It’s back to the beginning for water, sewer upgrades
Tres Pinos’ proposed water rate increase proposal appears
dead.
It’s back to the beginning for water, sewer upgrades
Tres Pinos’ proposed water rate increase proposal appears dead.
According to at least one Tres Pinos Water District trustee, the required number of signatures were collected and a proposal to raise rates in the tiny district was defeated.
Former water district board member Bobby Zaucha, whose term expired in 2006, organized a signature drive that collected enough signatures to stop the board from even voting on a rate hike.
With fewer than 150 customers, the Tres Pinos Water District is saddled with increasing costs for bringing its system up to standard. Zaucha contends the water district only looked at one bidder’s proposal for financing water system improvements. The district was negligent in not seeking competitive bids, Zaucha contends.
Zaucha spent nearly one month meeting with local residents and collecting signatures necessary under Proposition 218 to overturn a governing board’s decision. Passed by voters in 1996, Prop. 218 is intended to ensure that voters have a say in any rate or tax increases by public agencies.
“I talked with a lot of people,” Zaucha said. “Not everyone signed the protest. A few people said they hadn’t even heard about the [proposed] increases and others claimed they didn’t get notices in the mail.”
Zaucha believes that the district has to maintain the water system, but believes rates need to be kept as affordable as possible.
“I understand the business end of things,” Zaucha said. “But there are always less expensive options; there is always a lesser evil. I just didn’t think that the increases were justifiable.”
Zaucha collected 64 signatures, though only 60 were necessary under Proposition 218.
Tres Pinos has had a moratorium on new hookups in place since 1990.
The situation in Tres Pinos is not unlike a similar situation in the San Luis Obispo County village of Los Osos. Like Tres Pinos, Los Osos is an unincorporated enclave.
According to local news accounts, the community is deeply divided over the issue of where a sewer should be built. The cost of a new sewer is more than $150 million and many are worried they will have to move because they cannot afford a potential $200 to $300 per month sewer bill. Los Osos’ moratorium has gone on for decades because the town’s septic tanks are too numerous and concentrated to dissipate nitrates, which are not broken down by the septic tanks.
At the Tres Pinos meeting it was noted that under the current rates, about $20 per month, operations would be forced to cease within three years.
The proposal from the Berkeley firm of Bartle Wells would have increased the rates from $20 per month to nearly $50 after three increases over the next three years.
Bartle Wells is a public finance advisor. It would provide a mechanism for another firm to perform system improvements. It was later noted that Bartle Wells’ proposal only covered water upgrades and did not include sewer upgrades, according to board member Robert Frusetta.
Though nothing has officially been announced – the failure will be announced to the public at the September water board meeting – most of the board members acknowledged they had heard of the failure.
“I have heard the rate increase proposal failed,” Frusetta said. “Basically we have to go back to the drawing board now. We still have a good opportunity to include residents and get more participation. I support what the people want and I don’t see the district going broke. We’ll come through this. The district was started a long time ago and the people will come through and make this right.”
