by Ken Duncan
CCWD sold power generation rights to Northern California Power Authority (NCPA), who has made mega millions of dollars off of those rights.
CCWD received $14 million dollars and got generous and gave most of that money away instead of addressing any needs.
CCWD purchased 55 acres of land in Valley Springs and said it was supposed to be a spray field.
That was in 2004. Problem was that it was too far away from the facility which made it cost prohibitive to connect the two sites.
Purchase was with $510,000 of ratepayer money. Now it is said that the land has NO value and CCWD may simply give it away.
CCWD raised our rates about 27% in 2000. Similar rate increase in 2007 with a stated purpose of addressing a growing infrastructure problem that had been ignored for decades.
CCWD Board of Directors failed to also tell us that they had just signed a new SEIU Union contract that gave 40%-50% increases in pay and benefits to employees.
CCWD promised last year that the rate increase would this time be used solely for infrastructure upgrades and after finally creating a reserve account for that purpose.
EXCEPT, in the just approved budget for 2014-2015 CCWD is taking $181,000 from that reserve account to the General Fund for internal purposes instead. So much for that promise.
CCWD built a $3.4 million new headquarters building in San Andreas. To finance this they borrowed money from themselves with cash being held for other purposes and will expect ratepayers to eventually pay back that expenditure plus interest.
Most recent General Manager was only on the job for 18 months and was the point man for the CCWD 2013 rate increase.
However, after the Board approved the gigantic rate increase it appears that the money being put into a reserve account for the infrastructure upgrades only (see previous note) and the announced austerity program to cut operating costs since new rate increase, could not be used for General Fund purposes, and so the General Manager was fired.
Now they are paying $20,000 to find another replacement. CCWD's monthly expenditures are approximately $1.5 million. (FOR ONE MONTH!) and the recently approved budget is in excess of $17 million.
CCWD payroll has recently come under review. NOTE: There are about 60 individuals working for CCWD.
Here are some stats: May/June net payroll $300,000 per month. (In other words, gross payroll would be in excess of $400,000 or more).
Payments to payroll taxes for May/June average of $156,000 a month. Payments to retirement for May/June $91,000 per month
Do the math and it is evident that these 60 individuals are costing ratepayers about $600,000 or more.
Can ratepayers afford to be this generous? EXAMPLE: Meter Reader Trainee up to $50,217 plus benefits.
What is the solution for ratepayers? In November, 4 of the 5 sitting Directors of the CCWD board are up for election.
If all four are replaced with different individuals who understand the pain and suffering currently in place and actually represent ratepayers.
It is hoped that things will eventually get better for ratepayers. So on November 4th vote for four new board members.
6 comments:
Wait a minute here. Who are the ones actually running against someone? Bertha Underhill was in there during a big rate hike. Isn't she running against her one-time friend Don Stump? That I know. Dell 'Orto is running against someone in San Andreas. Sounds like campaign fodder to me.
Yeah, Dell'Orto is running against Ratterman, so Underhill and Dell'orto have to be behind this. The others are not running for another term.
How much of this is true?
This doesn't help Underhill. She is part of the big spenders.
You left out the past CCWD BOND debacle. Board members did well, the rate payer, paid.
You didn't mention the southworth spray field with an adjacent lot for a fire station. Who was it that recently bought the lot? The CCWD member not up for election this year.
It seems members of the CCWD board do pretty well for themselves regarding CCWD insider knowledge.
Ken has spent many hours/days attending meetings and asking questions. At least he cares enough to take the time to do his research. Got one here that I found as well. Back in 2013, CCWD borrowed almost $2 Million to pay off unfunded CalPERS obligations, then borrowed another $3 million from themselves to build a monument home office rather than look at all the empty buildings in the county, like the old Sheriffs building? Oh, then they asked us to pony up to pay for all the repairs that were backlogged. Time to get CCWD out of my pocketbook!
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