Your SDG&E bill at work

As your SDG&E rates increase unceasingly "for the infrastructure," never forget.

Union-Trib:

Here along jagged bluffs overlooking the Pacific Ocean, just south of the only liquefied natural gas plant on the west coast of North America, a luxury-appointed, mission-style resort has risen from the coastal scrubland.

Hidden behind miles of fencing and razor wire, Casa Azul is a little-known project of Sempra Energy [parent of SDG&E], whose chief executive Donald Felsinger personally approved construction of the $17 million-plus private conference center, according to work orders obtained by The Watchdog.

And:

OC Weekly:

In July–two days after Assembly Speaker Karen Bass and Republican leader Sam Blakeslee put [Mike] Duvall on the Rules Committee that oversees member ethics–the second-term, conservative, Republican assemblyman sat in a public hearing and vividly described lewd details about his trysts with a female lobbyist whose clients [Sempra / SDG&E] had business before another committee on which Duvall sits.

Gaspar vs SANDAG

Supervisor Kristin Gaspar:

Just when you thought it couldn't get any worse with SANDAG - San Diego Association of Governments, it does. The Executive Director's goal is to make driving, and as you're about to hear, PARKING, so expensive, that you will have no choice but to take public transportation. In my interview with Mark Larson Media on AM 760 KFMB, I shared how much Hasan Ikhrata (Exec. Dir.) believes San Diegans should have to pay to park around the county. You're not going to believe it!

Link to the interview: https://bit.ly/30G1mnD. I would love to hear your thoughts at StopTransNetRaid.com.

Also, please mark your calendar to attend our next SANDAG meeting on Sept 6th at 9 am. Our Board will discuss what projects we fund for the next 7 years. It is crucial that we hear from San Diegans who want SANDAG to follow through with its 2004 promise to repair and improve our highways! Meeting location is 401 B Street, San Diego, #800. Thank you for your support!

Leucadia geyser

Yesterday on 101:

 

8/28/19 City Council meeting open thread

Please use the comments to record your observations.

SDG&E wants to punish people for conserving energy and installing solar

KPBS:

San Diego Gas and Electric is looking to nearly quadruple the minimum bill it charges customers.

"The minimum bill amount currently is $10 per month and we’re proposing to increase it to $38 per month," said SDG&E Spokesman Wes Jones.

Jones added that the proposed increase comes as more customers are turning to solar.

"A solar household may not pay their full cost of service in terms of us giving them electricity and that cost is then shifted to a non-solar household for the grid to be maintained and operated," he said.

Critics of the proposal say it is a tactic by SDG&E to keep people from going solar.

They'll make you pay for their wildfires one way or the other.

8/21/19 City Council meeting open thread

Please use the comments to record your observations.

Fool's Gold Accounting at City Hall

There are two accepted financial accounting standards.  FASB (Financial Accounting Standards Board) is the gold standard used by private businesses that requires truthful reporting of liabilities.  The other is GASB (Governmental Accounting Standards Board), used by state and local governments.  It does not impose accrual accounting and permits aggressive assumptions for valuing pension obligations.


Under GASB, cities may report balanced budgets and surpluses that are neither.  It treats loans as revenue, avoids cost recognition by not paying expenses, and reports less debt than is actually owed. 


https://citywatchla.com/index.php/2016-01-01-13-17-00/los-angeles/18276-it-s-time-for-truth-in-state-and-local-government-finances

GASB accounting is the method used by Encinitas:

Jody Hubbard is a CPA.  Why does she stay silent when the Mayor touts the city’s great financial health?  Is she ignorant about governmental accounting standards?