By Sarah Lombardo
While the Saratoga Creek lawsuit against the city waits for an appeal ruling, tensions over the condition of the creek continue to rise on the City Council.
Councilman Jim Shaw at last week's council meeting asked the council and staff to respond to a letter from Don Whetstone, a member of the Friends of Santa Clara County Creeks, which is suing the city. In the letter, Whetstone points out errors by San Jose State University instructor Rhea Williamson in a report commissioned by the city in early 1996 and presented to the council in February. In a letter responding to Whetstone's observations, Williamson admits to having typographical errors in her report, but maintains that they do not change her conclusions.
"[The errors] have no impact on the conclusions made in the above-mentioned report pertaining to coliform levels in the Saratoga Creek. ... I apologize for any inconvenience associated with these typos and interpretation judgments. The compilation of this report required considerable work in reviewing files. The use of very different techniques for coding, numbering and identifying station locations made the interpretation more difficult; however, we did what we could given the circumstances," Williamson's letter stated.
Before Whetstone addressed the council, Councilman DonWolfe addressed Shaw.
"Jim, are you aware that Mr. Whetstone is part of the group suing your city?" he asked. When Shaw said he was aware, Wolfe said, "And do you agree that it might be unseemly for any of us to be perceived as waterboys for the adversaries of the people who are suing the city of Saratoga?" In a phone interview, Wolfe said he made the comment in response to what seems to be support for plaintiffs in the lawsuit on the part of Shaw and Councilman Stan Bogosian. And, Wolfe said, the lengthy discussion about the creek issue never seems to come to any solutions.
Shaw jumped on the remark made at the meeting: "You've made that allegation several times, and I categorically reject that from personal and professional standpoints," he said. "I make my own decisions. I just happen to be sympathetic to some of the views expressed by Mr. Whetstone, Mr. [Jeff] Schwartz and Mr. [Vic] Monia. But those are my convictions, my position, and I hope you understand that."
Bogosian said that regardless of the lawsuit, he felt an explanation was in order for why a report for which the city paid a little more than $11,000 had errors in it at all.
Whetstone echoed the sentiment and invited the city to sit down with him and review the facts he has compiled on the issue of pollution in the creek.
"The time is long past when you should go over the facts," he said.
Mayor Gillian Moran suggested that the concerns about Williamson's report be sent to her so that she might be able to respond to them, and that the issue be brought back to the council for discussion later in the year--after the city has dealt with its budget issues.
"I know I am concerned with a clean creek," Moran said. "And what I have heard here tonight has not gotten me any closer to a clean creek."
The lawsuit against the city was brought by the Friends and the San Francisco Baykeepers in January 1995. In their complaint, the Friends and Baykeepers contend that discharges from storm drains into Saratoga Creek contain dangerously high levels of fecal coliform bacteria, organisms that live in the digestive tracts of mammals and can indicate the presence of sewage or other harmful bacteria in the water.
The case was dismissed in late March when a San Jose federal magistrate determined that the city was not responsible for discharges from the storm drains because the California Department of Transportation owned the drains. Friends and Baykeeper said they agreed to have the case dismissed instead of going through trial in order to speed up the process. They have appealed, and a decision is expected to take from nine months to a year.
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This article appeared in the Saratoga News, May 14, 1997.
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