(Top) FPPUD board and staff count votes with help from customers, Joyce (in blue) and Chris (in white). Five residents attended the hearing preceding the vote (bottom left). FPPUD chair Gerald Garcia (bottom right) conducted the meeting.
Base Rate Increase Denied, But Usage Boost Passes
FRAZIER PARK–The Frazier Park Public Utility District announced at its board meeting Tuesday, Sept 11 that its customers have voted against providing the 1926-era water system with the funds the board of directors says they need to update the system.
The board explained in public meetings in July and August that they hoped to save tens of thousands of dollars by being able to coordinate with a Kern County roads department streetscape beautification project for Frazier Park.
The base water rate increase of $10 per month was denied by a vote of 180 ‘No’ to 143 ‘Yes’ votes. More than 50% of total votes cast are needed to pass such a measure, so 38 more ‘Yes’ votes would have been needed to pass the increase.
The consumptive rate increase from 52 cents to 75 cents per 100 cubic feet of water was approved with 149 protests received of the total 1,442 ballots mailed out.
The protests represent 10.3% which is not sufficient to block the increase. More than 50% of total customers must protest in writing to stop the increase from passing.
A final hearing and opportunity for public input was held on Saturday, Sept. 8 at the district’s office in Frazier Park. During the hearing, board members explained the voting process and gave members of the public an opportunity to change their votes.
Manager Greg Keenberg recapped his description of water system problems, publicly explained several times, including a failing telemetry system. The telemetry system monitors and controls water levels in the storage tanks. Two repair calls were required last month because of tank overflows due to faulty telemetry function. Five members of the public attended, including Stacy Balbona whose letter to the editor was published in the September 7 edition of The Mountain Enterprise. Her concern was the FPPUD board’s proposed authority to raise rates at its own discretion and the inability of some low-income water customers to pay higher rates. Board members explained that only small adjustments for inflation based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI-typically about 3 percent) would be allowed, under such a new policy. That proposed policy, however, did not pass.
While the board had planned to replace substantial sections of water main pipes before the Frazier Park Streetscape Beautification Project begins in early 2008, the failure of the Base Rate increase turned the September 11 meeting to discussion of abandoning that plan in favor of directing limited funds to the most troubled areas of the water system. Pipes in the northwest area of the district and the telemetry system must be replaced. The second phase of a systemwide overhaul begun last year must also be completed.
FPPUD board members also discussed issuing another ballot initiative in the near future on the Base Rate alone, without the confusions of the other issues.
This is part of the September 14, 2007 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.
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