All expense paid vacation...uh...conference

Thursday, January 17, 2013

All-expenses-paid secret knowledge hunters
By Kelvin Wade
From page A7 | January 17, 2013 | Leave Comment

So apparently Fairfield Mayor Harry Price, Suisun City Mayor Pete Sanchez and Suisun City Councilman Mike Hudson – three members of the Fairfield-Suisun Sewer District board – are down at the Esmeralda Renaissance Resort and Spa in Indian Well at a conference put on by the California Association of Sanitation Agencies.

The conference runs Wednesday through Friday at an estimated cost of $2,000 to $2,500 per person, but we won’t know until we get the receipts.

Well, I guess we should be grateful that they’re down there at this stunning resort nestled against the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto mountains to attend this conference and obtain information that could be learned nowhere else on this planet.

I don’t want people to get the idea that elected officials go to these conferences for the amenities. First of all, it’s not suntan weather down there. They have to deal with 77 degree temperatures with zero clouds to shield them from that desert sun. With such a mild temperature, it’s improbable that they’d be frolicking in either of the two giant zero-entry pools that come complete with a man-made sandy beach.

The Spa Esmeralda outdoor garden area is closed until Jan. 31, so we know that they’re not down there luxuriating in that paradise-like setting. And even if our representatives were inclined to a little massage and manscaping in the midst of the smooth marble floors, gleaming glass and tile, plush furnishings and water trickling from a stone fountain, it would not be part of their reimbursed expenses.

It does make one wonder if they will dine at the lake-view, highly rated, award-winning Italian restaurant Sirocco. Perhaps they’ll have the sumptuous Raviolini D’Aragosta, which the website describes as “a house-made ravioli with lobster and Dungeness crab meat drizzled with an unforgettable shrimp lobster brandy sauce.” Mmm.

Of course they will have an intense schedule of seminars and classes without much time for golfing on the two golf courses or getting in any tennis on the night-time lit tennis courts. It’s not a vacation, after all.

When you think about it, dropping six grand from the sewer board’s budget to send three representatives to Southern California to bring back exclusive information on recycling water, bioenergy and renewable resources could be a bargain. It may pay off in some way that’s unfortunately never explained to us.

The only thing I worry about are the three Suisun City and four Fairfield members of the Fairfield-Suisun Sewer District board who didn’t go on the trip. How are they going to benefit from this exclusive information and be able to do their jobs on the board if they didn’t go down for this essential conference?

Oh, maybe when the three who went down there come back, they can brief the board on the secret knowledge they obtained. You know, if three people can bring back this essential information, I bet two could do it.

Next month’s CASA conference takes place at the luxurious Mayflower Renaissance in Washington, D.C., which President Harry S. Truman said was Washington’s second-best address after the White House. How about only sending two representatives to bring back that exclusive sewer and water knowledge from the nation’s capital? Or would that put our whole water plant at risk? Peace.

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ADDITIONAL NOTES: The Solano County Grand Jury is investigating these trips right now. The council members are not water and sewer experts. Are they getting knowledge at these conferences that they can't obtain anywhere else? If it's essential, why not send a member down who comes back with a presentation? It's 2013. We have phones, faxes, email, videoconferencing...there are so many ways to obtain information. I understand about networking. But do three have to go? Sometimes four have gone in the past. Do you have to attend every one? How does the average citizen even know if their representative is even going to the seminars and classes?Kudos to Fairfield City Councilpersons John Mraz and Catherine Moy for holding their colleagues' feet to the fire and trying to protect the taxpayers.


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