Gang Sweeps in Visalia Yield 96 Arrests
Despite News of Violence, Crime Rates Appear to be Falling Here

Visalia - Gang sweeps by the Visalia Police Department and a special gang task force netted 96 arrests in recent weeks, including 58 this past weekend in an all-out show of force to fight the gang problem here. The stepped-up enforcement activity comes after 14 people were wounded by gang-inspired gunfire over recent weekends. Five were shot in the Food 4 Less shopping center on Dinuba Bl. in one incident as rival gangs appeared to shoot with no consideration of who is in the line of fire.

The joint task force that included MAGNET (Multi Agency Gang Network Enforcement Team) consisted of members of the Tulare County Sheriff Gang and Narcotics Unit, Tulare County Probation Gang and K9 Unit, Tulare County District Attorney’s Office, California Department of Corrections, California Highway Patrol Visalia Office and CHP Helicopter, Tulare Police Department, Woodlake Police Department, Lindsay Police Department, Dinuba Police Department and Farmersville Police Department.

“This last weekend, there was something like 45 officers out where normally we might have 15, so you’re doubling or tripling your enforcement efforts,” said Visalia Police Chief Bob Carden. “You are able to focus in different areas. You have additional folks who are proactively policing.”

The chief says the sweeps will continue indefinitely “until we dismantle these gangs if that’s what it takes.” As of 2006, the Visalia Police Department reported some 22 gangs in town with 883 members. Gang-related arrests numbered 600 last year, up from 400 the year before. The multi-agency approach started in August of 2006  exactly a year ago. The gang task force can use its numbers to saturate an area where gang activity is high, at least temporarily quashing the gang warfare we’ve seen this summer.

Carden explained that the crime rate increases during the summer months. “You have more parties during the summer,” he said. “You’re late into the evening. It’s more comfortable. Kids are out of school. More folks are on the street, so traditionally you see an upswing in crime during the summer months. That’s almost always the case.”

This past weekend, 18 of the 58 arrests involved felony arrests that the officer actually witnessed such as spying a gun in the felon’s possession. Carden says he assumes all the felons remain in custody numbering 41 out of the 96 arrests since the sweeps began July 8 will be held by the sheriff although a number of misdemeanor offenders are likely to be released because of space problems at the jails.

Besides the 96 arrested, there were four firearms recovered and 50 parole and probation searches as 111 gang members interviewed in the field says a police department news release.

Visalia City Council member Don Landers, himself a Lieutenant with the Sheriff’s Department, says the gang activity had gotten out of hand. “Enough is enough.” Landers says he thinks the city should continue to work to keep kids out of gangs, but “right now we need to do something dramatic and that means show the gangs that this kind of activity won’t be allowed.” He sees the gang activity as a challenge that must be answered.

“That’s where we are going to step in and make changes for the quality of life our citizens expect here. That’s going to require a firm and effective response, and that’s what we will do,” Carden said.

“First and foremost, we want the citizens to understand that we share their concerns and we are going to do everything we can to ensure their safety,” he added. “If it’s going to take a number of officers from throughout this county to address this problem, we’re going to do it. As much as anything, we’re out there to help them feel a little more comfortable that the police department is on top of the situation, they’re placing focus on the situation. We’re not going to tolerate this kind of stuff from gang members.”

The gang sweep comes as the police department will move into their new twin precinct centers on the north and south sides of town as of August 6. Landers says the city will put the police officers in the neighborhoods they will patrol. Chief Carden says with the presence of the police officers could bring a sense of safety to the neighborhoods and enable the neighborhood to get to know the officers better.

Carden says the goal is for the police department, including himself, to be more connected to the community. Carden went on several of the recent gang sweeps and has urged the top brass at the department to do the same. Politicians are getting the same message. Supervisor Phil Cox very active in fighting gangs, went out on the sweeps this past weekend as well.

Crime in Visalia in the past few years has been going up as the population has risen. But there is the sense that the bulking up of the Visalia Police Department may be helping to stem the tide some. Visalia’s aggravated assault numbers show a 2005 number of 814 or 772 per 100,000 population. That compares to a national rate half of that. For 2006, the number dropped to 600. But for the first half of 2007, aggravated assaults (using a firearm/knife/other or hands/feet) dropped to 222 or 444 for the year if the trend were to continue for the entire year.

A major drop can be seen in the number of assaults with a firearm month by month. For example, in June 2006, the police recorded 21 assaults using a firearm compared to just five in June 2007. Of course, all these shootings in July may now skew the numbers for the year. Still there is a trend of decreasing gun violence if the numbers are to be believed  a positive in anyone’s book since guns can do so much damage from a distance.

Helping to boost public safety in town, staff levels at the Visalia Police Department have been heading higher expected to reach 140 sworn officers by 2010, in part due to funding from Measure J  publicly approved sales tax measure. That’s up from just 96 officers in 1995.

On another front, where Visalia got more negative press it didn’t want  vehicle thefts  the news is better as well.

In 2006, a national insurance agency listed Visalia was the number three city in the U.S. in vehicle thefts. The national average is again half the Visalia rate seen in 2005 and 2006 when we beat out Fresno as the car theft capital. Now in the first six months of 2007, car thefts are down from 1,281 in all of 2006 to just 361 for a half year. That translates into about 700 for all of 2007 if the trend continues.

How about burglary? In 2006, the city saw an uptick in those offenses with 1,368 incidents up from 1,216 in 2005—more than 40% higher than the national average. During the first half of the year, we are at 479  again better than the average seen in the past few years.

If all this happens, Visalia is going to be safer place to live.

Police are increasing efforts to get kids not to join gangs. Youth Service Officers have been assigned to youth centers which has reduced gang incidents at those locations. Also, on June 8,  “The LOOP” (Local Organizations Outreach Program) began operating. This program provides youth transportation to city youth centers of their choice without worry of running into gang activity. This program will run yearly.

Despite all the prevention efforts, it seems clear young teens are joining gangs in large numbers starting at an early age. “It seems more of them have a decreased value placed on life” requiring the heavy hand of the cops. Carden says such a zero tolerance from the police needs to be transferred to the parents of these kids. Shooting in a parking lot filled with people and at houses reminds many of the death of Visalian Kelly Scott some years ago shot at an intersection by rival gangs shooting at each other. Kelly Scott’s death created a firestorm of demands for action both on the prevention and enforcement side in Visalia and resulted in a new juvenile facility in the county funded by tax payers.

Council member Landers says, “We need to reach the parents of these kids who sometimes come from different cultures that they need to be integrated into our society, learn English and take care of their kids.” In addition he says efforts by the city to upgrade north Visalia are part of the equation with the work to complete the “community campus on NE Third with new offices and a plan to try to bring more new businesses into the Oval area.”

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Tulare County - The number of Tulare County’s registered voters signed up for the November election stands at 129,632 as of late July—a number that will likely grow some as the deadline to sign up approaches. But it’s very unlikely to go higher than about 137,000—the number of residents who signed up to vote in October 1996—more than a decade ago.

During the same 11-year period, the county’s population has grown by about 100,000 according to state and federal estimates, from around 340,000 residents to near 440,000 by the end of this year.

The slow growth in the number of voters vs. population growth here mimics what’s happening elsewhere in California but it’s not a welcome trend, say local leaders. The upshot—fewer of us making the decisions for the rest of us.

“I know our population is going up, but something like 60% of residents are under 27—so many are too young to vote. Then there are a large number who are either illegal or resident aliens who can’t vote,” figures county Supervisor Allen Ishida. “There is only so much we can do,” says Ishida who admits “we could do better” to register more voters.

“It’s something we’ve been working on for a long time,” says Hispanic Roundtable President Dr. Bob Aguilar who says all the nonprofits and the county elections department should get together to do a countywide registration drive.  “We need to focus on the high schools and the adult schools” to tell people the importance of voting, he says.

“I tell you one thing, if you don’t vote, you will get what you deserve,” says Ishida.

This spring, California Secretary of State Debra Brown released the latest statewide report showing the state lost one million voters between 2005 and 2007. Brown said while some of the loss can be due to cutting out so-called deadwood from the rolls, “the state’s population is continuing to grow and the number of registered voters isn’t.”

County election officials say voter registration reached nearly 135,000 in October 2006 but the department “purged” about 5,500 voters from the rolls since then because they failed to vote in the past four years.

Election officials also point to presidential election year peaks such as October 2004 when registration in the county reached nearly 142,000. Some people don’t vote unless it’s a presidential election year.

Population projections released by the state Department of Commerce about a month ago suggest Tulare County population will continue to grow rapidly in coming years nearing 470,000 by 2010 and 1.1 million by 2050. But will the percentage of voters continue to go down?

Part of the equation is that there has been a large influx of undocumented people to Tulare County in the past decade as there has been elsewhere in California. Some put the count on undocumented residents here at 50,000. They are not citizens and can’t vote.

Also, there is a large children population born here that will be eligible to vote in years ahead.

Gil Jaramillo, executive director of the Tulare Kings Hispanic Chamber of Commerce, says his group and other Hispanic groups are focusing on the teens coming up that will soon be of voting age. “We tell them that it doesn’t do any good to complain if you don’t go out there and vote to get your candidates in there.” He says several groups are continuing to work on getting more Hispanics to register and “make sure they get to the polls” when it’s time to vote.

Voter fatigue is seen as one reason people have turned off to constant voting with an average of an election every year in California. Next year the state will likely have two primaries, in February and June, for example.

Tulare County’s party registration continues to be characterized by a 64 to 46% advantage for Republicans vs. Democrats although Decline-to-State remains the fastest growing segment in the latest county voting figures. In that latest county report (July 07), the number of Democrats have fallen to 44,182, an historic low. Democrats used to be the majority in the county until about 1996 when the trend went the other way. Republicans in the latest report have fallen to 62,237—a low since 2002. Even Decline-to-State voters have fallen since October 2006 but the overall trend for DTS continues to climb.

Statewide, Democrats are losing more voters numerically than Republicans, but in California the Demos have a 1.4 million vote majority.

Democrats believe the Hispanic majority and the rising tide of Hispanics in Tulare County will mean Democrats may reverse the strong Republican trend that may have peaked in October 2004 with nearly 69,000 Republicans reported that year. That has now fallen to 62,232 in the latest county registration filing (as of July 23).

Nationwide, the growth in the Hispanic population appears to be good news for Democrats with a latest Gallup poll showing a 3 to 1 Hispanic majority favoring the Democratic Party.

But even as the Hispanic population rises in outlying areas of Tulare County, Republicans remain in control in every supervisorial district with the 3^rd district (Visalia) about a 2 to 1 majority for Republicans. Notably, all county supervisors are Republicans and all districts have at least a small Republican majority.

If fewer residents are bothering to register to vote, as a percentage of the county population—that number of active voters is even more depressing with just 52% of registered voters in the county casting a ballot in November 2006—just over 70,000 of the 135,000 eligible. The primary last year was even worse with just 32% of voters participating.

Another trend—of the 43,358 voters who voted in last year’s primary election in June, 21,575 voted by absentee ballots—nearly half.

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Tulare County - New home permits in Visalia have dropped about 30% through July of this year, compared to the same period a year before (see chart). That number from the industry research firm Construction Monitor mirrors a California Building Industry Association report issued for June that shows builders slowed their permit requests for single family homes to 181 in June 2007, down nearly 40% from 317 units in Visalia/Tulare/Porterville metro area in June 2006.

“The focus on foreclosures and subprime lending is ongoing and, coupled with higher inventories of homes for sale, is prompting many would-be buyers to play a ‘wait-and-see’ role,” said C.A.R. President Colleen Badagliacco.

The story on existing homes is more of the same. Home sales dropped 25% statewide in June, slightly worse than a 22% decrease seen nationwide reported by the U.S. Census.

All the bad news in the press may be weighing on consumers.

Buyers are saying “maybe if I wait a few weeks the price will come down another $10,000,” says realtor Brad Maaske.

Closed escrow sales of existing, single-family detached homes in California totaled 364,280 in June at a seasonally adjusted annualized rate, according to information collected by C.A.R. from more than 90 local Realtor associations statewide. Statewide home resale activity decreased 24.7% from the 483,690 sales pace recorded in June 2006.

Data Quick reports the median price in Tulare County in June 2007 of both new and existing homes was $230,500, a drop of 13% for the same period the year before when it was $262,750. The Visalia median dropped from $285,000 in June 2006 to $252,000 this June, an 11% drop. That median is lower than the median price in Visalia in 2005 at $260,000.

The Tulare County Association of Realtors reports that sales through the MLS carry a median price of residential properties sold of $239,000. The MLS includes all of Visalia, Tulare and Exeter. The agency also reports the inventory of existing homes for sale now at 2,170 units, near last September’s all time high of 2,300. Time on the market for the first seven months of the year is now 95 days vs. 59 days to sell a home this time last year.

The slowdown in sales of homes in the local MLS is real with just 1,208 residential properties changing hands so far in 2007, compared to 1,688 properties sold this time last year—about a 30% decline in transactions.

Realtor Bill Jordan of Jordan Link says he believes things have bottomed out. “Our company is selling 100 homes a month and it seems clear people are still buying and selling real estate. Jordan says he senses activity has picked up in recent weeks and cites a CAR statement that the worst might be over by the end of 2007. Jordan says while there is plenty of negativity out there, he goes with Will Rogers’ statement “buy land—they aren’t making any more of it.” That’s as true as when he said it back in 1933, Jordan remarks.

There was gloomy news on the number of default notices as well. Data Quick reported lenders filing nearly 54,000 notice of defaults from April to June, up 158% for the second quarter in California. Notice of default by county for the same quarter the year before were up 175% in the Central Valley and up 66% in Tulare County and 50% in Kings County.

Foreclosures tend to lower property values by about 10%, suggests Data Quick. Already lenders are taking back properties at a higher rate with lenders recording trustee deeds at a pace up 800% statewide in the second quarter of 2006. Lenders took back 142 properties in the second quarter in Tulare County compared to just 17 homes in the same quarter of 2006. Kings went from seven homes in the same quarter of 2006 to 27 in the second quarter of 2007, says Data Quick.

In the new home market, Centex remains the busiest builder as it has in the past years permitting about 300 countywide as of July 2007. But that’s down from 375 the same period the year before, according to Construction Monitor.  Centex appears to be concentrating on more homes in the lower end offering a 1,300-square-foot starter for $180,000. McMillin, the county’s second busiest at 121 new homes this year so far, compared to 189 during the same seven-month period in 2006 and 156 during the same period in 2005.  McMillin is advertising a free pool as an incentive during this, the hottest time of the year.

New home builder activity in Tulare County has been getting punished on Wall Street as their stock reached 52 week lows in recent days of those companies that are publicly traded. Some of those builders are suggesting a turnaround won’t come until the end of 2008.

If the bad news is that the median price of homes selling here is now around $239,000, that compares pretty favorably with the statewide median price of nearly $600,000 or even the Central Valley area which carries a $330,000 average, according to California Association of Realtors. This is the good news for home buyers looking for a bargain in Tulare County. For those homeowners who have been patiently waiting to sell, the news isn’t so good.

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by Steve Pastis

Visalia - As a financial analyst for the City of Visalia, Tim Fosberg has had an insider’s view of city government. He explained that he is running for Visalia City Council “to bring fiscal responsibility back into city hall.”

Fosburg said that the city has “runaway costs—from overtime to consultants’ legal fees, as well as settlement cases.” He also said that the city has “excessive taxation,” citing Measure T and Measure R.

“We’re one of the poorest communities in the state and we’re approaching some of the highest taxation,” he said. “We’re making a lot of decisions without knowing the financial consequences.

“We have a planner on city council and we have a public safety person on city council, Don Landers, but what’s really missing on city council is some financial expertise,” he said. “I have that financial expertise.”

Fosberg been a CPA for 23 years. He was a partner in a Visalia CPA firm and he has audited the cities of Exeter and Porterville. Fosberg has worked for the City of Visalia for 16 years: four years in general services, two years as manager of the airport and golf course and 10 years in the finance department. He is active in the community as a member of the board of directors of the Visalia Red Cross and Real Alternatives Youth Organization (RAYO).

Born and raised in Hanford, Fosberg has lived in Visalia for more than 25 years. His children and grandchildren were all born and raised in Visalia

Fosberg, who has been a Visalia Oaks season ticket holder for two years, said that the city council should have spent more time and attention studying the numbers before approving the increased costs of Recreation Park.

“But there a few incumbents just said go out, do it, figure out how to fund it, but get it started right away,” he said. “You would think you’d want to know what the season tickets are going to be, have some real revenue estimates and then know what it’s going to cost the taxpayers. They did find some money, pulled some money out of other funds, and now they are going to borrow $5 million.

“I would also want to talk about the parking.” he said. “We’re expanding the number of seats and doing a number of improvements. What happens with the parking? That didn’t seem to be discussed. So I guess the bottom line is that they hurried up. They should have spent a little more time, especially when it went from $5 million to $13 million. That didn’t skip a beat in the process. I think that just extended one more council meeting so they could put the numbers up and try to figure out where they could get the money.”

Visalia’s ‘Taj Mahal’?

Fosberg also expressed concerns about how decisions are made on other major city projects.

“They’re talking about building a civic center,” he said. “The first estimate was $100 million. That had a public safety building in there for about $11 million. The latest estimate is almost $30 million. So you take a civic center that’s going to originally cost $100 million and extrapolate it based on this estimate, as well as a number of other project costs that have been overrun to two or three times their costs, to say that the civic center is going to cost $200 or $300 million, I don’t think it’s out of line. Do we need to spend that amount of money? Well, we don’t need to build a ‘Taj Mahal’ temple for the government down there that has two parking structures just for themselves.

“Do I believe it’s good to have government invest down there and stimulate the area? Sure. Do I  forsee runaway costs and no one manning the budget or looking at the overruns? Yes, because that’s been the precedent so far.”

Fosberg then focused on the new public safety building which is part of the civic center project.

“We’re going to open us two precincts, north and south side, plus fire stations,” he said. “Why do we need a $30 million public safety building for administrators while we’re building all these other facilities?

“The baseball stadium is like all of it,” he continued. “You need to look at what the real costs are, what the subsidies are and what its going to cost. Once you lay out the baseball stadium, you lay out the aquatic park, you lay out the civic center, there’s only so much money. To vote on the baseball stadium, you need to talk about what all these other costs are going to be and how it’s going to affect the taxpayer.”

Fosberg would establish citizens’ committees to provide input on financial matters to the city council.

“I would want to establish an audit committee, a budget committee and some more committees of local individuals to help in this decision process,” he said. “Normally, elected officials are representing the constituents, but it seems here lately that this has not been the case. That’s one of the reasons why I’m running because I want to find out, ‘Is that what the public wants to spend the money on?’

“The question is what else are they spending the money on?” he continued. “They can’t just isolate that. Would I have taken longer? Yes, I would have figured out what all else is in the project and how much it’s going to cost you as a taxpayer.”

Fosberg wants to see city growth “more contiguous and centered, and less on the fringes.” The city council recently approved annexations and he has concerns about the costs of providing infrastructure such as roads and police and fire deparments for these new areas. He also believes that more focus is needed on what city land is used for.

“There’s been a lot of growth in residential development,” he said. “We need to concentrate more effort on commercial development, especially industrial, as well as on helping businesses. Businesses are getting hit with a lot of imapct fees, parking fees and a number of other high fees. We need to really reassess all these charges and take a look at it and make it business-friendly. After talking to a lot of businesses and industries, it’s not as business-friendly as it could be.”

Fosberg summed up some of his reasons for seeking a seat on the Visalia City Council. He believes that city council members should be “looking at the finances and having sound business practices, adherence to budget and some quarterly detailed operating expenditure reports, rather than having once a year where you have one line item for fire, one line item for police.

“Local government should be transparent,” he said. “If I am elected, I will bring out the information, bring it out to the public so we will know what the financial consequences are and know what’s going to happen.

“You never see a city for sale sign on a property,” Fosberg continued. “How do we know if the taxpayers are getting the most for their money? The current practice is they utilize an appraiser so that amount is what is supported behind closed doors as opposed to a multiple listing. One situation where that appriaser’s reports were actually looked at was on the (Main Street) Playhouse Theater and if my memory serves me correctly, the judge did not agree with his appraisal. So if that’s the case, he’s batting zero-for-one. My point is, are the taxpayers getting the highest and best use for the money? But it’s behind closed doors.”

Fosberg plans to resign his city employment if he is elected. He currently has “a few irons in the fire” if he needs to find other employment to avoid any conflict of interest.

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by Miles Shuper

Visalia - With more than 800,000 visitors a year and a long and colorful history, Mooney Grove Park appears to be on the brink of a bigger and brighter future.

Tuesday, Tulare County Supervisors enthusiastically approved plans to create a master plan including potential land expansion, a new museum, improved irrigation, possible classrooms or learning laboratories, concessions and other features. 

The vote authorized the expenditure of at least $50,000 to cover part of the cost of a master plan study but also authorized staff to solicit donations from local government agencies and other parties interested in being a part of the development and implementation of a far-reaching long-range plan for the park which has been cultural icon dating to its purchase in 1909.

Board members agreed that the $50,000 is a conservative estimate and moved to allow staff flexibility in seeking proposals for the cost of a complete and comprehensive study. The cities of Visalia and Tulare and the Tulare County Historical Society are among those who will be asked to help fund or seek funding sources for the study, said Eric Coyne, the county’s information officer. Coyne said the total cost of such a study very likely will be double the $50,000 the county has initially authorized. The board indicated it would be wiser to do a complete study now rather than to do it in multiple phases which could be more costly.

Included in the study will be the feasibility of replacing the existing 60-year-old county museum instead of a repair and upgrading of the structure.  A separate 10,000-square-foot Farm Labor and History of Agriculture Museum already is destined for the park. Last year, the county received a $1.45 million grant toward that project and more funds are being raised. Tuesday’s action will put some muscle in fundraising efforts, including seeking grant monies as well as contributions from the clubs, organizations and individuals along with the cities of Visalia and Tulare whose populations continue to escalate.

Among the plans also being given considerate attention and sure to be studied is a proposed second lake along Cameron Creek which would serve as a recharge basin for the area if and when the park is incorporated into the Tulare Irrigation District.  The TID and the city of Tulare are working on ways to recharge the ground water and incorporation of a new lake along TID system would reap a two-fold reward for the county park and the City of Tulare.

Additionally, the increase in surface water would enhance the irrigation of the park. A new sprinkler system is among the major issues on which the master plan study will focus, staff reports say.

Water systems are a concern for the care of the fabled oak trees which are the mainstay of the Mooney Grove legacy. When the county took over Mooney Grove Valley Oak preserve, the deal called for the oaks to be preserved. There are more than 800 mature oaks on the 143-acre park. A number of oaks have been lost over the years and improper irrigation and pruning of the oaks have been cited as major reasons. An improved irrigation system is seen as a prime method of solving that problem, officials say.

Earlier this year, Carl Switzer, a member of the Historical Society and long-time advocate of Mooney Grove, said the society has in storage an old iron bridge which once crossed the Tule River.  That would give access to park grounds south of the creek, he said.

Visalia City Manager Steve Solomon told The Voice “This is a very positive development. Mooney Grove Park is a very significant facility and used heavily but it has the same boundaries as when it was founded.” He also the city would look to joint use and management of the facility if that is what the county wants.

Supervisors also encouraged the study of soliciting private concessionaires for the park, a move which brought several comments and reminiscences about the old zoo and other former Mooney Grove attractions.

Neil Pilegard, county parks manager, said more than 800,000 persons visited Mooney Grove last year, adding that it is not unusual for all arbors to be reserved on weekends. Easter is generally the biggest Mooney Grove weekend and in recent years, the park has been forced to close gates when capacity was reached.

In his “State of the County” address early this year soon after assuming the chairmanship Supervisor Allen Ishida cited Mooney Grove as one of his top priorities for his term saying it needs lots of attention and that he would push for a new county museum and substation renovation and possible expansion. He was quoted as saying, “Mooney Grove was neglected for many, many years” and that action needs to start now.

Don McMillan, president of the 700-plus member Historical Society, called the county action “a very worthwhile plan,” adding now “is the time to do it.”

Supervisor Phil Cox, the board’s watchdog on county spending, asked staff to look into how much it would cost to combine the suggested phases of the study rather than to do it separately. He said making the initial study more expensive just seems to be a good idea. The board endorsed that suggestion with members echoing the staff intentions in seeking public and private funding as well as lease arrangements for concessions

Brian Summers of the County’s Resource Management Agency said he would bring back to the board an updated estimate of what a complete study might cost.

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by Steve Pastis

San Joaquin Valley - The Great Valley Center is a nonprofit organization working to improve California’s Central Valley. The organization manages leadership development programs, provides technical support and holds events focusing on issues important to the Valley and its future.

Carol Whiteside, a former mayor of Modesto, is the president of the Great Valley Center. Whiteside served as the Director of Intergovernmental Affairs for Governor Pete Wilson on the issues of land use, finance and restructuring, and economic development. She was Assistant Secretary at the California Resources Agency and specialized in resource conservation, land use and growth management issues. She put this experience to use when she founded the Great Valley Center in 1997.

“I had worked on the issues of growth and land use in the region for a long time, first as mayor and then in working on growth management issues for Governor Wilson,” Whiteside said. “What I saw happening was that the Valley was changing and that all the predictions of growth were focused on the Valley, but there were some key needs that had not been addressed. My basic philosophy was that if we were going to grow and be healthy, we had to strengthen the base and that meant addressing some of the issues of disparity and neglect that had historically not been recognized.

“Generally, in 1996, when these ideas were just beginning and I was thinking about the center, nobody knew anything about the Valley,” she said. “It was drive-through country. You went through on your way between Los Angeles and San Francisco and if you didn’t have to even stop for gas, so much the better. Nobody understood the millions of people who lived in the cities and towns in the Valley and what was going on there.

“So part of the goal of the center was to deal with the issues of confict between farmland and conservation growth, between housing and economic development, and of course, eventually we got into all the rest of the issues of the Valley which were unavoidable. It was really my belief and the belief of some people who funded us that the Valley needed great attention and that lots of changes were going to happen and that if we wanted the outcomes to be both healthy and sustainable that we needed to change the way some things were happening.”

Great Valley was initially started as an intermediary organization, according to Whiteside.

“We were created to bring resources, financial and intellectual and economic, into the region and act as the kind of jump point between the rest of California and the region.,” she explained. “So when I started talking to the philanthropies and foundations that funded us, our original premise was that the Valley was never going to listen to a bunch of Bay Area people telling us what to do. If we were going to change things, what we had to do was work inside the region, with regional credibility, and support the good things that were already happening and try to multiply those. Our goal was always to be a support organization, to work with and through other people and to build capacity and help the region change by itself, not with external controls.”

Has the Great Valley Center been successful?

“We think so,” Whiteside said. “We think we’ve been tremendously successful. I like to say that you won’t find our name on everything, but if you know where to look, you’ll find our fingerprints.

“There are lots of people now who are part of these regional coalitions that are building who have attended Great Valley conferences or our leadership programs and who have become part of established networks across the region,” she continued. “Our web site has become the ‘go to’ place for information about the Valley. Last year, we had almost a million visits to our web site. That means that people are coming there from all over the world. Thirteen thousand of those visits were from China, which is amazing to us. Our documents are downloaded by tens of thousands.

“The first thing is we know our data and information is being used by people. The second thing is we think that the Valley is very clearly in the regional consciousness and the national consciousness. The governor has created the Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley. The Congressional Research Service did a report on the Valley.

“When you talk about the regions of California, you now talk about the Bay Area, Southern California and the Central Valley. The region has gained status as a recognized place. Many of those things were the things that we wanted to have happen. There’s the Regional Blueprint that’s going on, which is the land use and transportation discussion and that was always part of our fundimental goal which was to say, ‘Region, you’re changing. Pay attention to what’s going on here and think about your own future.’ And those conversations are happening so we feel pretty good about the region.”

To use Whiteside’s expression, the “fingerprints” of the Great Valley Center can be found locally.

“In Tulare County, I would say we have been working in a number of different ways, again subtly and silently,” she said. “A number of people from Tulare County have come to our leadership programs. That’s probably the most significant. Elected officials as well as community level people.

“We also have done some work with land trusts and land conservation interests in that county,” she continued. “We had a program for awhile called the Central Valley Digital Network which helped people gain computer access and skills working in community-based organizations. We worked with some of the organizations in Tulare County on that.

“We’ve worked with some of the nonprofits in Tulare County, providing them with training and assistance and we’ve done some granting to organizations in Tulare County. We would grant into organizations that would translate pesticide safety information into Spanish or to organizations that were beginning to look at land conservation or to ag organizations or economic development organizations. The idea was to provide seed money or start-up money to encourage certain kinds of things happening. We found that was a very successful strategy. The grants did a lot of good things in the Valley.”

‘Our Valley. Our Choice.’

Earlier this year, the Great Valley Center created the book Our Valley. Our Choice. Subtitled “Building a Livable Future for the San Joaquin Valley,” the book is an effort to reach a wide audience with what was initially rather dry government report.

“The Governor’s Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley has ten working groups and the Great Valley Center has been supporting the land use and tranportation work,” Whiteside explained. “The land use recommendations that came out of that process were, as we might expect, technical —change general plans, write a new law —all that other kind of stuff which is way beyond the comprehension of most people. And yet, these are issues that people in communities and neighborhoods should care about a lot.

“Our thought was, ‘How do we take these technical issues and make them important to people in neighborhoods and communities and get them engaged in why these things matter?’ Our first thought was to do a regular publication and then we said no. We looked around bookstores and other places and said, ‘Pictures and compelling headlines, data and information is something that people will actually read.’”

With the assistance of Alain Design, a Bay Area book packaging company, and Heyday Books, which published the book, Our Valley. Our Choice. was put together in 12 weeks.

“It’s been well received,” Whiteside said. “The reviews have been fabulous which is really nice. It’s not made the best seller list, but we’ve had a couple of schools order enough copies for their classes, a couple of universities are ordering it. It’s for sale now at bookstores in the Valley and it’s going to be on the shelf at Costco.”

Ten years after its founding, the Great Valley Center continues to have a busy agenda. “We’ve been talking a lot about telecommunications for the last several years and we’re on the verge of having public policy that says that everybody has access to high-speed broadband,” Whiteside said. “We’re now looking at issues around renewable energy and climate change and carbon emissions and those will be the next issues that we will be concentrating on and helping the Valley deal with.”

For more information about the Great Valley Center, visit www.greatvalley.org. For more information about Our Valley. Our Choice., visit www.heydaybooks.com.

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Visalia - Incumbent Greg Kirkpatrick has yet to make up his mind about running for a second term on the Visalia City Council with just days left to declare. “He’s on the fence,” says a friend.

Kirkpatrick was backpacking this week with members of his family and wasn’t available for comment. Deadline to declare is August 10.

“I still have to talk it over with my family,” Kirkpatrick has told the Voice in recent months as the deadline has approached. Now it’s here.

If Kirkpatrick does not run, the county clerk allows another few days (until August 15) to file to run offering extra time for others who may jump in the race just because one of the two incumbents isn’t running.

Fellow council member Don Landers says he doesn’t know if Kirkpatrick will decide to run or not but suggests another four-year commitment is a big deal. “This job takes a lot of time and commitment,” he says, time that is taken away from your family, your work and other pursuits.

Kirkpatrick was elected along with Bob Link in November 2003 to a four-year term. Back then the big issue was the Plaza auto mall which Kirkpatrick opposed. But the issue was already settled by the time he took office.

It had been assumed that both Link and Kirkpatrick as incumbents would run again. Last time, Link was the top vote getter and Kirkpatrick beat out third place finisher Mary Louise Vivier for the second spot.

If Kirkpatrick decides not to run, the election could get pretty interesting with some new people possibly coming out of the woodwork, say observers. Already there are five candidates, including Link, who have filed notice with the county. Other candidates are Mike Lane, Tim Fosberg, Amy Shuklian and Mary Wheeler.

Kirkpatrick is used to challenges. A former Peace Corps volunteer, he has worked on his family farm in recent years along with pursuing his life-long passion to preserve California farmland. He worked with American Farmland Trust and later organized his own consulting firm that takes him around the state to help set up conservation plans. He is a biologist by training.

If Kirkpatrick decides not to run in the next few days, there will be plenty of discussion over the 3 to 2 green majority now on the council that could be threatened. Kirkpatrick tended to vote over the past four years with council members Collins and Gamboa on several key issues. But not always.

He voted to allow the annexation of the Lowery Ranch in the past year, angering some of his preservationist supporters. He allowed the development of the Fresno Pacific campus on Plaza—a project that will soon come to the planning commission since it was approved 2 to 1 at a council meeting.

Kirkpatrick worked hard to get the Department of Conservation to allow the city to receive funds for Williamson Act cancellations to help drive a local conservation effort but has so far been unsuccessful.

Also Kirkpatrick, who came into office in hopes of setting up a plan for the 198 corridor, has been unsuccessful in forging a long term plan although council voted down a planned home development in the process and talking continues on the corridor idea.

Kirkpatrick got support of his fellow council members and was selected as vice mayor until the end of this term. Not always agreeing with Kirkpatrick, former council member Basil Perch says he respects Kirkpatrick. “I always felt you could talk to him and he would listen.”

Kirkpatrick has worked hard to put in place the Southeast Specific Plan that will organize a new neighborhood in that part of the city under smart growth principles.

In the most recent debate on the annexation of land into the industrial park, he favored a flexible approach that would give the developers more options to parcel the land the way the market might see fit.

Kirkpatrick and his wife Karen have two daughters.

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City of Fresno turned down the request by the Kings River Conservation District to participate in the San Joaquin Power Authority program by a 4 to 3 vote. That leaves 13 communities, including the counties of Tulare and Kings, who will move forward on the plan to replace the private utility in those areas.

Lane Bryant women’s clothing store will relocate to Packwood Creek from the Visalia mall later this year. The new store will be next to Sports Chalet.

Downtown Tulare is trying to attract a Starbucks. Tulare has a couple of Starbucks either open or soon to be, but the city and chamber would love to have a store downtown where plenty of professionals work, they argue. Visalia has over 10 of the stores with more to come. So far no luck in getting the big company to take a look at a Downtown Tulare site.

Mangano Homes will appeal a planning commission ruling on the 176 unit, 113 acre new home subdivision at the former Sierra Golf Course site to the Board of Supervisors August 7 at 9:30 a.m. Mangano argues that changes suggested by the planning commission are not in the county’s general plan.

Globe-Miller Funeral Chapel in Tulare is set to close at the end of this month confirms Gary Giraudi of the Visalia Miller Chapel. The Tulare facility is located at 144 South L St. and has been sold. Tulare will be down to two chapels. Also in Exeter, former manager of the Visalia Miller Chapel John Guinn has purchased the Evans-Miller Chapel. Now both chapels in Exeter are locally owned. Service Corporation International owns the Miller chapel in Visalia. The new manager of the Miller Chapel is Gary Giraudi.

Decision on Visalia airline won’t come until next month. Three airlines have bid on carrying on commercial service now that Mesa airlines announced they want to pull out. One of those is Mesa airlines who wants to return to serve the area if the federal subsidy is raised. The airline would fly to Las Vegas airport with connections to United. A second company is Great Lakes who also want to fly to Las Vegas two times a day. That airline got the support of the city council last time but FFA gets to make the decision. The third company is Vision Airlines who is seeking certification by the FAA to start an airline. The company has purchased the former Scenic Airline terminal in north Las Vegas and is making a bid to service Visalia with a flight a day to North Las Vegas from Merced and on to Visalia before it crosses the Sierra. Likewise, from Merced to Visalia to Long Beach once a day. The airline could re-connect Visalia to the Los Angeles market for the first time in many years but at a price point likely to be $200 round trip. City will take comments from residents through August 23.

Home sales and car sales appear to be linked according to several new national reports. The link may be whether home owners feel they can tap the equity in their home to help pay for that new car or other big ticket items. Increasingly the answer is no with new residential sales in June 2007 down 22% from the same period the year before, says the U.S. Census. Statewide the inventory of existing homes for sale is up to a 10 month supply compared to six months this time last year, says the California Association of Realtors. How about the cars? The nation’s largest retailer, AutoNation, says their sales dropped 16% in the second quarter of this year compared to the same period a year before in both Florida and California. Used car sales for the company are down 8.3% nationwide the company also reported. Car research firm Edmonds estimates that July sales for new cars and trucks nationwide are expected to slump nearly 8% compared to July 2006. High gas prices as well as housing woes appear to be affecting consumers, says a company spokesman. GM sales are expected to fall 18% while an aggressive promotion by Chrysler is expected to boost that company’s sales by 11.7%. GM is not offering the high incentives they were last summer but that decision may be helping their profits.

So far this summer we’ve dodged the extreme heat events of last summer. California Department of Public Health has published a study on the health effects of heat waves like we saw in July 2006. Between July 15 and August 1 the valley saw about 100 suspected deaths during a six day stretch when temps averaged over 105. Among 96 indoor decedents 42 did not have air conditioning, air conditioning is unknown in 19 cases and in the 35 others where air conditioning was present, only one used it. In the 35 cases where an air conditioner was in the home, 16 of them were not functional. Of those that died, 71% had a common risk factor like coronary disease or psychiatric problems. Many lacked helpful social contact and died alone in the house.

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Visalia - The Visalia consultant firm Provost and Prichard is preparing a feasibility plan to resurface Mill Creek through portions of Downtown Visalia. The study, ongoing for a few months now, is the second phase of a key plan for Mill Creek to serve as a major amenity instead of an afterthought in planning the expansion of the city’s core area. Phase one of the Mill Creek plan was released in July showing a possible recirculation of the creek waters in front of the new Civic Center east of Tipton Street. The second phase focuses on resurfacing Mill Creek that runs underground through the heart of Downtown Visalia.

Consultant Dick Moss of Provost and Prichard says so far their work has focused on three alternative routes a resurfaced creek could take heading west past Santa Fe toward Court Street. The three alternatives are along Acequia, Main and Center streets.

“It seems clear that two alternatives will survive our infrastructure analysis,” says Moss, considering the cost of resurfacing the creek will mean relocation of gas, electric and sewer lines that run under and above ground to a greater or lesser degree depending on which route is taken. He says the second major factor is to run the creek alignment as much as possible on “city-owned land.”

What has fallen off the feasibility list would be to run an alignment right up Main Street where the now underground portion of Mill Creek runs west of Santa Fe. One disappointment for a Main Street alignment was failure to acquire a key parcel—a lot in front of the former Razzari dealership at Garden and Main now owned by the restaurant Crawdaddy’s. The creek runs underground through the lot now used by the restaurant to do off-site parking. Both the city and Andy Mangano, who owns the Razzari building now, were trying to acquire it.

Further, Mangano was exploring an ambitious plan earlier this year, to buy the Bank of America lot, build the bank a new building, have the creek run through it and develop the entire block. Despite a full court press by the city to take a good look at the idea, the decision makers at B of A didn’t take much interest, suggesting they had lots of other projects on the table nationwide. The creek would have run across Garden and across Church creating a San Luis Obispo atmosphere in the busiest part of Downtown. Mangano spent plenty of money and six months of architecture drawings on the idea that has now been shelved.

Meanwhile, Main Street has few city owned parcels where the creek could spread out and a creek right along the street will clearly slow traffic on Main along with a greater number of infrastructure relocation costs.

On the other hand, says Dick Moss, “the city has a strong interest in bringing people from the Convention Center area to the new Civic Center area” and a creek walk could link the two areas.

Likewise, a Center Street alignment might be feasible, says Moss, considering there are several parcels now owned by the city (Tipton and Oak/Santa Fe and Center for example) and fewer infrastructure problems. The alignment could potentially reach down to the county courthouse block that the county is likely to sell in the next few years meaning on a three to four-block area the resurfaced creek could provide lots of redevelopment opportunities for new buildings oriented toward the creek. The resurfaced creek on this route could hook up with Mill Creek underground in back of Togni Branch on the large block long parking lot that could be reborn as a centerpiece for the restoration in the heart of Downtown. The block is big enough that perhaps the creek/park could co-exist with a new parking garage that the property owners have an interest in seeing gets built.

Moss says an Acequia route would be a problem with “what to do with water” after it reaches the Convention Center but some sort of recirculation system that they are looking at in front of the new Civic Center might be the answer. The Acequia idea may be less costly than a more grandiose Center Street alignment but would clearly not be the game changer a Center Street project would bring about, attracting lots of new projects that might seek to be along a bubbling creek. But Acequia literally means “community-oriented waterway” so it seems our Visalia founding fathers may be trying to tell us something  run the creek down this street.

Moss says a meeting with city staff is scheduled this week with the likelihood he will return to city council before Thanksgiving with plans and renderings of how it could look on both the Acequia and Center Street routes. The creek could be wide or narrow, sunken or run on the surface, look natural or clearly designed and community input on this  if it’s going to happen  will be sought. That’s what happened in the Civic Center area when another consultant firm set up a series of community workshops to take the public input on the how the creek should appear along the several-block area east of Tipton to Ben Maddox.

Whichever route it takes, the creek will have a pathway linking Downtown to the new Civic Center area. City officials say grant funding will help make this ambitious project more affordable.

One idea floating around is to build a package treatment plant upstream of the restoration that instead of using groundwater to enhance Mill Creek year round would clean wastewater to the highest level, essentially using recycled water to fill Mill Creek. State bond propositions passed by voters have funds for projects like this.

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Tulare County - Despite what their competitors may be telling citrus growers—Sunkist growers plan to reduce the assessment per carton by 12.5 cents this coming season, even though they have to spread their costs over a smaller volume of fruit than in years past. That’s a 19% drop from current rates. So says the top brass at Sunkist, following a letter from Chairman Nick Bozick sent out to growers in recent days.

How do you cut assessment and spread the costs of marketing the fruit over a smaller acreage base? President of Sunkist, Tim Lindgren told the Voice this week that “we have hit costs real hard recently” and that includes reducing administration and data processing staff and undergoing a similar streamlining effort in the sales department.

“I think we will be looking at a more dynamic sales department with less costs per unit” for the next season which starts November 1. The move to cut costs comes after Sunkist lost their largest packer last year when Paramount Citrus went on their own, cutting about 20% of the volume of fruit the co-op sells.

Then came the freeze last January and the cooperative had to operate on what they thought would be drastically reduced volume, says Lindgren. It turns out, agree Lindgren and Russ Hanlin, Senior Vice President of Sales and Marketing, that significantly more crops would be salvaged than anticipated this spring. “This freeze confounded the experts,” says Lindgren, as shippers checking for quality found “high quality fruit,” including some Tulare County lemons that went to market this spring. Regarding the citrus season, “it turned out to be a vintage crop in terms of quality.” The stone tree fruit crop has been described in the same terms since the cold weather can make for tastier fruit. It would have been hard to believe on January 15 that there would be enough Navels to go through June, but there were.

“In the end, we had about 60% of normal volume,” says Hanlin and extremely strong FOB prices for the fruit. “After the freeze, we thought the fruit already packed in the packing houses would be all we would have for the season.” But that was far from the case with 16 million cartons of navels going to market. Valencias matured later but there was plenty of fruit to carry packing houses through the season.

Lindgren says on the juice front, the cooperative has made an effort to cut costs and increase quality from just a few years ago. “I think growers are going to be happy with the returns we offer them from sales on juice that used to be simply a dumping ground for fruit we could not market elsewhere.”

Sunkist is doing some engineering studies associated with their two juice plants that could “have and energy component” in the future, including a possible biofuel operation in Tipton. “That’s part of the study we are carrying out,” says Lindgren.

Cutting costs and streamlining operations is good news to growers who, after all, pay for the Sunkist marketing effort worldwide. But management says it’s worth it in an apparent public relations campaign to keep the grower base from getting any smaller during summer before the next season starts. Sounding like they were in the middle of a political campaign, in a recent notice to growers Sunkist told them “when you look at the facts, you’ll find that Sunkist’s costs are very competitive  and that you are reaping the advantages of being aligned with the market leader.”

Among other things, Sunkist promises to continue to:

• Implement strategic “for-profit” business partnerships

• Promote the brand Sunkist—one of the most recognized brands in the world

• Centralize sales operations

• Increase the success of licensed products that help Sunkist capital costs

• Carry on research that benefits growers

• Promote exports

• Lobbying for government regulation beneficial to the industry

• Economic analysis and statistics gathering

• Continue to offer low cost insurance

Still hanging over their heads, Sunkist is pursuing an appeal of a case brought by Brad Stark  former board member, that resulted in a $13.4 million claim being awarded against the cooperative. The appeal of the Tulare County case won’t be heard until next year.

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Tulare County - Tulare County District Attorney and Probation Department staffs will be increased by a total of 15 persons, following last week’s approval by County Supervisors.

The move, with a total cost of $933,000 in the new budget year, will help facilitate two newly created judgeships. Six deputy district attorneys, four legal assistants and three probation officers will be added, according to District Attorney Phil Cline. Two more district attorney staff members, a prosecution assistant and an investigator technician will be assigned to the Visalia Police Department to help in reviewing and evaluating misdemeanor arrests and potential for prosecution, in addition to coordinating witnesses in an effort to speed up cases going to court, Cline said.

A computer system linking the district attorney’s office to the police headquarters will be installed. Cline said the program will start as soon as courtrooms and the Visalia Police Department are wired to the system and staff is hired. No date for start up has been set.

“It won’t be immediate but should happen fairly soon,” the D.A. said.

The link is designed to cut the time officers involved in a case wait to testify in court by allowing them to be contacted while on duty instead of waiting in court. Cline said the program will be shared with other county police departments if it proves successful.

Cline said the cities of Tulare, Porterville and Dinuba would be the likely locations for potential expansion of prosecution assistants if the plan results in the expected savings of time and money. Cline says he is unaware of other jurisdictions using prosecution assistants to do the job. Other agencies use attorneys, he explained, noting that having skilled non-attorney positions is far less expensive. All court case decisions will be made by attorneys, he stressed.

Cline said there have been discussions with Tulare County judges about linking the courtrooms to the police department and the prosecution assistant who can coordinate getting officers to court as soon as possible if court cases schedules allow. Cline said response to the plan has generally been positive.

Supervisor Phil Cox called the plan a creative way to keep officers on the street as much as possible instead of them having to wait in court for hours and hours. The City of Visalia is paying for most of the $84,917 start up costs of the program. About $22,000 will come from the district attorney’s budget.

Two judgeships positions remain to be filled. About a month ago, Kathryn Montejano was appointed by Governor Schwarzenegger to one of the two new positions allocated to the county. The second slot has not been filed nor has a replacement been selected for Judge Ronn Couillard who retired in June.

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