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OURREGIONSunday, May 3, 2015 | The Sacramento Bee | sacbee.com/ourregion B1

Seven years ago, Sacra-mento had its ownracial flare-up between

police, some African Amer-icans and politicians.

But it sure wasn’t Balti-more: The national newscameras were nowhere to befound. There was no unrestin the streets and – truthful-ly – barely anybody showedup to discuss Sacramento’sracial/police problem whenit came before the Sacra-mento City Council.

The focal point of frustra-tion among the very fewpeople paying attention wasa city-commissioned reportstating that African Amer-ican motorists were pulledover far more frequently inSacramento than any othergroup. As The SacramentoBee’s Ryan Lillis reported atthe time: “(The report)found that black and Latinodrivers were asked to get outof their cars more often thanAsian and white drivers.”

Latino motorists also werepatted down “at a signif-icantly higher rate thanwould be expected ... Asianand white motorists werestopped less often thanwould be expected.”

Heather Fargo, then may-or of Sacramento, went sofar as to apologize on behalfof the city.

“I want to offer a verysincere and heartfelt apol-ogy to those that have suf-fered from the profiling thathas been done,” Fargo said.“I want to apologize to thosecitizens who feel theyhaven’t received equal treat-ment or protection.”

To this day, Sacramento’sPolice Department is notvery diverse. In the 1990s,the agency was wracked byinternal unrest when ArturoVenegas became the firstLatino police chief and somesenior white officers foughthim at every turn.

Yet Venegas changed theculture, rooted out somereally bad people over timeand forced a new level ofopenness at Sac PD. By2008, the response by Sacra-mento police leadership tothe profiling accusationswas admirable.

Then-Chief Rick Brazielset a tone of candor thatdefused the 2008 racialprofiling report. Braziel heldcommunity meetings. Hedidn’t shy away from toughquestions or withdraw whensome questions were poseddisrespectfully.

Opinion

MARCOS BRETON

mbreton@sacbee.com

Capital’srace issueslinger on

BRETON | Page B4

Crime Q&AStatus updates on cases involving

sex trafficking, a man hit by a car

and a fatal stabbing. Page B2

NEWSLINE B2

LOTTERY B2

REMEMBRANCES B4

WEATHER B8

$3,560 – to enter the Association ofSchool Business Officials Interna-tional Meritorious Budget Awardcompetition over the last three years.The district won the award for fiscalmanagement all three years.

The ASBO contest is one of the mostcostly contests entered by local dis-tricts. It has entry fees starting at$600 for member districts with bud-gets of less than $50 million and up to$1,475 for nonmember districts withbudgets of more than a billion dollars.

School district communications

Sacramento-area school districtsare spending thousands of dollarsannually to enter contests and winawards for employees.

Twin Rivers Unified spent morethan $1,000 annually – for a total of

departments in the Sacramento re-gion also spent big on entry fees.

Twin Rivers reported paying $907between 2012 and 2014 for entry feesin the National School Public Rela-tions Association awards, accordingto public records requested by TheSacramento Bee. The SacramentoCounty Office of Education spent$1,215 and San Juan Unified $985 forcontest entries in the CaliforniaSchool Public Relations Associationawards program during that sametime.

“Spending $3,000 to enter a con-test to hope to win an award seems alittle unseemly,” said Jon Coupal ofthe Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Associ-ation.

Coupal said most people wouldthink the money could have betterbeen used for books or to update fa-cilities.

But Twin Rivers SuperintendentSteven Martinez said the contestsserve a worthy professional develop-ment purpose.

Prizes pursued for office workSCHOOL MONEY GOESFOR ADMINISTRATIVEAWARDS’ ENTRY FEES

By Diana Lambertdlambert@sacbee.com

SCHOOLS | Page B2

drought may spur the rise of certain fish species– like catfish, said Fred Conte, aquaculture spe-cialist at UC Davis. “Catfish do very well in high-er temperature water,” Conte said.

He said new fish species will likely be intro-duced by farmers as the environment changes.

“We already have plans to move toward morenative species like Sacramento perch and Sacra-mento blackfish,” said Conte. “These fish do wellin warmer temperatures.”

However, the sight of farmed perch and black-fish at live markets will not happen anytimesoon, Conte said. “We still have to perfect thetechnology to put that fish into production.”

Meanwhile, some existing fish farms havebeen profoundly affected by the drought. TheCalaveras Trout Farm in Snelling, for instance,lost 2 million fish last year because the water inits tanks became too warm, said owner TimGoodson.

In April, Goodson received word from theMerced Irrigation District that he would receiveno water this year. He closed the farm soon after,giving away or burying the 1.7 million trout thathad hatched in October and laying off seven em-ployees.

Goodson said the shutdown cost him $1 mil-lion.

GALT – At Ken Beer’s fish ranch, thousands ofwhite sturgeon and catfish thrash in roundtanks or in long concrete raceways.

Beer’s 320-acre operation, called The Fishery,supplies live fish to markets and restaurants inthe Sacramento region. It depends on a supply ofcool water. If water temperatures are too warm,cool-water fish such as sturgeon can’t survive.

Luckily for Beer, he can tap groundwater fromwells on his property to keep his business going.But some other fish farms can’t. California’s mul-tiyear drought is changing the state’s aquacul-ture industry. Experts say it eventually could al-ter the species that wind up being sold in thestate’s fish markets, farmers markets and in res-taurants that buy fish directly from growers.

Rising atmospheric temperatures and

Catfish, anyone? Drought couldchange the fish on our dinner platesGROWERS CONFRONT LACKOF WATER, RISING TEMPS

By Edward Ortizeortiz@sacbee.com

Randall Benton rbenton@sacbee.com

Workers gather smallmouth bass for transport at The Fishery in Galt on Wednesday, which supplies live fish to markets and restaurants in Sacramento.

Experts say less water and rising temperaturesmay mean less sturgeon or trout and more cat-fish, like these fingerling catfish at The Fishery.

FISHERIES | Page B3

Anglers reel in crowds forBassmaster Elite: The big-leaguebass tournament kicked off at 6:15a.m. with a boat launch at Sacramen-to’s Discovery Park. Saturdaymarked Day 3 of the fishing competi-tion, which drew 113 of the world’sbest anglers to town. Of those, 52competed Saturday and 12 were se-lected to return Sunday for a shot atthe $100,000 prize.

The pro anglers hailed from three

countries and a dozen states, butonly a handful had home-field ad-vantage when they cast into the Sac-ramento waters. The Bassmaster se-ries takes place in nine citiesthroughout the world each year, buthasn’t been in California since Stock-ton hosted it five years ago, said MikeSophia, director of the SacramentoSports Commission. This year marksits debut in Sacramento.

“This region is really into outdoor

sports, fishing, hunting,” he said.“This is an event that really connectswith the community.”

Enthusiasm exuded from thecrowd of about 8,000. Some sampledrods and reels from the expositiontents; others perched on the sunnyriverbank to await the anglers.

“It’s people who have a love, a pas-sion, for bass fishing,” said SkeetReese, a pro angler and Auburn na-

McGeorge School of Law students Selena Farnesi, left, andRebecca Caporale show off Derby Day hats at The Porch.

Ish Monroe from Modesto, a four-time Bassmaster champion,holds the fish he caught in pursuit of a $100,000 prize.

Brian Nguyen bnguyen@sacbee.com

Friends and family of Gabriel Ortigoza gather in his Elk Grovehome for a viewing party of the Pacquiao-Mayweather fight.

A CAPITAL DAY FOR HORSE SENSE, LEFT JABS AND FISHIN’

Sacramento sports fans came out in full force Saturday to

watch three widely anticipated events. The high-stakes day

started with a boat launch and closed with a boxing match,

with a flurry of horse racing in between. Enthusiasts

gathered at Discovery Park to watch the Bassmaster Elite, at

Cal Expo to view the Kentucky Derby and in a number of

homes, bars and restaurants to take in the Floyd

Mayweather-Manny Pacquiao welterweight title fight.

By Sammy Caiola | scaiola@sacbee.com

EVENTS | Page B2

SPORTSCoverageof theKentuckyDerby andthe fightbetweenMayweath-er andPacquiao.Page C1

Sunday, May 3, 2015 | The Sacramento Bee B3

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OUR REGION

The Merced Irrigation Dis-trict draws water from LakeMcClure, which is currentlyonly 10 percent full, said MikeJensen, the district’s govern-ment relations manager.

Starved for water, theMerced River is getting warm-er. “The water temperaturesin July got up to the 80s, andthat’s too high to sustain thetrout,” Goodson said. Most ofthe trout he raises are sold tothe recreation fish industry.His operation doesn’t havechillers to cool the river waterhe receives.

California’s high, low andaverage temperatures havebeen rising, and extreme heatevents are on the increase, ac-cording to a recent report bythe California EnvironmentalProtection Agency. That re-

port said the rate of warminghas accelerated since themid-1970s, and that nighttimeminimum temperatures in-creased almost twice as fast asmaximum daytime temper-atures.

Existing fish farmers whocan tap groundwater are farbetter off than those, likeGoodson, who depend on riv-ers. But with overpumpingdepleting groundwater levels,they are becoming more con-scious of the need to husbandevery drop.

Water is used and reused atthe Passmore Ranch fish farmin Sloughhouse, whose fishswim in 80 million gallons ofgroundwater pumped upfrom the Cosumnes aquifer.

The water flows first totanks inhabited by the mostsensitive fish, like sturgeon

and black bass.“Our water travels to our

tanks first, then onward toour lakes, then finally to ourgardens,” said Michael Pass-more, co-owner of the farm.

“After the fish have utilizedthe water, we then send it toirrigate our land-based cropsto utilize that water yet again.”

In Galt, Beer’s operationsupplies 2 million pounds of

fish to local outlets. He recy-cles most of the groundwaterhe pumps out of the ground –by moving it from pond to cir-cular tank to raceway.

At the moment, Beer is

weighing whether to spend$300,000 to install three cool-ing towers to keep the wateron his farm habitable for stur-geon. In order to reach matu-rity, and especially for caviarproduction, sturgeon needwater in the range of 40 to 45degrees.

Beer said he thinks the sizeof his operation gives himsome room to maneuver andadjust to the drought. Othersmay not be so fortunate, hesaid.

There are currently 144freshwater fish farms regis-tered with the state. Commer-cial aquaculture operators ac-count for less than a quarterof that number, said Beer. Therest grow stock for the recre-ational fishing industry.

“There will be some attri-tion if the drought continues,”said Beer. “I don’t worry aboutcompetitors; I worry aboutour industry almost disap-pearing.”

Call The Bee’s Edward Ortiz,(916) 321-1071. Follow him onTwitter @edwardortiz.

Fisheries: Hurtby long droughtFROM PAGE B1

Randall Benton rbenton@sacbee.com

Workers haul in a large net to gather fingerling catfish at The Fishery in Galt. There are 144freshwater fish farms registered with the state, but the ongoing drought could change that.

Firefighters responded Sat-urday afternoon to a possibleexplosion and house fire nearNevada City that sent a childand adult to a hospital withminor injuries.

The fire occurred in the12000 block of Poke Place, anarea of rural homes outsideNevada City.

Battalion Chief Steve Smithwith the Grass Valley Fire De-partment said investigatorswould determine the fire’scause.

“It’s too early to tell if therewas an explosion,” Smith said.

The house was engulfed inflames when firefighters ar-rived and was about 50 per-cent destroyed, he said. Achild and an adult were takenby ambulance to a hospitalwith minor injuries, he said.

House fireinjures 2By Hudson Sangreehsangree@sacbee.com

NEVADA CITY