Published in Medium.com on February 8, 2021
Dr. Jeffrey Nordella addressing Aliso Health concerns at a March 2018 town hall
After a contentious meeting with the LA County Department of Public Health (DPH) in February, the Aliso Canyon Community Advisory Group (CAG) has decided it will start holding weekly mini town halls, starting with Monday, February 7, at 5pm.
The first of these town halls will feature the topic of CAG’s “no confidence” vote and the reasons why. Members of the public are invited to attend and ask questions.
This is the access information for what I feel will be informative meetings:
Mondays at 5pm: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88688130946
Meeting ID: 886 8813 0946
One tap mobile
+16699006833,,88688130946# US (San Jose)
Meeting ID: 886 8813 0946
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kdSt0nRhdi
Recordings of these town halls will be uploaded to the CAG’s website.
In addition to these, CAG still intends to hold a town hall during the public comment period for the health study’s “Goals and Priorities” when that statement is released by DPH.
The 2018 Consent Decree between SoCalGas and governmental entities (California, LA County, and LA City) granted the administration of a $25-million health study to the DPH. The department decided to form a CAG to advise on“Community priorities related to research questions to be addressed by the Study; Best practices for engaging with area communities and residents; and, Opportunities and actions for community recovery, including (but not limited to): town halls, outreach activities, and engagement methods.”
From the start, the setting up of the CAG was beset with chaos, from DPH staffers showing up at neighborhood council (NC) meetings, not understanding that any participation has to be agendized ahead of meetings. Finally, seven NC reps (two from Porter Ranch, one each from Granada Hills North, Granada Hills South, Northridge West, Northridge East, and Chatsworth) were given the task to select at-large members who had applied online. Unfortunately, when the NCs met to make the selections, they were given a heavily redacted description of each applicant, with each one’s community and a letter replacing the name. When the representatives demanded the complete information for each person, DPH’s Mandi Bane took over the process. When asked why, she used the word “transparency.”
The first meeting of the CAG was on August 29, 2019.
From the beginning, the CAG has made their mission to have a health study that is science-based, community-centric, and free of political agendas and influences. To this end, the members immediately requested that the Scientific Oversight Committee, which would provide a scope for the study, have independent experts to balance and even be a majority voice over the seven public agency representatives.
After the DPH finally agreed to adjust the SOC membership, and a nominating period garnered some applicants (along with many that the CAG found), the DPH came up with their finalist list, and met in a couple of phone conference calls with CAG members. By the way, the information about the finalists were emailed to the CAG right before the first call. CAG members questioned the lack of a medical clinician on the list, with the only finalist with a MD, hadn’t seen patients according to his Curriculum Vitae.
At the January 2020 CAG meeting, DPH said that there was an opening on the SOC that CAG can fill. The group voted unanimously (among members present) to nominate Dr. Jeffrey Nordella, a physician who practice in the Porter Ranch area at the time of the blowout.
In all, there were five in-person meetings plus one GoTo phone conference meeting right before the holidays (only six CAG members could attend), from August 2019 until the pandemic lockdown began. Virtual meetings began in April 2020, with eight occurring in 2020. The DPH cancelled the monthly meeting for January 2021.
Fast forward to the meeting on February 3, 2021.
It was supposed to be the monthly meeting of the CAG. But the agenda items sent by the CAG early on February 1st, were ignored. Instead, late that afternoon, CV sent an email with an agenda that didn’t mention any of our asks for updates. Instead, the meeting objective indicated the meeting objective will be “Discuss community outreach and engagement plans for 2021.”
We felt something was off. We also knew that Dr. Nordella had been given an ultimatum to sign on a revised charter that was sent to the SOC members or be removed from the committee. He was given a deadline for signing on February 3rd, the same day of the CAG meeting, at the end of the business day.
When members of the CAG logged on to the meeting, we found ourselves muted, and a message that the host would have to unmute us. This was not as usual. Immediately CAG members, as well as community members, asked in the chat for the community representatives to be unmuted, but those pleas were ignored.
Around the 15-minute mark, Dr. Muntu Davis, LA County’s health officer, said that from then on, CAG meetings would be held on a quarterly basis. That was a major bombshell dropped on the CAG and the community. He also said that subcommittees and CAG participation on the health study steering committee will be “paused for the moment.” In the on-boarding packet CAG members received just before the first meeting, the following information about frequency of meetings was listed under CAG Member responsibilities: “It is expected there will be at least six two-hour meetings a year.
One issue CAG members have with going to a quarterly meeting basis is that there were many issues still unresolved, such as the need for a comprehensive list of all materials used on the gas used at Aliso Canyon. A majority of the CAG membership contended from the beginning that this information was a necessity for a true scientific heath study. A request for a subpoena for this data was brought up in a meeting held in December 2019 between the CAG and DPH leadership, which included director Dr. Barbara Ferrer, Dr. Davis, and Dr. Paul Simon, the lead Scientific Officer for DPH.
Since the founding of the CAG, many other issues developed including the discovery of fugitive emissions on the SoCalGas site, as well as more than 150 bins continuing evidence of polytoxins collected from the pad containing the well that had caused the 2015 blowout (and the revelation that at least 31 bins from the same area were removed in 2016).
Also mentioned during comments by CAG members were appearances by two DPH members at neighborhood council meetings in December 2020, supposedly to give “updates” about the health study. Instead, an undoubtedly attorney-written spiel, which gave a history lesson about the blowout and how the health study came to be, was presented. These appearances were apparently not coordinated with the CAG representatives for these councils.
As for the issue surrounding Dr. Nordella, Dr. Davis explained that the charter that was presented would “ensure a sound research process without any potential of unfair advantage proposal submission.”
But according to Dr. Nordella, his problem wasn’t with the need to keep secret information that could compromise the RFP process, but in parts that would interfere with his due diligence as a practicing physician. Community members followed his statement with public comments of support, as well as 12 residents who wrote in the meeting chat in support of his continuing on the SOC.
Dr. Nordella will be holding a town hall about COVID-19, independent of DPH or the CAG, that will be on February 25, 6:30 to 8:30 pm. It will cover up-to-date information on the basic science of the virus, treatment options, vaccines, and the “variant of concern.” For the zoom information, interested persons are invited to text “Yes” to 805–444–6098.
DISCLAIMER: I am a member of the Aliso Canyon Community Advisory Group, and any opinions, unless attributed to others, are my personal beliefs and not a representation of the entire CAG membership.