our city council who established the armed forces recognition program. The most important feature of this effort is that it recognizes those serving by their names.Like many others, I have some reservations about why we got into the Iraq War and how it has been managed. But these are not the issues here. These banners recognize the sacrifices of our own local men and women who are protecting our nation under difficult circumstances. It’s great seeing their names along 10th and Main Streets.Delton Lee JohnsonSanta PaulaBig, big mistake by KVTATo the Editor:Dear people, we all know AM 1520 KVTA is known for its Spence and Bob in the morning, and that’s good, but KVTA was also known for its giving back to Santa Paula its radio station AM 1400 KKZZ. That was good, but now KVTA has now made not just two but three big mistakes in their radio programming.First, they merged AM KKZZ into their radio frequency by combining both the stations together into one; then they took that good old classic music off the air, then took CNN radio news off the frequency air.And now they did something just recently so stupid it ticked me off - they took the Angels off the air for some kind of strange reason. I don’t know why they would do such a thing like this, but it was a stupid thing for them to do.I don’t mind it if they kept the Kings and the Lakers on the air, but to take the Angels off, that was, like I said, really stupid; or should I say dumb – and I mean dumb. They should have just left them on there so we can hear the games on the radio.So if you want to hear Angels baseball, you’ll have to listen to AM 710 KESPN in Los Angeles. I don’t know, let’s hope that we get a station here sometime soon so we can hear Angels baseball up here in Ventura County once again – soon, okay.John BravoSanta Paula
Letters to the Editor
April 11, 2008
Opinion
Rising to the challenge
To the Editor:On Saturday, February 23rd, 2008, Santa Paula was witness to an event that, even though brief in its appearance, put our City in the middle of something rarely seen in the United States: a race of internationally renowned bicyclists. The race, sponsored by Amgen and known as the 2008 Amgen Tour of California, began in Palo Alto on February 17th, wound its way south, through Santa Paula and ended at Pasadena on February 24th. It’s a professional style bicycle race modeled after the Tour de France. It has the same rules, the same teams and the same riders as the Tour de France.Santa Paula and its residents were invited to view these riders as they pedaled their way through the City. Santa Paula was tasked with making sure the race passed through the City without incident. This included all intersections and private driveways be staffed. This was to prevent motorists or residents from entering into the path of the race. The Santa Paula Police Department summoned all personnel possible and realized we needed more assistance, much more assistance. We called for aid from neighboring police agencies, their staff and volunteers; still, that was not enough. With the help of a lot of local organizations and their people, we were able to rise to the challenge. A partial list of those organizations and people who assisted were:ARES / RACES (Amateur Radio Emergency Service / Radio Amateur Civil Emergency Services), service clubs from Santa Paula including Rotary, Captain Steve Lazenby and the CERT (Community Emergency Response Team), Brian Yanez and his staff of the Recreation Department, Santa Paula Public Works Department, Santa Paula Citizens Patrol, American Medical Response, Fillmore Fire Department, Santa Paula Fire Department, Santa Paula City Hall, Santa Paula High School students including the Human Resources Academy, SPPD Dispatcher Gomez, SPPD Reserve Unit, Oxnard Police Motor Units, Oxnard Police TSOs, and of course many family and friends.We, the Santa Paula police, would like to extend our gratitude to all those who helped us make this race safe and memorable. We would also like to thank everyone who may have been inconvenienced during the race; your patience was truly appreciated. There were so many people in attendance during the briefing and during the race that we may have unintentionally omitted your name or organization from this list, however we could not have accomplished this task successfully without your help.With much appreciation,Sergeant Troyce ReynoldsSanta Paula Police DepartmentLife is one continuous learning tripTo the Editor:Some of us are slower learners, some of us are catching up with new methods of population control. Africa uses wars, machetes, slavery, and civil unrest, they kill millions by starving their people. The USSR under Stalin used hunger, and corruption to kill over 10 million. Mexico’s method is substantially controlled by drug dealers and corruption, but they only killed 2,500 last year. Their police departments are quitting and they are trying to cover it up with their military by replacing the corrupt police. In Laredo, El Paso and Tijuana: don’t go over the border or you may be killed or kidnapped for ransom. Is it any wonder 80% of the population below our borders want out of that situation? Their economic boat is sinking rapidly, political corruption is rampant. Who wants to go down with a sinking ship? The first and strongest motivation of all living things is SELF PRESERVATION, GOD gave this to us; we have to deal with this for the rest of our lives. No one can run away from this fact. Most inventions were created to give us better self-preservation tools.As the medical industry fights bacteria or virus, the bacteria/virus mutate to protect themselves.All of mankind will vote with their feet - it has always been that way. Hunger is usually the motivation for man to vote with his feet. Sometime his feet will get wet.Creative mentality cannot flow forth when one is hungry. Our technical society can only flourish when we are not concentrating on where our next meal is coming from.Many countries will never build an airplane, car, or for that matter, decent shelter and sanitation facilities. One definition for a third world nation is: “Every country that produces more people than it does products to support them”. This only perpetuates their poverty. A child can be a blessing today and tomorrow will be a huge liability. Some people never learn. We have been truly blessed in these United States, for over 200 years now. But we are tired and have let our guard down. Our borders are a sieve. Our government finances are a joke and our people have forgotten about the big Depression of the 30s. Let us hope we don’t have to relearn that hard lesson.David KaiserSanta PaulaPERC vs. VeoliaTo the Editor:After watching last Monday evening’s City Council meeting, there appears to be no major deficiency in either company, PERC or Veolia, to preclude the City from contracting with either for our new water treatment plant. Both companies seem to have covered all the technical bases, and both are willing to work with the city on the financing. So what is it going to take to tip the scales in favor of one company over the other? I think it’s going to be relationship.We’re going to be in bed with these guys for a very long time, literally for decades. One of them is going to build, run, and help us finance the single largest municipal project that Santa Paula has ever done to date, and keep the federal and state watchdogs off of our backs and our operations penalty-free. So which one of them is going to be the easiest to work with, which one is going to take their responsibility to the City the most seriously, and which one is going to be the most accountable?Veolia is a wholly owned subsidiary of a multinational French company whose revenues in 2006 were $36 billion. Their business is water, and the American branch is only one part of a global network of companies.
