2015 February PASO Magazine

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Supervisor Frank Mecham: Focus for 2015 Where to steer San Luis Obispo County By Bruce Curtis What will be at the top for county supervisors, in 2015? As revenue issues become, shall we say, less stressed, the focus for county board members is clearly going to be water. With good reason. District 1 Supervisor Frank Mecham recently came from a fact-finding session in Tulare, addressing the increasing need, and resultant angst over water supplies across an increasingly arid West: Paso Robles groundwater is in critically short supply, following six years of drought and heightened demand. “I think we need to take a very close look at a lot of questions relative to the basin regarding how one area affects another,” says Mecham explaining the nature of water basins; inflow, outflow, “There is so much to the hydrology I need to know more about, so I attended the American Groundwater Trust Seminar recently in Tulare.” The seminar was well attended with over 500 people, including stakeholders like farmers, water district managers, supervisors from other areas, even attorneys specializing in water issues, giving advice and prognostications. “This water issue has been coming for some time in terms of steady decline; it has been a perfect storm of increased population, drought, agriculture…facing all three isn’t helping at all, in terms of our water supply.” Mecham voted for the recently passed emergency ordinance that will likely lead to a Paso Robles groundwater management district with the power to restrict use and control demand growth. “The interim ordinance gives us an opportunity to look at what is going on here.” Mecham says the county simply cannot keep going the direction it has been going, consuming more groundwater as levels decline, hoping somehow for a different result. “That’s the definition of insanity,” Mecham quips. Another reason the water situation has become elevated to the point where action is needed, are hints the state is going to act, if local government doesn’t. “Sacramento is coming. They’re telling us: ‘Unless you take care of your problem, the state is going to take care of it for you’, and that is the last thing I want.” Mecham suspects that any help from the state will be of the onesize-fits-all variety; something that won’t work well on the local level. Water policy attorneys with which he spoke urged dialogue with state officials, warning it would not be wise to ignore Sacramento in hopes they would just go away, He leaves the fact that state bureaucrats won’t go away, unspoken. The obvious answer, a water district, will likely require legislative involvement, even though both sides: ag and residents, appear to be closing in on a working agreement. “It is still premature to see where the water district might go, where the boundaries would be, what it might be able to accomplish. I worked for both ag and property owner equity; they were so far apart, but are now close together.” Mecham suggests continued incremental steps from a governance standpoint, will get everyone to a working relationship. On the subject of money, Mecham is cautiously optimistic. “As we finalize this year’s budget, it looks pretty good in terms of actually being close to balanced at the end of this fiscal year.” He credits the economic turnaround still gaining steam. Mecham also gives kudos to the city of Paso Robles, now enjoying a AAA bond rating. 2015 will also be a year of capital improvements: the Women’s jail, an expansion to the county juvenile services center, the Los Osos sewer, all multimillion dollar construction projects, are breaking ground, Mecham hinting his board will play a role of active oversight. Infrastructure, which usually means highways, gets attention with the board planning to work closely with cities and agencies in SLOCOG, the county council of governments, to get funding for road improvements. “There has been a lot of discussion about highways; funding isn’t where it used to be, still, there is a lot of focus on Highway 46.” Little funding and many requests dog road projects, but Mecham still hopes to work with SLO- COG to eventually bring four lanes all the way east to the Hwy 41/Hwy 46 split east of Cholame. Finally, one big unknown, both in terms of budget and demand, will be the impact of Obamacare, the Affordable Care Act, (ACA) expected to add 1.4 million Californians to the state’s Medi-Cal program. Will it affect county health workload or costs? “Probably both,” Mecham admits, “I don’t know what all of this will mean at this point, there are so many questions regarding ACA and how it will affect people, we are briefing as we get updates.” Mecham says to check back later to get a better idea what the ACA will do in San Luis Obispo County. Community area plan updates, state water for Shandon, a new clinic in Heritage Ranch, all ahead for the board in 2015, too. 22 Paso Robles Magazine, February 2015
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2015 February PASO Magazine

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