Synopsis: A new plan for developing a Morro Bay-Cayucos wastewater treatment plant project has been finalized and is being implemented. But it was not made public in time for workshops held in June on the project and still hasn't been made public, two months after a $350,000 contract was signed with an engineering consultant to draw up the plan, which is in the contract. The plan is key because it is aimed at overcoming deficiencies in the previous plan submitted in January to the California Coastal Commission, which refused to accept it.
Consider this: your community has been wrestling with building a new wastewater treatment plant which will raise your sewer bills, possibly severely, for many years. Finally it comes down to developing a final plan to meet the requirements of the California Coastal Commission, which has the authority to determine the design, scope, and location of the plant by virtue of a statewide voters initiative passed in 1972 to protect the coast.
A revised plan is necessary because the commission, on March 11, refused to accept a previous plan submitted by Morro Bay and Cayucos last January.
The Morro Bay City Council and the Cayucos Sanitary District board (MB/CSD), under their Joint Powers Agreement (JPA), then hired an engineering consultant to develop a plan designed to meet the commission's requirements and open the way for the plant's construction, which has been delayed for many years. That consultant, Dudek, headquartered in Encinitas, prepared the plan, which is included in its contract with MB/CSD. It is called a "Scope of Work."
That contract was dated June 1, 2011, when all parties—Morro Bay mayor Bill Yates, CSD board president Robert Enns, and Dudek, among others—signed it.
Then, on June 27 and 28 MB/CSD held two public workshops in Morro Bay—at the urging of commission staff—to receive comments on what was noticed as the "alternatives analysis process" that Morro Bay, Cayucos, and Dudek are engaged in. Alternatives refers to alternative sites for the plant that the first MB/CSD plan did not examine, one of the primary reasons the commission returned it to MB/CSD—to explore different sites.
But that Scope of Work was not made public prior to those workshops. Clearly, its availability could have enabled residents to be better informed and provided the opportunity to make more knowledgeable comments on the business at hand.
In fact, the Scope of Work still has not been made public by either Morro Bay or Cayucos.
This, despite residents bringing the apparent lapse to the attention of MB/CSD. The staffs of both have not responded to questions as to why this key document has not been made public. It seems to border on secrecy and has raised questions about the legitimacy of the workshops with respect to Coastal Commission regulations.
The Scope of Work has not been on the agenda of either the Morro Bay City Council or the Cayucos Sanitary District board, which also meet together as JPA partners. It isn't because the monthly JPA meetings for both June and July were cancelled. Morro Bay city attorney Rob Schultz said they were cancelled because there was no business to conduct. The next one is scheduled for Thursday, August 11, in Cayucos.
However, at the May 12 meeting, MB/CSD authorized their staffs "to negotiate a final scope of services, schedule and fee and execute a contract with Dudek for preparation of substantial issues studies for a fee not to exceed $350,000." Substantial issues refers to the commission's finding that the first MB/CSD plan was inconsistent with the city's own Local Coastal Plan on numerous grounds. One of the main grounds was the plan's proposal to build a new plant next to the existing one on the shore of Estero Bay, which is in flood and tsunami zones and which the commission staff said is prohibited by the Local Coastal Plan.
There has been no public reporting or discussion of whether Dudek was actually hired. That would seem to be appropriate business for a MB/CSD meeting.
Without the Scope of Work being made public, residents have not been informed as to what the next steps will be after the workshops in terms of reviewing and responding to public comments filed after the workshops, although the Scope of Work does call for another workshop to review possible sites for the proposed plant as identified by Dudek. No date for that workshop was mentioned in the Scope of Work.
Another item on the May 12 JPA agenda involved lobbyist Susan McCabe, which authorized project manager Dennis Delzeit to "suspend" the agreement with her firm until the Dudek plan is completed and preparation of the submittal to the Coastal Commission is underway. She then supposedly will play a role in preparing it for submission to the commission.
The public has not been informed whether Delzeit has suspended her contract as directed. Her contract has raised considerable controversy, in part because it pays her $1,000 an hour, including $350 for an aide, with a cap of $12,500 a month plus expenses for a one-year term, Delzeit has said.
MB/CSD have been negotiating revisions in their JPA contract for a year or more, with discussions being conducted at their technical advisory committee meetings. But none has been held for almost a year, during which controversy has increased over the plant project and now about remarks by Schultz on June 30 about differences between Morro Bay and Cayucos over funding the project. Some think an update to report to the public whether the agreement is still undergoing revision would make an appropriate agenda item.
Is it acceptable under Coastal Commission rules to hold public workshops without key relevant information such as the Dudek Scope of Work being made available to residents beforehand? The Coastal Act, which governs the commission, may raise questions about this. Below are sections of the Coastal Act addressing the involvement of the public in such situations. The sections were provided by the commission staff.
Section 30006 of the Coastal Act on public participation:
The Legislature further finds and declares that the public has a right to fully participate in decisions affecting coastal planning, conservation and development; that achievement of sound coastal conservation and development is dependent upon public understanding and support; and that the continuing planning and implementation of programs for coastal conservation and development should include the widest opportunity for public participation.
Section 30339 states that the commission shall:
(a) Ensure full and adequate participation by all interested groups and the public at large in the commission's work program.
(b) Ensure that timely and complete notice of commission meetings and public hearings is disseminated to all interested groups and the public at large.
(c) Advise all interested groups and the public at large as to effective ways of participating in commission proceedings.
(d) Recommend to any local government preparing or implementing a local coastal program and to any state agency that is carrying out duties or responsibilities pursuant to this division, additional measures to assure open consideration and more effective public participation in its programs or activities.
The commission staff is expected to take these sections of the Coastal Act into consideration when reviewing comments about the workshops being held without the Scope of Work being available to the public.
