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Contra Costa County, CA November 4, 2008 Election
Smart Voter Political Philosophy for Ray Tetreault

Candidate for
Director; Town of Discovery Bay Community Services District

[photo]
This information is provided by the candidate

For more information, please see my web page at http://www.simon-tetreault.com

  • Why I am running

I am running for director because this is my home and my community. I have been a resident for 11 years. I care deeply about Discovery Bay and important issues such as growth and policing. As a prior CSD director, I have extensive knowledge about Discovery Bay and the issues that come before the board. As a voluntary member of SMACK (Sherriff Municipal Advisory Committee for Discovery Bay) I have a solid understanding of the policing challenges facing our community. I very much want to bring civility, openness and financial prudent decision making back to our board.

Since I left in 2007, things have dramatically changed. I continue to go to almost every single meeting and have observed first hand the disharmony between the residents of Discovery Bay and the CSD board. It appears to me that the current board occasionally treats the residents in an uncivil manner. They have become more secretive and have made it more difficult for a resident to get information about CSD Board actions. I am concerned about CSD board decisions that have significant financial consequences for Discovery Bay, especially in the area of attorney fees, discretionary spending and the payment of fines/levies. Issues that are important to me are growth, policing, landscaping and fiscal responsibility.

  • Issues facing our town: Financial Accountability

I am very concerned with a number of decisions made by the board that have significant financial consequence. For example, there is a law suit pending against the board. The proposed settlement is for the board to make a resolution that in the future, they will follow the law as set forth in the Brown Act. The proposed settlement would have no finiancial impact on the town. Yet our board is stubbornly refusing to resolve the law suit and as spent $90K dollars on attorney fees fighting the lawsuit.

Another example would be the town's payment of various fines and levies. We need to do a better job managing the vendor that manages our sewer and water. The mentality that it is "cheaper to pay the fines and levies than fix the problem" is simply not acceptable. We need to deal with the problem and end the fines.

  • Issues facing our town: Sewer Spill & Response

I have watched the majority of the board mishandle The sewer spill in the Lake Shore. In July approximately 100K gallons of raw sewage flowed into the lake at Lake shore. Despite repeated requests by residence, NO ONE turned off the fountains for almost a week. The sewer spill itself was a preventable problem. South west water did not properly test the equipment. When the regional water board requested reports on the spill, the CSD was unable to give them the documents on time.

When elected, I will be responsive to the comments of the citizens, and I will do my very best to make sure our board deals with matters on time.

  • Issues facing our town: Policing

We need more sheriffs to police our town. As a voluntary member of SMACK (Sherriff Municipal Advisory Committee for Discovery Bay) I have a solid understanding of the policing challenges facing our community. We need to continue with our efforts to reallocate the P-6 funds collected by the county from our the Lakeshore development. These funds need to come back into Discovery Bay so we can contract and additional deputy or add more deputy hours to the Discovery bay Patrol.

If this can not be accomplished, then I would push for a measure to be put on the ballot to obtain additional patrols for our community.

I will continue to work on the SMACK committee to keep and open communication and good working relationship with the Sherriff's office.

  • Why you should vote for me

I successfully served Discovery Bay as a past board member for six years. I have the experience necessary to bring change.

Since leaving the board, I continue to attend every board meeting because I care about Discovery Bay. I thoroughly understand the dynamics of the current board. During my term on the board, our town built two water treatment plants, a waste treatment plant, and a state of the art slug drying facility. I negotiated with developers with a goal of building a community center. I continue to sit on the community center committee.

I support managed growth for discovery bay. I do not support high density housing because I do not want DB to loose its "small town" feeling. I have the experience to bring Civility and Balance back to the board. I am Fair and professional. I AM and WILL BE responsive to the concerns of DB residents. I will support more town meetings to get input from our residents. I will work to create a more open board. I will ALWAYS be financially responsible and accountable to our residents.

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Created from information supplied by the candidate: October 16, 2008 18:18
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