CAVE or “cavers,” as locals commonly call them (Cambrian’s Against Virtually Everything), also known as sticks in the mud, have cost the district more than $200,000 in frivolous legal attacks designed to slow down or derail the water emergency project. The ugly meetings that resulted are an unpleasant reminder of dealing with free speech and the Brown Act. 

It was embarrassing to watch neighbor vs. neighbor attack each other and the Cambria Community Services District Board of Directors in the worst type of civil discussion. I am a water conservation consultant and have customers on both sides of the fence in this fight. The fact remains Cambria’s water source is protected against seawater intrusion now and for ever by design.

Protecting Cambria and all of the coastal zones against seawater intrusion is and should be the number one goal for all the right reasons. CCSD General Manager Jerry Gruber and the board grabbed the bull by the horns and rode it. They should be supported for their civic productivity. They actually built something and solved a problem.

The money issues the CCSD is having is loose marbles that will be refinanced and dealt with in a government bureaucracy that will work itself out.

Misleading letters like “The CCSD’s water situation is dumbfounding” (Sept. 10) mislead us.

Whether you agree with my version of the CCSD’s situation or not, these board members are civil servants, contractors, and professionals that had to suffer through the ugliest verbal discourse and still they performed for the community when many would have through in the towel saying, “I don’t have to take this abuse!”

It’s time to take pride in leadership and stop dumbing down the conversation with dumb misleading letters. This fight is over, let’s move on to the real issues of restructuring our water income equation, i.e. lost operating revenue do to conservation. This issue needs to be addressed and Mr. Gruber didn’t invent it or have any control one way or another.

Money will have to be raised or redistributed in some fashion. How? I don’t know, but I hope we can have a discussion based on the real issues and not fight over the small stuff with misleading statements.

-- Jim Aaron - SLO/Cambria