The best candidates for CLCWA Board
The election campaign for the two board of director positions for the CLCWA can be summed up as follows:
There are two candidates that are independent of any special interest groups, John Morrow and Gordon Johnson, who have pledged to continue the current CLCWA policies that have provided the CLCWA residents excellent service, low taxes and low water rates.
They support the plans for the new detention areas in the old golf course and the other beautification plans. They support the CLCWA placing the entire golf course property in a conservation easement with the Galveston Bay Foundation to preserve this land in perpetuity, free from all commercial development.
Their opponents do not support these plans to keep rates/taxes low and reduce flooding problems in our communities. Do you want people on the board who don’t understand how to keep water rates and taxes low or how to reduce flooding problems in our area?
Their two actively campaigning opponents, who are supported by special interest groups, are campaigning on several claims against the CLCWA board.
The first is a claim of financial mismanagement by the CLCWA even though audits and the low water and tax rates provide overwhelming evidence to the contrary. (Tax and Water Rate comparisons to other entities in the area can be found at clcwa.org under General Information, Rate Surveys.)
They also claim that use of reuse water for lakes and streams in the proposed exploration green detention/recreation facility will lower property values. Again, all evidence points to the opposite. Their reuse water scare tactic is not based on any facts and is only designed to mislead people about the facts. Reuse water has been used in the CLCWA for over 20 years (see clcwa.org for details) to provide water for irrigation of the golf courses (Bay Oaks and the Clear Lake Golf Course) and the UHCL grounds, as well as filling the lakes on the golf courses.
Their other complaint is that there is not flooding in our communities. They point people to flood plain maps that show most of the CLCWA area is out of the flood plain. On the other hand they say that there is flooding but it could be fixed with simple approaches.
Note that over 200 homes have filed flood damage claims in the CLCWA in recent years. Also note that in the last 40 years we have experienced seven 100-year rain events and three 500-year rain events.
Apparently these opponents don’t realize that the Tropical Storm Allison Recovery Project (TSARP) maps only show the flood plain based on tidal flooding. The CLCWA engineers and hydrologists, who are recognized for their outstanding work, have assured us that our flooding issues can’t be fixed by using larger inlets and larger pipes because these approaches have been tried in several other areas without success.
The primary reason these simple fixes won’t work is that our subdivisions were designed to use our streets as part of the drainage system and “simple fixes” will not work for our ponding problems. The detention system planned for the former golf course is a rare opportunity to retrofit the original development with detention, which will control the sheet flow off of the former golf course and at the same time lower the level of the water downstream.
You should also understand more about these two candidates:
One is a subdivision designer, not an engineer, who described a design of a subdivision for the former golf course, an event that has been documented and discussed with several people. He showed them his design for development of the former golf course. Bottom line is that the development community has not given up on the development of the former golf course for residential and commercial use and this candidate seems very interested in his own potential financial benefit from such a development!
The other is a person who was elected to the CLCCA and while serving was required to resign from the CLCCA for failure to attend meetings. He is clearly not a person committed to civic duty.
There are two other candidates who are not campaigning at this time and don’t seem to be interested candidates for the board of director positions.
If you want two independent board members who are not swayed by special interests, who support continued low taxes and low water rates, and who are very qualified to be members on the CLCWA board of directors vote for Johnson and Morrow. (See their platform at: http://johnsonmorrow4clcw.wix.com/johnsonmorrow4clcwa)
Vote early for Johnson and Morrow,
April 28 through May 6 at the CLCWA main office
or vote for Johnson and Morrow on May 10 at your designated voting location.
(Find your voting locations at: http://www.clcwa.org/elections.htm)
Ruby Cubley
Clear Lake City
