A4 Monday, January 13, 2020 Mountain Democrat mtdemocrat.com
OPINION
Richard B. Esposito Publisher/Editor
Noel Stack Opinion Page Editor
Krysten Kellum Associate Editor
At the Lake
Tahoe Regional Planning Agency celebrates 50 years
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he year was 1969. And what a year it was. On July 20, 1969, the Vietnam War was raging and American Neil Armstrong became the first person to set foot on the surface of the moon. For much of the decade, America and Joanne Marchetta indeed the world had been mesmerized by the space race. The end of the decade brought us the music festivals of Altamont and Woodstock. The hippie counterculture movement was at its zenith and Elvis was still in the building. The iconic Boeing 747 made its inaugural flight from Seattle to New York City. And the Beatles performed for the last time in public on the rooftop of Apple Records in central London — what a year. As the ‘60s drew to a close, there was another momentous occasion marking the end of the decade. In December 1969 President Richard Nixon signed into law the bi-state compact creating the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency. The compact came about as California Gov. Ronald Reagan, Nevada Gov. Paul Laxalt and others raised fears that overdevelopment was threatening to destroy Lake Tahoe. Fifty years later TRPA remains dedicated to protecting and preserving Lake Tahoe’s natural environment. Looking back, we’ve proven that by working together collaboratively, protecting the natural treasure that is Lake Tahoe is indeed possible. During the agency’s infancy we worked to curb runaway growth inside the basin, halting unchecked development that was threatening Lake Tahoe’s famed water clarity. Science was proving that Tahoe’s clarity was declining as development continued unabated, paving over wetlands that once filtered polluted stormwater runoff. In the early 1980s a federal judge issued a moratorium on nearly all development inside the basin that lasted close to three years as the agency developed the first regional plan through a consensus process. The following decade, President Bill Clinton called Lake Tahoe a “national treasure that must be protected and preserved.” In 1997 Clinton and Vice President Al Gore convened the first Lake Tahoe Summit and out of that was born the Environmental Improvement Program. In the intervening years Environmental Improvement Program partners — now numbering more than 80 federal, state, local and private entities — have invested more than $2 billion in nearly 700 lakesaving projects. These projects have helped stabilize the lake’s clarity loss, improved mountain streams, enhanced forest health and built bicycle and pedestrian paths. In 2012 with the most recent regional plan update, TRPA embraced the idea of environmental re-development. We discovered a pathway that n
See MArchetta, page A5
Letters to the Editor The fate of EDH to be decided EDITOR: n Jan. 13 the fate of El Dorado Hills will be determined and will you be involved in limiting rampant growth to our community? Are you willing to show up and have your voice heard? What about the fact that Parker and company made a promise to our community about turning the old Executive EDH Golf Course into desperately needed community parks but it never happened? And it never was going to happen. Is this a company we can “partner” with? It was always just a ruse and the Parker Development Company wanted to let it linger long enough that people would forget about those “past-promises.” Parker always planned to do what it damn-well wanted to do and misled the good people of EDH. What kind of “Serrano takeover” is this? It will have a negative impact on property values and approximately 1,600 additional automobiles will be added to the “traffic morass” we now experience. Expect increased pollution and additional crime. And where will all the additional water come from? If Parker paves over the Executive Golf Course and builds homes there it’s a direct slap to the face of the EDH community and its residents. As it’s said: “Once it’s gone, it’s gone as open space forever.” Get involved now or you will have no reason to complain about it later. Be there: 6 p.m., Jan. 13 at District Church. HUGH BACA El Dorado Hills
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McClintock, democracy, truth EDITOR: ecent letters have talked about McClintock’s disregard for the truth (Donna Skelton) and lack of understanding of democracy (John Garon). Ms. Skelton talks about the testimony of witnesses who spoke the truth as they knew it. That’s the key phrase, as they knew it. That is an important phrase since with no direct wrongdoing in the released phone calls, what we have is second- and third-
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hand accounts of what this guy told that guy who told me, and testimony of what someone felt. When you take that on top of Adam Schiff ’s dictatorial hearings where witnesses were told by Schiff not to answer questions that he didn’t like from Republicans, not to mention the contact his office had with the so-called whistleblower, you get the kind of kangaroo court and testimony that a Soviet judge would be proud of. And then there’s Mr. Garon saying that it’s McClintock who doesn’t understand democracy. I submit that it’s those Democrats who started to talk of impeachment even before inauguration day and the corrupt FBI agents Stzrok and Page talking in emails of “insurance policies” in case the people made the wrong choice for president. It would seem that it’s the left that has trouble with democracy. Mr. Garon’s idea of democracy would find a lot of support from the Russians and Chinese. GEORGE ALGER Placerville
Iran EDITOR: onald Trump is not acting like a man averse to war with Iran. Following the extra-judicial murder of Iranian Commander Qassem Soleimani, Trump is now threatening to bomb Iranian cultural sites, which would be in violation of the 1954 Hague Convention and the 1972 World Heritage Convention, ratified by both the United States and Iran. Trump’s threatened action recalls the abysmal behavior of ISIS fighters who destroyed countless ancient Christian and Muslim holy sites in Iraq and Syria. Today the Trump administration blocked Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zariff from entering the U.S., where he was expected to address the assassination of Soleimani before the U.N. Security Council on Jan. 9. Flouting international agreements seeming to be a frequent MO of Trump, the barring of Soleimani from entering the country violates a 1947 agreement with the U.N. that the U.S allow foreign officials into the country for U.N. affairs.
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See Letters, page A5
The Balancing Act
Roger Niello sells cars but he must really hate drivers
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ow could politician — first an a guy who elected Sacramento is part County supervisor and of one of then three terms in the biggest high-end, the state Assembly. He multi-car dealership termed out in 2010. He organizations in our ran for the Senate but area (Porsche, BMW, lost in the primary to Audi, Acura, Mini Ted Gaines. Niello has Cooper, Land Rover and some good creds — a Jaguar, to name a few) UC Berkeley and UCLA hate his customers so graduate and a CPA. Larry Weitzman You’d think he might much? How could that be? go back to selling cars For his El Dorado County customers and running his many dealerships, and, more specifically El Dorado but who wouldn’t jump at a job offer Hills, traffic is becoming impossible as the direct or of the EDCCDA at with little resolution in sight. And the $200,000-plus annual salary. The prior placeholder was Steve cause can be largely attributed to ... Pedretti, who jumped ship for more Roger Niello. money before this ship hit the fan. While President Ronald Reagan A couple of weeks ago I wrote about had an 11th Commandment (actually the appeal of a County Planning is was California Republican Party Commission decision to allow a Chairman Gaylord Parkinson who development project near Bass Lake Reagan said originally postulated the Road in El Dorado Hills. Concerns rule) that said, “Thou shalt not speak ill of any fellow Republican,” I may do were raised about significant traffic issues not mitigated even though so here. there had been a substantial Niello, prior to his alleged caretaker change in circumstances that appointment as El Dorado County would require a new environmental Community Development Agency impact report, notwithstanding director, was a big-time California
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the other issues brought about by the new development. Most of this development was a follow-on of the Board of Supervisors’ substantial reduction in traffic impact mitigation fees for the area — a reduction that should never have happened. Besides the supervisors, who is responsible? The quick answer is the CDA, whose head at the time was Roger Niello. Here is how it was accomplished. Although a report from the El Dorado County Transportation Commission in late 2015 states traffic impact funding from sources like Proposition 1B, which had provided more than $1 billion in transportation funding statewide, was going to dry up significantly over the next few years, CDA staff failed to tell the board of the significant projected loss of tens of millions of dollars. Then during the December 2016 hearing at which the TIM fees were lowered, dozens of recommended projects slated for improving traffic flows were simply crossed off. Here are just a few of the projects eliminated: • Widening Bass Lake Road to four lanes from Silver Springs Drive (now
known as Hill Drive, which is north of Bass Lake) to Highway 50, $15.4 million. • Widening of Francisco Drive, various parts of El Dorado Hills Boulevard, $1.7 million. • Widening Latrobe Road all the way to Carson Creek, $9 million. • Widening Latrobe Road (south), Investment Boulevard to Golden Foothill Parkway, $3.6 million. • Widening Green Valley Road from Salmon Falls Road to Dear Valley Road, $12.6 million. • Sophia Parkway from Alexandra Drive to Green Valley Road, construct four-lane divided roadway, $2.1 million. Eliminating these and other necessary road projects, which totaled more than $44 million, from developer-required road improvements so their developments would not negatively adversely affect traffic flow and patterns is how the Board of Supervisors could justify the significant reduction in TIM fees for El Dorado Hills (along with the CDA’s failure to disclose the loss in millions of dollars in state grants from 2016
Snail Mail: Letters to the Editor P. O. Box 1088, Placerville 95667
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See WEitzman, page A5
Main Office: 2889 Ray Lawyer Drive Placerville 95667