The Board of Supes passed a resolution this week calling on the city to settle its lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency, despite efforts by Sups. Matt Dorsey and Rafael Mandelman to denounce it as an attack on the city attorney.
The resolution seeks to discourage the city from taking to the US Supreme Court a case that could wind up gutting the Clean Water Act.
As Sup. Myrna Melgar, the sponsor of the resolution, noted, this is not an attack on anyone. The resolution doesn’t direct the city attorney to do anything; the board can’t tell the city attorney, an independently elected official, how to proceed. They can’t direct the head of the SP Public Utilities Commission, Dennis Herrera, how to operate, either.
“The resolution only asks to resolve the dispute with the EPA,” Melgar said. “It doesn’t say how.”
The billionaires who are trying to take over the city have turned sewage into toxic politics, saying that the supporters of this resolution want to raise water rates by a factor of ten. “This does not increase rates, nor does it force the PUC to make any infrastructure investments. It does, however, point out the danger of taking this case to this Supreme Court.”
Dorsey didn’t address that risk directly. Instead, he talked about the professionalism of the City Attorney’s Office, where he used to work, saying that the lawyers in that office had provided high-quality service to the supes “and deserve better than this.”
He said: “This is an office that has served this board with professionalism, and grace, and candor, and we’re not paying it back.”
But that’s not the issue.
Preston noted that the city has not held a mediation on this since 2021, and there is no mediation scheduled. “I can’t imagine the EPA wants this US Supreme Court ruling on the Clean Water Act,” he said.
In other words: There must be a way to resolve this. But time is running out: Arguments before the Supreme Court are scheduled for Oct. 16.
Sup. Shamann Walton noted: “This is not about a slap in the fact to the City Attorney’s Office… I do want to say this is 100 percent about no trust in the US Supreme Court.”
In fact, City Attorney David Chiu is the one who turned this into a political issue, and a way to attack Sups. Melgar and Connie Chan.
The resolution passed, 8-2, with Dorsey and Mandelman opposed, and Sup, Ahsha Safai absent.
