Recall

By Henry Burtschi

Who and what is behind the recall?

Within the last 12 montha several people of a vocal group of constituents, mostly residing outside my District 4 bounderies, threatened me many times at public meetings and in private conversations with a Grand Jury investigation and a Recall if I did not cast my votes according to their views and and feelings. They showed up at every OID meeting all summer long with constant questioning and hammering away on any OID subject which caught their fancy to push their agenda. Well they did not like my voting record and followed through with a Grand Jury complaint and a Recall Petition. It is important to note that the Grand Jury after thorough investigation did not conclude any wrong doing on my part, no nepotism, no violation of the Brown act and no conflict of interest.

Despite this fact, the Grand Jury makes recommendations that appear to correct improper behaviour which leads the reader to believe that some wrong doing took place and the final report often uses such terms as "apparently", "perception", "feeling", "May have", "could have", "seems like" and "may have possibly". raising concerns about the objectivity of the report.

This "POW" group uses the Grand Jury report, my vote cast on the water transfers and my carefull view on annexation, as basis for the recall. And yet, for the last six years I faithfully followed my campaign pledge --- to make long neglected and badly needed system improvements (without any new debts), to conserve water, to strenghten the overall financial status of the OID, to lower taxes if possible, to address the many demands from the various powerful environmental agencies for fish and habitat and at the same time find balanced, long term solutions, without giving the store away.

Look around you, I truly believe that I contributed heavely toward these goals during my tenure, such as miles of main canals widened and rebuilt, many smaller old pipe lines replaced, regulating reservoir 90 % complete, 2 irrigation deep wells drilled,(the first in 59 years!) several longcrested weirs and new ranch outlets installed, land purchased for a North main regulating reservoir and many smaller projects, all accomplished without new taxes or new debts. The best of all, the taxes were lowered and our reserve account for future capital system projects to conserve water was built up from zero $ in 1995 to appr. $ 12,000,000.-- as of today. I truly believe the Recall against me has no merits. Please Vote "NO"