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Comments (1)Tahoe City Public Utility District Has Issues
My Shot
Published: February 11, 2010by Paul Vatistas
As we enter 2010, the economy continues to sputter along, our government seems headed for gridlock, and we are all feeling the pinch. In the midst of all this, the Tahoe City Public Utility District has decided that now is the time to raise rates significantly for all of its customers, and this has many folks taking a closer look at how this local agency runs itself.
The TCPUD does a good job of delivering our basic services, but it can do a lot more in these tough times to improve its cost control and needs to face up to the realities of 2010.
It is really hard to believe the district’s claims that it has costs under control when staff still receive gold-plated benefit packages, the agency has diverted taxpayer funds for a poorly thought-out acquisition of the Lake Forest Water Company (LFWC), payments are ‘hidden’ from the public, and the board and executives are still hiring private rooms at Sunnyside for their internal meetings.
There is the opportunity to save over half a million dollars in operating costs by reviewing current work practices, improving productivity, embracing new technologies, and revising employee benefit packages to bring them back into line with the typical benefit packages of the district’s customers. The district still has a lot of work to do in this area.
The proposed LFWC acquisition makes no sense since there are water companies with worse water supply issues in our area. Nor is it a financially sensible deal. So why is it such a priority right now? Surely the first acquisition should be the one that addresses the worst water supply issues in our area and benefits the most people.
Looking closely at the deal’s proposed funding reveals many problems. The acquisition cost does not include the more than $100,000 that the TCPUD has already spent on external legal fees and consultants since late 2007, nor does it include tens of thousands of dollars of staff time over that same period. Existing taxpayers and ratepayers have paid for these costs. How will these be recouped?
The TCPUD has allocated a further $308,000 in taxpayer funds for the LFWC acquisition, which they claim is Lake Forest residents’ share of previously paid property taxes. However, there has been absolutely no analysis to validate this figure and it literally seems to have been pulled out of a hat. This seems a very fuzzy way to manage our money.
The proposed assessment fee for Lake Forest gives the residents a waiver of some or all of the regular water rates that the rest of us are asked to pay to support operating costs, storage tank maintenance, and water well maintenance. The waiver seems unfair and intended to benefit a few select folks at the expense of everyone else. The assessment fee needs to be revisited.
Finally, every month the TCPUD spends thousands of dollars in payments to ‘anonymous’ recipients. These recipients’ names are blacked out in public documents so it is impossible to determine who they are and what services they may have provided. No agency should be able to hide how it spends taxpayers’ money from the taxpayers who provide it, and this practice needs to stop.
We all deserve clean water and a decent fire suppression system. However, we all deserve professional financial management and transparency from our public agencies, too. The TCPUD needs to change some of its working practices to deliver better value to customers before it raises rates again, and must demonstrate to existing taxpayers that their money is being managed properly.
~ Paul Vatistas is a resident of Tahoe City.
Moonshine Ink offers a place to Spout Off. Letters are limited to 300 words. My Shots are limited to 600 words and must be reserved ahead of time. Email editor@moonshineink.com or fax (530) 587-3635.
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