Glenn

I'd like to setup a meeting with you to discuss the following concerns: 

1) Monterey County Civil Court Records  (concerns for organized criminal activity)  .

1. Monterey County is not making civil court records public via internet as is required by state code 

2) Monterey County Assessor  (concerns for organized criminal activity)

1. 10% penalty on late payments vs 1 to 2% per month as it typical in other jurisdictions / states

2. Assessors are using the title of Appraisers in a misleading fashion

3. Someone in Monterey County Assessor's office did a 5 minute assessment that was going to increase our taxes by over $1000/year into perpetuity. They have been given 6 months to explain their assessment and they haven't been able to do it while refusing transparent dialogue

4. Assessor's office has stated we are due a refund of about $400  for  a $40,000 over assessment and they suggested it was going to be returnd but they've refused to follow up and tell us when or how we will see refund

5. The email dialogue I have compiled since November is startling

3) Monterey County Dump / Waste Management  (concerns for illogical fee structure for improper disposal of treated lumber)

1.  Monterey County charges a $50 surcharge for any treated material in addition to weight. 1 lb or 1000+ lbs it's the same $50.   Then, instead of asking the hauler to separate that from the other debris, we are just putting it with the rest of the debris in a way it could never be sorted out properly or easily.   This is an obscene abuse of the Monterey County tax payer and hauler.  The trash and recycling  substation in Salinas that was NOT  run by W/M before it shut down charged no surcharge and there was just a separate dumpster there we dumped the items into. They also allowed us to separate some metals and concrete from treated lumber and trash voluntarily after paying for all of it as debris. It was a far better system. In the case of the treated lumber, the theory is you don't want that material making it to the part of the landfill that requires organisms to break down trash because it contains a pesticide. However, to charge this fee and do absolutely no sorting makes no sense at all and it's an inverted tax on small haulers that encourages them to dispose of it improper ways.

4) Waste management Contracts with Monterey County Unincorporated residents   (concerns for organized criminal activity)

1. We just got  BIZARRE notices from Waste Management indicating our recycling had been contaminated 2x in the past month and if we do it again, instead of a $30 fine, they are suggesting we will have to upsize our container for 12 months which would be a $240 penalty.  We haven't had a problem knowing what was recyclable and what was not for 4 years. Why is this happening to us now?   When I called into WM to ask about the correlation between contamination and upsizing a container, two levels of their customer service couldn't understand what I was asking because it didn't make sense to them. I had to send them the violation letter -- and they have acknowledged that that was NOT the standard penalty letter they are use to seeing.  They are now providing me feedback indicating something strange has seemingly transpired in the contract system for Monterey County Unincorporated -- and it may have started with the last contract approved as of December 3, 2024.  I'm trying to find out now if the details of the new penalty clause were in the contract you approved or if that is happening outside of the contract.  What they have created is a situation in which instead of being able to levy a $30 fine they can levy $240+ and there is no way out of it because you all have required all people to get service  with few exceptions (fascism at work). -- AS bizarre as this sounds, WM  can actually send people out to drop things in people's can's that causes these upsizing requirements given the cans sit on the side of the road waiting for pickup. What a great way to increase revenues, against customer interest, yes?  We've not had problems with contaminating our recycling for 4 years. They can't prove we actually put the plastic grocery bags in our recycling but we can't prove we didn't. The concern here, is that the permission to release from a requirement to subscribe to a for profit service is controlled by Monterey County Health ( again, they are granted odd control of our life?)

5) Monterey County Health  (concerns for organized criminal activity)

1. 25% penalty for a late payment on a well system license vs something "reasonable" as is typical in other jurisdictions / states. 

2. The rural well system license fee is $1066. That was under $952 last year and it was around $750  4 years ago.  These are 10% increases a year for what is 4 courtesy water samples. There is nothing protecting us from them. 

3. Obscene fees for permit reviews compared to all other services

4. Excessive illogical regulations

5. Dishonest representation of water connection rules and laws for small water systems. 

6. They just added testing for Hex Chrome to the courtesy testing back to reporting ater 10+ years indicating it was not an issue. This was added and removed about a decade ago, seemingly because they couldn't prove it was a health hazard. There are a lot of indications suggesting it is a laboratory run conspiracy.  The notice of adding back the reading was accompanied by a BIZARRE letter demanding well owners send scare notices to well water recipients and then report that notice to the MCH Department in a way that was overreaching by far. There was also bizarre legal-ease suggesting the system wasn't out of compliance but we as the system owners could sign a document suggesting it was...  Someone with seriously problematic mental health issues is doing very nefarious work in the MCH arena and they are engaging in legal-ease to do it. ...

7. The requirement for their approval of termination for a W/M residential garbage contract is over reach (fascist) 

6) Monterey County Fire ( excessive billing for permits 

1. Monterey County Fire - I did have to pay $180 or so for what turned out to be a 10 minute onsite inspection where an entire fire truck was rolled -- and those that came included a young person on probation and they openly admitted they do it for their own training benefits  -- AND all of these people were being paid to work that day by the County -- and many of them are making well over $100,000 year to sit and wait for the next fire or emergency. OR a county tax payer who's already contributing to Million dollar budgets to be coerced out of $180 for a nonsensical inspection.

Documents

When I come in to meet with you about these items above,  I'm not going to bring all documents to support each of these. I want a short meeting with you to see if you are seeing or hearing about this from others and to get a feel for your level of support or interest in this. After that we can determine the level of paperwork, documentation and emails you need from me to get something done on these items. 

Larger issues separate from these to be handled in separate dialogue

  As you are or should be aware, these are actually "minor" concerns compared to the local Judicial and Legal Lobby Corruption I've exposed and am pursuing -- and the failure of Monterey County Building Services and Fire to properly assess Moss Landing risk profile prior to approving battery plant systems that were inherently unsafe.   I do not want to mix these smaller concerns with those. I'm also uncovering major concerns with opaque instructions for small claims that have turned small business people into crime pays criminal just like the large corporations and other issues, which I will also try to keep separate from these.   

Something's very wrong in Monterey County Unincorporated area -- and it seems part of it has to do with this 5 person supervisory system where you all seemingly can NOT speak to each other outside of board meetings --  although maybe you will tell me it's something else and/or who it is that is promoting these types of anti-rurual resident situations.  

Please let me know when you are avail for a meeting. 

The office in Castroville is the most convenient for me. 

Bryan Canary

443-831-2978

<< extensive dialogue with Waste Managment Truncated -- Dialogue indicates the Board of Superivsors of Monterey County approved some type of private call center for Monterey County or Cental Coast Residents because WM national services just seemingly could not figure out how to serve rural residents in Monterey County properly >>

Bryan,

I don’t know if there is much I can assist you with as most of your questions are outside my jurisdiction as a county supervisor.

First, I don’t understand the reference to organized crime. You are expressing political opposition to some policies that are legally adopted while expressing frustration that some processes aren’t being followed. That doesn’t make it organized crime. If there has been malfeasance, you need to go to law enforcement. The Board of Supervisors is not empowered as the Sheriff or DA.

I’ll try to address your remaining questions as best I can.

1. Monterey County Civil Court Records are not something under the control of the County. The Superior Court is part of the State of California’s judicial system, not county government. I would suggest contacting the Presiding Judge of the Superior Cour or Court Executive. After that, the next step is the Judicial Council. The Board of Supervisors provides no direction or oversight of the courts.

2. Late fees are largely set by Revenue Taxation Code 482. It is codified into law. The Assessor is also a constitutionally independent elected official that the Board has some indirect influence through the budget and administrative coordination, but the Board of Supervisors cannot direct or interfere with the Assessor’s official duties per state law and constitution. You will need to continue to work with the Assessor’s office or contact the District Attorney if you have concrete evidence of criminal wrongdoing. 

3. I am not familiar with a $50 surcharge in Monterey County’s contract with Waste Management. However, Regen does charge $51.75 a ton for treated wood. That would apply to either 1 lb. or 1000 lbs loads. Is this what you are referring? This is a fairly standard policy for any garbage or material taken to a landfill. They usually measure by the ton, not prorated by individual pounds.

Monterey County does not operate a landfill. Both the Salinas Valley Solid Waste Authority, aka Salinas Valley Recycles, and Regen are operated by independent boards. Individual Supervisors do sit on those boards, but they do not represent a majority nor do these agencies operate under the direction of the Board of Supervisors.

I think the transfer station you are referring to in Salinas was the one operated by the Salians Valley Solid Waste Authority on Sun Street. Waste Management did not operate it nor do I believe they have ever operated a landfill in Monterey County. I believe the waste hauling contract in Salinas is a franchise agreement with Republic and Waste Management has no role. The City of Salinas is responsible for that contract.

I would suggest contacting either of the independent boards that oversee the Marina or South County landfills if you have ideas on how they should operate. I do sit on the Salinas Valley Recycles Board. If the concern you have is with Marina, you should make public comment to it during one of their meetings.

4. The policy you are mentioning was recently approved in the new contract with Waste Management that took effect this year. Contamination or overfilling a container can lead to upgrading to a larger container size if there are three violations within a 12 month period. If you feel that you have been targeted inappropriately, I can reach out to Waste Management and seek to correct the supposed “violations” so that you are not unfairly charged.

This agreement with Monterey County is nonstandard. You probably spoke to one of their Texas representatives who is unfamiliar with the local contract. Also included in the new contract is a local call center that recently opened. Those complaints should now be dealt with in a more timely manner with more relevant responses because of the call center.

If you have proof that Waste Management representatives are dropping material into containers, please provide that information. That is serious charge, and if true, needs to be addressed immediately. Fortunately, I have not experienced anything like that, although someone did drop a pizza box in my recycle once, but after my recycles were picked up.

There are several thousand people with garbage pickup exemptions that have been relatively easy to acquire. Please provide more details on why you have not been able to get an exemption, and we will look into it. It has been a standard practice for cities and counties to require garbage pickup because of health concerns for at least a couple of decades.

5. Monterey County has a well permit requirement when the well is drilled, but I know of no licensing requirement with a 25% penalty solely for wells. While there are efforts to establish a fee on wells for groundwater monitoring, I have been fighting that. I think you may be confusing the annual water system permits as well fees. My water system has two wells but we do not pay two fees. We only pay one for the system, not for each well. I agree that 25% is high. I have not done any comparison with other states or jurisdictions to know what is standard.

< this is the formatting  from the email -- suggest cut ant past into the email >
I also agree the fees for a four-connection water system are also too high. (The fee varies depending on the number of connections). I tried working with the Health Department in the first year I was in office to find something more equitable, but I ran into many roadblocks. The fact is water is going to get more expensive as the groundwater levels grow at risk. The state is imposing new regulations and fees at a steady pace.

 I don’t know what permit review fees you are referring to as obscene. However, I completely agree about excessive regulations and have trimmed off what I can when they have come forward for review. As mentioned above, the state is spearheading many of these regulations at the local level. I don’t know what dishonest representation you are referring as I never experienced it in the 7 years that I ran a mutual water system so I can’t address it.

 You are incorrect that hex chrome was removed a few years ago because no health hazards could be determined. The state withdrew that requirement when it was challenged in the courts by mutual water systems on the basis it was economically unfair, not that hex chrome was deemed safe. The state did and continues to believe it is a health hazard. I do have my doubts that it is as significant as the state suggests. The state is the driver on this and remediation will be enormously expensive.

6. I’m not following what incident you are referring. I am assuming the reference to Monterey County Fire is to North County Fire Protection District and not Monterey County Regional Fire Protection District which only includes parts of Bolsa Knolls in North County. North County Fire has its own board, budget and operations. I would suggest that you contact them for any concerns that you have with their operations.

Monterey County did not approve the placement of batteries at Moss Landing. It did approve a change in zoning from a turbine facility to batteries, provided permits for things such as grading and structural inspections of buildings. The county did not approve the specific batteries or placement nor does it have the legal authority as regulations currently stand. As a utility that permitting is the function of the state, namely the California Public Utilities Commission. At anytime, a utility can entirely bypass any county or city requirements using AB 205 and get approval from the California Energy Commission in 270 days. Monterey County does not permit electrical substations for the same reason. Even North County Fire can’t direct a utility to remove a tree limb because of a fire concern. The state is the primary regulatory agency.

As I have pointed out, most of your concerns are outside the jurisdiction of the Board of Supervisors. Most of your other concerns I am aware and some of them I am trying to address. I don’t think we need a meeting for the matters that I can help with, such as the garbage exemption. Please provide a copy of your request and the response you received if it was a denial.

You are correct that the Brown Act does create a burden on communication for a small body of five like the Board.

Glenn

Glenn

I appreciate the time you put into this response.  

Some of your responses are suggestive that none of the emails I've been sending to the District 2 email address are getting to you. I just realized you had a personal county email address and am wondering how much you've missed?

I would like to meet with you to discuss each item briefly to make sure we are on the same page and to understand exactly how you view your job as it pertains to these items. While some clarity was obtained from your response some significant concerns were also raised as noted below with the W/M atypical contract and special call center as well as the hex chrome matter and others. . 

I imagine a county supervisor to be a hub for information and a person interested in aggregating attention for concerns that affect a large portion of or all of your constituents.   If you don't feel something is within your jurisdiction, as you have stated below a few times, that is fine, but first i'm going to tell you i disagree on many of those items given you are the funding authority for the county and you have a right to demand we get the services we are told by law we are due or those which one might expect we are due.  

Telling me to deal with the people directly when in fact I'm doing that and getting no response -- and seemingly nobody else would either -- is why I'm asking to meet with you now. 

All of these are issues that may be affecting many county residents  and , unless I grossly misunderstand your job as an elected person -- which is the gist of what you're telling me for some things - I want to get an understanding of what i'm missing...

1. Monterey County Court Records -  You and the board allocate the budget for the Monterey County Court, correct? If so, you are allocating money for a county service that is NOT being provided  as expected by law. As the funding authority for our county i most certainly feel you and the other Supervisors then  DO have the position to write the letters and make the calls you want me to make as an individual (which i've already done and are being ignored).    The County is NOT following the law.   EVERYONE in Monterey County has a right to access those from the internet per state law and that is what our taxes are being paid to fund. YOU are our area representative and YOU are the Head of the Board of Supervisors as of now, yes?  Your response indicates you feel you should have the power to grant and set their budget but have no power to ask them why they are not performing and violating state law?   Do you see the conflict with your response there?   . That is NOT something I would expect from you, as our only elected representative ,  I'd expect you to say , "Gheez, this is a violation of everyone's rights.  I need to bring this up with the other supervisors and we need to write a letter to the court on behalf of all of our constitution to find out why the Courts WE ARE FUNDING VIA THE BOARD OF SUPERVISORs are not following the law.     As one of the leaders of Seaside said to me "Glenn is not acting properly. He and they dictate funding for the courts".  As far as I'm concerned this IS your problem and that of the supervisors -- unless you all feel the you all should be sued individually as well as the county  -- BUT who's gonna sue ?  All the Attorneys are benefitting from the lack of transparency.   As the person who holds their purse strings, to tell me they can violate state law and you have no interest is not a congruent thought. 

2. Assessor and Revenue Tax Code - You say late fees are "largely set by" --  but that's not clarifying for this.  Is the 10% late fee set by that code or not?  I've just read your bio to discover your family has been involved in the county for over 100 years.  Maybe that is part of the problem here. You don't seem to realize just how "obscene" this type of financial penalty system is to people who are not from a "good ole boy" type of county or state. As for the concerns with the Assessor, what I would expect you to say is, " Come in and tell me what's going on. This is concerning. It sounds like we have Appraisers that are not abiding by law and codes they are obligated to abide by --  and that might affect every person in our county. This is something we as a community should have concern about and we are the leaders for our community that can express that concern to give it a unfed voice". .  

3. $50 treated lumber fee - I stated it clearly but you didn't seem to be able to read it even though I can see you were Valedictorian so I know you can read well.  .  There is a tonnage charge for Construction Debris and/or or wood -- be it regular wood or treated lumber just like you said .   IN ADDITION TO THAT, if there is even one small piece of treated wood in the load ( a 2" long piece of 2x4  for example)  there is an additional $50 fee added to the tonnage fee.  A one page form is also required. Monterey County is negotiating a single service provider contract with the vendor(s) for the dump -- and yet now I think you are saying a non-elected board is in fact responsible for establishing that contract and overseeing those services? Hopefully that is not what you are saying...  YES I was referring to the Sun Street station that closed down and the new Republic Services facility around the corner that replaced them has obscene pricing. The corporate vendors are eating us alive and you all just keep giving them no compete contract situations. 

4. New Waste Management contract - It sounds like you know about the exact policy change i'm referring to and the one I'm concerned about.  What made you feel Monterey County needed a non-standard agreement?  Why are those who engaged in this getting our own call center to manage (or even hide) this non standard agreement?   What  was wrong with issuing fines per offense?  At $30 per offense that is motivation not to do it, and if someone needs a larger container it would be far cheaper for them to upgrade than to pay those fines so they'd make that decision naturally.  So where is the logic in this?
   
   Who thought this was a good idea? Who's idea was this to go non-standard?
   
   It seems clear to me someone is looking to benefit illogically from this -- to the extent they even want to hide it from W/M themselves...
   
   Standard practice for cities to require trash pickup makes sense. Counties not so much but in such cases, to think we only can choose from a  single contract provider, and you all and then get to set up pricing and illogical fines is what is referred to as a "fascist" system with no proper price controls.    Fascism is when you can't tell the difference between interests of government and corporate interests and W/M now has us all pinned in for whatever they want to do to us -- and for some reason, now, our county has entered into a non-standard agreement with them and is getting a dedicated call center ? Can you make any of that  make any sense?
   
   

5. Well System -  I have a well on my property and it serves 8 other homes. That makes me (and seemingly you)  a "small water system owner".   Small Water Systems are defined as systems with under 15 connections, As a small water system owner, I (and you)  have to pay an annual  fee to Monterey County Health Department (not the state) even though we are not formally regulated by them. They then do 4 water tests a year that are supposed to be for courtesy notice of contaminants and no enforcement for any systems under 15 connections. That annual registration fee has gone from $750 to $1050 in 4 years and it sounds like you don't even know it exists -- even though you then talk about a 4 connection system? So who is monitoring the MONTEREY COUNTY health department's ability to bill us??  You indicate you tried to work with them to find something more equitable but hit roadblocks.  YES, that is the problem.  Who is overseeing them? Who is monitoring their budget and who is restraining their ability to bill ?
   
   And then i'd like to get into the actual details on the annual billing statementl as an example.-- the bills are sent out stating "Payment is due 30 days from invoice date". yet there literally is NO INVOICE DATE on the document. There is something called a "transaction date" but these never seem to be sent out on that date. they are sent out about 2 weeks later and anyone getting one of these actually has only about 7 days to write a check and mail it to make sure not to get a 25% penalty. THAT's yet another example of some type of bizarre predatory billing practice as is also found with the Assessor...
   
   I'm not confusing anything Glenn but you seem to be crossing up some concepts illogically while then suggesting you know exactly which fee i'm talking about?
     

6. Mry County Health - Dishonest statements - As a prior well system owner, you have enough experience then to read and see what I'm talking about. I  will bring in the documents and show you exactly what i'm talking about. They have documents in the monterey county permit office that misrepresent connection requirements and a hoax was run on a friend of mine by Cheryl Sandoval and the monterey county permit office with false representation of requirements to add a connection to an existing well system. This is a BIG DEAL. it's on Monterey county documents and Sandoval and her boss know about it and have refused to respond.
   
   

7. Hex Chrome - See attached. The 2011 policy to test for it was not supported by science and they refused to to bring to date on the science in 2016 and 2201.   I encourage you to do more research and read all the facts about the historical implementation and removal of this concern and now the re-introduction.  HexChrome was designated a concern in 2011 without proper and transparent research into potential concerns. by law, any such health concern designation is to be reviewed every 5 years to make sure no new science reduces or eliminates health concerns and the state did not do that and that's why it was removed in 2016/2017 time frame as people started to put pressure on indicating there may not be any science to justify the risk .  And in fact, it all looks like really bogus stuff if you get into the hazard levels and the statistics.  It all looks like one giant money grab and fear mongering session to justify the county health departments.  Again see letter attached with details. 
   
   

8. North County Fire and the $180 inspection - Are you not reading any of the emails that have been sent to District  2 email? We pulled a permit for a Junior ADU inside our existing home. Nothing about the exterior was modified. The Monterey county permit office and fire treated it as if we had built a new building on our property and as if we had no use and occupancy on our property and they forced a brush inspection on our property and they wanted $180 for a permit review where there was nothing to review and they demanded a brush inspection on our property that has had a use and occupancy since 1967. Nobody is paying any attention to proper permit requirements or facts. and the North County Fire, which has obscene pay and obscene budgets -- is then demanding $180 permit review fees and  inspection fees for time they are already being paid for by our annual budget of millions already?  In addition, the Station chief there in north county had some other serious problems with communication that the county got involved with and corrected. Did you not get any of those emails when sent to District 2 email address?
   
   

9. Battery plant - I do NOT appreciate the double talk you just put in writing on the battery plant. just like I didn't appreciate the presentation you made at the town hall when we first met.  You are not being sincere. The fire chief at the town hall said they needed his sign off for those batteries and/or that facility. He indicated a lot of people came to see him at one time -- and they all assured him it was all okay so he went along with it. He did NOT do his job to ask for proper fire hazard information and THOSE PEOPLE who went to him en masse and got him to go along with it are the people who have yet to be held accountable and nobody seems to want to say who they were.

I would like to meet with you. Briefly go over each of these. Make sure you have a clear understanding of my concerns. Make sure you realize why many of these can or do affect all citizens in monterey county or a large portion of them -- and then  you can tell me  why you do or do not feel you can help out -- and our you can tell me when and how  I'd need to present these to the board instead of you, as part of proper process. 

Thanks

Bryan Canary

443-831-2978

I am receiving your emails.

I have no idea where you get the notion that I head the Board of Supervisors. Nominally, the chair could be referred to as doing that, but the chair’s powers are limited to helping set the agenda layout and running the meetings.

1. You are incorrect about court funding and so unravels your entire premise here. As I already stated, the Superior Court System is under the direction and control of the state, not the counties. The primary source is the State General Fund. The counties pick up a miniscule amount for things such as facility maintenance because these courts are generally on county land.

2. Yours is the only complaint I have ever heard where a 10% penalty is viewed as “obscene.” I recommend that if you don’t like what another constitutionally elected official does, such as the Assessor, that you work for the election of another one. They are ultimately accountable to the voters not the Board of Supervisors.

3. It seems you need to reread my answers. Once again, I’ll state, Monterey County does not operate the landfills. That is Regen and Salinas Valley Recycles. Monterey County is not involved in negotiating and contracts for any vendors at those landfills. That is the responsibility of Regen and Salinas Valley Recycles boards. Those boards have never been elected. The board members are elected officials appointed from the jurisdictions each agency serves.

4. A non-standard agreement allows the agreement to be tailored to the needs of Monterey County. It would not be responsible for the Board of Supervisors to take some standard agreement that Waste Management uses throughout the country and adopt it without question for Monterey County. That Waste Management was allowed to pass on the bills of those who did not pay to those who did pay with yearly price increases far in excess of inflation was unacceptable, and, in my view, a better description of “obscene.” This was an impetus for many changes in their recent contract.

5. Your earlier question was a comment about fees on wells, now you are referring to water systems. They are not the same.

6. There are a lot of documents in the county. I don’t know what you are referring.

7. I am very familiar with the Hex Chrome issue and was managing a mutual water system at the time. I did have involvement with the organization that challenged the Department of Water Resources regulations in court. The decision to suspend those regulations had nothing to do with what you are saying.

8. As I stated, if you have complaints with North County Fire, you should address their board.

9. I suggest you familiarize yourself with state law on utilities and batteries. I don’t have any files on presentations that I have done regarding the battery facilities nor have I ever given one. I have done town halls where others have presented information. You seem to be confusing me with them.

I’ve offered assistance where we can help and directed you to where you should go to seek answers on concerns outside my role as a supervisor. It’s your choice if you want to follow up on those suggestions.

Glenn