In this post we cover another form of disinformation used by the builder-politician complex: claiming credit for accomplishments they had little part to play in. We have two write-ups to share from community members on debunking claims made by Rod Sinks in his election website.
| Rod Sinks Claims Credit for SV Hopper |
| Refuted by ex-Mayor Darcy Paul |
“The Silicon Valley Hopper started as Cupertino’s Via Shuttle when our Mayor was Steven Scharf. It’s strange how some people like to label us the so-called ‘Better Cupertino’ City Council, and then take all the credit for things that we did while blaming us for various things that we didn’t do.
I was the Mayor when Via Shuttle was being voted on by the City of Santa Clara to expand to their city as well. At the same time, I was the board member for VTA representing the West Valley cities. There are twelve members of the VTA board, and the West Valley seat has five cities.
Well, as you would expect, VTA does not automatically support competitors to its services. However, the expansion of Via Shuttle to become the Silicon Valley Hopper did gain that support when I was on the VTA board of directors, and this happened in 2022, when I was Mayor.
As to the City of Santa Clara, I reached out both to their Mayor, Lisa Gilmor, as well as to her colleague Councilmember Raj Chahal to help secure their city’s unanimous support. And so, regardless of who else tries to take credit or blame us for this or that, the fact of the matter is that we did significant amounts of work on making this transit option available for the residents of Cupertino.”
Former Mayor Darcy Paul,
City of Cupertino
| Rod Sinks Embellishes His Role in Reducing Pollution from the Lehigh Plant |
We are publishing a detailed rebuttal from Rhoda Fry. In 2022 she was honored by a CREST award for Public Safety for her work to change the time for garbage pickups so as not to interfere with children going to school and for providing the City with an analysis of the quarry use-permits to put an end to illegal truck traffic between the two quarries
Rhoda Fry moved to Cupertino in 1983 after graduating from CMU to work at Tandem Computers. She became active in City affairs when she discovered that the City was about to enact an emergency illegal tax. She fought and won. Since then, she has been involved in issues related to the environment (especially Lehigh-documents from last century), public safety or fiscal accountability. This year, her efforts contributed to a new County ordinance that protects ground-water quality from the ravages of mining. She also discovered that the City had misused funds that were intended for below market rate housing.
| Rod Sinks Misled Public about Lehigh- by Rhoda Fry |
As many people know, I have worked on Lehigh issues for over fifteen years and was alarmed by statements made by Rod Sinks who incorrectly claimed to have reduced air pollution at Lehigh while sitting on the Bay Area Air Quality Management Board (BAAQMD). At the Diya TV candidate forum, he stated “I helped secure a deal with the Lehigh cement plant to drastically improve our air quality.”
In 2019, a new air-pollution rule was proposed as part of a consent decree involving many states to address a 2010 EPA violation that would be implemented in 2021. In 2019, there were multiple industrial incidents at the cement plant and BAAQMD did little for us residents. In 2020, Lehigh shut its cement plant down when it became clear that the County would not allow an expansion of its limestone mining operations referred by County Supervisor Joe Simitian as “don’t chop the top.”
Consequently, the new air-pollution rule was never implemented. It would not have mattered because the new rule did little to protect us residents. Residents wrote letters (Consent Decree Public Comments) begging for a better rule but were not heard. Gary Latshaw, Chair of the Bay Area for Clean Environment Group wrote,
“We do not find that the consent decree provides adequate protection for the air quality in the region. Notwithstanding the potential of the “test and set” methodology for SOx, the specified required regulations for NOx and SOx are only marginal improvements over existing conditions. Even under optimistic assumptions, the emissions would still degrade the health and longevity of Bay Area residents.”
For example, while the maximum allowable sulfur pollution was 0.2 lbs/ton at other Lehigh cement plants, the Cupertino facility’s maximum allowable sulfur pollution was ten times more at 2.1 lbs/ton! And the so-called new sulfur limits in Cupertino represented a mere 3% reduction of only 0.07 lbs (from 2.17 lbs/ton to 2.1)!!!
Rod Sinks claiming any credit for negotiating a deal or reducing air pollution is usurpation of credit due to local volunteers who tirelessly worked to save our environment from excessive pollution by Lehigh for many decades.
Lehigh History:
At the end of Stevens Creek Blvd, is a massive quarry and industrial site on over 3500 acres that spans three jurisdictions, Cupertino, Unincorporated Santa Clara County, and Palo Alto. The quarry has mined for limestone that is very high in naturally-occurring contaminants, such as mercury and selenium.
Until 2011, usable waste-rock was crushed into aggregate and sold. That operation was re-built a decade later and presently is the only commercial activity at the site. The rest of the waste-rock is spread over 200 acres of thinly vegetated moonscape.
The limestone is the main ingredient to make cement in a giant kiln fueled by petroleum coke, a filthy polluting fuel that is a by-product of oil refineries. Among California’s industrial air polluters, Lehigh ranked #2 for Sulfur, #3 for Hydrochloric Acid, #4 for PM 2.5, #6 for VOCs, #7 for Nitrogen, and #10 for Hexavalent Chromium.
With the revelation that the County would not allow Lehigh to access anymore limestone, the cement plant closed permanently in 2020. There have been hundreds of environmental and labor-safety violations at the site from both the mining operations and quarrying, some of which remain unresolved.
Political Connections:
Over the years, Lehigh has been protected by the San Jose and Cupertino Chambers of Commerce and numerous politicians. Among others, the following politicians have been employed by the quarry and cement plant: County Supervisor Tom Legan; Cupertino Council member, BAAQMD representative and aspiring County Supervisor Barbara Koppel; Cupertino council member Sandy James; and Assemblymember Jim Cuneen.
Many council members would not respond to resident concerns and were reluctant to even send a letter to the County. Gilbert Wong was one of those reluctant council members. Barry Chang became a Lehigh activist but lost credibility when he became overly vocal and has not been active on Lehigh issues since 2018. Strangely, current council member J. R. Fruen ran a PAC in 2018 with primary funding from Vallco which paid $10K to Ed McGovern, a Lehigh Lobbyist.
Lehigh Future:
Moving forward, Lehigh needs to shore up the over-mined crumbling ridgeline between the quarry and Rancho San Antonio by filling the quarry. The approved 2012 plan uses onsite mining-waste to shore up our scenic ridgeline however their new proposal turns the quarry into a for-profit landfill, importing soil from construction sites at a rate of 600 trucks per day for 30 years. We need a City Council who really works for residents first to prevent this unnecessary traffic. We need to regain a resident-friendly council majority by re-electing Kitty Moore and electing Ray Wang.
EPA Clean Air Act Settlement
