In its last meeting on July 24, the Livermore City Council majority approved the Consent Calendar item 5.3, which is Rincon Consulting producing a program Environmental Impact Report (EIR) on areas outside of the Livermore city limits and urban growth boundary (UGB). City Councilman Barrientos dissented. In discussion, the council majority patronizingly characterized the opponents of this EIR as “afraid.” I am an opponent of this frivolous EIR, therefore, I, too, must be “afraid.”
I was recently homeless for seven years — six years, nine months continuously in Livermore. In my time, I have had guns pointed at me; I have been shot at and luckily not hit; and I have had a knife pulled on me. What am I “afraid” of again? Oh, “information”… information from an EIR.
Really? Professionally, I have debugged and tested software that was over one million lines of C Language code; I have designed and implemented environmental databases, including a database that assisted in the production of Northrop’s B-2 Stealth Bomber at their Palmdale facility so that chemicals could be applied in accordance with South Coast Air Quality Management District’s (SCAQMD) regulations.
I am “afraid” of information from an EIR? What fantastical, delusional cloud does the Livermore City Council majority live on?
Who is “afraid” of information? How many and what were the qualifications of consulting firms that bid to produce this EIR in response to a Request for Quote (RFQ)? Certainly, this wasn’t sole-sourced, as that would conjure the suspicion of unethical behavior in regard to (a) pre-ordained conclusion(s).
Does the City of Livermore have sufficient resources to protect, maintain, and repair its current infrastructure, within the UGB, from the growing threat of climate-disruption extreme weather?
The “information” from the EIR wasn’t even the point of us opponents. The main point of us opponents was the tragic waste of over $307,000 for Rincon Consulting to produce this fatuous EIR. What are the opportunity costs of this money? They can be measured in death and suffering from my vantage point.
How much of $307,000 did my dead homeless friend, Carl Feighner, need, along with a continuum of care and support, to have a better outcome than he had?
“Wait, you tell us that we’re wrong / And you tell us not to sing our song / Nothing we can say will make you see” (Sinead O’Conner (1966 – 2023), “Drink Before the War”)
