Public criticism over the Prop. 218 majority protest process – as it relates to Hollister’s implementation of new water rates – spurred an impassioned response from the city manager at a recent council meeting.
Marty Richman and Marvin Jones at last week’s council gathering criticized the Prop. 218 protest process implemented by officials. Water rates are set to double over the next five years, and a majority protest is required. Under that process, a fee must be rejected if there are written protests from most property owners in the district.
Council members last week approved moving forward on the protest process and water rate increase to fund about $30 million in water improvement upgrades.
“Are ballots going out? Do we get to go to the polls?” said Jones, the former Republican Party chairman in the county. “You don’t get to vote. Man, this is a mess.”
Richman spoke as well and said residents have no choice either way, in the process that is set out by state proposition.
“We’re voting when we have no choice,” said Richman, a Free Lance columnist and editorial board member with a conservative reputation. “I don’t like being a participant in a farce.”
City Manager Clint Quilter, whose resignation is effective in about four weeks, took the unusual step of directly responding to the residents after their public comments.
“Prop. 218 was put into place because of people like Jarvis-Gann,” Quilter said, referring to Howard Jarvis and Paul Gann, leading supporters of Prop. 13 in the late 1970s. “Quite frankly, it was folks concerned about taxes who created Prop. 218. Number one, to come up and be upset about 218, fine, fair enough.”
Quilter went on to say “it isn’t as easy to get rate increases as it used to be” and that officials tried to make the rates, which penalize higher-volume users, affordable.
“What we really try to do with this rate,” Quilter said, “if you have a situation where you’re using the water for your indoor needs, your family needs, you minimize the amount. If you can afford a place with a nice lawn, that’s where the increase would come.”
