THCSD raises rates on split vote

By a 3-2 vote, Twain Harte Community Services District directors approved a $6.22 raise in the monthly basic water rate for district residents Thursday night.

The rate will be $39.22 per month starting July 1, up from the current $33. The increase includes $2.34 per month to make necessary repairs and improvements to the district’s infrastructure.
 

The rest of it is for building up the district’s reserve fund and to pay for maintenance and operations.

Voting against the raise were directors Bill Bryant and Richard Knudson. Voting for it were Jim Johnson, John Kinsfather and Gary Sipperley.

District manager Scot Moody told an audience of 20-some residents there to protest the rate hike that rising costs and unfunded state mandates have been eating into district reserves, which are meant to be saved for major capital repairs and unexpected system failures.

“The alternative to building our reserves back up could be catastrophic,” he said. “If we had a major system failure, it could bankrupt the district.”

Bryant said the decision was already cut and dried before Thursday’s public hearing.

I thought we could make it with a smaller raise,” he said, “but I didn’t get anywhere with it. I don’t think they should just go ahead without even considering what the people came to say.”

Longtime district resident Dorothy Sylwester said she was surprised more people weren’t at the hearing. “Everybody is up in arms about this,” she said. “Why aren’t they here?”

Bryant and Knudson said the reason more people weren’t at the meeting was that it was held on the same night as the Twain Harte Elementary School graduation.

"We talked yesterday,” Knudson said, “and I thought by not replacing one employee, we could cut the raise down to $2.34 per month.”

He pointed out that other government entities and businesses are laying people off and cutting salaries and that other boards of directors are giving up their stipends.

“It seems (giving up our stipends) is the least we could do,” he said. “We have to do something to help hurting people.”

District resident Fred Wickman said Twain Harte has a large population of retired people.

“The cost of living is going up, and our income is going down,” he said. “Is there a way we could bank water we don’t use in the winter to use during summer months?”

Diane Dunigan said she would support a $2.34 raise, but not the additional money for reserves. “We own property on Vantage Pointe that should have been sold,” she said. “That alone would build the reserves back up.”

She also recommended looking at ways to save money in district operations. “A penny saved is a penny earned,” she said. “And some projects could wait a year or so.”

Kinsfather said the district is short one employee now, and Moody is trying to get by without replacing him, perhaps by hiring a part-time summer employee with no benefits. Summer is the district’s busiest time because of part-time residents, he said.

Moody added that in the six months he has been district manager, the district has managed to cut costs by $70,000. “That’s as long as we can hold the line and not hire a full-time employee,” he said. “

Ron Clark, a 24-year resident of Twain Harte, said voters made it clear in May they didn’t want more taxes.

“I bought my cabin in 1985 when the water rate was $13 a month,” he said. “I’ve seen a 200 percent increase in my basic water rate since then. I’d like to see that in my pension.”

District resident Mike Ripley said families are having to do less with less, and the district should do its part. He suggested prioritizing improvements, doing one at a time.

District resident Sandy Asquith said she would support a $2.34 raise to fund necessary projects.

Moody said the problem with trying to decide what is most important to fix is that no one knows what is going to break first. “We can’t predict a major system failure,” he said.