Amador County - In a sign of the times, neighboring Calaveras County also laid off nine employees and implemented a hiring freeze. In November, eight Building Department employees were let go after declining construction activity reduced fees that make up the majority of that department’s budget. Assistant Calaveras County Administrative Officer Shirley Ryan said Calaveras County will likely make it through the end of this fiscal year in June without further layoffs. Governor Schwarzenenegger ordered state-mandated furloughs last Friday, which will save the state a combined $678,000 in Calaveras and Tuolumne counties. The state budget deficit is projected to grow to $42 billion by June of 2010. Current mandates apply to 238,000 state workers, resulting in two unpaid days per month. Statistics released by Tuolumne County estimate a monthly savings of $616,000 as a result of furloughs. The recent cutbacks have raised questions about whether Calaveras County Supervisors are using funds effectively. An annual discretionary fund of $5000 has been used by supervisors in recent years to support local civic groups. Supervisors are discussing whether or not freezing these funds will have a significant effect on county coffers. Although Ryan predicts the end of layoffs for this fiscal year, decisions over the state budget could change that situation. Both Ryan and Amador County Administrative Officer Terri Daly have cited the state as the major variable in these decisions. Daly said “we hope that we will not have to impose additional layoffs. However, we are still waiting for the state Legislature to act on the state budget. The state may defer payments to counties for mandated programs, which would put us in another credit crunch.” In a memo Friday to all employees, Daly said state budget “deferrals of payments to the counties are possible, if not probable.” Story by Alex Lane (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Amador County - A resolution in protest of an unpopular bill proposing stiff statewide regulations on septic usage was unanimously approved by the Board of Supervisors during Tuesday’s meeting. “In Amador County, in many respects, these regulations are overkill,” said Mike Israel, Deputy Director of the Public Health Department. Prompted by Bill 885 passed in 2000, the proposed updates would further regulate discharge of wastes that threaten surface and groundwater quality. The California Water Resources Control Board has been holding workshops with record-setting attendance across California to gather input. The proposal under consideration includes a number of costly requirements to be paid by owners should their tanks not meet updated standards. Israel said the regulations made sense when applied to the southern coastal communities where they originated, but have now been proposed as a blanket solution across the state. He said the “regulations exceed the statutory authority of Bill 885.” Under the new guidelines, owners must have their tanks inspected for solid accumulations every five years at a cost of $325. Owners of tanks within 600 feet of a surface water body that does not meet water quality standards could be required to retrofit their systems at a cost of $45,000. Estimates by county officials indicate that a large portion –approximately half- of Amador County uses septic systems. Supervisor Forster said it was unlikely that any outcry against the bill would kill it. Israel said there have been discussions with the Water Resources Board for the tentative removal of some regulations. Forster called Arnold Schwarzenegger a “Green Governor” and said, “I think the Governor is trying to get his picture on the front of Newsweek.” The Supervisors formally and unanimously approved their position against the regulations. County Counsel will now draft a comment letter on the draft regulations promulgated pursuant to Assembly Bill 885. Story by Alex Lane (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Amador County – Ione city staff and council members reported last week on the Beautification Project meeting held at the end of January. City Manager Kim Kerr said about 25 people attended the January 22nd Town Hall Meeting to get input on how to proceed with code enforcement and hear citizens’ concerns and how they think the City can help clean up or enhance the downtown corridor and neighborhoods. Kerr said much of public comment was to focus work on primary corridors into the City, such as highways 104 and 124 initially. Highway 104 entering into town from Highway 88 received the highest priority, followed by 104/Preston Avenue, 124/Church Street, and 124/Shakeley Lane. Kerr said: “Based on those comments, staff will be developing a plan to determine how to proceed with this project and what opportunities are available to address these specific areas first.” Suggestions included placing dumpsters in neighborhoods for clean-up. Kerr said citizens wanted a city survey to poll people on beautification ideas. She said a similar survey was done with sewer billing in March, but the new survey was not yet completed. She said the city would have to work with ACES Waste Services or Amador & Calaveras Disposal service on how to get rid of bulk waste items such as tires, appliances and vehicles. Kerr said the overwhelming attitude was to “focus on clean-up, not enforcement.” She expected the Beautification survey to be successful as the last survey issued to the public – on the city General Plan Update – drew 234 responses, despite its being a 4-page survey. Kerr said the survey would be brought back to City Council for discussion and direction when it was completed. She estimated the cost at $125 for printing and staff time to create the survey then analyze results. Councilman David Plank asked if Kerr thought it was “time to establish a community subcommittee on the Beautification Project, under the city staff’s direction.” Kerr said she thought March might be the right time to start that beautification subcommittee. Story by Jim Reece (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Amador County – The Sutter Creek City Council will host a public hearing Monday on a proposed wastewater rate increase for city and area customers. The hearing is required through Proposition 218 to have a rate increase by a public agency. The city announced the hearing in notices posted at the Sutter Creek Post Office, saying the “proposed rates are necessary to cover the current and estimated future costs of operating and maintaining the wastewater system and treatment facilities, as well as costs of wastewater disposal. The costs to be recovered include ongoing operation, debt service and replacement of facilities.” Bob Reed of The Reed Group, presented a rate study in mid-October and recommended the rate increase. The rates will affect city residents and also customers served by the city in the Martell area as well as Amador City. The current rates in Sutter Creek are $50 dollars and 5 cents per Equivalent Single Family Unit per month. That would increase by $22 dollars by July 2010. The proposed rate increase would change that to $60 dollars and 57 cents per family unit per month in January 2009, then up to $66 dollars and 27 cents per month in July 2009 and once more to $72 dollars and 57 cents in July 2010. Mayor Gary Wooten said rate changes, if approved, would be reflected on the next bill. He urged customers and city residents to come to the city council hearing Monday to comment on the issue. Reed said the “city has been using available reserves to pay for needed improvements to upgrade the wastewater treatment plant.”

The Amador Water Agency is expected to contribute about $750,000 dollars, or about 50 percent of “interim improvement costs.” The report assumes that developers of the Gold Rush Ranch & Golf Resort “will pay costs associated with designing an expansion to the wastewater treatment plant,” to avoid the “debt financing of costs incurred to help provide the capacity needed by new development.” Causes for the current financial deficit in Sutter Creek’s wastewater fund were listed. Costs for materials, supplies and services (especially chemicals, lab supplies, engineering, utilities and sludge treatment) were $59,000 dollars in fiscal year 2007-2008. And personnel costs for collection and treatment were $34,000 dollars, or 8.5 percent higher that estimated. The city’s share of the Amador Regional Sanitation Authority wastewater disposal costs for last year was $294,000, “nearly three times the amount previously estimated.” The public hearing is set for 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Sutter Creek Community Center, 33 Church Street. Story by Jim Reece (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Amador County – The 2008 edition of the Amador Water Agency Board of Directors meets for the first time 9:30 am Thursday at the agency office, with four new members joining Board President Terence Moore. The Board will select a president and vice president and discuss committee assignments. “To help facilitate the transition,” AWA General Manager Jim Abercrombie said “interim Director Terry Moore has drafted suggested committee assignments for the new board’s review and discussion.” Moore’s suggested himself as chairman of the Plymouth Outreach Committee, member of the Engineering & Planning committee and alternate of Budget & Finance. Moore also headed special assignments of the Association of California Water Agencies as liaison for Joint Powers Insurance Authority, groundwater and local government; and was on the Grants & Funding Ad-Hoc Committee; and the Upper Mokelumne River Watershed Authority. Moore penciled in Don Cooper of District 3 to chair Engineering & Planning; and as a member of Budget & Finance and Jackson Outreach Committees. Cooper was also suggested for membership of the Grants & Funding Ad-Hoc Committee and as alternate of the Upper Moke Watershed Authority.

Bill Condrashoff of District 1 was suggested to chair the Budget & Finance committee, Chair the Jackson Outreach Committee and be a member of the Ione Outreach Committee. Condrashoff also was suggested to be alternate for Engineering & Planning and Personnel committees. Gary E. Thomas of District 2, was suggested to chair the Personnel committee and Ione Outreach, and as alternate for Rates & Rules and the Joint Water Committee. The President and Vice President, respectively, would be chair and be a member of the Joint Water Committee. Thomas was also suggested as a member of the Sutter Creek and Integrated Regional Water Management Plan Outreach Committees. Debbie Dunn of District 4 was suggested as chairwoman of the Rates & Rules and Sutter Creek Outreach committees; and member of the Personnel and Plymouth Outreach committees. Dunn was also suggested as chair of the Integrated Regional Water Management Plan Outreach Committee and as member of the Calaveras Amador Mokelumne River Authority. All directors are authorized to attend the Mokelumne River Association and Mountain Counties Water Resources Association meetings. Board members will discuss committee membership and the president will make assignments, after the board first selects its president. Abercrombie has suggested that Moore be selected, due to his experience and also due to AWA board policy that the president must have served 2 years on the board. Story by Jim Reece (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Amador County - October marked a decline in foreclosure filings for the first time in two years, but it’s still too early to speculate whether this is the beginning of the end. A number of foreclosure and statistical tracking services have been watching the market closely. They’ve monitored a steep decline in the number of housing auctions and notices of default, the formal warnings issued when borrowers fall behind on their payments. “Trustees deeds in Sacramento, statewide, everywhere, are trending down from September to October. It's a meaningful decline,” said DataQuick analyst Andrew LePage. Statewide, 275,000 households have foreclosed since January of 2007. Sean O'Toole, CEO of ForeclosureRadar, said there was a 39 percent drop in the number of California homes auctioned from September to October. There were 14,042 auctions in October, compared with 23,049 in September, he said. Nationally, there was a in home repossessions compared to September. All this indicates that the nation’s foreclosure free fall may be subsiding. From January through October of 2008, there have been 33,961 sales of new and existing homes in Amador, El Dorado, Nevada, Placer, Sacramento, Sutter, Yolo and Yuba counties, according to MDA DataQuick. October marked the first month since April of 2002 that median home prices for new and existing homes combined dropped below 200,000 dollars in the Sacramento region, according to Dataquick. Amador County’s median home prices dropped to 250,000, down 27.5 percent from the same month in 2007. Prices have fallen 41.2 percent from a May high of 425,000 dollars. Story by Alex Lane (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

You may have noticed a new flag flying high above the Jackson Civic Center. The City has a new 5 by 8 foot flag that is the result of a design contest held last fall. Janet Davis, the winner of the contest, included 47 stars in the design to represent the 47 miners who perished in the 1922 Argonaut Mine Disaster. The new flag is so popular; the City has received numerous requests to purchase one. Mike Daly, Jackson’s City Manager, will look into the cost of getting a group order together for smaller 3 by 5 foot flags, as the individual cost is a pricey 175 dollars. If you’d like to put in a request, you can call the City at 223-1646.

During their August 11 meeting, El Dorado Irrigation District Board members heard a staff update on the emergency repairs needed to ensure safe operation of the main dam at Caples Lake reservoir bordering eastern Amador County. Staff reported that the California Department of Fish and Game will conduct a fish rescue consisting of netting the fish and placing them in hatchery trucks for transport to Silver Lake, near Kirkwood resort. “This is good news and the first part of a multi-phase attempt to save as many fish as possible during the critical work we are doing to ensure public health and safety,” said George Osborne, the District’s Board president. “We must replace the slide gates at the dam and fix other problems that were discovered in mid-June during an underwater investigation,” he said. That means drawing down the reservoir so the repair crews are not endangered. Osborne also said that the District has applied to the State Water Resources Control Board for permission to divert some of the water from the drawdown to Jenkinson Lake, the District’s largest water storage reservoir, as a hedge in case 2009 turns out to be another dry year. Due to dry conditions, Jenkinson Lake has not filled completely since 2007. District staff informed the Board that the plan also encompasses construction of a temporary bladder dam behind the main dam to protect the safety of the repair crews, store water for reservoir fish, and provide flows for downstream fisheries during the winter. The third step in the plan is short and long-term restocking efforts following recommendations from the Department of Fish and Game, who successfully implemented a similar plan at Lake Davis in 2006. “We are extremely appreciative of the technical support that Fish and Game has provided in developing a comprehensive plan to rescue the existing fishery and reestablish a trophy fishery at Caples Lake,” said Dan Corcoran, the District’s environmental review manager. “We are working aggressively to ensure that anglers will have a trophy fishery returned immediately after the ice melts and the lake can be accessed next spring,” he said. Staff will bring the plan to the Board for formal consideration and funding approval at the August 25 Board meeting.

Amador County – Jackson City Planner Susan Peters on Monday gave an update of a planning workshop held last week, telling the Jackson City Council that the city should determine Jackson’s design “identity.” Peters told the council of a sparsely attended workshop held last Monday that drew three public comments and also a letter from local developer and Jackson resident Ron Regan. Peters said the Sutter Creek Planning Commission Chairman Robin Peters attended the meeting and spoke about Sutter Creek’s work on the subject. Susan Peters said Sutter Creek’s “ultimate goal is to have standards instead of guidelines,” so that new construction and buildings are compatible with surrounding buildings in any particular area. Sutter Creek started with a large committee of various interested and it now has an Architectural Review Committee, with professional members appointed by the Sutter Creek City Council. They include two architects, a contractor, and two members of the public, and their overview currently is the review of commercial structures only. Peters said “this will change when the standards are completed for all portions of the city.” Regan in his letter to Susan Peters and the Jackson Planning Commission, said “Architectural standards that are restricted to downtown to maintain its appeal are fine” and he believed “that the downtown area has a historical appeal that warrants protection.” But he said “making such standards city wide runs the risk of being misused by certain pressure groups and are not warranted.” He said “unfortunately some architectural standards are subjective, where a particular design is in vogue today, but not tomorrow.” Regan said “certain groups will use their own subjective opinion to demonize a proposed development.” And he warned that “restrictive and subjective standards that are narrowly focused on contemporary thought or concepts that relate to restricting growth will result in the loss of future tax revenues to the city.” Peters said Jackson could look at the city’s identity by neighborhood, and find a “connectivity design-wise,” and make areas separate. She said Jackson has identified 12 different neighborhoods in the city. Mayor Connie Gonsalves and the council directed staff to form a professional committee, and City Manager Mike Daly said staff would return to the city council with a description of the committee composition and would request council direction. Councilwoman Marilyn Louis said she thought historian Larry Cenotto should be on the committee. Story by Jim Reece (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).

Amador County – The Amador County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to lay off 7 county employees and also reduce the hours of the county airport manager. County Chief Administrative Officer Terri Daly recommended the layoffs in light of an expected $3.6 Million budget deficit this year. She also recommended a cut of the airport manager position from 40 hours a week to 24 hours a week, which supervisors also approved in the vote. Daly said the county has been working 2 years on easing out of a diminishing budget, and the 7 layoffs and a cutting of another 7 part-time workers amounted to a 17.5 percent decrease in Full Time Equivalent positions. That percentage included jobs vacated in a hiring freeze, early retirement and voluntary layoffs. The layoffs did not affect any sheriff, district attorney or probation department positions because those offices had already been affected the most by other job reductions. Daly said those 3 departments make up 27 percent of the county workforce but accounted for 33 percent of job reductions. She said the next step could be mandatory furloughs, more layoffs or reductions in salaries. Daly said “Although we are keeping our fingers crossed, we’re not done yet and I will be back.” Board Chairman Ted Novelli asked Daly to get with him to write a letter to the county’s 7 union bargaining units to ask them for help in lasting out the recession. Supervisor Richard Forster said the furloughs would have to be approved by bargaining units. He said he did not expect a great state budget and he expected deferrals of tax payments, including gasoline tax, to stretch to the longer part of its expected 3 to 9 month time period. Forster said they should ask the bargaining units to look at furloughs to preserve as many county employees as they can. Supervisor Brian Oneto said the private sector has had layoffs and businesses closing for a long time. With the economy struggling and tax revenue dropping, Oneto said “I think we need furloughs across the board.” Supervisor Louis Boitano said it was an “unprecedented time and unfortunately we have to take drastic measures,” and moved to take staff’s recommendation. Forster said there are some counties talking about withholding tax payments to the state, but he said deferral of reimbursements is legal. Novelli said they should start a list to bring people back, if and when they can. Forster said: “Part of this is getting us storm-ready and we’re just starting the storm now.” Boitano said “there will be some small counties that cease to exist.” Story by Jim Reece (This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.).