By Guest Columnist, Michael Ceremello – June 13, 2018 –

I was pleasantly surprised this last Friday when, while attending a meeting of the Central Solano Citizens Taxpayers Group, one of its members started talking my talk about both water resources in the State of Kalifornia and Agenda 21.  And here I thought no one was listening to what I have been reiterating nonstop for the last five years or more.

Nuclear power as an energy source for coastal desalination plants or solar power from a panel farm in the Mojave Desert was suggested.  Now where have I heard that one before?  You don’t have to constrain yourself to locating either of these in problematic areas such as high heat or earthquake prone regions.  There is such a thing as transmission of electrical current over the grid.

As I said just this last week, rather than concentrating on conservation as the liberal minded stifling State bureaucrats would have you do to the tune of 55 gallons of water per residence per day, we have a supply issue in this State.  We pass bonds to increase water retention behind dams but the State agencies refuse to allow dams to be funded because they have already made up their minds as to whom will receive the money they control.  Temperance Flat is one example of this as it was on the Water Board’s agenda last month and was refused funding.

There is further benefit to bringing in deionized and pure water rather than even dam water with relatively low contaminants.  Apply this water to agricultural lands which have been irrigated with brackish, low saline Delta water and you will leach out retained salts whether they are from the irrigation water or applied fertilizer.  This is one easy method of returning productivity to agricultural soils.

It seems that the main objective of the State Water Board is to punish people for living in the State as well as those who produce agricultural commodities for market.  It isn’t about finding all possible options to supposed problems.  Requiring the return of water taken from aquifers is a ridiculous mandate which presupposes that no water should be removed for any purpose.

If you bring in additional water through desalination, that water eventually impacts existing aquifers as not all of it will be taken up by plants or utilized within residences.  There would also be less need to withdraw water from the Delta or underground sources thereby relieving both venues of existing negative impacts.

Agenda 21, the United Nations’ initiative attempting to control every aspect of human existence and to eliminate a large portion of our society, can be reasonably found to be a convenient nexus between what our current legislators and bureaucrats mandate and the real intent of their machinations.  Control water and its availability and you can control food supplies.  Control food supplies and you can control population.  California has always been about abundance until now.

Are you beginning to see the picture more clearly now?  Some are …

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Next up, it turns out the government conspiracy theory is no longer a theory but a proven fact.  Our guest speaker at the taxpayers monthly meeting was Solano County Supervisor Skip Thomsen.  Skip was once the supervisor for Dixon’s district before former supervisor Mike Reagan and now Dixon district supervisor John Vasquez changed the district to prevent a strong Dixon potential candidate from defeating Reagan.  Reagan then had to face Thomsen to whom Reagan lost.

Thomsen was at the meeting to inform the taxpayers how the current county sheriff, Tom Ferrara, was mismanaging his budget.  According to Thomsen and the facts, Ferrara’s department paid out $6 million in overtime despite increasing his staff.  One of the allegations is that correctional officers are doing clerical work.  But this isn’t what got my attention.

I interrupted Skip to ask him a question: “Who is in charge of the budget?”  The answer is the board of supervisors.  A further question to Skip: “And how did your fellow supervisors respond to your concerns about the sheriff?”  Three didn’t support Skip and Monica Brown, who wanted to make Solano County a “sanctuary county” abstained was the reply.

So here we have a supervisor who is attempting to be financially responsible while our newly re-elected supervisor John Vasquez continues his nonchalance which is anything but conservative or Republican in nature.  Jim Spering, another supervisor, ran unopposed and Tom Ferrara also won in his primary outright.  Do you see anything wrong here, folks?

Now comes the bombshell.  It seems that Thomsen was reprimanded by the County Administration Officer, Brigitta Corsello, County Counsel Dennis Bunting, and the county’s human resources department for questioning how county funds were spent within the sheriff’s department after the budget was approved.  This is the conspiracy to which I alluded.

Much as I interjected during the taxpayer meeting, how is it possible an official elected to oversee the county government, or city government for that matter, is told it is not his responsibility to question the improper operation of that same government?  This is a “circle the wagons” mentality.  When elected officials are viewed as inferior outsiders to a political bureaucracy, then government has gone awry.  This is what I faced in Dixon when elected to the council and before that when I asked for a tour of city hall to determine if expansion to the facility was necessary or appropriate.

It is truly unfortunate that a governing body sides with those who would usurp their authority.  However, when you are only on the Board to satisfy your own ego and to fatten your wallet, it pays to not make waves.  Thomsen himself is partly to blame for his current predicament of being the odd man out.  When our current mayor Thom Bogue ran against John Vasquez, Thomsen failed to reciprocate for the support Bogue gave him.  Being politically savvy can really bite you where you don’t want to be bitten, eh Skip?

I was rather perplexed as to what Thomsen expected to get out of the taxpayers group.  Perhaps he wanted an “en masse” protest during this coming Tuesday’s county budget hearing.  That is not what this taxpayer group is about.

I did see a rather fearful look in Skip’s eyes as I spoke.  Confrontation is my forte but not Skip’s.  So is exposing cockroaches to the light of day.  While others may not show to confront the remainder of the Board, I will.  It was said by former Board chairman Linda Seifert that I “was making a mockery of government” by refusing to follow their illegal mandates in order to speak at their meeting.

It should be blatantly apparent after this next meeting just who exactly is mocking whom …