Santa Clara River Valley earthquake,
aftershocks hit Sunday, Monday
September 10, 2014
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
It’s been a long dry spell between the drought and the time it has taken the city to start moving on the water, sewer and sewer surcharge rates, which will be the focus of another Ad Hoc Committee meeting this evening, September 10.
The meeting again will be held at the Community Center, 530 W. Main St., starting at 6:30 p.m. and the session will not be televised or live streamed online.
The previous meeting - held in mid-August - was the first time the Ad Hoc Committee of Mayor Rick Cook and Councilman Bob Gonzales had met since May 2013.
After complaints at the most recent meeting that Spanish speakers were not accommodated, Interim Public Works Director Brian Yanez said there would be a translator present at the September 10 meeting.
More than 200 people attended the last at times contentious meeting centered on high utility bills and what the city intends to do about it.
The city hired a consultant that has been tweaking various scenarios and billing models, including a base winter rate for the sewer-processing surcharge. Such a rate was first agreed to in 2008 when the city adopted new fees including those to cover the cost of the privately owned wastewater treatment plant.
Critics claim citizens are now paying for the plant that was planned for added capacity to accommodate future growth but was built for same; the approximately $60 million plant was constructed as a rare Design/Build/Operate/Finance that put the plant into private hands, initially PERC and Alinda Capital Partners, which formed the Santa Paula Water LLC partnership.
Beverly Hills also built their plant as a DBOF but as agreed in the contract when it was constructed the city purchased it 5 years later.
Cook has been noting that the city apparently pays an 8 percent variable interest to the owners of the plant as well as a $1.2 million insurance policy.
In the past the city has noted it is interested in purchasing the plant; City Manager Jaime Fontes rejected Gonzales’ suggestion to refinance the facility with Santa Paula Water, with Fontes noting that the company would continue to collect high interest for a longer period of time.
Monthly sewer rates are now $77.21. In addition, residents pay $1.12 per 100 cubic feet of water used per month for the sewer processing charge.
Yanez told the council during a later overview of the mid-August meeting that city financial computer programs could only automatically go back one-year, right in the middle of what is now a severe three-year drought.
He noted any other research to calculate earlier utility bills to determine winter usage by customers to establish a base when California was not suffering the drought would have to be done manually.
Santa Paula’s water rates have gone from $17.82 a month during the 2009-10 fiscal year to $24.57 a month now for users with a 5/8 inch meter.
Several options would create tiers of usage - the more used the higher the bills - while raising basic rates for water and lowering the basic rate for sewer, which would see a higher surcharge for winter rate usage.
Although the $77.12 monthly base charge for the sewer was lowered to a proposed $75 and now the latest $60 base rate, the controversial surcharge is increased proportionately from $1.12 per HCF (748 gallons) to a base of $1.78 HCF or more based on levels of volumetric charges. It is anticipated the September 10 meeting will be the last before the new rates go to the council for consideration followed by a Prop 218 protest vote. New rates could be implemented in January 2015.
For more information call 933-4212, ext. 305.
