The notorious Deel Cartel, represented on the Newberry CSD Board by Paula Deel and Victoria Paulsen, represents two of the swing votes necessary for the release of the Kiewit Pacific community funds that have been essential for the protection of Newberry Springs from the proposed massive solar invasion.

    Both Paula Deel and Vickie Paulsen have continued to cripple the community by illogically refusing to release the community funds.  Obstinately, siding with them is board president Robert Springer.

    The foremost responsibility of these elected representatives is to best represent the community.  President Robert Springer's support for the cartel and his failure at leadership has been disappointing.

    The paralyzation of leadership in Newberry Springs is indicative of why the Newberry Springs' population has been dwindling and why the community is economically severely depressed.  With approximately 920 registered voters, only about 165 Newberrians voted during the last CSD election.  In voting for familiar names and popularity over that of qualifications, one of the most intelligent candidates in the last CSD election came in last.  Newberry residents repeatedly get what they vote for.

    Director Larry Clark's abandonment of protecting the community is refreshingly straightforward.  He has advocated for solar development in the Silver Valley as his business may benefit from solar.  Clark appears to be a straight shooter in unblushingly betraying his community for the proverbial thirty pieces of silver.

    Clark's meritless threat of possible litigation resulting from the Kiewit Pacific fund being used to fight utility-scale solar has obviously rattled the core of directors Deel, Paulsen, and Springer.

    While Clark's threat is baseless, it has been learned that it is difficult to convince unschooled people otherwise.  Clark's role as a spoiler has been exceptionally costly to the community.

    Should the proposed massive solar facilities in Daggett and Newberry Springs be built, the communities are expected to suffer drastically.  The increase in particulate dust particles resulting from the projects will greatly impact the lives of the residents.  Children will suffer the greatest negative impacts.  Land values are expected to tumble.

    Paula Deel and Victoria Paulsen are buddies and both are board members on Paul Deel's Newberry Springs Economic Development Association (NSEDA).  Together they pretty much consist of the board which is Paul Deel's platform to toot his economic development ideas.  Great economic strategies that include the community's peasants growing garden vegetables to tote to farmer markets.

    Paul Deel is preparing to sink tens of thousands of dollars into developing his experimental farm expecting Newberry citizens to abandon their own land to grow gardens on his sharecropper's field.

    Naturally, the risk money isn't coming from Deel's own pocket.  He doesn't have it.  He has reportedly acquired $10,000.00 from the Mojave Water Agency in the form of a grant.  Of course, we all know that the MWA acquires its money from the local taxpayers and that it is our money that is going into the Deel's folly.

    The local leadership's ideas of success are so "limited" that Newberry Springs continues to be held back and trampled upon.

    The pathetic unprofessionalism of the Newberry CSD Board members has depreciated into what can only be now described as stupid rhetoric.  Director Deel has placed an agenda item for the next upcoming Newberry CSD Board meeting asking, "Can the CSD legally spend money contributed by Kiewit Pacific Co. to fight the construction of the proposed Solar Project?"

    Deel then goes on repeating material that has already been previously discussed, analyzed, and printed about earlier this year without her previous attention nor action.

    The urgency of this matter has been addressed at each monthly board meeting since January 2018 by Ted Stimpfel at the Board's podium.  So, the Board has been idly sitting on this urgent matter for over a half year.  Despite this website's previous blogs having answered Deel's question repeatedly of the Board's role in detail, Director Deel and the others still don't get it.  They appear to remain dumbfounded over their duty as acting trustees of the Kiewit Pacific fund.  The trust fund is a completely separate role from that of the CSD.

    Contrary to Deel's writing, the Kiewit Pacific funds were never "contributed" to the CSD.  The funds were acquired by CEQA NOW, and other parties that included the CSD as part of a legal settlement.  The winning appellants agreed to allow the elected CSD board to hold the funds and to distribute the funds to the community.  The funds were never released to the CSD's general fund as the funds belong to the appellants and placed under the CSD's control for management.  This is a typical trust-type arrangement that the CSD has failed to live up to for over 14 years!

    The Newberry CSD has exhibited gross negligence in its fiduciary handling of the Kiewit Pacific funds.  Instead of maximizing the funds with high-ratio matching grants, the money has been largely squandered with some of the funds now being unaccounted for.  The appellants should now consider taking the funds back and legally requiring the CSD to replace any missing or unaccountable funds.

Incompetence.

    As highlighted in a previous blog, some current CSD Board members may be held fiduciarily liable for damages due to their breach of duty.  As the funds are outside any prevue of LAFCO, any state protection for the Board members as elected officials probably won't apply, including insurance and legal coverage.

    As a result of the Board's paralyzation, Newberry Springs has been injured by not having an adequate response to the Daggett Scoping, and it is being furthered injured by currently failing to properly address a "Conditional Use Permit To Construct And Operate A Utility-Scale Photovoltaic Solar Energy Installation That Would Produce Up To 650 MW Of Energy With Up To 450 MW Of Battery Storage; Major Variance To Exceed Established Height Limit."

    Only Newberry CSD board member Robert Shaw has been a local good guy crusading for the release of the Kiewit Pacific funds to protect the community.

    Through the ballot box, the community has failed to elect the caliber of leadership necessary to preserve Newberry Springs.  The community of Newberry Springs, as we know it, is now being lost through incompetence.