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SLO approves conservation-punishing water rate hike

June 13, 2013

water2By JOSH FRIEDMAN

The San Luis Obispo City Council approved sewer rate increases Tuesday night, as well as restructured water rates that will hit hardest those who conserve the most.

The council voted 3-1 in favor of both the sewer and water rate increases, with Councilman Dan Carpenter dissenting on each. The 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 increases will mark the eight and ninth consecutive years of water rates hikes for the city.

Beginning next month, the average monthly sewer bill for residences, which is slightly more than the average water bill, will increase $2.28, followed by another $1.73 increase in July 2014. The average residence will pay $58.85 per month for their sewage in 2013-2014 and $60.58 in 2014-2015.

Water bills will increase at sharper rates for most residents, in particular those who are conservation-minded, even though the city encourages water conservation.

Conservers of water who use a little less than the city residential average will pay nearly $80 more in the upcoming fiscal year than they will have paid in the current year. In 2014-2015, they will pay more than $100 more for their total water consumption than they do currently.

The new water rate structure will raise monthly bills for most residential and commercial properties in the city for the next two fiscal years. The new structure will eliminate a low rate for users who conserve water and add a fixed charge of $5 a month for all city customers, regardless of their consumption amount.

So long as the council adopts its 2013-2015 by the end of June, the first rate hike will take effect next month. The second rate increase will take effect on July 1, 2014.

When the new structure takes effect, water rates will increase for all users, except for those who consume slightly above the city average and for residences that consume four times or more than the city average.

Despite the city’s insistence that residents should conserve water, those who use the least will face the sharpest increases and those who consume the most will realize the most savings. All water conservers who currently pay the rate the council has eliminated will face increases of at least 21 percent beginning next month. Residential water consumers who use the most will save at least 14 percent beginning next month.

All rates, however, will increase on July 1, 2014. The fixed monthly charge will also increase then from $5 to $5.28.

Due to the passage of California Proposition 218 in 1996, a majority of San Luis Obispo utility customers could have upstaged the sewer and water rate hikes by submitting written protests. A majority protest required more than 7,000 written objections from customers, yet by the beginning of the hearings Wednesday, the city only received 60 valid sewer rate protests and 181 valid water rate protests.

Several residents and business owners also spoke against the increases during public comment. None of the speakers during public comment supported the rate hikes.

Carpenter said he opposed both of the rate increases because utility department expenses, particularly staffing costs, have climbed too high.

Councilwoman Kathy Smith said she felt the pain of the ratepayers, but the city needed the rate increase to remain efficient and business-like.

Mayor Jan Marx said the water rate increase would keep the city secure in the case of a drought.

Councilman John Ashbaugh said he opposed the conservation-penalizing structure of the water rates but, too, voted for the increase. Ashbaugh said residents must pay for the quality of water they receive in San Luis Obispo.

“Right now I’m drinking San Luis Obispo tap water, and I drink it all the time,” Ashbaugh said.

Former mayoral candidate Steve Barasch suggested that the city sell water it pipes in but does not use in order to help cover costs. Marx said doing so would encourage urban sprawl and would conflict with smart growth principles.

The city is currently paying $4.7 million annually in debt payments for the Nacimiento pipeline and is only in the second year of a 30-year obligation. A $63.2 million upgrade to the city water reclamation facility is also scheduled to occur in the next five years.

 


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“Right now I’m drinking San Luis Obispo tap water, and I drink it all the time,” Ashbaugh said.


SLO adds fluoride to the water, which is exactly why Ashbaugh was silly enough to vote for a rate increase that supposedly he really opposed – studies show fluoride LOWERS I.Q.!! (as well as other detrimental effects to the human body), which is why it’s banned in most of Europe and even China.


But leave it to mentally-challenged fluoride-intoxicated SLO to force ratepayers to pay to have a known toxin put into their water supply!!


What’s just as bad is to think all those students, and parents of students, and taxpayers who fund grants & scholarships for students, so they can get an education, meanwhile, they’re drinking the toxic kool-aid tap water made to lower their I.Q.!! Great “education system” we have in this country, isn’t it?


Harvard Study:

http://www.naturalnews.com/037313_fluoride_lower_IQ_Harvard.html


People don’t have to put up with any of this.

But they do because they’re conditioned to.

Wake up, nitwits, and stop being led to your own demise!


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70% of the properties in SLO are rentals, students make up a large percentage of the population and you wonder why no one is interested in the exorbitant rate increases. It is not a lack of interest, but a lack of time. Student’s parents pay the bills so they don’t care. Renters are just trying to survive and that is what City Management relies upon. Residents are just too busy to address the issue and in that town if you speak up about the misconduct and questionable acts the powers that be will come after you.


Highest water and sewer rates statewide and you wonder why the staff is so grossly over-paid at this City. We need those high rates to cover the cost of the system upgrades in place of fines


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That’s why there is only one way to stop the Utilities Bureaucracy and that’s through a city initiative. Prop 218 protests are a joke and has only been successful a couple of times and it’s obvious the council people elected will OK anything staff asks for and will even use the misinformation and deception that was used to pass the Nacimiento Pipeline initially as their reason for raising the rates.


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SLO City and County “staff” are so out of touch with what the people really want, yet if you look at the plethora of “recommendations” they’ve put forward the last few years, you’d think they were on the U.N.’s Agenda 21 payroll!


I don’t recall ever seeing “staff” on the ballot.

So why are they the ones telling so-called representatives what to do?


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Non of this rate is going towards developing new water sources. New sources are not available and take years to plan, approve, and construct assuming the City even has an idea to get it. This is plain and simple more money in the City’s coffer’s because the Measure Y Sales Tax 1/2 cent special funding is coming to an end and the City Council/Management do not think it will be renewed by the voters. AUDIT THE WATER and SEWER FUND! We are being scammed…


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Who turned down State Water 20 years ago? The City Council I believe. The argument was we don’t want to turn into So. Cal. Same reasoning that kept Cost Co. out for years, as our tax dollars went to So. Cal (SB County). So now we are paying probably 10x as much for Naci. water.


Hind sight.


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We have not even used it yet. Primary source for SLO is Santa Margarita Lake and all that water belongs to the City, operational costs only. Next source is Whale Rock, owned with Cal Poly and the Men’s Colony with SLO retaining 51% ownership. Third source is Nacimento but by the time the City will use it, it will be gone although it is costing a fortune to maintain.


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What about Lopez Lake? I know there’s County(?) water there or someone… who gets Lopez’s water?


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South County: Pismo, Arroyo, Grover! None of it comes to SLO!


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SLO should be using their share of Nacimiento first to ensure they get the water the ratepayers have been paying for and not allow Monterey to swallow it all up year after year. If they wait until their sources (Santa Margarita and Whale Rock) are used and then switch to Nacimiento the lake will be to low and the costs too expensive to pump out of the ground. Use Nacimiento first, you’ve already paid for it!


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My water bill nearly triples in the summer months…mostly due to trying to maintain some type of yard while we go into a super dry summer. At the end of the day I am seriously considering a complete change of my yard. No more grass/lawn…which takes far to much water to be anything beyond a big brown patch. Deep rooted trees are nice, as they can tap into underground sources.


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But it’s a rat wheel, the more you conserve the less money in the door, which will create a decline in the revenue and generate another rate increase. The citizens of SLO should demand an independent forensic audit of the water and sewer funds as these are enterprise funds, meaning all revenue collected must be used by the fund and not used by the City general fund for anything but water and sewer costs and not to stop the spending leakage/shortage in the City. The question has to be asked, where is the money going: 1) no employee pay increases for several years, 2) no major upgrades to the operating systems, 3) no major expenses. My guess is that the rate money is being used for general fund spending and that is illegal.


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That is exactly the plan. They need you to use less water to accommodate development (again, by the the “right” people only) yet pay more for additional supply that current ratepayers use less and less of. Jan Marx, Katie Lichtig , the Madonnas, Copelands, and the like run this town for their benefit only.


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I wonder what’s in the water city council members are drinking? How does one spell the words “Elitist Town” ? Only those who earn the big bucks can afford the monthly water & sewer bills any longer.


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I don’t know what the stink is about. If you give many of the city employees 50 to 100% above the national average (ie fireman and policemen), shouldn’t you also be charging 50 to 100% above the norm for water, sewer, parking, etc?


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No, water and sewer are enterprise funds. Money collected in these funds must be used for water and sewer only. Parking is also an enterprise fund, meaning all revenue must be used for parking only. My guess is that the City is raiding these funds to the max because they are user based and no one has ever questioned this. Take a look at the Water Fund Budget: Money coming in monthly (connection fees for new structures, rates, penalties, etc.) and the line items of money spent. You will see CHUNKS going to the General Fund…


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The “chunks” are not going to the general fund, they legally can’t. They are going to subsidize preferred developers, which they can. Other participants in the Nacimiento project made it clear that the costs were to be paid by the developers who profit. SLO decided that the developers should get a free ride at the expense of doubling Grandma’s, and your, monthly water bill. “Big city” SLO does not equal professionalism at the cost of the $300,000 city manager, it equals old-school corruption and misappropriation of public resources. Dave Romero and Alex Madonna established this years ago.


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So by using a national average your comparing our employees to some underpaid lug heads in Texass and some hillbillies in Arkansas? Our employees are paid comparable to other departments in CALIFORNIA and were even doing a little better before the citizens choose to screw them so that now the council feels they can give us all less services. If all the deficit that was blamed on the employee compensation were true then we can now let Measure Y sunset. Or was the real need for Measure Y due to administration mismanagement and corruption in the past administration? What happened to the $5 million annual revenue Measure Y replaced?


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Great questions, keep seeking the truth. This is not an employee problem, this is a management problem. Rate payers, employees, businesses, etc. are all getting stiffed on these rate increases and the Council knows it but feel the have to continue spending so they up the rates and spend more.


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Kahth Smith-“needed the rate increase to remain efficient and business like”. What? Exactly what will this increase due to address the so called water shortage? Absolutely nothing but to pay the city employees for doing nothing more. Just another tax.


Jan Marx-“the water rate increase would keep the city securein the case of a drought”. Mrs. Marx please explain what your plan is? Are you going to provide more water or just have another study and everyone at the city will think about it. I guess that’s being efficient and business like.


John Ashbaugh-If the water you are drinking now is alright how do you plan on using the rate increase if there is no additional water to treat. You should have voted your mind instead of riding along with the outlaws.


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You forgot Dan Carpenter who said if you can’t afford the higher rates you should use more water to make the rates go down. He doesn’t care if your screwed if you do and your screwed if you don’t.


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While I didn’t hear anyone speak (was not able to attend), that sounds like Carpenter said it in jest… right? He could not have been serious!


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“Councilwoman Kathy Smith said she felt the pain of the ratepayers, but the city needed the rate increase to remain efficient and business-like.”

THE PROBLEM IS YOU’RE NOT! Decisions like this are proof. WAKE UP!


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