RON DAVIS -- THROUGH MY EYES

Did you hear Huntington Beach was considering becoming home to a

professional sports team named after our sewers?

The Leakers. We were going to be great at dribbling, the running-game

and the fast-break. Only our line would be questionable.

The city officials won’t enjoy me making fun of our sewer system.

They’ll want to remind me that almost 100% of the Downtown sewers have

already been slip-lined. True, but not the point.

In 1996, the city discovered our deteriorated sewers were leaking an

estimated 71,000 gallons of raw sewage into our soil every day. (While

the city now contends that that estimate may not be entirely accurate,

they weren’t disputing that estimate then.) To put that into perspective,

that’s about 26 million gallons of leaking raw sewage a year, making

Huntington Beach less of an affluent community and more of an effluent

community.

To illustrate the magnitude further, that’s about 518,000 50-gallon drums of sewage into our ground annually. Yet, the City Council waited

until 1999 to begin the repairs. The world worries about the greenhouse

effect, and I worry about the outhouse effect.

Today, the stuff has crept out of the soil and onto the fan. Grand

jury subpoenas served on city employees are as common as beach closures.

The Grand Jury inquiry will probably focus on whether the city failed to

properly report the sewer leaks to other governmental agencies. But, to

me the issue isn’t whether other governmental agencies officially knew or

not, but why our elected officials waited for three years to begin the

repair.

There will be an unwarranted temptation to blame the city

administrator or various department heads for the failure of the city to

promptly take action. But they did their job. Their job was to report the

condition to the City Council. The city administrator and department

heads are not free to spend our tax dollars on anything, even sewer

repairs, without the City Council’s approval. And that, the council

refused to do.

Our elected officials will no doubtedly defend their three-year delay

and an estimated 72 million gallons of sewage later, arguing that the

city didn’t have the money. Try that at home. Let your home sewer leak

into the soil in your backyard. And when the city drops by, just tell

them that you’ll get around to the repairs in two or three years when you

get the money. Have you ever worn handcuffs before?

Raising fees or taxes is tough political business. It’s tough because

taxpayers suspect that not a great deal is being done to squeeze every

nickel out of government the way government squeezes every nickel out of

us.

Politicians recognize the creation of fees or a fee increase can cause

a political future to wind up in the same drain as our sewage. So, in

1996, when the elected officials knew that sewage was being dumped into

our soil, creating a risk, whether large or small, to our beach and our

ground water, the majority of the council opted to protect themselves,

rather than the citizens of this community.

They did so because it wasn’t politically correct to insist on tough

cuts or new fees. They did so because the sewage was swept under a carpet

of concrete, asphalt and lawns, thereby protecting their political

futures.

I expect my political leaders to be just that -- leaders, not

followers. A follower is one who assesses what is politically correct and

who weighs the will of the majority, and follows those indices to

re-election.

A leader also makes the same assessment, but he or she evaluates the

needs of the citizens, whether they fully understand that need or not,

and elects to serve the needs of the people, rather than his or her

selfish political needs.

A leader has to make some tough, often unpopular decisions, which may

cost him or her the office. But, my friends, that is the office.

Followers 1, Leaders 0.

* RON DAVIS is a private attorney who lives in Huntington Beach. He

can be reached by e-mail at o7 RDD@socal.rr.com.f7