San Lorenzo Valley Water District (SLVWD) ratepayers soundly defeated Measure U, the proposal to roll back much of the rate increase put in place earlier this year, and elected Alina Layng and Bryan Largay to the SLVWD Board. In so doing they have sent an important message to the SLVWD: Let’s move quickly and decisively to address the many repairs and upgrades needed to be prepared for the next fire and major winter storm.
SLVWD has daunting challenges ahead, including miles of aging pipes that cannot support firefighting, leaky tanks, inadequate fire hydrants, among other deficiencies. And it still needs to repair infrastructure damaged during the CZU fire and winter storms. Upwards to $50 million is needed and the costs will only escalate if action is delayed.
A major barrier to accomplishing these repairs and upgrades is the lack of senior staff in key positions. The General Manager and Finance Manager both resigned more than a year ago, publicly citing the harassment by Director Bob Fultz, the only Board member to support Measure U, as the reason for their departure. The positions are now being filled by an Interim GM and a temporary finance consultant. The Environmental Programs and Special Projects Manager, who also served as the primary grant writer, left earlier this year and her position remains vacant.
Clearly, the first step in addressing the mandate from Measure U’s defeat is to fill these critical staff positions as soon as possible. Hiring a grant writer is particularly important because there are new opportunities for grant funding from the state that must be applied for in a timely manner.
Measure U’s defeat also offers an opportunity to build a broad consensus for action that can include both its proponents and opponents. Both sides agree that low-income ratepayers need assistance to cover the rising costs of delivering water to households. SLVWD has a Ratepayers Assistance Program (RAP) to meet this need, but the program is currently inadequate. Benefits need to be increased each year as rates increase and the program needs to be expanded so that more low-income ratepayers are eligible.
The Board took an important step to address this need this fiscal year by increasing RAP’s benefit from $15/month to $20/month. Most recently, it increased the RAP budget by $3,000 to ensure that new enrollees would receive the benefit. Only Director Fultz opposed these measures, claiming that SLVWD could not afford the program, not even the $3,000 needed to cover benefits for 20-30 low income ratepayers. This is curious because he was the only Board member to support Measure U, justifying his support in part by claiming that it would help low-income ratepayers. Yet putting Measure U on the ballot cost the district $100,000 or more and would have reduced the District’s revenue by $1 million or more.
Measure U’s defeat and Layng and Largay’s election by nearly a 2-to-1 vote emphatically rejects Director Fultz’s and other Measure U proponents’ claims—that the District is mismanaged and wasting money, that the new rate structure is unfair, and that the District did not need the revenue that would have been lost. Layng and Largay, who strongly opposed Measure U, defeated one of the authors of Measure U, Bruce Holloway, who received even fewer votes than Bill Smallman, whose campaign was notable for his claim that climate change is a hoax.
The ratepayers’ message is clear: Let’s work together, support SLVWD’s talented staff, and move quickly to repair and update SLVWD’s aging and vulnerable infrastructure while ensuring assistance to those in need.
Jim Mosher served as the Principal Officer for the Save Our Water District: SLVWD Ratepayers Opposed to Measure U Committee.
