Monterey County

Hospitals around the Central Coast are seeing a huge influx of patients suffering from flu symptoms. 

The Monterey County Jail has faced criticism from immigrant rights groups for working closely with ICE. That’s federal Immigrations and Customs Enforcement. A new state law is forcing the county to change that practice.

Representatives from those immigrant rights groups stood with Sheriff Steve Bernal Monday as he made an announcement they’ve been waiting to hear.

“ICE will no longer have access to a desk inside our jail by the end of this week,” says Bernal.

The only way ICE agents will be allowed inside the Monterey County jail is if they have a warrant.

Customers of the water corporations California Water Services, Golden State Water Company and California-American Water may soon be seeing rate increases on their monthly bills. The three companies provide water to areas of Salinas, Monterey County, Los Osos and Santa Maria on the Central Coast, and all have asked the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to approve rate hikes. 

This week in local government in San Luis Obispo County, the board of supervisors has a full agenda of grant and funding allocation items, such as $755,000 for marketing and advertising for the San Luis Obispo County Tourism Business Improvement District for the next fiscal year. The board will also hold a hearing on issuing bonds to help pay for upgrades to facilities for developmentally disabled people in the county, and review the county’s year-end budget report. 

Opposition is growing against a bill in the California Legislature that would add strict new requirements before any counties can contract out for government services.

On the same afternoon the Whittier Fire ignited near a summer camp in Santa Barbara County, another fire broke out east of San Miguel, on the border of rural eastern Monterey and San Luis Obispo counties.

This week the Monterey County chapter of the organization Guitars Not Guns was named “Non-profit of the Year” by California Senator Bill Monning. The all-volunteer group provides free guitars and weeks of lessons to children and teens to encourage development of positive pastimes. Since 2009, the group has worked with just under 1500 kids in Monterey County cities and towns. 

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) this week issued a $400,000 fine to Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E) for safety code violations. The citation results from the failure of a transmission tower near Moss Landing three years ago. 

In late May the California Public Utility Commission (PUC) approved an “area code overlay,” meaning phone companies will start issuing numbers with a new area code on the Central Coast - and beyond - starting in the summer of 2018. 

Work continues this week on the demolition of Monterey County’s Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge on Highway 1. On Saturday, a CalTrans crew succeeded at bringing down the whole middle section of the bridge in one spectacular crash.

On local government agendas this week, the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors will continue the hearing that began Monday morning on the Phillips 66 oil-by-rail project appeal. A handful of supporters spoke in favor of the oil company’s plan to build a rail spur to its Nipomo Mesa refinery; dozens of speakers stated their opposition to the project. The Board will resume hearing public comment on Tuesday morning.

On Wednesday, city officials in Salinas voted to sue the Trump administration in federal court over the president's executive order against sanctuary cities. 

On Central Coast county government agendas this week, the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors will hold a hearing on the Phillips 66 Rail Spur project set to go before the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors on March 13, next Monday. Santa Barbara officials are urging their San Luis Obispo counterparts to reject a Phillips 66 appeal of the 2016 San Luis Obispo Planning Commission decision to deny the project. 

This week the city of Salinas is hosting a free public forum on immigration. The forum will be primarily held in Spanish with English translation. 

In Monterey County, a Caltrans crew spent Tuesday afternoon evaluating the Pfeiffer Canyon Bridge, just north of Big Sur Pfeiffer State Park. The bridge was closed last week due to damage from the recent rains. Since then, the saturated, sliding land underneath has moved the bridge seven inches. 

UPDATE: WEDNESDAY, FEB. 22, 2017: Caltrans says the bridge is beyond repair and will have to be replaced entirely. 

In this week's local government roundup, Tuesday is a day of strategic planning for the San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors. It will consider adoption of the county’s five-year infrastructure and facilities capital improvement plan.

The board is also slated to consider appointing former KPRL conservative talk show host and former Thousand Oaks mayor and city council member Dan Del Campo to the San Luis Obispo County Planning Commission.