Cambria water, sewer rate increase protest heads toward deadline

Officials of Cambria’s services district should learn at a public hearing Friday, Feb. 12, whether the agency’s rates for water and sewage-treatment service can rise on March 1, as proposed, or whether a protest movement was successful in stopping the rate hikes.

A deputy county clerk is to lead the tallying process for the Cambria Community Services District.

District officials estimate the increases would provide approximately $40,000 every two months, money the agency needs to fill a fiscal gap that grew when Cambrians became the most efficient water conservers in the state.

Cambrians water savings of more than 40 percent — compared to usage in the benchmark year of 2013 — attracted statewide attention, especially after the governor and state water regulators required Californians to cut water consumption in the state by 25 percent because of dire effects from four consecutive years of punishing drought.

Despite rainfall in December and January, this county is still considered to be in “exceptional drought” conditions. In this case, “exceptional” means really bad.

When water use drops, the cost of providing water and sewage-treatment services doesn’t go down commensurately. So CCSD officials say they’ve had to find other ways to cover expenses that include the costs of staffing, infrastructure maintenance and repairs, testing, monitoring and more.

CCSD and some other districts (including Atascadero Mutual Water) want to raise rates to fill the financial shortfall. As a consultant explained it, the Cambria district must divide the cost of providing the services among those who use it.

The rate-hike protest process is controlled by state law. To stop the increases, 50 percent plus one of district customers would have to submit official protests that contain specific information, such as name, property address and assessor’s parcel number, signature and date.

In this case, according to district stats, it would take 1,969 protests to stop the water-rate increase and 1,915 protests to stop the rate hike for sewage treatment (some Cambria properties are still on septic tanks).

A typical residence using six units of water per bi-monthly billing period would see an increase of $33.24 for water and sewage treatment, bringing the total to $168.94 for two months usage.

Objections

Members of Cambrians for Fiscal Responsibility (CFR) and others who object to the rate-hike proposal have taken their message directly to the people, handing out and otherwise distributing blank protest forms for people to fill out.

The protests can be submitted in person as late as at Friday’s hearing (9 a.m. at the Veterans Memorial Building).

CFR has distributed the forms near the post office on Bridge Street, at some Friday farmers markets and in editions of The Cambrian and The Tribune. The group also ran an ad in The Cambrian. CFR also provides electronic versions for those who call 924-1404 or email to cambrians4fiscalresponsibility@gmail.com.

The forms also include some of CFR’s reasons for encouraging people to protest.

Why increase rates?

As stated in the meeting’s staff report and other documents, revenues from CCSD’s proposed increases are needed “to fund the annual costs of water and sewer operations and to raise $1 million in the water fund to pay for capital improvements required immediately.” Those improvements include replacing the Fiscalini water tank, upgrading the Rodeo Grounds pump station and work to be done on the Stuart Street tank project.

If the rate hikes go into effect, district Finance Manager Patrick O’Reilly and consultant Alex Handlers said earlier that the water and wastewater departments should be self supporting, as they’re supposed to be but aren’t.

It can be a tricky balance. The new rates were based on the fiscal assumption that the super-conserving Cambrians would use more water than they have for the past couple of years, but still 25 to 30 percent less than they were using in 2013.

Without the rate hikes, officials say, the district probably would have to use general funds for critical projects, leaving less money for expenses normally covered by those funds.

CCSD says if the increases are defeated, infrastructure improvements could be delayed or shelved, which can make them more expensive later when costs for supplies and services would likely have risen. Much of the CCSD’s equipment is elderly, and failures frequently are more expensive than upgrades done ahead of time.

If the protest succeeds and the rate-increase proposal fails, the district could present another proposal in the future.

This story was originally published February 10, 2016 at 10:06 AM with the headline "Cambria water, sewer rate increase protest heads toward deadline."