F.U.D. (October 10, 2016)
Your guidelines for submissions for letters to the editor read in part, We prefer letters of 300 words or less.
Yet, you allowed Rick Piercy more than 400 words to spread fear, uncertainty, and doubt about our water system (Transparency at Liberty Utilities,
Daily Press, October 10, 2016).
Piercy seems still to be worried about Osama bin Laden attacking our water system: Wikipedia says bin Laden died in Pakistan on May 2, 2011. The Carlyle Group sold its interest to Liberty Utilities earlier this year. In any event, we must have been fairly safe, seeing as how CalPERS was the biggest investor in The Carlyle Group when it owned Apple Valley Ranchos Water Company.
As for Piercy’s bizarre question about an attack by investors of Liberty Utilities, we don’t have to worry about that because we have local control of our water system, thanks to the local Liberty Utilities crew who has kept our water system safe and operational for many, many years now.
Piercy does have a valid concern about lone wolf
attacks, which unfortunately are more of a threat now than ever due to the federal government’s longstanding refusal to guard our borders and implement immigration controls that are already in place, and the toxic environment created by our very own utterly opaque Town Council regarding water issues. A presentation on how to read your water bill is the wrong place to raise these issues, though. It should also be clear that this is not a transparency issue.
There is only one group attacking our water system, and it is based in Town Hall. Rather than getting all wound up about some far-fetched act of terrorism by bad guys who may not even exist, let’s focus on the immediate threat to our water system posed by those in power in Apple Valley.
— Greg Raven is Co-Chair of Apple Valley Citizens for Government Accountability, and is concerned about quality of life issues.