Reject consolidation of county water systems

The proposal to consolidate eight water enterprise funds gets more cloudy each time the county staff argues in favor of its adoption. We simply are not getting the whole story.

The staff claims that the East Valley fund received substantial subsidies over the years from water fund 210, the General Fund, Redevelopment and the Carson Water Subconservancy District. But when they report the dollars per single family residential equivalent dwelling unit the facts are quite different.

Over the years, the combined subsidies per SFR EDU in order of dollars received:

$33,520 to fairgrounds/Sunrise Estates

$18,653 to Sheridan Acres

$12,710 to Cave Rock

$7,945 to Skyland

$6,304 to Zephyr Water Utility

$2,832 to West Valley

$1,533 to East Valley

The proposed consolidation plan includes spending $75,000 per SFR EDU for the fairgrounds. That adds up to $108,520 per SFR EDU. We get no answers as to where the money went or where or why it will be spent.

The consolidation plan includes spending $20,000 per SFR EDU for a Jobs' Peak Treatment Plant. Why has the developer not been tagged with that cost if he did not meet the county's requirements to supply water meeting quality standards and adequate fire flow? A convoluted county response fails to adequately answer that question.

The consolidation plan includes spending $6,008 per SFR EDU for Zephyr Cove. That adds up to $12,311 per SFR EDU. Again, we get no answers as to where the money went or where or why it will be spent.

These are huge unanswered dollars totaling $15.36 million already spent and $10.7 million more to be spent - that's over $26 million.

The county states "they deemed it inappropriate" that the entire county pay for a small number of residents on county water systems and the 7 cents property tax was dissolved. What has changed so it is now deemed appropriate that the East and West Valley users pay for a small number of residents in the other county water systems? Is this not a philosophical contradiction?

Several years ago a proposal was made to interconnect and consolidate the systems at the Lake. The residents rejected the plan for they did not want to be associated with their neighbors and wanted to keep their water systems independent and separate from the others.

The county admits that in an effort to "keep the rates low" they used the connection fees for the operation of the systems. Now, due to the cessation of construction, there are no connection fees being paid. Those connection fees should have been used only to construct new capital improvements such as expanding treatment plants, new water tanks, etc. - not the operation of the system. But, since there is no construction, there is no need for new tanks and expanded treatment plants, etc. The county admits that they did not fund depreciation reserves to replace deteriorating equipment and pipes 'in an effort to keep the rates low.' Now when they need those dollars there are none. The county admits they did not allocate appropriate costs to the systems "in order to keep the rates low." Now they want the East and West Valley users to pick up the costs for their management failures. What are they going to do in an effort to keep the East and West Valley rates low? Or is that a rhetorical question.

The county has proposed consolidating the eight water Enterprise funds for purely economic reasons as per their staff presentation last fall - "1) Share the risk, and 2) Broaden the revenue base". They have failed to examine or investigate any other alternatives. They are simply going forward with a single plan which is not the appropriate way to look at and solve a problem. This is not considered good management practice nor is it in the best interest of any of the county taxpayers.

Instead of looking for alternatives, for more economical solutions and for other funding sources, the County is short changing the taxpayers into a single, poorly researched, solution.

The federal government has erroneously determined there is no cost of living increase this year or next year while Douglas County has already increased our utility tax, water costs and sewer costs and is proposing more water cost increases.

The proposed consolidation plan must be rejected.

Stuart L. Posselt is a Minden resident.