EDITOR:
Here's a fresh take on the proposed Douglas County water consolidation scheme that shows that sometimes the best arguments are the simplest.
Utilities engineer and planning consultant Steve Bennett, collaborating with John Haug, a retired water district engineer, made the following points to the Douglas County commissioners and County Manager T. Michael Brown:
"[T]he proposal is [1] illegal; [2] irrational; and [3] unfair.
On the first point, I request that the district attorney explain how the members of one special district can be forced to pay for the improvements in another district. The founding legislation surely requires that rate payers have an obligation only for the provision of services and the construction, operation, maintenance and replacement accounting for elements related only to the special district. I would like [to have identified] the statutes that justify the proposal ...
On the second point, I believe that having the ratepayers in the West and East Valley districts pay for improvement in other districts, regardless of the urgent need of such works, is irrational.
There is no physical connection between the districts and the only common factor is that they all deal with water. (I suggest that others provide payments to me because we all use money.) The proposal does not pass a common sense test.
Finally, the proposal is grossly unfair as it requires payment by others for the benefits of a few. Ironically, the recipients of the benefit live in a high value community area and would be subsidized by those in lower value areas. Where is the equity in this arrangement?
I add that, on the first point, it would be interesting to see the statutes that allow one district's ratepayers to dip into the pockets of other district ratepayers.
Or, failing that, language that allows county officials to pay for their prior bad decisions to take on water districts with pre-existing problems by extorting money from non-problem district ratepayers.
I had made a point to Mr. Brown in prior correspondence that by this logic, water district ratepayers could be made to cover budget shortfalls in any county department.
Lynn Muzzy
Minden
