A Conflicted MAC

At the Tuesday, March 23, 2021 vote conducted at the Salida Municipal Advisory Council meeting regarding the Salida Gas Station Project bordering the Vizcaya neighborhood; MAC members were conflicted and in more ways than one.

A straw-poll vote of those attending the meeting, Salida MAC member, John Martin, made a motion to not approve the gas station and Vice-chair Brad Johnson seconded the motion. 

New MAC board member, Bob Elliott, who was sworn into office in January 2021, voted against the motion saying, "I'm going to vote nay because I just think there's some information that the public has that may not be totally correct and that's the basis of some of the comments." Mr. Elliott never specifies what the "some information" is. When he joined the Salida MAC in January he gave a brief introduction of himself saying his occupation was "sales for a software company." Mr. Elliott does not announce his new job as of March 1st is in real estate for the very same company handling the sale of the land for the gas station. 

Salida MAC Chair, Leng Nou, also voted nay, "...only because there was strong opposition we heard at previous community meetings, and whether it's because of noticing, I don't know but I know that we have community members here tonight with five no's as opposed to a roomful before."

Now why Salida MAC can vote "yes" on the CSA tax annexation with a majority of ten people in favor and she votes "no" with a majority of five voting against and many more than that at all the previous meetings is questionable. There weren't any Salida residents who attended the meeting that voted for the project in the straw poll vote. And as to the low turnout of residents at the meeting, there were several issues that impeded attendance like no meeting notice was sent to the Salida MAC e-mail list, two different agendas circulated and the one posted on Facebook did not contain a hyperlink to the meeting, and the county switched platforms from Zoom to Microsoft Teams. 

Considering that Bob Elliott is now employed with the real estate company handling the land sale for the Salida Gas Station, that should have conflicted him out of the vote. Should Leng Nou also have been conflicted out of voting because she is an employee of Stanislaus County? 

John Martin points out that the county really seems to be pitching for this project because they will get "75% off" the land price for a drainage basin. Stanislaus County Public Works Director, Dave Leamon tries to explain his stance, but it does sound like a pitch in his comments about the basin.

Salida MAC is an advisory board and so is the Stanislaus County Planning Commission. Our county supervisor is the only one who has a binding vote on this issue. The Salida MAC vote unfortunately split, and if occupational bias was involved, this advisory vote should be reviewed by county counsel. Salida MAC board members are elected to represent the community and not their employers. 

Please support our Salida neighbors in the Vizcaya community and sign the petition here.