Amador County – The Bureau of Land Management announced Wednesday that residents of the Sacramento area will have the opportunity to add a horse or burro to their families on July 14 when BLM brings its Wild Horse and Burro Adoption Program to the Sacramento Horseman’s Association in Sacramento.

BLM Central California public affairs officer David Christy said 14 horses from yearlings to 4-year-olds will be offered for adoption. They come from the High Rock area’s Fox Hog, High Rock, Nut Mountain, Wall Canyon and Bitner herd management areas. It also features five burros from the Twin Peaks herd management area.

Manager of BLM’s Susanville wild horse and burro corrals, Doug Satica said the “animals are healthy and ready to train. They have been vaccinated against all common equine diseases, including rabies and West Nile virus.” BLM provides full health care records to adopters.

To qualify, adopters must be at least 18 years old and residents of the United States. Adopted animals must be kept in corrals that offer at least 400 square feet per animal, surrounded by six-foot pipe or board fences (five-foot fences are allowed for horses under 2 years old; four-foot fences are allowed for burros).

Two-sided roofed shelters are required. Adopters receive title to their animals after providing a year of good care.

Public affairs officer David Christy said wild horses and burros are protected by a federal law, the Wild and Free Roaming Horses and Burros Act, which requires the BLM to maintain wild populations in balance with other range users, including wildlife and domestic livestock, so that food and water sources are sustained and rangelands are conserved.

For additional information contact BLM toll free at 1-866-4MUSTANGS (468-7826) or the Litchfield Corrals at (530) 254-6575.

Horses can be previewed 2-5 p.m. Friday, July 13. The event runs 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, July 14. A silent competitive bid will run from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Saturday. Animals not taken during bidding will be available for a $125 adoption fee.

The auction is at the Sacramento Horseman’s Association, 3200 Longview Drive, in Sacramento, on Saturday, July 14.

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Amador County – Jackson Rancheria Casino Resort announced Wednesday that someone will win $45,000 cash at the Jackson Rancheria today, that is Thursday, June 28.

Rancheria publicist Mark Bommarito announced the promotion, saying the final drawings for Jackson Rancheria’s big Spring Cash Fling will be held starting at 6 p.m., Thursday, June 28, and one winner is guaranteed to go home with $45,000 cash.

Jackson Rancheria’s Dreamcatcher’s Club members earn a drawing entry for every 100 points earned between 12:01 a.m. and 8 p.m. Thursday, June 28. The drawings start at 6 p.m. with 20 people guaranteed to win $500 in “Free Slot Play.”

The final prize, given away at 8 p.m., started at $15,000 and has grown to a guaranteed $45,000 jackpot. The winner has five minutes to claim the big prize or another winner will be drawn until someone claims the cash.

Jackson Rancheria Casino Resort is located at 12222 New York Ranch Road in Jackson.

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Amador County – Jackson City Council voted 3-2 Monday to approve a $3.36 million with a $125,000 deficit for fiscal year 2012-2013 as the city awaits a return of funding by the Legislature or the state budget.

Councilman Wayne Garibaldi and Mayor Pat Crew dissented. Garibaldi earlier asked what would happen if they did not approve the budget since the budget year ends June 30. City Manager Mike Daly said the city would continue operating with the existing budget in place.

Councilman Keith Sweet said Jackson was one of the few cities in the county that has a budget you can read and count on and he wondered why Garibaldi would ask that question.

Garibaldi said: “I probably can’t vote for a budget with a negative number. We’re $125,000 short” and restoration of Triple-Flip funds “are not a sure thing.” Daly said the closest thing to a sure thing is the governor’s reimbursement in the budget bill, which would give Amador County and its cities $1.5 million dollars, including $100,000 to Jackson, and $1.1 million to the county.

Daly said the status of Alyson Huber’s Assembly Bill 1191 has him “not quite as 95% confident in it” as he was, since it was placed in “suspense” Monday by the Senate Appropriations Committee. A consultant said “suspense” means it needs minor rewording, Daly said.

Crew said a healthy city is one with reserves but he was inclined to vote for it because “rainy days are here.” Daly said a typical city reserve fund is 20 percent, and for Jackson, that would be $690,000, so “we’re above that.” Reserves in the draft budget were $793,000.

With Legislative fixes, Jackson could get $100,000 to $300,000, he said, but “it’s going to be a continuing saga.” The budget lost a $100,000 COPS grant, which means the city must use other funds to pay a Police Officer’s salary and avoid layoff. He said negotiations with employees allowed reduction of insurance costs by allowing employees to choose a different policy. They will still get 100% paid insurance but have a smaller physician pool.

He recommended boosting the city’s share of participation fees with Amador County Recreation Agency, from 50% of a full share payment, to 80%. He also mentioned a return to paid parking on Main Street, now that storefronts were filling.

Daly was optimistic that a three-year increase in sales tax revenue would continue, with the addition of Grocery Outlet, and the early August opening planned for Tractor Supply Company. And National Hotel’s planned July reopening means the “iconic lodging and dining anchor for Main Street should help attract more visitors to Jackson and boost both the Transient Occupancy Tax and sales tax in the upcoming year.”

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Amador County News, TSPN TV News Video, 6-28-12 - TSPN's Tom Slivick talks with Supervisor Ted Novelli about Amador County budget issues. 

Amador County News, TSPN TV News Video, 6-28-12

• Jackson City Council approved a deficit budget Monday while awaiting restoration of lost local Triple Flip taxes and fees.

• A Rancho Cordova man arrested twice in Amador for possession of stolen property has alleged links to nine regional burglaries.

• Jackson Rancheria Casino will give one of its Dreamcatcher’s Club members $45K in a drawing tonight (8 p.m. Thursday, June 28, 2012)

• AFPD board OKs traditional helmets for firefighters.

• Horses, and burros available for adoption in Sacramento.  

Amador County – Amador County Supervisors approved extending layoff notices for eight employees while awaiting the potential return of $1.1 million from the state budget, but still face a layoff list of $1.6 million in salaries.

Supervisor Vice Chairman Richard Forster said he would be more in favor of trying to retain some of the positions beyond the eight. Supervisor Chairman Louis Boitano agreed. The total list of those getting layoff notices was 24 positions, 16 of which are full-time-equivalent. Nine others are 60% or less full-time-equivalent positions.

Supervisor Ted Novelli said he would prefer giving funds to both areas, employees and public works, and noted that they would need approval of the union to bring people back as extra help. County Administrative Officer Chuck Iley said they would have to discuss that with the union.

Steve Bristow, business agent for Service Employees International Union Local 1021, representing county employees said the union can agree to the layoff notice extension.

Iley said the Legislature was expecting to pass the state budget Wednesday, June 27 and the remaining budget rider bills next week. He said the board could have a special meeting next Tuesday, June 31 if needed.

Iley said none of the department heads are saying they don’t need employees. Forster said layoffs and recalls would go by seniority. Supervisor Brian Oneto said “we’re still eating into our carryover and we either need to make some cuts now and bleed a little red ink, or keep staffing and bleed a lot of red ink.” Boitano suggested crossing out part-timers and keeping what’s left, or about 16 full-time positions.

Supervisor John Plasse asked how much of the potentially restored $1.1 million should be dedicated to “other use.” He said: “I don’t see the need to restore the full $1 million to the contingency right now.” He motioned that, pending restoration of the $1.1 million in Triple Flip funds, they recall the top eight prioritized positions, with salaries totaling $563,000; then put $250,000 to public works for prioritized repairs; and the remaining $300,000-pluss to contingencies.

Forster asked what it would cost to extend the whole list by 10 days. Iley said “we’re paying employees who are not working and it is not cheap.” Forster supported recall of employees, but “my inclination would be to put more of that money into employee costs.”

County Counsel Greg Gillott said no extension to the layoff notices would mean everyone would be laid off then essentially terminated. Extending the layoff notice allows employees to keep vacation time that they have accrued.

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Amador County – Last week Reeder Sutherland and developers officially received a 25-year entitlement to two of two Plymouth residential subdivisions totaling about 500 single-family homes.

City Manager Jeff Gardner said a development agreement reached between Plymouth and Bob Reeder, Reeder Sutherland president and his partners withstood a 90-day waiting period after approval of the project and annexation into the city, before they received entitlement on the 500 units. He said no challenges were filed.

Gardner said he has been actively working for about seven years on the project with Reeder, and his son-in-law, Stefan Horstchraer. The Shenandoah Ridge and Zinfandel housing developments received Plymouth City Council final approvals last year, and approval by the Amador County Local Agency Formation Commission for its project, environmental work and annexation in March.

He said the 90-day comment period expired June 20 without a protest or challenge. Reeder-Sutherland now has the green light and a 25-year entitlement to do the build-out on their project. Zinfandel designs have 365 homes, and Shenandoah Ridge has 137 homes.

Gardner said Reeder would like to start by 2013 but he thinks it would probably be closer to 2014 because of a lot of work ahead. The developments require engineering, encroachment permits from Caltrans for the Highway 49 corridor, infrastructure and an agreement with Amador Water Agency to get water for projects.

Reeder in past meetings was optimistic that the projects could be built in 10 years. Gardner said the water system was designed for a 4% growth rate. Plymouth has a potable water pipeline connecting the city service lines with AWA’s Tanner treatment plant in Sutter Creek.

The developments’ beginnings would mark the end to a long building moratorium in Plymouth, and end 20-plus years in Plymouth’s drought of “virtually no commercial and no residential development.”

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Amador County – Jackson City Council voted 5-0 Monday to approve a Regional Traffic Mitigation Fee Program oversight committee’s approval of a loan of $200,000 in fee program funds to Sutter Creek’s Prospect Drive realignment project.

The Council also voted approval of impact fee changes in the program to increase single-family home fees, and decrease high-traffic commercial fees.

Manager Mike Daly said the changes were requested by the Amador County Transportation Commission in its annual report of the Regional Traffic Mitigation Fee program. The report noted that the program collected $123,714 in 2010-2011, which Daly said is the smallest amount it had ever collected.

Daly said the traffic impact fee program had funded two projects, in Jackson, including parking at Main Street and Highway 49/88 where Mel & Fayes used to be, one of the first projects funded by the local program. It also paid 50% of the Mission Boulevard extension. He said the loan would come from traffic impact fee funds approved for the extension of Sutter Street in Jackson, and Ione’s West Ione Roadway Improvement System. The total loan to Sutter Creek project would be $250,000, and would be repaid as a top priority.

Councilwoman Connie Gonsalves said the Bowers Drive intersection with Ridge Road was the poorest planned intersection of the county. She said: “Has anyone had talked to Caltrans about how messed up it is?”

ACTC member, Councilman Keith Sweet said the intersection was done in that manner so Sutter Creek could get the Walgreen’s. Sweet said it was not done properly because Gold Rush was not built yet, and it was agreed by all that it was a bad intersection.

Gonsalves asked why they did not leave the single-family impact fees the same and just decrease commercial fees. Sweet said an appeal of fees by a pizza restaurant in Martell argued that it was exceptional to McDonald’s because the latter drew traffic from Highway 49, but the pizza place argued that it would generate traffic from inside the shopping center. Sweet said ACTC spent the last year putting together an appeals process, and decided to keep a broader list of use types for fees to reduce appeals.

Councilman Wayne Garibaldi said the fees are too high and developers are seen as having big pockets, but a $50,000 impact fee is too large. He did not want to drive away businesses because of large traffic impact fees.

The council voted to change the current high-volume retail traffic impact fee from at $6,080 to $3,344 per 1,000 square feet; and approved the single-family impact fee increase by $838 to $3,878 per home. Amador County and four other city members of ACTC must ratify the rate change.

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Amador County – Amador County Supervisors voted 3-2 Tuesday to extend layoff notices for 10 more days for the top eight positions on a priority list and will consider bringing those back if everything goes through with the state for the county’s lost funding in the amount of $1.1 million.

Employees’ 21-day layoff notices were to expire Wednesday, June 27, and Supervisors had to decide whether to let the notice period pass and in effect terminate all 24 positions. County Administrative Office Chuck Iley submitted a prioritized list of positions by department, in order of importance to be recalled to work. Supervisors discussed the list and used it to determine which positions to extend layoff notices.

The motion to extend the layoff notices was contingent on the county getting back funding from the Education Revenue Augmentation Fund and triple flip funds, which could be restored by pending state legislation, and language in the Governor’s budget. The recall of eight employees would be pending the return of the ERAF funds, of property and sales tax and vehicle license fees lost to the county because of “basic aid” status of the Amador County Unified School District.

The motion included putting $250,000 into public works, though they would not allocate it to roads right now, as previously discussed in the meeting. The use would be determined later. The motion put $250,000 to public works for repairs and the rest into contingencies. Supervisor John Plasse made the motion originally to have $250,000 go to roads, but made a later motion to not state exactly where money in public works would go.

Plasse noted that Iley’s list of positions showed total salaries $1.6 million, which “is in excess of the totality of the money that may be coming back.” He also noted that the contingency goal of $1 million was only met by half, and the county continues to eat into its budget and carryover.

Supervisor Brian Oneto said they need some type of union concession to keep all 24 positions, even if they “get some funds back, there’s going to be some layoffs. It’s just a matter of who.”

Supervisor Chairman Louis Boitano agreed with the recall. Plasse suggested taking about half of the employees and restoring positions, if the $1.1 million in Triple Flip funds were restored, then putting $300,000 to restore the contingency fund to $800,000, and the rest to priorities as established by Public Works.

Oneto, Plasse and Boitano voted for the motion, and Forster and Novelli dissented. Forster preferred more funding to go toward getting employees recalled.

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Amador County News, TSPN TV News Video, 6-27-12 - TSPN's Tom Slivick talks with Plymouth City Councilman Jon Colburn, a member of No Casino in Plymouth.