Dam politics get tricky for the Valley's leadership

May 20, 2006  -  Top Valley government and community leaders are still struggling to solve the political pickle that is state Assembly Speaker Fabián Núñez, a Los Angeles Democrat.

To refresh, the Democrat-led state Legislature earlier this month passed a $37 billion bond package.

Valley officials were outraged for two reasons: The deal contained no money for local water storage, and Assembly Member Juan Arambula, a Fresno Democrat, got punished big-time by Núñez for abstaining on a vote pushed hard by the party leadership.

A coalition of Valley leaders, led by Fresno Mayor Alan Autry, was created to get a dam and extract Arambula from the doghouse.

And there lies the paradox that bedevils the coalition.

Neither dream will likely come true until the coalition turns Núñez to its side. That's because the powerful speaker controls the votes to get things done and the pecking order of Assembly Democrats.

But by embracing Arambula's abstention and publicly kicking Núñez, the coalition fires a shot at the party loyalty.

Fresno City Council Member Tom Boyajian hit this nerve on Tuesday when he cast the lone no vote on a resolution supporting Arambula.

"When you get elected in partisan politics, one of the most important things you do is you go with the party line," Boyajian said.

The coalition met again Wednesday at Fresno City Hall, where members pitched ideas for getting what they want. One idea: send a caravan of buses crammed with dam and Arambula supporters up Highway 99 to Sacramento so folks can personally vent their outrage on Núñez.

Orange Cove Mayor Victor Lopez shuddered at the thought: "If you think you're going to take a bunch of people and scare the speaker, you're dreaming."

Dam politics, part II

The local bond politics will get even more complicated as the November election draws near. That's when voters will take up the measure, which would pump billions into schools, levees, housing and roads.

Statewide, the package has drawn widespread bipartisan support, meaning leaders of both political parties -- including the governor -- are expected to work to get the bonds passed.

If local politicians campaign against the bonds, they'd be swimming against the statewide political tide. When the bond first passed the Legislature, Autry suggested he might do just that.

But he may be changing his tune.

On Friday, the mayor said he's "leaning toward supporting the bonds."

His reason? He said the governor has given him assurances that he will "fight hard" for water storage money. Autry made the comments while driving to the Central California Mayors Conference, where Gov. Schwarzenegger was scheduled to sign the $4.1 billion levee bond.

Autry even had nice words for Núñez.

"Fabián's a decent guy," Autry said. "I just don't know what's happened to him."

Meanwhile, a leading area Democrat said Friday that the water fight is out of control.

"There's so much rhetoric you can't get to the truth," said Steve Haze, chairman of the Fresno County Democratic Central Committee.

He criticized Autry for taking a "take-no-prisoners" approach to the water issue. Haze, a candidate for the 21st Congressional District seat, wants to wait until studies are finished on the proposed Temperance Flat dam before making any spending decisions. The studies are expected to be completed in 2009.

"I want to hear from the experts, not the politicians," he said.

The incumbent, Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Visalia, replied in a statement: "As we all saw with the flooding on the San Joaquin River in April, the time to build a dam near Temperance Flat is now."

Six-minute lesson

Fresno County supervisors agreed to give Catholic Charities a second chance after the nonprofit missed a deadline to apply for federal funding.

Catholic Charities, which operates the Neighborhood Activity Center in Laton, filed its application six minutes past the 2 p.m. March 13 deadline.

"We missed the deadline," Executive Director Cathy Caples said this week. "There was a series of circumstances that led to it being six minutes late. Call it human error, a communication error, the traffic, it was a combination of all those things."

Nearly $650,000 in federal money is available to agencies that operate neighborhood resource centers in Fresno County. The centers, similar to community centers, offer parenting classes, summer activities for children, mental-health counseling and other services.

This year, the county required the agencies to apply for the money through a competitive bidding process. Eight applications were received by the deadline.

Because Catholic Charities was late with its application, it means the organization likely won't have money to continue operating the Laton center, which made contact with nearly 5,400 people this year, Caples said.

Supervisor Judy Case informed the board about Catholic Charities' situation.

"This is a nonprofit group that's trying to do right by the community and six minutes means they will lose all the hard work they've done," she said.

Other board members agreed, but said they wanted to make sure it remained a competitive process. So, the board reopened the bidding process to agencies in Laton, setting aside $141,000 for that community.

Caples said the agency has solicited donations and will have enough money to operate through September, but she said she was relieved the board agreed to give the agency another shot.

"I certainly hope we're going to get it," she said. "I think all of us who work here feel so horrible about what had happened. We certainly learned a hard lesson."

Bee staff writers Kerri Ginis, George Hostetter, and E.J. Schultz contributed to this report. The reporters can be reached at kginis@fresnobee.com, ghostetter@fresnobee.com, eschultz@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6330. Send suggestions for the political notebook to metro@fresnobee.com.