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SLO APCD board approves annual fees on state parks

September 6, 2013

off-roadThe San Luis Obispo County Air Pollution Control District (APCD) board approved nearly $50,000 of annual fees Thursday to be levied upon the California Department of Parks and Recreation as part of a controversial effort to reduce dust blowing from the Oceano Dunes to the Nipomo Mesa.

In 2011, the APCD board adopted the Oceano Dunes dust rule, which requires the Oceano Dunes State Vehicular Recreation Area to reduce the amount of particulate matter blowing from the dunes to the Nipomo Mesa or pay fines of $1,000 a day to the air district. The APCD is currently battling state parks to implement the dust rule.

On Thursday, the APCD board voted 7-4 to approve a total of $49,240 of annual fees charged to state parks for air quality monitoring, dust rule compliance verification and a permit to operate the dunes riding area.

County Supervisor Debbie Arnold, Grover Beach Mayor Debbie Peterson, Pismo Beach Councilman Ed Waage and Atascadero Councilwoman Roberta Fonzi cast the dissenting votes. The detractors argued that the APCD should create a memorandum of understanding with state parks before levying the fees. The district has a memorandum of understanding with Conoco Phillips, which pays for an air monitor just a few miles away from the Nipomo Mesa monitor.

The fees levied upon state parks may not have passed had county supervisors Bruce Gibson and Adam Hill chosen to attend an APCD meeting scheduled for July. Gibson and Hill, who voted for the fees Thursday, prevented the board from achieving a quorum in July, causing the APCD to cancel the meeting and postpone the vote on the fees.

Gibson and Hill both said they could not attend the meeting, yet they were each photographed in the area on the day of the meeting.

The APCD board, which had not met since May, convened for a special meeting Thursday to vote on the fees, the district budget and other unfinished business.

 


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They just want to kick out all the motorsports so the hippies can hold frog festivals and protect all the supposedly endangered bugs. Meanwhile, the wind is gonna keep blowing on the mesa like it has since the beginning of time.


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Larry Allen and his band of idiots have got to be the biggest waste in the county. They harass and leach off of society to the point that they are going to get sued and it’s going to cost the county money.


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Just wait, when the CA air resorces board in Sacto gets done with the truck and bus rules they are going to turn over enforcement to the local apcd, these clowns here, then you’ll see more fines and more useless people put to work to enforce this farce, they’ll really be in a farmers field,his shop,as resturant, truck shops and yards, clean air is not their goal, their job is.


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I say lock off the beach, then APCD, City of Pismo Beach, Grover Beach and the County can all suck in the loss from businesses who pay their salaries, fees, licenses, taxes, permits, etc, for the groceries, hotel/motels, gas, gifts, restaurants, drug stores, and other services all those tourists bring in. Impose new taxes on the new homes up on the mesa for your losses as these idiots come into this County, build above the ocean with dunes as far as you can see, atv’s riding everywhere and now you complain. You all should have gone to Santa Maria and brought one of those homes next to the cattle ranch, then you could complain about the flies. Just close it all down and then you will see these politicians who have no business sense coming crawling back. This APCD is the poison of this County. They can’t find enough money for their raises so they keep looking for new taxes and people to impose them all. This County/State/Country is a damn mess!


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This is a perfect example of government at its worst. IF indeed the State Parks and Recreation were ACTUALLY found to be be guilty of contributing dust pollution to the Mesa, what does a petty amount of $50,000.00 each year hope to do to mitigate the problem?

When one PUBLIC agency sues another PUBLIC agency, we the taxpayers ultimately pay.

The politics of this country are becoming curiouser ans curiouser.


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The SLO APCD proposed budget for 2013 is a total of $4,306,326 with $3,128,819 being salaries!


The details: http://slocleanair.org/images/cms/upload/files/B-5.pdf


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EXACTLY!


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If 3 out of every 4 dollars goes to salaries at the APCD, how do other departments/agencies fare?


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8% of which is Larry Allen’s salary, $240,000 / year according to CCN.


An obscene amount of money for this position brought to you courtesy of our previous Board of Supervisors when Patterson, Gibson and Hill cut them loose as their own autonomous organization.. Several other of the drones in that agency/department make 100K +.


We are being screwed by this bunch of hooligans and it appears there’s nothing we can do about it.


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Larry Allen makes more than the governor and he is not even elected!


As of May 2012…

The panel’s decision today to drop Brown’s pay to $165,288 from $173,987 and lawmakers’ base salaries to $90,526 from $95,291


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We need a law that no public employee makes more than the Govenor! Even Cal Polys President doesn’t have as many responsibilities and makes more than $350,000 with his perks!


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But Poly’s prez is all about his rolodex. It’s a salesman job. If one brings in the money, one should get a percentage of that. Now, that said, I think the salary should be based SOLELY on commission, rather than salaried. However, that might make it a lot more than the 350K… and that’d really upset the socialists that work at that place.


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The public emplyee unions have doomed us — Scott Walker had the right idea. Yeah yeah yeah college football coaches are often the highest paid public employees, but at least the market sets their salary.


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And their estimated revenues for 2013 are $4,882,744 and they didn’t get a dime from the board of supervisors! How dare a government agency be self-supporting and make more money than it spends!? ;)


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sloslo…. Where do you think they get their ‘dimes’ from?


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sloslo….Make more money than it spends??? Our local APCD doesn’t “make money” they extract money. Every dollar they screw another agency or business out of is passed on to the consumer Larry Allen is laughing all the way to the bank as are the other APCD division heads. The outrageous salaries paid to the APCD drones are no different to the outrageous salaries and bonuses paid to CEO’s and investment bankers. Graft and corruption is the same whether it exists within local government or the corporate environment.


If you want to see how the APCD staff spends their work day check out the following link:


http://www.integrityslo.org/gsapcd-slo-apcd-spends-thousands-to-produce-rap-video


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Wow, if you think that ANY government can MAKE money, you’re either quite ignorant of reality or are only thinking of the US Mint.


No government makes money. Government only TAKES money. Always has, always will. Heck, we can’t even make our own fiat currency! We pay a private bank to do it, then borrow it from them at ridiculous interest rates. Wake up.


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It’s a shakedown! How else are they going to pay their salaries without the $ from the Morro Bay Power Plant coming in?


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Just what we need – government agencies getting money from other government agencies so they can continue to grow. How does this benefit the taxpayer who is paying for all this? Of course there should be a Memorandum of Understanding. Instead there will probably be lawsuits and then legislation to sort it all out at a cost of thousands if not millions of dollars. That is money that could have been used for real improvements and maintenance to benefit the citizens of California, who are the owners of these parks. Government run amok!


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Agreed, but isn’t “benefit the taxpayer” an oxymoron? ;)


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Disband these lunatics already, before the leech away the life out of every surrounding agency. I mean, it’s fun to watch government consume itself, but this is ridiculous.


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