Photos from indybay.
On Thursday, February 9th, at 8:45am — the Fresno County Planning Commission (PC) will deliberate on the Final Environmental Impact Report (FEIR) submitted to permit the Cemex Corporation to blast strip mine Jesse Morrow Mountain for the next 50 years. We assume this will be the first of potentially dozens of local foothill strip mines in the coming years once this precedence is set. The public is urged to speak at this meeting.
Find attached the PC meeting Agenda. JMM is agenda item #3.
Unfortunately for ‘we the people’, the vote for Cemex’s strip mine has apparently already been pre-approved by the Planning Commission. From the Planning Department’s own “Staff Report” issued publicly last week, it appears as if the PC has clearly made up its mind, and will summarily vote YES to Certify the FEIR and approve the mine. All that’s needed apparently is a fill-in-the-blank certification of who voted YES. We ask: Why is it only in Fresno County that your citizen voice, in what is supposed to be a democratic process, where votes should be cast after hearing public testimony from citizens not decided behind closed doors, why has your voice been so thoroughly put aside in this pre-arranged decision?
The precise wording of this ‘projected’ outcome (which the county itself has written into the record) is in Exhibit 8, p.88 of their own “Staff Report” which they provided for the PC meeting regarding the findings and statement of overriding considerations - last week!
http://www.co.fresno.ca.us/viewdocument.aspx?id=49927
Go to p. 87-88 of the pdf. It states verbatim:
“The County of Fresno proposes to approve Cemex…” p.87 & etc, then on p.88 at the top:“On February 9, 2012, the Fresno County Planning Commission considered and heard testimony on the Project from the Project proponents, the general public, and the Commission’s staff. The Commission of February 9, 2012 voted to recommend certification of the EIR and approval of Reduced Alternative 4 by a vote of INSERT VOTES FOR AND AGAINST.”
Note the past tense of this outcome of a meeting not yet held! Was this really written some time ago by the Planning Office to pave the way for their pre-approved YES vote? Absolutely! And unambiguously, they state the county has approved this vote before the vote. Is this the standing operational procedure in Fresno?Duh. Right again. Standard procedure. Unfortunately in this case, it would appear that employees at the county development office, as well as among the Planning Commission itself (doubtless too at Cemex all in cozy cahoots) — together in their rubber-stamp process, they are apparently able to time travel into the future, assign their fill-in-the-blank YES vote proactively to a meeting not yet held, and return back to the present to let ‘we the citizens’ know, via this off-hand bureaucratic statement on page 88, the outcome of their prearranged certification of a strip mine at a meeting still several days hence before any of the rest of us have even had a chance to show up, let alone voice our concerns! Jimminy cricket. Read that sentence again then go back and read their report. Is this what the democratic process in Fresno County has fallen to? Apparently so.
PLEASE COME DOWN TO THE HALL OF RECORDS ON THURSDAY NEXT AND BE ON RECORD IN YOUR FIRM OPPOSITION AGAINST THIS MOUNTAIN-TOP BLAST STRIP MINE THAT WILL SIT ADJACENT TO OUR CITY FOR 50 (LIKELY 100) YEARS — FIRST STRIP MINE AMONG MANY WE HAVE NO DOUBT TO RUIN THE WESTERN SIERRA ONCE THIS FIRST APPROVAL IS MADE — AN UNENDING BLIGHT AT THE VERY GATEWAY TO TWO OF AMERICA’S MOST TREASURED NATIONAL PARKS, A MOUNTAIN SACRED TO THE TRADITIONAL CHOINUMNI INDIANS, AND A BEAUTIFUL FLOWER-STREWN MOUNTAIN AT THAT.
GO OUT TO SEE IT BEFORE IT IS DESTROYED SOME STAR-STREWN NIGHT THIS WEEK, TAKE YOUR SWEETHEART FOR A VALENTINE’S RIDE UP ALONG THE BLOSSOM TRAIL ON THE GENERALS HIGHWAY ON THAT LONELY OPEN ROAD TO THE TWIN PARKS. PULL TO THE SIDE OF THE ROAD PAST MINKLER AND LOOK UP IN WONDER. IT’S BEAUTIFUL.WHAT A LOVELY MOON-DAPPLED MOUNTAIN IT IS!
THIS, A BLAZING MOUNTAIN-TOP STRIP MINE?
Fresno County is your democracy, dear friends, you make the call (not the cozy pre-arranged back door politics of the all-too-typical development-at-all-costs business-as-usual planning process we see in abundance here.)
Prepared by the Coalition to Save Jesse Morrow Mountain
This mountain is sacred to the Choinumni. Endangered animals inhabit this mountain. Stop Cemex.
~V
(Source: sans-nuage)
#jesse morrow mountain #JMM #sacred #fresno county #fresno #occupy fresno #OF #cemex #earth first #indybay #environment #strip mine #occupy the mountain