by Martin G. Richmond
The portion of the July 10, 2006, City Council meeting dealing
with the Hollister wastewater rate study and financing proposals
was nothing if not interesting. I have rounded the dollar figures
for simplicity.
The portion of the July 10, 2006, City Council meeting dealing with the Hollister wastewater rate study and financing proposals was nothing if not interesting. I have rounded the dollar figures for simplicity.
As a supporter of a necessary wastewater improvement project, I’m sorry to say that I came away from the meeting unsatisfied, like someone who paid first-class prices in a plush San Francisco restaurant and only got the same food available at a franchise diner. I can swallow it, but just. There are two sides to almost every key issue concerning wastewater management, but the options and reasoning were not discussed in any great detail. In my opinion what we had was the famous overview of the overview in PowerPoint.
So, for everyone who did not show up for the meeting here is the famous “bottom line” you’re always looking for. As it now stands the project as proposed, “out the door” is going cost $160 million – and someone is going to have to pay for it. We may be the home of the Haybalers, but $160 million “sure ain’t hay” even here.
What does this mean to you? If you currently have single-family residential sewer service you pay a little more than $31 a month to flush. In the fourth and fifth years of the proposed bond issue, the rate will be increased to $124 a month. Where it will go after that is a mystery not revealed to the mere mortals who will have to pay the bills.
That number does not include any pass-through costs for increased taxes and/or the value of lost services due to additional charges placed on the budget of the school system or other community services (after all not even the hospital has a printing press for money). The taxpayers will pay for all of that too, remember that on your way to the ER with a mere head cold.
Why so much? Of the $120 million in capital improvement costs (what you actually “buy”) $64.8 million (54 percent) is required to make up for the current system “deficiencies” and get Hollister in compliance with the law. Additionally, $55.2 million (46 percent) is for future “growth-related costs.” The other $40 million is for interest, insurance, reserve and refinancing of $13.7 million of the 1993 bonds (please, don’t ask me where the 1993 bond money went, I was living in Salinas at the time).
Honesty compels me to say the primary beneficiaries of the “growth-related costs” will be businesses related to home building, real estate and local commercial interests. In an attempt to recover some of those “growth-related-costs” and reduce recurring rates for current users the sewer connection fee for a new single-family residence will increase to $26,200, so much for affordable housing. If growth meets the plan, and that is a BIG IF without guarantees, the projected single-family residence rates would drop to $71 a month.
The charge for new elementary and high schools will be $1,300 per student. It’s critical to note that those numbers were all estimates as of last night, the costs are going up as we speak and as one person at the meeting said, “there is no such thing as public works project that was ever OVER-estimated.”
There are important management issues that I hope to cover at another time, but for now a word on communication.
The major problem is the meeting format; there is no way to have a conversation – no give and take. You get two minutes to make a statement on a complex project and you get an answer to your questions at the end. If you have an on-the-record follow-up question, it’s just too bad. So, when the city attorney says that the state has mandated housing growth, one cannot inquire as to the number of units or schedule or whether or not other development proposals would count against that requirement. Thus, information exchange and debate are closed by default.
It’s critical that the City Council design a system that makes key city employees available to the public periodically in a forum that allows detailed questioning, on-the-record answers, and a real exchange of information and views. They should stop treating the taxpayers as mushrooms if they want public support.
Martin G. Richmond is a Hollister resident
