LETTERS: Sylvan Corners, mayor, defunding police
February 14, 2021
Every year that the Citrus Heights Water District proposes rate increases, you can count on a clamor of loud voices on social media criticizing the increase, along with several dozen protest letters sent to the district, followed finally by a small handful of ratepayers who bother to show up to the legally required public hearing.
You can also count on the three-member water district board voting unanimously to approve the increase each year, which, following the latest double-digit increase to be voted on Nov. 25, will amount to ratepayers being charged over 50% more than they did in 2015.
Related: Citrus Heights Water District to vote on new double-digit rate increase
There’s two big reasons why the board doesn’t listen to the clamor of voices opposing the rate increases:
Voters have proven that they don’t care enough to act. Last year there was an open seat on the water district board, but it didn’t even show up on the election ballot because only one person applied for the seat. He won his seat by default.
This same thing also happened in the 2016 election. And in elections where a water district board position is actually on the ballot, many voters skip over the race and leave it blank.
Voters can’t argue with any consistency that their water district board members aren’t being responsible as an accountability board when the voters themselves aren’t serving their role to hold their board members accountable.
Ratepayers are willfully ignorant. Shouting that the water district should tighten up its budget instead of raising rates might sound like a good talking point, but in reality it doesn’t help.
What would be helpful would be saying specifically what the board should cut. Some argue the water district’s general manager salary is too high, with his total pay listed at over $180,000 last year, according to wage information published by the State Controller’s Office.
If you think $180,000 is too high, tell the board what the salary should be, and why. But the reality is that salaries attract the right person for the job.
In a tight labor market, where almost everyone is employed and no one is looking for work, why should someone come to the district instead of taking a higher paying job elsewhere?
That being said, there’s some merit to questioning why a district with only 35 employees has more than a third of those with total pay over $100,000 a year. Six-figure pay may make sense for management, but not for the average worker.
Carmichael Water District, with 37 employees, pays its general manager about the same as Citrus Heights, but only four of its employees have total wages over $100,000. The same is true of Fair Oaks Water District, and with both districts, their total wages paid out last year were around $2.1 million, while Citrus Heights Water District’s total wages are listed at $3.3 million.
For anyone interested, wage information for government employees can be viewed and compared online at publicpay.ca.gov.
But more proof of the ratepayers’ willful ignorance is that the district’s Customer Advisory Committee meeting videos, which are published on Youtube, only have a handful of views — none of the meetings from this year have more than 30 views.
Anyone who watches these videos would know that there is a need to replace more than 200 miles of aging water mains beginning in 2030, which is estimated to cost a minimum of $390 million. To put that in perspective, the district’s entire 2020 budget is only $20 million.
That means there’s a “tidal wave” of water main replacements that the district knows is coming and is taking action now to make plans for. The district deserves huge credit for investing significant time and effort to put together a committee of more than two dozen customers and stake holders to plan more than 10 years ahead for “Project 2030.“
Obviously rates will have to go up to pay for this, but the Customer Advisory Committee recently came up with a well-reasoned recommendation to add a 5.5% surcharge to water bills beginning in 2020 to help pre-fund the coming water main replacement tsunami. The board will be voting on this separately at a later date.
However, the 5.5% surcharge will be a totally separate charge from the current rate increase — meaning it will be added on top of the existing 11% increase being proposed on Monday night.
Sadly, the average ratepayer knows nothing about these things, and that’s largely their own fault since the information is available online. However, the water district also bears some responsibility, which are addressed in the following steps.
Here’s 4 practical steps forward:
To learn more about the water district’s upcoming public hearing on Nov. 25, see story: Citrus Heights Water District to vote on new double-digit rate increase
Editorials express the official opinion of the Citrus Heights Sentinel and are distinct from our standard news articles, which strive to be unbiased. The Sentinel is committed to maintaining a strict wall of separation between opinion and news. If you value our commitment to independent coverage of local news, consider becoming a supporter of The Sentinel to make more coverage possible. Click here to see subscription options.
Thanks for reading The Sentinel. You are either trying to access subscribers-only content or you have reached your limit of 5 free articles per 30 days. Click here to sign in or subscribe.