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Visalia - A change in state regulations and the need to get state approval for design changes are being blamed for a delay in construction of Visalia’s fourth high school.  The delay means the new 1900 student high school on Whitendale is not likely to be ready for the fall 2000 school year.

The delay is “at least one semester and perhaps up to a year,” says assistant superintendent Don Trigg, who says changes in design require the district resubmit architectural plans to the state architects office.  Those changes won’t be ready until October, he says.  “We’re not sure how fast they can approve them,” says Trigg.  “We hope they can do it in 3 or 4 months.”

Trigg says the design of the high school dates back to 1989 when the law required that 30% of the school classrooms had to be relocatables.  That law changed allowing the district to build permanent classrooms instead.  The “bang for the buck” is far better on permanent buildings, says Trigg who worked with the Bond Oversite Committee on the idea of design changes.  The life span of a relocatable building might be 25 years vs 50 years for a permanent building, he says. And the dollars were about the same, he says.

In an effort to keep the high school within its $37.3 million budget, the Bond Oversite Committee cut some $5 million from the proposed items like using plastic bathroom dividers instead of masonry and cheaper tile in some buildings.  Trigg says they have no “off the shelf high school classroom designs they could use that would eliminate the need to run the design changes past the Division of State Architect as is the case with elementary schools.  He says the district could not submit the changes in the plans until the local bond passed late in April.

Members of the Bond Oversite Committee have criticized the district for not moving fast enough in the case to obtaining modernization money for Visalia’s existing schools before this year’s state allocation was spoken for.  District officials say they applied as soon as they could after the bond passed.

In recent days the Board unanimously approved plans for 3 new elementary schools in town that are likely to be under construction by next year for $7.1 million a piece.

VUSD is under the gun on one hand to move quickly to use state and local monies now available for the first time in years to build the back log of facilities needed here and to cut costs under the watchful eye of the citizen group - Bond Oversite Committee.  Sometimes the Board is criticized for moving too fast as was the case with the preliminary approval of the Blurock architects for the new elementary school and in other cases for not moving fast enough.  In the past few weeks the Board delayed closing the high school campuses for a semester while it promised to plan for such a lunch time closure beginning next semester.  “Why does it take them so long to plan for it,” says one disgruntled parent who says attendance is up and delinquency way down when they close the campuses.

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The VIP monies would be used throughout the district on new programs to improve programs at schools to “act as a magnet to all students” that in turn push the idea of voluntary integrating students of all ethnic backgrounds in the district.  “We know busing kids is not the answer,” says school board member Nina Clancy who sees the monies being used from everything from a new performing arts program to computer software upgrades.

The program aims to improve test scores across the district including schools with a high number of minority students. But the grant is open ended so the district could spend monies on new programs like establishing a new high tech ag program at Golden West, notes Clancy.

But the application for the funds - a plan the district has been working on for months now (reported in the June 16 Valley Voice) - strikes a discordant note with some critics of the district objecting to the wording in the application that some schools were “racially isolated” in accounts published in the Times Delta.

Now the discord may have been heard by state legislatures, worries superintendent Linda Gonzales who returned frustrated from her own late hour efforts in Sacramento to get the monies released.  “It’s hard getting money out of Sacramento when you’ve got people kicking you at home.”  She feels a similar thing happened when the after school program was not funded for $1.2 million.  The program serves 240 low income kids and three elementary schools.  “Politicians get squeamish when they hear about lots of controversy,” says Gonzales.  “They say ‘clear this up and come back to see us later’.”

“The kids and community could use that $6 million that would be spent every year in town” much on salaries, she notes.

Disagreement over how the money should be spent could be worked out later, says school board members, but first the district has to get what it thought earlier was slam dunk state approval.  Recalling her time in Sacramento all day Wednesday Sept. 1 she said,  “The legislature is very concerned about news reports.  Yesterday everybody was reading the Chronicle story about Fresno” high lighting the sprawl in town.  Fresno leaders are worried the state wide newspaper report will discourage companies from looking to Fresno because it looks like a bad place to live.  Fresno is abuzz about the “hit piece” as it has been called.

Obtaining monies from state or federal sources due to need and the highlighting of that need is the way the game is played.  When the city of Visalia tried to get a grant to build a new sewer system to attract industry it had to tell the story of record high unemployment, high teen birth rates and extent of crime in the community.  It’s not the kind of talk you would expect from the Chamber of Commerce but it remains part and parcel of the grant writing process.

Supporters of the VIP plan say there is no shame to admit some schools in Visalia remain near 90% minority - 8 have populations of such low income that 90% of the kids there receive free or reduced price lunch.  The district would rather bring in money to help change the incentives to pick certain schools by improving all schools, they say.

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Then in a work session format the council will decide “where do we go from here,” says project manager Darlene Matta.  There are big bucks at stake in the decision with existing commercial districts - Mooney merchants and Downtown concerned about plans for large retail complex on Plaza Dr. spearheaded by developer Ed Kashian.  Kashian, the developer of River Park in Fresno has promised to do something similar out on 198 and Plaza.

Competitors to Kashian include Monterey developer Don Orosco who this week showed city manager Steve Salomon a site plan for his proposed 50 acre project on both sides of Mooney south of Packwood Creek.  “We’ve got the retailers in our pocket,” says Orosco who says assessments that “Mooney is not viable as commercial districts” are wrong.  He says Costco has decided to move from its present location and Orosco is willing to give the big retailer a new site “at my cost” to keep them on Mooney. He says Costco already has a retailer to take its place.  Orosco says a larger Costco and Lowe’s home improvement store would anchor one of the two centers south of Packwood.  “Mooney is 50% of gross retail sales in the city,” says Orosco and allowing development out near 99 would hurt the existing district.  Echoing that refrain is the owner of the Visalia Mall who has threatened to sell the place if growth heads out toward 99.

One of the key suggestions made by a stakeholders group in assessing locations for regional commercial development is that any new project not harm existing districts.

In related news the city appears closer to approving the sale of 30 acres to Westland Development for a commercial center.  “I am counting on a decision by the council very soon,” says Westland’s Craig Mangano.  Mangano has been negotiating with the city on the property - the old sewer farm currently zoned agriculture - at the southwest corner of Akers and 198 for months.

Mangano believes the stage is set for a decision to be made by the council who have postponed a decision most of this year keeping tenants from making location decisions because they didn’t know which way the political wind was blowing.  He says the report from the stakeholders group “simply gives pros and cons” about alternative locations but does not make recommendations.  But the report does recommend that any change from the 2020 growth plan must show why the project is needed and whether the project would hurt existing commercial districts.

Also waiting for a decision is Dave Paynter who owns the old sin city property to be developed into a new center.  Paynter is expected to close sale of all the property he is acquiring as soon as next month in anticipation that the political log jam over Visalia’s commercial future will be broken.

Supporting the Kashian project realtor George Ouzounian says retail growth is the reason Visalia has some money in the bank and it isn’t broke like some cities.  “That’s where the money came from to build the Radisson - retail growth.” He says new growth in the town has already been opposed by the existing districts fearing the worst.  “Downtown opposed expansion of Mooney a few years ago,” he remembers.

Just how big a hurry the council will be to make what could be hot button decision just weeks before elections is a subject of much speculation.  Many believe they will put it off even though it leaves developers and tenants hanging for another 3 or 4 months.

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Evans sits on the board of directors for the Internet based company who in turn is in partnership with Tulare’s International Agri-Center that provides the facilities for the new trade center.  The center will also be the new home of the Tulare County Economic Development Corporation come next year.

Evans leaves the job as chief job solicitor he took less than two years ago with high expectations for the organization as it goes through yet another identity crisis.  Turmoil in the organization surely had a role to play in Evans decision to step down August 10, but announced later.  But, Evans chooses to look ahead.

“This will be something very good for Tulare County, the region and the entire state,” he commented before saying where he was heading.   The company promised to help establish the Agri-Center area as a hub for international trade.  This month they are selling stock in the fledgling enterprise.

The latest twist in the EDC difficulties is dissatisfaction with Evans by about half the public members even while he is being hailed by others as a visionary.  Unable to point to big job gains that have landed due to his efforts, Evans points to two concrete examples - Best Buy in Dinuba and Foster Farms in Porterville.  But he noted that in the next few months the effort to secure new jobs may very well pay off big time with 4 companies with a work force of 3500 may announce here.

Credited with giving the organization a focus with three major goals - attracting further processing for our ag base, developing new markets for our products and establishing call centers here.  To get a workforce ready for those call center jobs, Evans has successfully pushed for a county wide curriculum to be offered at schools teaching customer relations 101.

Evans is not given high marks on the niceties of politics.  “I think he was a lousy politician,” says a Tulare supporter.

“He doesn’t know when to quit,” was another view of his leadership which was marked for the past month by disagreement among the public members over whether to split the agency’s loan generating wing - the CDC from the EDC.  Evans tried to bring together a 27 member board to keep the two entities as one but in the end that got turned down largely because the big board would be too unwieldy.

Then there was the city of Visalia’s dissatisfaction with Evans efforts made clear by the city’s refusal to pay dues this coming year based on sales tax formulas.  The situation today is that if the city of Visalia does not pay their dues using the same formula by the end of September they are out.  That’s important because the organization with Evans gone - is in the process of remaking itself again, they would add 9 new private members to the 9 public members - 8 cities and one representing Tulare County.

The organization has hired a consultant to suggest how the EDC transition into a public/private partnership perhaps doubling their budget.  Even that direction is controversial among some public members who don’t want to lose control of the decision making process.

Then there was how the new BIZ zone was structured. While some suggested the EDC run the BIZ zone that offers tax credits for expansion here, Evans was adamant the organization should stay separate.

Some towns don’t want the new private members - favored by Visalia by the way - because most of the private members might come from Visalia being the busiest commercial town - fearing Visalia will sway the direction of the organization.  Because of that they wanted to have the private board members picked by geography.  But in the end by a split vote - they decided they would all be at large.

Will the organization privatize themselves?  That move is not favored by 3 maybe 4 of the public members - a recipe for more turmoil.

Departing this week, Evans suggested the County bump up the sales tax by some fraction to dedicate monies to the EDC which is funded far lower than surrounding counties.  But an effort to increase what would be more public funding may be at cross purposes with what Evans and others seek - more private funding for organizational efforts.  Evans believes private members might push the sales tax idea and that such funding would take the annual plea for monies from each jurisdiction, less of a hassle because the agency had funds not based on the politics of the moment.  “The city managers run the organization,” says former Visalia Mayor Basil Perch.

Underlying doubt about the effectiveness of the organization is comments like Lindsay city manager Bill Drennen “In the past five years we haven’t seen even one lead.”
We should find out the direction of the organization at the EDC’s annual meeting in late October when the membership - the 9 public member and the 24 or so private members will be quizzed whether to adopt new bylaws giving the new private members seats on the board.  Seems like slam dunk since there are nearly three times the private members.  Whether Visalia has seat at the table at that time needs to be sorted out soon.

Visalia representative Don Landers has been trying to convince the rest of the council to stay in the organization by paying at least their first quarter dues and see how it goes later.  With Evans gone and the city actually promoting the private membership idea - this may fly.

Where does that leave the poverty zone called Tulare County?  Still looking for leadership.

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The Commission backed Judge William Silveira’s call to restore full funding into the Drug Court program after the County cut one probation officer assigned to the program.  “We will send the board of supervisors some kind of resolution,” says secretary to the Commission Laurel Blankenship.  Unlike other efforts “the program is a proven success where we can reach kids before they become addicted.”  Silveira says the program needs a modest $60,000 in annual funds to restore it to its previously funded level.

Drug Court allows young offenders to avoid incarceration if they agree to a closely monitored program that requires drug testing, counseling, parent involvement and schooling.  The 9 month process is overseen by the Court.

Silveira has been in dispute with the board who cut the Probation Department budget this fiscal year by 27 ½ positions including one of them assigned to Drug Court.  Commission members asked interim probation chief Stan Kephart for a report of the Probation staff by the department last year and this.  “We think lots of them went from the field over to the Juvenile Justice facility to be custodial,” said Don Miller, Commission member.  “I think Probation got screwed by all the cuts.”  Most Commission members agreed it was short sighted to cut funds for prevention, like recent cuts to the CASA, rather than just dealing with problems “after the fact.”  Supervisor Jim Maples has defended the cut of one position noting the expenses of the program.  “$430,000 would pay for more than six months of mental health, drug and alcohol services at the new Juvenile Detention Facility for some 210 individuals.”  Drug Court involves 60 kids.  Silveira says with the cut in the position he can handle only half that number of kids and the south County would not be served.

Silveira attended the Commission’s meeting along with Judge Elisabeth Krant who had some concerns of her own.  Krant had written a letter to the County August 20th suggesting conditions at the old Juvenile Hall were so bad she was considering closing the facility down for safety reasons.  At the Commission meeting Krant was given her final report as Judge of the Juvenile Court and said her written report was made as a wake up call for the County to fix critical problems at the Glenn Moran Hall even though kids housed there will move to the new facility in a matter of weeks.

Ten youth housed at the hall have tried to kill themselves in the past three months - some multiple times totaling 18 attempts.  One youth started a fire by arching a wire he found.  The Probation department says they removed covers over smoke detectors to keep kids from hanging a sheet or other materials that they could use to kill themselves.  But most of the smoke detectors have been tampered with.  “It’s hard to keep the doors repaired,” says interim Probation Chief Stan Kephart.  Besides attempts to kill themselves, Krant spoke of a number of cases of self mutilation at the complex.
Results of an inspection at the facility found no lights, broken urinals, broken fire alarms, six rooms unavailable due to safety problems, two rooms which will not open with the key and broken windows, for example.  In some suicide attempts, kids are using broken tiles and glass to cut themselves.

There is some indication kids are worried about the new juvenile hall facility they will move into soon, so Probation has distributed a color poster showing the new facility to ease fears.  Kids will move Sept. 12.

Krant thanked Mike Coffield, resource management director, for his efforts to promptly fix as much as they could at the existing juvenile hall.  “There is serious liability issues related to a locked facility if the fire alarm doesn’t work.”  But Coffield says at least for now repairs to the fire alarm and smoke detectors have been made and doors have been repaired.  “Staff is passing by doors looking in every five minutes,” says Coffield, to avoid any more incidents.  Commission member Jerry Baker - Visalia’s Police Chief - suggested increase in suicide attempts was happening across the nation.

But others suggested that lack of adequate psychiatric evaluations were part of the problem.  Judge Silveira notes the kids in the past who attempted suicide have been through the system a long time “and these institutions have failed them.”  Probation is promising more thorough evaluation process at the new center where there are new protocols and room to carry out proper evaluations.  Silveira says with some 300 seriously mentally ill youth the County could get special funding to deal with these kids but choose not to.

“The suicides are just another example of the failure of the institution,” says the outspoken judge.  Silveira told of a case of a kid who needed a neurological exam but would have to wait six months to get it due to a backlog.  He got psychotic and was hospitalized and that treatment time got moved up,” he noted with irony.

Krant echoed the notion that mental health professionals need to administer medication to youth who need it rather than Probation officers - “one thing I’ve tried to make happen for 9 years.”

County officials claim budget cuts have been made in all departments “and it was across the board,” says Stan Kephart.  In the case of the Probation Department, they requested a budget of $21.3 million similar to the budget the year before but was cut to $17.4 million.  But Probation had to pick up extra expenses associated with the new juvenile Detention Facility this fiscal year that did not have in the past.  Kephart said he would lay out those figures for the Commission at another meeting.

The County is expected to name a new permanent Chief Probation Officer soon.

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The above stories are the property of The Valley Voice Newspaper and may not be reprinted without explicit permission in writing from the publisher. 

September 1, 1999