It’s time for a Candidate Scorecard. The current City Council is a waste of your time and money.

October 10, 2026

Ridgecrest California

I’ve prepared two questions for the candidates for the Ridgecrest City Council and the City Council. I don’t expect any of the members of the City Council will answer this survey, and we won’t be including Scott Hayman or Ron Strand in our Scorecard. They are unfit to serve in public office any longer, and Kyle Blades should have resigned a year ago.

Publisher’s Note: At 6:00 p.m. on Sunday, October 11, 2026, we’ll be publishing the responses to questions that will both have simple “Yes or No” answers. The rules are very simple. Either the candidates answer “yes” or “no” or they don’t reply and we’ll mark them down with a “No Comment”. “No” means no and “Yes” means yes. No wiggle room, no contract amendments, no updates to the City Code. These are my rules.

One is a “Pledge”, the other is a short-term policy strategy. Here are the details. I’m reframing the questions here. Yes means “I will oppose”. No Reply will be noted on the Scorecard and you the reader can take it for all it’s worth, which is nothing.

First, some definitions:

Pervasive means anywhere and everywhere, like the smell of garlic in the air or a million satellite signals encircling the Earth. Pervasive may also be used in the context of “all-seeing” cameras affecting everything, like causing a search in the cloud for every license plate they read.

pervasive /pər-vā′sĭv, -zĭv/ adjective

1. Having the quality or tendency to pervade or permeate.”the pervasive odor of garlic.”
2. Tending to pervade, or having power to spread throughout; of a pervading quality.
3. Manifested throughout; pervading, permeating, penetrating or affecting everything.

persistent /pər-sĭs′tənt/ adjective

1. Refusing to give up or let go; persevering obstinately.
2. Insistently repetitive or continuous, “a persistent honking of car horns” or perhaps a robot monitoring your neighborhood while walking up and down the street over and over again.
3. Existing or remaining in the same state for an indefinitely long time; enduring. persistent rumors; a persistent infection.

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition • More at Wordnik

Police-State mass surveillance is self explanatory.

The back half of the “Pledge” covers all the bases. It’s anything BIG CORPORATE TECH can think of to conduct mass surveillance on behalf of the Police-State using any method or technology known to man (or Super Intelligence); people, license plates or property, on streets or from the air, or from imaging to radio waves (e.g. GPS or satellite) or sound waves.

Have I missed anything?

The “Pledge”question. Yes or No:

I will oppose pervasive AND persistent Police-State mass surveillance of people, license plates or property on streets, or from the air, or from imaging to radio waves (e.g. GPS or satellite) or sound waves. Yes or No?

The “Stipulation Now!” Strategy in the form of a “Yes or No” question:

This is a no-brainer, but you’d think the local politicians and candidates are afraid to answer “Yes” because they don’t have any idea what they’re agreeing to support or why they should do so. You are correct in your thinking.

All this strategy does is move up the inevitable decision that will be made by Judge Claster in the comprehensive adjudication trial by six or eight months. The GA is going to lose in the Phase Two “Safe Yield” trial. Anyone that doesn’t know this isn’t paying attention. The forthcoming, inevitable and very reliable answer will be that the only science the Judge can rely on is the IWV Technical Working Group’s science. Why? Because not only is the TWG’s science the “best available science” it’s the ONLY science that the judge has seen. Trust me when I say that.

The Stipulation Strategy will put an end to the charade and the fraud that the IWV Groundwater Authority has been perpetrating for over seven long years.

The Judge made an excellent decision in the Phase One trial, the Navy was properly allocated 2,008-acre feet per year instead of the entire safe yield of 7,650, and the GA improperly fixed the safe yield at 7650 with no scientific validation from a model that mysteriously “Vanished”.

Do you support the “Stipulation Strategy” as per the Post below? Yes or No?

It’s all laid out here in very simple, logical terms:

We learned a lot during the Phase Two trial. In fact, we learned everything we need to know. It’s over, and all we’re waiting for is a decision by Judge Claster.

My personal message to the City Council and the candidates:

I have no reason to lie to you. I don’t have a dog in this fight. It’s only a matter of when, not if the Judge will make a decision: Is the Safe Yield 7,650, or is it 14,300, or something in between. The Pipeline will never be built. I think all of you realize that you just won’t say it.

This Strategy is on the table NOW. The Future is NOW. All the arguments for this strategy are clearly laid out in the post above. This Strategy makes sense and will save residents of the city millions of dollars over the next 6 months, money that will be spent unnecessarily if the attorneys continue to drag this lawsuit out. If you have any questions, please ask!

And here’s a Post that was just published this morning, October 10, 2026, titled “FAILED LEGAL STRATEGY”. This Post makes it even more clear that the City of Ridgecrest, Scott Hayman and Kern County Supervisor Phillip Peters should cut their losses and run with it.

It’s really the only choice that they have.