JOSHUA BASIN WATER MEETING PART 1 OF 2: SURPRISE OBJECTIONS TO WATER PLAN

In recent weeks, Joshua Basin Water District General Manager Kurt Sauer has made impassioned pleas for public input on the agency’s draft urban water management plan. At last night’s meeting, much to everyone’s surprise, he got it. Assignment reporter Mike Lipsitz explains in this first part of a two-part story…
As soon as last night’s public hearing on the urban water management plan began, it was obvious that it was not going to be an open-and-shut item followed by board approval. The first member of the public to speak was Joe Fairbanks who began reading from a carefully crafted letter written on behalf of the Transition Joshua Tree Water Group; Fairbanks facilitates that group. The letter touched on several aspects of the urban water management plan it says falls short, plus objected to the narrow window available for public review. When the timer signaled Fairbanks time was up, he passed the letter off to the next speaker like a baton, who then passed it to the next, until all the points in the Transition Joshua Tree letter had been expressed. The group called for the board to table any vote so as to allow more time for review and that’s exactly what they did.