By Allison Jarrell, Special to the Independent
Dozens of residents who attended a city-led open house at the Community Center on Wednesday, April 11, witnessed some heated exchanges between opponents and advocates of the city’s proposal to fund undergrounding of utilitiesin Laguna Beach.
The city held an hour-long public open house to gather community input and further educate the public on the issues driving the move to underground utility poles and lines along Laguna Canyon Road and other evacuation routes, and the funding options the city is considering for the $135 million project.
The city is urging the undergrounding of utility wires due to potential fire danger as 90 percent of the town is in a “very high fire severity zone,” according to CalFire. The city presented data that backed up this concern, citing at least six firesover 11 years in Laguna Beach “caused by power lines and utility equipment.” The city also points to state data showing 58 vehicle collisions in the same time frame on Laguna Canyon Road involving utility poles.
In order to address these public safety concerns, the city is examining ways to fund the undergrounding of its utilities, including a 1-cent sales tax that would cover roughly $80 million, existing city funds including Measure LL funds and street lighting funds, and a general obligation bond covering about $35 million. The latter option is estimated to cost homeowners about $11 per $100,000 of assessed property value annually.
While the majority of residents perused the informational poster boards peacefully, some shouting erupted. Attorney Jennifer Welsh Zeiter, who has said she’s considering running for City Council, yelled out repeatedly that the city’s open house was an illegal use of taxpayer funds by advocating for a ballot measure. Welsh Zeiter co-founded the group S.T.O.P.(Stop Taxing Our Property), which opposes the city’s proposal to tax residents to help pay to bury the wires and remove the utility poles. “When you have a city advocating for its own tax measure, it adversely affects the integrity of the electoral process,” she said.
Welsh Zeiter’s yelling provoked shouting by others, who questioned her authority on thesubject. At some point, several uniformed officers arrived. In an interview afterwards, Welsh Zeiter said she felt police were attempting to intimidate her in order to suppress her opposition to a city-backed initiative.
Welsh Zeiter said the watch commander told her police Chief Laura Farinella had requested officers respond to a disturbing the peace call at the meeting.
Resident Tom Gibbs of the grassroots organization Underground Laguna Nowsaid opposition to proposed financing forundergrounding is premature.
“It hasn’t even been determined whether there’s going to be property tax increases,” Gibbs said. He added that if votersapprove a property tax, the preliminary estimate is that it would add no more than $250 per year to property tax bills. “It’s a small price to pay for safety,” Gibbs said.
When asked about funding options for the undergrounding, City Council member Bob Whalen, a vocal advocate of the project, said there may be a way to get it done with just a sales tax hike and existing city funds.
“We listen, we take feedback from people, and we’ve heard some support and some opposition for the property tax, so we’re going to have to take all that into account,” Whalen said.
Shohreh Dupuis, assistant city manager and director of public works, said a second surveyregarding funding options for the undergrounding of evacuation routes in town will be released soon.
The City Council is tentatively slated to review the results of that second survey and discuss next steps at its May 22 meeting. If the Council decides to move forward with pursuing a ballot initiative, adoption of a ballot measure would tentatively be considered on June 26.
The public open house was intended to gather community input and allegedly further “educate” the public on the issues of undergrounding utility poles. How can the public make an informed, educated decision when all the information, posters and videos were advocating FOR the bond measure and sales tax increase? When Jennifer spoke to state her opinion and offer other information/facts in opposition, Matt Larson, who chairs the City’s “Emergency/Disaster Preparedness Committee” got in her face and yelled “Shut up!” over and over again. Matt Larson started the sparks and spittle flying. I admit Jenifer could have handled Matt with more decorum but placing the blame entirely on Jennifer was not accurate.
If you are going to report news you shouldn’t show bias in your story. You should be reporting the entire story or you are not credible. I see this as an attack on Jennifer Zeiter. You conveniently leave out the part about Ms. Zeiter being bullied by a couple of people who I will leave nameless at this time but you certainly should have reported their actions, which you must have witnessed along with the harassment and ugly words being blasted continuously at Ms. Zeiter. The city doesn’t like vocal opposition to its agendas. At one point I had to step in front of one man trying to confront Ms. Zeiter for the umpteenth time and tell him to “stop stalking Jennifer”. At least one of the people mentioned above did have the decency to send an apology to Ms. Zeiter the following day. Then to top it off in your biased column, you make up quotes. It was the Assistant City Manager Shohreh Dupuis that called Police Chief Laura Farinella who in turn called in half the police force that was on duty that evening in an obvious attempt to intimidate and squelch Ms. Zeiter’s First Amendment rights opposing the City’s under-grounding agenda using taxpayer dollars. I’m not sure what the Assistant Manager could have said to the Police Chief on the phone that could have possibly deserved any deployment of our police officers and there certainly is no way they can justify the number of officers that arrived at the meeting. I wonder where their presence would have been more useful for the citizens of Laguna Beach. If you are going to quote someone then be sure to get it right. I am quite certain that Ms. Zeiter’s intention was to come to this meeting and share with residents some facts that the city and its continued lack of transparency was not forthcoming about. The city loves to sell fear and there is certainly a conflict of interest when the city continues to want to float bonds for multi-million dollar projects they come up with at taxpayer expense. Where was all this push to underground utilities 25 years ago? I expect better reporting from our local journalist. This is a hit piece on Ms. Zeiter, joining the city to silence their opposition. Shame on you!
Yep. Above all true. Although Jennifer Zeiter’s velocity and pitch was not what my ears wanted to be subjected to, at least she was offering a counter to the city’s well-paid effort to induce fear and taxes upon Laguna homeowners. Matt Larsen shouting “SHUT UP JENNIFER!” and other bullied words were much worse than Jennifer’s offerings.
And I also wondered why several Laguna Beach Police were called the Open House when autos plow through crosswalks, motorcycles roar up and down our streets, cigarette smokers walk through out the city and beaches, and pedestrians and cyclists are injured or killed over and over again. Should the police be out THERE instead of inside Suzie Q?
I wonder that since Shorheh Dupris moved into town with her 50% discount on a home and ZERO percent interest rate on her 1/2 of the mortgage that perhaps there are poles and wires that negatively affect HER views? Maybe that’s why there’s such a condensed effort 25 years AFTER the most devastating fire of Laguna Beach(which was NOT caused by power lines or poles…) to rake in more taxes to underground electric power? Who knows? Just wondering…..maybe that’s why our city states that the city itself cannot fund the undergrounding?
Surely if undergrounding is THIS urgent, this life-threatening and the only way to be “Safer and Stronger”, shouldn’t the city just go ahead and pay for it all with the yearly surpluses?
I was at the open house and from what I saw, the article is quite accurate. Jennifer Zeiter and the STOP group came to make their point. They have that right. Where they crossed the line was the yelling and accusations, and the refusal to engage in a calm and fair discussion of the facts and issues.
We all need to take a breath, and be open to the views of all sides. I hope the STOP group chooses that approach.
What the City presented at the meeting were important facts including that Laguna Beach is in a high fire area and that the above ground utilities present a serious fire risk (indeed have caused several fires already). Both the Tubbs fire in Napa and Santa Rosa, and the Thomas fire in Ventura and Santa Barbara were caused by power lines, and caused loss of life and homes. Need I mention the following mud slides. To say it won’t happen here is wishful thinking. I and I believe the vaste majority of the community will chose not to take that risk.
The City’s role is to present the facts on a matter of critical public interest as it did at the open house. It is for us to debate them fairly and openly, without what happened. I hope we can all do so in the future.
I was at the open house and from what I saw, the article is quite accurate. Jennifer Zeiter and the STOP group came to make their point. They have that right. Where they crossed the line was the yelling and accusations, and the refusal to engage in a calm and fair discussion of the facts and issues.
We all need to take a breath, and be open to the views of all sides. I hope the STOP group chooses that approach.
What the City presented at the meeting were important facts including that Laguna Beach is in a high fire area and that the above ground utilities present a serious fire risk (indeed have caused several fires already). Both the Tubbs fire in Napa and Santa Rosa, and the Thomas fire in Ventura and Santa Barbara were caused by power lines, and caused loss of life and homes. Need I mention the following mud slides. To say it won’t happen here is wishful thinking. I and I believe the vaste majority of the community will chose not to take that risk.
The City’s role is to present the facts on a matter of critical public interest as it did at the open house. It is for us to debate them fairly and openly, without what happened. I hope we can all do so in the future.
Nice copy and paste from Tom Gibbs and Nancy. Busted!! Full transparency: Tom Gibbs is the front person for Underground Laguna Now, and is a neighbor of Bob Whalen. It was Tom Gibbs that made FALSE statements about STOP at the last City Council meeting (April 10th), claiming the STOP website said “no fire in Laguna had ever been caused by under-grounding.” That’s a blatant lie Tom Gibbs, as the STOP website has never said that. As I recall Ms. Zeiter, expressly said to you at the Wednesday so called “educational” event that she did not appreciate your misrepresenting the STOP website to the city council. Maybe that’s why you are so angry with Ms. Zeiter? You lied and she busted you on it. Good for her. I sure hope YOU can do better in the future. The City is pushing its under-grounding agenda with taxpayer money. Try looking up Govt. Code Section 54964(a) and the Political Reform Act. City is going to be busted too! And hey, try not to misrepresent fire facts “causes” either – Cal-Fire has not determined the “cause” of any of those fires yet, and until they have you are just blowing smoke (which is illegal in Laguna!)
*ever caused by under-grounding” above should have read “ever caused by electrical wires, above ground utilities”. The fact is this was never stated on the STOP website! Perhaps people who speak at City Council meetings should be under oath.
I did not say that at City Council. Rather, I was very clear that above ground wires have caused fires in our town but we have dogged the bullet of a major fire so far. Other towns like Santa Rosa and Ventura have not been so lucky. I support undergrounding because I don’t think as a community we can take the risk.
As a last thought to WJR, the mean spirit of your note and of comments made by some STOP members at the open house do not advance the debate. The issue of undergrounding concerns all of us in Laguna, and it is important that we engage in a fair and civil debate to best inform the community. I encourage STOP and all of us to do so.
@Tom…Go back and listen to yourself on the tape and then you can apologize. Fair=Truth
We were required to pay to have our utilities put underground on temple hills whether we supported it or not. We should not be taxed again to underground utilities for someone else’s benefit. Undergrounding is the first step in widening the road, so they can create more traffic, more tourists, so they can make more money. I’ve lived her 60 years and no power lines has caused a major or significant fire. The “Fire” BS is just that, it’s hiding the true agenda.
[…] article “Sparks Fly at Open House” should have been followed by “City Attempts to Shut Down Free Speech Opposing […]