There’s a rumor afloat that all San Lorenzo Valley Water District Board Directors support a rate increase. As one of those Directors, and speaking only for myself, let me set the record straight.
I oppose the rate increase proposal for the following reasons:
- It unfairly punishes the very people that responded to the District’s call for conservation. Low water users will see the highest percentage increase.
- The mailer provides misleading information, implying that the “average” or “typical” customer uses 6 units of water. The reality is that 59% of the total bills last year were 4 units or less—the very people punished with the highest increases. Only 7% of the bills last year were 6 units—which is the opposite of “typical.”
- There is no commitment from the Board on how the additional money will be spent. Our District urgently needs to allocate money to infrastructure, deferred maintenance, reserves and pension obligations—but only 1/3 of the incremental revenue from the last two rate increases was spent on infrastructure and reserves.
I have previously advised our community to only consider a rate increase if it addressed the following goals:
- An explanation of why the cost to deliver water increased by 4X inflation over 10 years—and a justification for why those costs should go even higher.
- An approved budget matching the duration of the proposed rate increase—in this case five years—so the community can see how the Board plans to spend the money.
- At least 2/3 of the additional money be applied to infrastructure, deferred maintenance, reserves and pension obligations.
- That the financial burden of the proposed rate increase be fairly allocated across the community.
The proposed rate increase doesn’t address any of these common-sense points.
We are, collectively, stewards of the District for future generations. Our responsibility is to leave this District in better shape than we found it.
Worse, our property values may be affected by the Board’s inattention to infrastructure, maintenance, reserves and unfunded pensions since those liabilities will likely factor into how much people are willing to pay for housing.
We cannot count on supplemental grants, which are unreliable, highly competitive and can become scarce during tough economic periods. When State and Federal funds flex as budgets tighten, grants will likely be applied to disadvantaged communities only.
Put simply, the Board is counting on the community not paying attention to this rate increase proposal. They are saying “Trust us.” Unfortunately, previous Boards said the same thing in 2013 and 2017, and the result is our precious steel storage tanks continue to deteriorate due to lack of maintenance. Our unfunded pension liability, under reasonable return assumptions, is the highest it has been in years.
Please send an email to [email protected] if you would like to join me on a Zoom meeting to discuss. And remember to submit your protest ballot by Feb. 15 to send a clear message to the Board to do better. Thank you.
Bob Fultz is a member of the San Lorenzo Valley Water District Board of Directors.
This SLV rate increase is outrageous. It’s like these people are World Economic Forum agents. They want to jack up rates for people who use the least water after increasing rates 150% over the past ten years, which is FOUR TIMES the rate of inflation. Most of the increase goes to people who use one to two units of water per month, which are people who conserve water. The idea like with everything else is they keep raising the rates and raising the rates until they drive more people into poverty and then they have a program where if you are really poor (partly because everybody keeps raising rates more than is necessary), you can apply for the special you don’t have to pay that much because you’re poor program.
There aren’t a lot of new houses and new residents in the SLV water district over the past ten years. The population hasn’t doubled. It hasn’t risen 10 percent in the SLV water district. But rates have gone up 150 percent before this increase 75 to 85 percent of the increased rate money did not go to any infrastructure improvements. They are asking for rate increases rather than issuing bonds because if you issue a bond and you don’t use the money for exactly what you said it was for, you go to jail. If you talk gullible homeowners and renters into raising rates to pay for infrastructure improvements and you don’t actually spend any of the money on infrastructure, it’s totally legal. The law says that if people are gullible enough to believe you that you’re going to most likely probably spend the money on infrastructure, that’s their problem. They can spend the money on whatever they want to including bigger offices, more consultants, more contractors – doing who knows what. These are the same people who did that corrupt real estate deal where a water district official’s wife was a real estate agent and she got the deal to buy or sell property for the SLV water and got money for this and somebody sued and said that was illegal. Instead of just saying, “you’re right, that’s illegal and we shouldn’t have done it. She will give the money back.” they told the person to screw off. A judge held that the transaction was corrupt and that the board wasn’t allowed to do corrupt transactions enriching spouses of SLV water officials. SLV water APPEALED the decision and spent a lot of money in legal fees and then lost and had to pay the legal fees of the guy who sued over this. ALL OF THAT MONEY CAME FROM THE RATE PAYERS. These people are reckless and arrogant.
Now we have the new American democracy where they can raise the rates unless enough people vote against it. That’s crazy. It’s like, we’re going to make Tom Johnson president of the United States unless at least 50 percent of the people come out and vote against it. What kind of democracy is that?
Also, some guy on the board who is among those pushing for the rate increases built two giant red unpermitted illegal retaining walls on Wispering Pines Dr. just up the hilll on the curve about half a mile south of Mt. Hermon Road. He built the walls on a very steep hill a few months ago and one is leaning over and might fall into the street and hurt somebody or block traffic. It’s amazing that these people apparently want to save money by doing illegal construction on their own property but they want to jack up everybody’s water rates to spend extravagantly on SLV water operations – that keep going up even though the number of houses connected to the system sure hasn’t doubled.
This rate increase is outrageous. It’s like these people are World Economic Forum agents. They want to jack up rates for people who use the least water after increasing rates 150% over the past ten years, which is FOUR TIMES the rate of inflation. Most of the increase goes to people who use one to two units of water per month, which are people who conserve water. The idea like with everything else is they keep raising the rates and raising the rates until they drive more people into poverty and then they have a program where if you are really poor (partly because everybody keeps raising rates more than is necessary), you can apply for the special you don’t have to pay that much because you’re poor program.
There aren’t a lot of new houses and new residents in the SLV water district over the past ten years. The population hasn’t doubled. It hasn’t risen 10 percent in the SLV water district. But rates have gone up 150 percent before this increase 75 to 85 percent of the increased rate money did not go to any infrastructure improvements. They are asking for rate increases rather than issuing bonds because if you issue a bond and you don’t use the money for exactly what you said it was for, you go to jail. If you talk gullible homeowners and renters into raising rates to pay for infrastructure improvements and you don’t actually spend any of the money on infrastructure, it’s totally legal. The law says that if people are gullible enough to believe you that you’re going to most likely probably spend the money on infrastructure, that’s their problem. They can spend the money on whatever they want to including bigger offices, more consultants, more contractors – doing who knows what. These are the same people who did that corrupt real estate deal where a water district official’s wife was a real estate agent and she got the deal to buy or sell property for the SLV water and got money for this and somebody sued and said that was illegal. Instead of just saying, “you’re right, that’s illegal and we shouldn’t have done it. She will give the money back.” they told the person to screw off. A judge held that the transaction was corrupt and that the board wasn’t allowed to do corrupt transactions enriching spouses of SLV water officials. SLV water APPEALED the decision and spent a lot of money in legal fees and then lost and had to pay the legal fees of the guy who sued over this. ALL OF THAT MONEY CAME FROM THE RATE PAYERS. These people are reckless and arrogant.
Now we have the new American democracy where they can raise the rates unless enough people vote against it. That’s crazy. It’s like, we’re going to make Tom Johnson president of the United States unless at least 50 percent of the people come out and vote against it. What kind of democracy is that?
Also, some guy on the board who is among those pushing for the rate increases built two giant red unpermitted illegal retaining walls on Wispering Pines Dr. just up the hilll on the curve about half a mile south of Mt. Hermon Road. He built the walls on a very steep hill a few months ago and one is leaning over and might fall into the street and hurt somebody or block traffic. It’s amazing that these people apparently want to save money by doing illegal construction on their own property but they want to jack up everybody’s water rates to spend extravagantly on SLV water operations – that keep going up even though the number of houses connected to the system sure hasn’t doubled.