Climate change, the Graton Community Services District, the Grand Jury and the General Manager

By Jane Eagle

It has to do with the state of the environment and the helplessness we feel as individuals to make a positive difference.

"...Some things are so big you don't see them, or you don't want to think about them, or you almost can't think about them. Climate change is one of those things. It's impossible to see the whole, because it's everything."

"It takes a peculiar kind of genius to see the monster and to see that it might begin to be pushed back by small actions -- by, in fact, actions on a distinctly human scale that could still triumph over the increasingly inhuman scale of our era."

"If there is to be an effort to respond to climate change, it will need to make epic differences in economics, in ecologies, in the largest and most powerful systems around us. Though the goals may be heroic, they will be achieved mostly through an endless accumulation of small gestures."

"Those gestures are in your hands, and everyone's. Or they could be if we learned to see the true scale of things, including how big we can be together."

The Grand Jury, as usual, recommended that we do many things we have already been doing for years; some things we were in the process of doing; and many things that are unnecessary and more importantly, EXPENSIVE. They were focussed on the management of the Wastewater Treatment plant, which is not the job of a Board of Directors; however, they did recommend that we follow our outdated policy manual, which says the Board should be paid and be given health insurance! As dedicated and passionate Board members, we consider these things to be unnecessary expenses and think a majority of ratepayers would agree.

We sometimes think of our General manager as a "mad genius". Mr. Rawson has spent his life working on simple and inexpensive solutions to cleaning up environmental catastrophies. Part of this has been running Wastewater Treatment Plants for over 30 years. He has worked with processes that work, that don't work, that can be improved; and Graton has been fortunate enough to have his lifetime of passionate experience guiding our mandated upgrades. I know of no other General Managers for small districts who spend their time looking for free or inexpensive equipment, grants or low cost financing for mandated upgrades, who lie awake at night trying to figure out how to save money for his beloved District. Mr. Rawson charges Graton much less than he charges any other employers, and gives us free use of his very expensive inventions, which save our CSD a couple hundred thousand dollars every year. In exchange for this huge cost savings and his unseen dedication, the Board agreed that after he is no longer employed by the GCSD, he may come back to monitor the workings of his donated cost-saving inventions...because even after he retires, Mr. Rawson will continue to help clean up toxic problems around the world, as he currently does. Many people have a personal dislike for our GM because he is not a good public speaker, and at times his devotion to the environment and the truth lead him to make caustic remarks; but the Board thinks this is more than outweighed by the benefits of his genius.