Newberry Springs, CA - So many mindless acts bubbled out of the Newberry CSD's monthly Board meeting on Tuesday, August 27, 2024.

    One week earlier, directors Jack Unger and Margie Roberts presented the CSD's appeal arguments on the Planning Commission's acceptance of the BMT Minneola Solar project to the county's Board of Supervisors.

    The presentation developed by Director Unger went off without any incidents. The only problem, however, was the presentation was exceptionally amateurish and void of any meaningful content.

    Mildly stated, Jack Unger's presentation was asinine. He ignored many legal points of contest that had been presented to him and the CSD that were pertinent to the appeal's legal argument. Why he refused to use them isn't known.

    The CSD Board had originally voted to oppose the solar project totally. Then after a hissy-fit tantrum by Director Unger, who didn't want to change his presentation that supported the BMT Minneola Solar project, the remaining board members foolishly caved. They voted to allow the childish pouting Unger to give his presentation.

    Why would the CSD Board file an appeal only to later flip on the community's residents and support the solar project?

    Why would the other board members cave into one director's demands? Because they are incredibly weak individuals. Chairwoman Paula Deel is Mickey Mouse. She doesn't like conflicts and refuses to take a strong stand for the community, so she compromises.

    Director Margie Roberts is whimpy. She lacks vision and leadership skills. While volunteering to co-host the appeal presentation before the Board of Supervisors, she ended up solely acting as the clicker-girl advancing the presentation slides for the egotistical Jack Unger who dominated the CSD's entire presentation.

    The outcome of the appeal before the Board of Supervisors has greenlighted the BMT Minneola Solar project to proceed. Directors Jack Unger and Margie Roberts have been exclaiming what a wonderful job they have done. But just what have these Bozos accomplished for us?

    These two have given us yet another solar project that could have been stopped. A solar project that will illegally add cumulative carcinogenic dust upon the residents of Newberry Springs.

    So what are directors Unger and Roberts so excited about? Well, they got the Board of Supervisors and the solar developer to agree to all three of their wanted conditions for the project's approval.

    The first was that lithium-ion storage batteries would not be permitted. ~ This was a stupid and a moot condition as storage batteries were never a part of the project. Yet, half of Unger's presentation before the Supervisors concentrated on lithium batteries. This alone muddied the presentation and made it dorky.

    Their second condition was that the solar project would connect to the 12K distribution grid. ~ Well, that too has always been a part of the project. So, the CSD directors were doubling down on Jack Unger's dorkness. Yes, the presentation by Jack Unger and Margie Roberts was that bad!

    The third condition that they pushed for was dust control. ~ While that may sound good, what they agreed to and got was even deeper stupidity. They settled for the same exact County language that was used for the Clearway Energy's Daggett Solar Power project.

    We all know how that has impacted Newberry Springs. The original idea of the CSD's appeal was to prevent such. But Unger's aging mind doesn't seem to understand the implications of what he is doing. And everyone else suffers.

Happy, happy, happy!
CSD directors Mike Matson and Jack Unger celebrate a birthday over Paula Deel during the August 27, 2024, Board meeting.

    Chair and director Paula Deel didn't have to give any sales pitch. Without allowing any prior public comments, she quickly placed a 50% raise in the CSD's directors' stipend up for Board vote.

    With surprising speed the measure quickly passed unanimously as Deel found her CSD buddies ready to support their self-serving pilfering of the CSD's treasury.

    With the threat of a major disaster from the many acres of lithium-ion solar batteries upwind to Newberry Springs residents, the NSVFD will be exploring ways to alert residents should an industrial solar battery thermal runaway fire occur.

    A lithium-ion thermal runaway fire erupts almost instantly. This chemical-induced fire gives some downwind residents only about one minute before being impacted by deadly fumes.

    Director Unger has proposed a telephone tree warning system. Because the alert timing would be of the essence, and because some people don't have phones, or won't answer a phone while sleeping, I proposed a fire detector being placed in each industrial solar lithium-ion battery compartment that would be linked to instantly trigger sirens located throughout Newberry Springs.

    Little known by most is that elected officials in California, including CSD officials, owe a fiduciary duty to represent the highest and best interests of their community that elected them.

    The Newberry CSD has failed this with the BMT Minneola Solar project. In fact, it appears that the CSD Board members allegedly operated outside the scope of their authority in negotiating and accepting a 'Condition' on the approval of the BMT permit that will allow additional cumulative carcinogenic silica dust to endanager the public that they represent.

    The CSD should have followed their original vote to fight to kill the project. But by listening to Jack Unger, they stepped into deep shit!  Therefore, the Board members and their individual personal assets can be held liable for the public's damages.

    At the last Board meeting, I attempted to warn the Board of this liability so that perhaps they could mitigate their failure by filing a timely appeal of the BMT project on the behalf of the community (not the CSD).

    Unfortunately, the Chair, Paula Deel, did a power play by cutting me off with the arbitrary and capricious 3-minute speaker limit. Anyone who later feels impacted by the BMT dust is welcomed to contact me, a legal layman, on the case law that can be applied to Paula Deel and the other CSD directors (minus director Matson who spoke before the county Supervisors opposing BMT).

    These CSD clowns take a pay increase and refuse to protect the lives and the property of those they represent. They need to be held responsible.

Newberry CSD director Margie Roberts.

The ineffective fiddling Jack
while Newberry suffers with
carcinogenic dust.