OPINION

Purple is the New Party Mr. Blagojevich goes back to Washington

by Paul Moomjean

In the 1939 film Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Jimmy Stewart’s Jefferson Smith is appointed to Congress by a governor in an attempt to pass a bill giving another senator the ability to build a dam, in a scheme to get money. Stewart’s character fights the system, after having his name run through the mud, and ends up passing out in the halls of Congress, refusing to give up his integrity. Now, 80 years later, we still have corrupt politicians, but the heroes are no longer black and white.

There was a time when President Donald Trump promised to “drain the swamp,” yet all we’ve seen are his friends and advisors go to jail. Meanwhile, the “lock her up” president just put a stop to the 14-year prison sentence of former congressman and Democratic Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich. The Chicago Tribune phrased it as clear as possible, stating that Trump “freed a former governor who attempted to shake down a children’s hospital for campaign funds and tried to sell President Barack Obama’s U.S. Senate seat.” When the liberal paper hates the former liberal governor, you know this is bad.

“It’s discouraging for people in the state of Illinois to see this happen and that a disgraced former governor who is corrupt to the core is walking out of the federal prison based on a gift from the president,” Illinois House Republican Leader Jim Durkin stated after Blagojevich was set free.

“Blagojevich is the face of public corruption in Illinois, and not once has he shown any remorse for his clear and documented record of egregious crimes that undermined the trust placed in him by voters,” a handful of Illinois Republicans said in a released statement.

Trump refused to respect his party, tweeting: “Rod Blagojevich did not sell the Senate seat. He served 8 years in prison, with many remaining. He paid a big price.”

In some sick mindset, Trump must see this as a reach-across-the-aisle moment for the bombastic leader of the free world. All Trump has done is provide himself the ability to pardon other corrupt Republicans like his buddy Roger Stone down the road. I can imagine him justifying his actions by reminding people he freed a Democrat and now he needs to free a Republican.

Blagojevich has shown no remorse at all since being out. He recently went on CNN to talk to Anderson Cooper. Cooper literally called him and his spin “bulls**t” on national television.

“Since you’ve been out, and the statements you’ve made, you’ve shown no remorse for the crimes you were convicted by a jury of, and you’re portraying yourself as a victim of persecution by prosecutors,” Cooper said to Blagojevich. “Just about everyone who has actually looked at the evidence against has said that is just false.”

Blagojevich self-righteously replied with, “Well I don’t think they’ve looked carefully, as I am a political prisoner. I was put in prison for practicing politics.” He went on to argue that his attempt to sell Obama’s seat and hijack funds from a children’s hospital is just a normal day at work.

And that is the sad reality of this partial pardon situation. All of these actions are just a reflection of Washington politics. Trump releasing Blagojevich is politics. The Republicans giving a tepid response is politics. CNN going after old news politicians is politics. Blagojevich selling the seat and quid pro quo tactics is politics. The impeachment is politics. Mitt Romney’s grandstanding moment of calling for Trump’s removal is politics. It’s all surreal.

The idea of a Jefferson Smith character authentically fighting the system is not possible anymore; it’s not even believable in a world of fiction.

Blagojevich has called himself a “Trumpocrat,” which means he’s a Democrat who will support the man who set him free. The swamp has one more critter swimming in the murky waters again, and he was put there by another corrupt man who has only continued to make conservatives look slimy and Democrats look weak.

Trump once said he could shoot a man and not lose support. He just let a convicted felon from the other party go free, and his approval numbers didn’t take a hit. Trump seems to be right on about his supporters. It’s scary to think what’s next. ♦

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Power to Speak Ventura River adjudication: remembering the past

by Paul Jenkin

The current controversy surrounding the adjudication of water rights to the Ventura River has focused on the most recent efforts by the city of Ventura to secure its water rights to the Ventura River. Many may not know that this effort has deep roots in the past. The city of Ventura was incorporated in 1886, but its claim to the waters of the Ventura River extend back to the establishment of Mission San Buenaventura in 1782. In addition to the missions, the Spanish and Mexican governments also established a series of pueblos and ranchos between 1769 and 1835 in what later became the state of California. Despite not being a successor to one of the eight original Spanish or Mexican pueblos, the city has periodically asserted its claim to the waters of the Ventura River based on a pueblo water right.

In 1976 the city of Ventura attempted to assert a pueblo water right against the Casitas Municipal Water District. The appropriative

4 — — February 27, 2020 water rights granted to Casitas in the 1950s required them to bypass the first 20 cubic feet per second of flow at the Robles Diversion to protect downstream water rights. The city claimed, however, that this provision did not fully protect its pueblo water rights.

To resolve this dispute, without formally asserting and establishing the city’s pueblo water right, the city and Casitas proposed to enter into a Conjunctive Use Agreement. This agreement would have allowed Casitas to divert all of the low flow of the Ventura River at its Robles Diversion (up to 500 cubic feet per second) to Lake Casitas. In exchange Casitas would guarantee the city up to 6,000 acre-feet of water annually from Lake Casitas.

In 1978, the Friends of the Ventura River filed a lawsuit challenging the environmental impact report’s conclusion that the Conjunctive Use Agreement would not adversely affect the Ventura River. In 1984, after losing in the lower courts, the California Supreme Court rejected the city’s appeal, effectively terminating the Conjunctive Use Agreement.

In 1997, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) listed steelhead trout in southern California as an endangered species. Rather than comply with new regulatory requirements, the city decided to forego surface diversion and instead rely on its wells at Foster Park.

In 1998, the State of California formally recognized that the Ventura River was impaired by excessive pumping and diversions pursuant to the federal Clean Water Act.

In 2003 NMFS sent a letter notifying the city that the continued operation of the Foster Park wells posed a serious threat to steelhead. In 2007 NMFS issued a “draft jeopardy biological opinion” that specified a minimum flow to protect steelhead at Foster Park. In response, the city chose to postpone repairs and enlargement of its well field, and recommenced the operation of its other existing wells in the Foster Park area.

In 2013, the city’s hydrology consultants concluded that their pumping was detrimental to critical habitat for endangered steelhead in the Ventura River. The city continued to pump unabated, and from 2014 to 2016 the Ventura River was pumped completely dry at Foster Park for a significant portion of the year.

In 2014, after many years of monitoring water quality in the Ventura River under a program certified by the state, Santa Barbara Channelkeeper filed a lawsuit asking the state to compel the city to reduce its pumping at Foster Park consistent with NMFS requirements. The city responded by petitioning to have the lawsuit dismissed and also simul taneously filed cross-complaints against all other water rights holders in the watershed. The court rejected the city’s petition.

In 2018, the appellate court allowed the city’s cross-complaint against all water rights holders to proceed. In 2019, the city signed an interim agreement with Santa Barbara Channelkeeper, based on the NMFS 2007 jeopardy biological opinion, and entered into a court-sponsored settlement agreement process with major water purveyors and several major agricultural landowners. In January 2020, the city of Ventura commenced adjudication by serving legal summons to over 10,000 individual water rights holders in the Ventura River watershed. Ventura Assistant City Manager Akbar Alikhan, responding to questions about the Ventura River adjudication, claimed “ . . . this is not a water grab. We are trying to find a solution that balances the needs of the local habitat while still providing the valuable water to our local residences.” Given the city’s long history of claiming unlimited and unrestricted rights to the waters of the Ventura River, it is reasonable to ask what that balance will be.

Residents who use the watershed, whether as water supply or outdoor recreation, have a stake in the outcome of this latest chapter in the long history of exploitation of the Ventura River. ♦

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