10 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY november 30-december 6, 2023 www.montereycountyweekly.com news Holding signs with messages like “I can’t have a family and be an MPUSD teacher” and “I love my job but I can’t afford my rent,” teachers in Monterey Peninsula Unified School District showed up to an Oct. 24 board meeting. They shared stories of personal struggles to make ends meet, and professional struggles to cover classes they haven’t been trained to teach. During the meeting, teachers cited a recent story from the San Francisco Chronicle comparing compensation in school districts across the state, showing MPUSD’s mid-career teachers earn an average salary of $74,000, and the district places 258th despite a 44-percent salary increase over the past 10 years. Superintendent PK Diffenbaugh says a district like MPUSD, with declining enrollment, has to be strategic: “[The district is] getting less and less money every year.” The MBTA and MPUSD have been in contract negotiations since February, with talks set to continue Nov. 30. In early negotiations, the union was seeking a 15-percent salary increase; MPUSD counter-offered with 5 percent. During a second round of negotiations, MPUSD offered a higher increase and larger class sizes by a couple of students. Increasing class sizes is non-negotiable for MBTA. A recent union survey showed most teachers find current elementary class sizes unmanageable; current ratios are 25:1 for first through third grade and 28:1 for fourth and fifth. MPUSD and MBTA have agreed on an 8.22-percent cost of living adjustment and maintaining class sizes. Future negotiation topics include reducing class periods in high school from eight to seven. Math Class Class sizes and compensation are on the table in negotiations for MPUSD and teachers union. By Celia Jiménez By day, the derelict San Xavier Fish Reduction plant at 484 Cannery Row looks exactly like what it is: ruins of a bygone era when sardine fishing was king on the Monterey Peninsula. But at night, with Christmas a month away, it is bejeweled with lights like many other properties on Cannery Row, and it seems like maybe—just maybe—the property has come back to life. If only it were so simple. The property has sat vacant for decades, a tantalizing slice of prime coastal real estate where it seems like something—anything—should have cropped up there by now. But alas, the ruins remain. Behind the scenes, however, there have been some developments: For years, there’s been litigation over who actually owns the property. That’s now settled, per a decision by the state Court of Appeal in May, which granted ownership to Ruby Falls, LLC, and remanded the issue back to Monterey County Superior Court for the ministerial step of cleaning up a clerical error in the property’s deed. Aqualegacy Development, LLC, which was in litigation with Ruby Falls over who owned the property, petitioned the state Supreme Court to overturn the lower court’s ruling, but on July 13, the Supreme Court denied that request. On Aug. 8, Monterey County Superior Court Judge Thomas Wills signed an order that fixed the error in the property’s deed, and Ruby Falls now owns the property free and clear. But there remains one major problem, and it contains multiple smaller problems: The proposed development on the site, which the Coastal Commission approved in 2008, no longer has a coastal development permit. Ruby Falls (and Aqualegacy) asked for an extension of the permit, but in 2019 the commission denied the request. The proposed project— which includes 87,000 square feet of retail and restaurants, 38 market-rate condos, 13 workforce housing units, 377 parking spaces and an onsite desalination plant—still has an active permit with the City of Monterey, but without a permit from the Coastal Commission, it’s meaningless. Ruby Falls is in litigation with the Coastal Commission over denying the extension, and a trial is set for April. Bob Faulis, principal of Ruby Falls, believes the extension wasn’t granted because there was a cloud over ownership, and thus he believes Ruby Falls will prevail in the case. But that’s not what Coastal Commission’s documents say in a report from 2019. The reasons to deny the extension, the report says, are that circumstances have changed. One is that the state’s policy regarding desalination projects, adopted in 2015, requires that all desal facilities in a marine sanctuary create no harm to marine life—something only achievable, theoretically, with a slant well, which would be impossible at the Cannery Row site. Another reason was a change in understanding of climate change-induced sea level rise. Yet instead of trying to come up with a new project—perhaps one that could be served by a different water source, such as Pure Water Monterey—Faulis is forging ahead, and is starting a letter-writing campaign to the Coastal Commission. “Maybe I’ve got a pipe dream, who knows,” Faulis says. “Letters do work, and speaking does work. Hopefully our public officials will listen to us.” Developer Bob Faulis says there is no Plan B if he loses at trial next April. “It’s a total loss,” he says. “You either get it developed or it stays a big gaping hole.” In a Row Against the odds, a developer is pushing a Cannery Row project that no longer has a permit. By David Schmalz Members of the Monterey Bay Teachers Association. “We have been losing educators for a while,” President Nicky Williams says. “We know from surveys this is because of compensation.” “Maybe I’ve got a pipe dream, who knows.” Daniel Dreifuss Daniel Dreifuss
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