The City of Stockton intends to take back control of its water and sewer systems from a private company in early 2008. The City Council recently voted to drop an appeal of a court ruling that said the city's 2003 contract with OMI-Thames was improper because its environmental impact's were not studied.
The council voted to end its $600 million, 20-year agreement with OMI-Thames, which has been sharply criticized by local residents and the Sierra Club, and closely watched by people on both sides of the privatization debate. "It's time to move on," Mayor Ed Chavez told the Stockton Record.
Eleven redevelopment agencies failed to correct major audit violations for the 2005-06 fiscal year by July 30, 2007, according to the state controller's office, which has turned over the agencies to the attorney general's office for possible enforcement action.
Belmont, Cloverdale, Exeter, Hawthorne, Rio Vista, Taft, Ventura County and California State University Channel Islands Site Authority failed to adopt implementation plans. Taft also failed to adopt required time limits, while Hawthorne, El Centro, Grand Terrace and Pomona did not develop land acquired with housing fund money within five years, according to the controller's office.
A federal court judge has thrown out an initiative approved last year by Kern County voters that prohibits the dumping of out-of-county sewage sludge on unincorporated land. U.S. District Court Judge Gary Allen Feess ruled that Measure E violates the commerce clause because it does not apply to Kern County cities and is superceded by state waste regulations. The Kern County Board of Supervisors has voted to appeal the ruling.
The owners of the 216-acre Wavecrest development site in Half Moon Bay have agreed to sell their land to the Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST). Twelve years ago, the Half Moon Bay City Council approved 750 homes, a golf course, an RV park and an oceanfront hotel on the site. Voters tossed out that project in a referendum. In 1999, the city approved a scaled-down version and eventually the project shrunk to only 217 homes, but it has languished for years at the Coastal Commission.
The deal between POST and the partnership that owns the land could be finalized by year's end, according to POST, which declined to release financial details.
