Tricks, lies, and dirty politics (May 15, 2017)
In his latest confused attempt to provide a pretext for why the Town has to interfere in our water company, Mayor Pro Tem Art Bishop writes, “In Apple Valley, we tell it like it is. No tricks, lies or dirty politics” (“Moved to act on water by our community,” Daily Press, May 14, 2017). Let’s review, then.
Just for starters:
The Town lies when it states that the water in the aquifer is “our water.”
The Town lied when it said it was business friendly.
The Town lies when it says water rates were out of control.
The Town lies when it says it is listening and responding to members of the community on this issue.
The Town lies when it says our water company is not locally controlled.
The Town lies when it says it has experienced water managers on staff who can run a water system such as ours.
The Town lies when it says it has experience running a water system.
The Town has lied about the status of the MWA well.
The Town lied when it said it already does billing for trash and sewer, so it could easily also do billing for water service.
The Town lies when it says our water company is not transparent (with an additional lie for claiming that the Town is transparent).
The Town lied when it said that it would issue transparency reports
every month, and again when it said it would release them every quarter.
The Town lied when it stated and then repeated as fact that opponents of the Town’s hostile takeover of the water company were shills, and were paid for opposing the Town.
The Town lied when it stated that I had made a public record request for a document that had actually been requested by Art Bishop.
The Town lied when it said it has overwhelming support for a hostile takeover.
The Town lied when it repeatedly promoted the H2Ours.com website as a source where citizens could get information about this process.
The Town lied when it downplayed how much it had spent on the takeover process, and is still lying as of the last “Transparency Report.”
The Town lies when it implies it will be governed by the strictures of Proposition 218.
The Town lied when it said the water company was worth $45 million, then again when it said it was worth $50 million, and continues to this day to lie about how much the water company is worth.
The Town lied when it said and then repeated as fact that Liberty was going to raise water rates 14% per year for the next three years.
Barb Stanton lied when she claimed she never said that the Town would lower water rates only after the 30-year bond was paid off, and Scott Nassif lied in trying to cover for her.
The Town lies when it says that there will be $11.9 million available for financing and debt service.
The Town lies when it says it will cost less than $150 million to buy the water company.
The Town lies when it says the elimination of profits and taxes will result in $11.9 million for financing and debt service.
The Town lies when it says that if citizens don’t like the way the Town is running things after it seizes the water system, it can fix everything by voting out the council members.
— Greg Raven is Co-Chair of Apple Valley Citizens for Government Accountability, and is concerned about quality of life issues.