Football League Scores with Local Fans

By Steve Pastis

San Joaquin Valley - The Central Valley Football League is off to a good start in its second season. Six new teams have joined the league this year, including the South Valley Falcons (Hanford), Kern Valley Aztecs (Tulare/Earlimart), Orosi Stars, Stanislaus Spartans, Merced Mustangs and Pacifica Islanders (Bay Area). The league now has 14 teams, playing in two divisions.

“This year, we had games everywhere,” said Jeff King, owner and founder of the CVFL. “I was a little bit nervous, but everywhere was good. We had some real close games and we had a couple of blowouts.”

King estimated that in its opening day, there were 700 people at the Fresno game and 300 people at the game in Orosi.

Last year, its inaugural season, the CVFL included eight teams – the Bakersfield Bulldogs, Central Valley Outlaws (Visalia), Reedley Renegades, the Selma Ravens, Clovis Wolves, Central-Cal Crusaders (Fresno/Clovis), Fresno Pirates and Delano Knights (formerly the Demons). Seven CVFL players earned All-American honors and the CVFL was recognized for three national awards – “Best New League,” “Comeback Team of the Year” for the Clovis Wolves, and King was named “Commissioner of the Year.”

The CVFL is a non-profit, minor league football organization. Players range in age from 18 to over 40, many of them former Valley high school and college football players. The league plays most of its games at Sunnyside High School Stadium in Fresno, Orosi High School Stadium and Liberty Elementary School on South Mooney Blvd.

King was a defensive lineman at Clovis High School, Fresno College and the University of New Mexico. Injuries cut short his NFL career, so he ended up in professional football in Europe for 14 years. As he played and/or coached for eight teams in four countries (Germany, Spain, Austria and Sweden), he learned the league system, including how team sponsorships work. He also studied football league operations when he was a player in another Valley football league.

“I was lucky because I was the West director for the Minor League Football Association,” he said. “I put together players for the West and tried to get our representatives to the championship.”

As a former player, King believed that the quality of football was declining in the Valley. Among the problems he cited was the lack of national exposure for local teams and players.

“I was seeing the level of minor league football drop so I decided when I came home (from Europe), I would make a difference,” he said. “I wanted to raise the level of play around here. I took ideas that I thought were good for players and prior ideas I'd been thinking about.”

He used his contacts and reputation in the Central Valley to get sponsors. He then built a web site, secured venues for the games, hired “a good referee association” and started the search for owners – a combination of former minor league football team owners and new owners. Then he got the players and coaches.

“You have to work backwards,” he explained. “Normally, you should build the teams first, but you have to get the venues six months in advance and the referees three to four months in advance. The easy part is getting the players and coaches who are interested.

“We only had three teams in the beginning,” he said. “In six weeks, we built a team and then we had four other teams join us.”

King believes that the CVFL is good for gang prevention. “It gets them off the streets,” he said. “They have an avenue to stay out of trouble.”

Some CVFL teams play for fun, while others play to win a championship, according to King. Some people play “to show their kids they can do what they did 20 years ago,” he added.

Some, however, say that welcoming players with different motivations dilutes the level of talent in the league.

“I refuse to condense all the teams down and eliminate the opportunity for some guys to play,” King said. “Our goal is to have as many players in the Central Valley as possible.”

To accommodate players of different income levels, the CVFL tries to make the league as affordable as possible to join. Most other leagues charge players between $250-$350 to play, a cost that includes a uniform, according to King.

“We made a rule in our league that owners aren't allowed to charge players more than $150 for the league fee,” he said, adding that with each team collecting the money and using it to pay its $3,500 league fee, “you don't even have to charge every player on your team to play in the league.”

Attending a game is also reasonably priced. Admission to a Central Valley Football League game costs $5 for adults, $3 for teens and $2 for children. Teams also make money from selling merchandise with their team logos online and at games.

As sponsorships, player participation and attendance grow, the main challenge for the CVFL is to secure more locations for its games. The league plan is to have games at high schools on Saturdays and use a local staff for the snack bar and the gate, giving them the revenues. Some school districts are reluctant to allow the CVFL to use their fields, however. King believes that the problem many be the bad reputation minor league football had in the past – something that this league addresses.

“We have a code of ethics and every player and coach has to sign it before every game,” he said. He added that there is a $2 million field liability insurance policy for all 14 teams. “Everything is really insured,” he said.

So where does the CVFL go from here?

“I believe the future of the league is 22 teams in four divisions,” King said. “We would then pretty much be at our maximum for the area.”

King said that he is considering placing Turlock, Stanislaus and Pacifica into a northern California league, leaving the CVFL with teams from Merced to Bakersfield. There may be a new team in Los Banos in 2009, joining the Porterville Prowlers and Yosemite Bears, which will also start play next season.

“We need to go to a real format with teams playing four home games and four away – and bringing in 1,000 fans,” King said. “We need attendance to grow in the future.”

For more information about the CVFL, including a complete schedule, visit www.cvfl.org.

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Proposed Visalia Flood Plain Maps Show Major Changes

Visalia - FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has issued preliminary Flood Insurance Rate Maps for Visalia, Farmersville and unincorporated areas of Tulare County. The maps indicate areas that are believed to have a 1% annual chance of flooding – which translates to being at risk of a 100-year-flood.

Most mortgage companies require their customers with homes in 100-year special flood hazard areas to purchase flood insurance.

A report that these new maps place an estimated 3,000 homes in Visalia in flood hazard areas seemed to be verified by the proposed new map. But city officials pointed out the danger of reacting too quickly to these maps – which are preliminary.

“No one should look at the maps and make a decision,” said Leslie Caviglia, deputy city manager. “Don't run out and buy (flood) insurance or run out and cancel insurance.”

Neither she nor Andrew Benelli, director of public works, would confirm that 3,000 homes are affected.

“I think we're reluctant to say that because the studies aren't completely done,” Benelli said. “Some of the areas that they're showing as new flood areas are areas that have been developed since they started this process. So they're showing that the natural ground was low but the homes that are new may be high enough that their finished floor elevation is outside the flood plain.”

“It's not just homes and we need to clarify that,” Caviglia said. “It's number of parcels and the number of buildings on those parcels. Even within that number, it's how many of those buildings aren't elevated or have some other factor that means a particular building may be exempt. It is also less likely that a 100-year flood would reach some homes because more water is able to be stored behind the dams.”

But even if all the properties maintain their current flood risk designations after the appeals process, the total area of Visalia that is now shown at risk of flooding is less than indicated in the previous maps, which were issued in 1998. The old maps showed most of the city at risk of a flood, with large ominous gray areas over the downtown area.

The proposed Visalia map indicates that the St. John's River has a potential to overflow its banks, an analysis which differs from the 1998 projection. Mill Creek is still projected to overflow its banks and cause problems through town. Packwood Creek would create no problems and Evans Creek only puts a few smaller areas at risk.

In addition to showing places at risk of a 100-year-flood in dark gray, the 1998 map used a lighter gray to show places at risk of a 500-year flood. When asked why the new map included only one shade of green, Benelli said that the final map could indicate which areas are at risk of 100-year floods and which are at risk of 500-year floods. He added that having to buy insurance for a 500-year flood “is not a requirement by any mortgage company that I'm aware of.”

Benelli was asked how the city's flood plain maps could have changed so much over the past 10 years.

“The methods to determine where the flood plains are have improved,” Benelli said. “It's all computers now. They've gotten much better at determining which areas are going to flood. They know what the volume of water would be. The software is capable of knowing where the water would crest its banks. I believe they did aerial photos to get the elevations in town – and for that matter, throughout the state.

“And the city has changed,” he added. “As areas develop, it does change the flood plains. A lot of times, when they develop a subdivision, they elevate the lots.”

Representatives of FEMA met with Visalia city officials on March 11 to explain the process for finalizing the maps. The city has published its required legal notice and is currently in the 90-day appeal period during which time it can appeal FEMA's assessment of flood elevations. FEMA will resolve issues and “finalize” the map, although a six-month adoption period follows, during which homeowners can file for an exemption.

“Homeowners still have time to buy insurance,” Caviglia said, adding the city will work to inform homeowners before maps become final so they can buy insurance at a lower rate, before their property's status as being in a 100-year special flood hazard area is official.

The proposed flood plain maps of Visalia can be viewed at City Hall East, 315 E. Acequia, Visalia. The maps of Farmersville can be seen at Farmersville City Hall 909 W. Visalia Road, Farmersville. The flood plain maps of unincorporated areas of Tulare County are available for viewing at Tulare County Resource Management Agency, 5961 S. Mooney Blvd., Visalia.

For more information, call 1-877-FEMA-MAP or visit www.fema.gov/plan/prevent/fhm/bfe.

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County Blueprint for Growth Offered Up for Vote

Tulare County - Residents of Tulare County are being given a say in how their county might look 40 years from now when it is projected the population will be near one million residents, compared to 425,000 today.

The Tulare County Association of Governments (TCAG) is in the process of developing a growth plan for the county that will “preserve and enhance the region's unique features, vibrant and culturally diverse communities, its rivers, farmland, mountains, recreation opportunities, natural areas and natural parks,” according to the Vision Statement of the process.

TCAG planners have been holding meetings with city councils of cities in the county. At each, the city leaders are being shown how their cities will look if no changes are made to how many housing units are allowed per acre and how their cities will look if cities increase the housing density.

“It comes down to preserving ag land and open space,” said Jason Waters, regional planner with TCAG, of the project's goal. He added other benefits of increasing housing density are more public transit and a decrease in traffic.

Now, it will be the public's turn, beginning with a meeting from 5-8 tonight at the Dinuba Vocational Center, 199 North “L” St., to offer input into the future planning.
Two other meetings are planned – Tuesday, March 25, at the Porterville Chamber of Commerce office, 93 N. Main St., and Thursday, March 27, at the Earlimart Elementary School, 192 S. Church St. – before a fourth meeting in Visalia will gather feedback from previous meetings for a final vote on the preferred map of Tulare County in 2050. That meeting will be on Tuesday, April 15, at the Visalia Convention Center. All of the meetings will run 5-8 p.m.

The meetings will give residents a chance to use interactive voting technology to cast their vote on the map they would prefer to see Tulare County grow into by 2050.
Residents will get a look at what Tulare County would look like in 2050 if development patterns and population projections continue as they are today, as well as if adjustments are made. Maps will also be presented that explore how transportation options would change population patterns and densities in Tulare County.

Elisabeth Wright, with TCAG, laid out the blueprint process for the Visalia City Council. She pointed out the process is to provide tools that will allow for better planning and to coordinate infrastructure plans in the Valley.

For Visalia, Wright showed four scenarios for growth, the first being how the city would spread out if little is changed, and the fourth if significant changes were made to how housing is planned.

Basically, the differences are on the focus of higher density of housing. Presently, the city's housing mix is roughly 12 percent low density (rural housing), 61 percent medium density (basically traditional single-family homes), and 26 percent high density (multi-family housing.)

If the city were to continue with that housing mix, by 2050 it would cover approximately 44,000 acres.

If that mix were to increase medium and high density housing by 25 percent, as presented in the second scenario, that city's footprint would shrink to 35,000 acres and if medium and high density were increased 50 percent, then the city's footprint would be just 29,000 acres.

If the city took a very aggressive approach to housing density, increasing housing density by 75 percent of what it is today, then the city's footprint would shrink to 25,000 acres.

Waters explained the city could increase housing density a number of ways, including smaller residential lot sizes and more multi-family units.

Councilmember Greg Collins questioned how the study addresses impacts on air and quality in the future, while Councilmember Don Landers said he wondered where the resources – namely water – would come from to accommodate the projected growth.

Scenario two and three both include some form of light rail between Visalia and Tulare, and Mayor Jesus Gamboa suggested that the state's plan for a high speed rail system through the Valley be incorporated into the plan.

“It's important that people vote on what they envision for Tulare County because the Blueprint will act as a guide for future growth,” said Ted Smalley, executive director of the Tulare County Association of Governments.

The final map will be presented to the Tulare County Association of Governments and once approved, it will be used to draft the San Joaquin Valley Blueprint's preferred scenario. The San Joaquin Valley Blueprint Planning Process will develop a cohesive regional framework that defines and offers alternative solutions to growth related issues for the Valley. It is a joint effort of the Great Valley Center and the following counties: Tulare, Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, Merced, San Joaquin and Stanislaus.

The Tulare County Association of Governments is a voluntary association of local governments, including each incorporated city and Tulare County. For more information on TCAG, contact Ted Smalley at 733-6291 or visit tularecog.org.

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Work Permit Plan Could Boost Farm Labor
Feinstein Bill Offers Five-Year Reprieve

Tulare County - With immigration reform stalled in an election year and just days before a judge could allow the “no match” social security letters to go out to the nation's employers – California Senator Dianne Feinstein is taking a bold move that could stem a growing fear factor among the state's farm labor workforce – a fear that their days working on Valley farms may be numbered.

Feinstein is said to be preparing to introduce a bill that would offer the existing undocumented ag workforce a work permit for five years that would keep them on the job, says Nisei Farm League President Manuel Cunha.

Feinstein's bill is said to be called the Agriculture Emergency Relief Act and aimed at ensuring that workers who are here and have been here for years driving tractors and irrigating our fields “don't walk off the job” this season which is set to start in just weeks.

“This is a temporary pilot program,” says Cunha, who was in Washington last week working out details of the plan. The proposed legislation will be announced a week before a federal judge will rule on a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) regulation that would force employers to terminate workers whose social security numbers did not match. The judge is set to rule March 28. DHS just published a new rule aimed at increasing civil penalties for employers who violate immigration laws. They could be penalized to as much as $16,000 per violation on a third offense.

DHS has introduced 26 different measures since last August to discourage illegal immigration spurred on by public opinion that may not sympathize with ag's unique situation.

The concentrated government crackdown on the undocumented workforce comes as tightened border security has created a fear factor in the farmworker community, says Cunha and other ag leaders. “Long time employees say they are tired and fearful and say this will be the last year they will work in the U.S. The tighter border controls make it very hard to visit their families in Mexico and return.”

One factor leading to a declining interest in staying in the U.S. is the downturn in the economy north of the border.

Many former farmworkers entered the construction trade in recent years but now are out of a job due to the housing downturn. Reports have surfaced of less money being sent back to Mexico in recent months because of a lack of work, according to a Mexican bank.

“All we need is for one raid and we will see our workforce walk off the job,” says Cunha, explaining why the Feinstein plan will offer a reprieve while full-scale immigration reform is debated in this country. “We believe the Ag Jobs provisions will still become law as part of immigration reform, but probably not this year.” Ag leaders note that Democrats, as well as Republican candidate John McCain, have supported Ag Jobs in the past.

Likely to support the new Feinstein efforts will be the UFW and labor that have partnered up with farmers at least over this issue. The UFW has been critical of some employers recently who they say aren't hiring local workers but seeking H2A workers when locals are available.

California farm leaders say the majority of their workers are undocumented and the loss of that workforce would be a devastating blow to the industry.

Cunha says Feinstein's bill will also streamline the H2A provision that allows employers to bring in temporary guest workers. Cunha says he and several other California ag leaders continue to work on a plan to bring in some 500 Central American workers this season – perhaps June or July to help with this year's harvest.

Demand for farm labor in the Central Valley peaks from about June through August as tree fruit, grapes and raisin season requires perhaps 60,000 farmworkers in the Central Valley.

Ag leaders have looked to Washington for the past decade to help them normalize their current illegal workforce by a combination of legalizing the workers already here and a plan that will allow guest workers when needed.

So far they have had no success on either front.

“This is a time bomb just ready to go off,” said California Farm Bureau member Luawanna Hallstrom.

Well publicized efforts to hire more border patrol (more than 2,000 added last fiscal year), and build more miles of fence along the U.S./Mexico border and anti-immigrant laws in some U.S. states, has created an atmosphere of fear among workers, say ag leaders. Immigrant workers have always been on the watch for “La Migra” – immigration authorities who raid farms in the U.S.

Citizen patrols have added to a nervous time for workers as well. Technology has helped border patrol agents become more effective at clamping down on illegal border movement.

There were high hopes last year that immigration reform or Ag Jobs would pass muster in Congress, but that effort stalled yet again last summer, setting up this new Feinstein initiative. Cunha says Feinstein will introduce the bill in the Senate and hopes to “move it quickly” as an emergency measure. He expects support from President Bush.

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County Upholds Librarian Firing

By Miles Shuper

Lindsay - Claiming that the firing of a library assistant was not connected to her reporting to police of a man allegedly viewing child pornography in the Lindsay Library, Tulare County Supervisors Tuesday stood by the dismissal but have launched an independent investigation into the matter.

Following a long closed-door session, supervisors announced that Brenda Biesterfeld's dismissal at the end of her six-month probationary period was due to “legitimate business reasons unrelated to her report to the police which supported her release from probation.”

The statement, issued by Board Chairman Connie Conway, states Biesterfeld has been asked to allow the county to release information and documents related to her performance “and if she allows this, we will do so.”

The librarian assistant's dismissal has gained national attention and been the subject of numerous interviews and discussions on radio, television and in the print media. A prayer vigil was scheduled in a church across the street from the Lindsay Library three hours after the board's announcement was released. Prior to going into closed session, the Rev. Karen Stoffers of the Lindsay United Methodist Church asked the board to do the right thing and to reinstate Biesterfeld.

In addition, the county was notified by the Liberty Counsel, a non-profit litigation, education and policy organization, demanding she be “promptly reinstated to her former position and that she be fully compensation for her lost wages and damages incurred as a result of her wrongful termination.”

The organization, with offices in Florida, Virginia, Texas and Washington, D.C. with hundreds of affiliate attorneys, also demanded that the policy be changed in order to provide the protection innocent children deserve.”

Biesterfeld, a Woodlake area resident, reported on Feb. 28 that she saw a man looking at photos of naked young boys on a computer. After reporting the matter to her supervisor, Judy Hill, she was told to merely make a note on the man's library account, and if she saw him do the same thing again, to notify him to stop.

Biesterfeld says she was told not to call police. The man, Donny Lynn Chrisler, 38, is deaf. On March 4, the librarian said she again saw him viewing what she considered pornography. Concerned that a crime was being committed, Biesterfeld reported the incident to police the next day. Biesterfeld was fired March 6 by county head librarian Brian Lewis.

An “employee performance evaluation for the position of County Librarian” was the topic of the addendum to the closed session on Tuesday's agenda, but no mention of Lewis was made in the statement issued by Conway.

The county has steadfastly maintained that Biesterfeld's firing was in no way connected to her actions regarding Chrisler, in contrast to the allegations by the Liberty Counsel.

Conway's statement begins with the supervisors' condemnation of “the evil of child pornography. We support the strict enforcements of the laws that forbid it, and we pledge to fully cooperate with any criminal investigation involving it. Our county's residents demand and deserve wholesome, safe and respectable communities based on the law, the values and the standards we mutually respect.”

It also noted that the County Administrative Office will continue to review the operations of the county library system and will include law enforcement and national respected library professionals in the process. “We will scrutinize the library internet policies to ensure that all citizens, particularly our children, are protected.”
Although there are safeguards on library computers, access reportedly was gained via the use of an e-mail address.

In its letter to the county, Liberty Counsel disputes the county's stand saying Ms. Biesterfeld was terminated “allegedly because her performance was unacceptable. This allegation was flatly untrue. Her employment reviews have been above average, she had been specifically told that she was doing a great job and she has not been previously disciplined or reprimanded.”

It continues, “The termination of a public employee in retaliation for the employee's speech on a matter of public concern is blatantly unconstitutional.”

Citing a letter from the Lindsay City Council blasting the handling of the matter by library management as “deplorable,” the Liberty Counsel demanded a county response by the end of business on March 25. If there is no response, the letter states, “we will have no choice but to aggressively pursue all legal options in order to vindicate the rights of Ms. Biesterfeld.”

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What's New

Westlake Farms big composting plant being built in Kings County by the L.A. County Sanitation District will begin its first building construction in May, says farm owner Ceil Howe. “They are out to bid on the company's administration building right now and with the second mixing building under construction in early 2009.” Actual composting will take place in 2010. It turns out it will take about 10 years from the time the project was first considered to operation.

The strategic planning committee at Kaweah Delta Health Care District has concluded that when the Northern Expansion is completed – and after an additional 109 parking spaces are provided directly west of the new facility – a helipad will be situated in the Kaweah Delta parking lot at the northwest corner of Locust and Mineral King, near the current main entrance. The helipad will be provided for companies who use helicopters for emergency transport. “We will not own or operate a helicopter,” said Lindsay K. Mann, CEO.

Westlake Farms used to have nearly 50,000 acres of wheat and in fact the west side of the Valley used to be characterized as the state's “grain belt.” Today, Westlake has a small fraction of that acreage, but owner Ceil Howe says the price run up in the past year are more than doubling – it's awfully attractive. “We're looking at $350 per ton” wheat price. That compares to $157 per ton average in 2006/07 and $126 per ton in 05/06 for all wheat, according to USDA. The high price has prompted bakers and food companies to raise prices at the consumer level and has brought about a public opinion backlash typically blaming biofuels. But wheat growers point out that from that $2 loaf of bread, the wheat farmers gets just 11 cents. It's more likely prices are going up due to the fuel cost for bringing the bread to the supermarket.

Lively race set for District 5 in Kings County this June. Three candidates have filed for the seat that includes much of eastern Kings County. The candidates are incumbent Alene Taylor, businessman cheese maker Richard Fugundes and activist Andrew Mattos.

Saputo Inc., which operates a cheese plant in Tulare, announced last week that it has instituted legal actions for defamation jointly with Lino Saputo against certain Canadian newspapers and their journalists in connection with the content of articles published on Dec. 12 and 13, 2007. A penal suit in defamation has also been instituted in Italy against the Italian weekly L'Espresso and its journalists regarding articles published on Nov. 22, 2007. According to the company's web site, the Canadian newspapers suggested Lino Saputo was under investigation by the Italian police. The web site also stated that “a certain Mariano Turrisi, the person against whom legal proceedings are directed in Italy, has admitted using the name Saputo in order to imply that the corporations under his control, Made in Italy Spa and Made in Italy Inc., would be acquired by Lino Saputo.”

The State of California remains at odds with the U.S. Forest Service over the issue of roadless areas on federal lands. Last week, California's Secretary for Resources Mike Chrisman questioned a roadless area speech delivered by U.S. Agriculture Undersecretary Mark Rey as being, “difficult to comprehend.” Chrisman said the state does allow the USFS to build roads to fight fires, contrary to a statement by Rey. In February, however, the state sued the USFS contesting four Southern California forest management plans. The litigation alleges that the Forest Service failed to consider California's roadless area policy in violation of the National Forest Management Act. In addition, the complaint claims that the Forest Service failed to conduct appropriate environmental analysis in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act.