Recently I spoke with the owner of a scary business. It is a private water company located north of Sacramento that is authorized by the California PUC to acquire failed water agencies. It currently owns and operates 14 such agencies.
When this company makes an acquisition, the local facility all but disappears. All billing is done from a central location, and traveling work crews do whatever physical work is necessary. Of course they have all the required State licenses for water treatment and distribution. This means all local jobs are lost.
I asked how water rates were determined and the reply was, “It’s very simple. You take your expenses and divide by the number of customers.”
This formula seems attractive at first until you realize there is absolutely no local control over the costs of labor and transportation, and no mechanism for building up reserves for capital improvements or for long term planning. If a big project comes up, the rate payers will face assessments. In one failed district, rates went up 300%!
You don't have room to talk ! Look what happened when you were president. this is when our problem started, and you were asked at that time to get involved, but you chose to sit on your backside and let the manager run the show. Now look where we are, in debt.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous you seem to forget that we voted in 4 new directors 8 mos ago and one quit, one is working hard, 2 are working hard at making sure that CSD fails. So far they have done nothing but cause trouble and impede any forward motion of the board.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to the present status of the CSD, we must ask ourselves some very important questions.
ReplyDeleteWhat do the board members who are disrupting any and all attempts to bring stability to the present situation have to gain by working against the district?
Why did it finally take irate rate payer's to get action (after 8 months of stall tactics) on the hiring of a new general manager?
If they have nothing to gain personally,then we must ask why they harbor such great disdain for their neighbors and their community?
We must try to obtain the answers to these these questions before it is to late.