firing the city attorney of Milpitas

Reason why the city should fire the city attorney of Milpitas

The basic duty for a city attorney is to advise the city Council and Manager when the city is in violation of state laws. The city has violated many state laws and has gotten away with it.

The following are violations of California Constitution Article XIII D section 6

1. The city must disclose the basis for how the utility fees are calculated in the written notice sent to the parcel holders, when the city increases a utility fee. The city has not disclosed this information in the written notice sent to the public. The most resent notice does not provide enough information on the water, sewage and meter fixed fee. The city only disclosed the cost of the water and sewage fee. For the water fee the city did not disclose how many millions of gallons of water to distributed  the costs, to arrive at a fee.

The  parameters needed for the sewage charge are the average number of people per household, gallons per day, and the quantity of parcels. Only the cost to the city was disclosed.

The city did not disclose the costs for “meter fixed fee” which is a fee that depends on the size of the pipe connecting to the parcel.   The city just increases the this fee an arbitrary amount every year.

2. The city has collected more money than necessary to pay the sewage fee in 2011, when the city had a reserve fund of $8 Million dollars. The city has a formula for some fee but will not disclose this in the written notices sent to the public or even use the calculated results. see youtube.com and search for  "Council member Debbie Giordano asked a question"

3. The resident’s parcels are not charged a proportional fee for the sewage service attributable to the parcel, but  business, churches, schools and the city itself  are charged a proportional fee. A proportional fee means that they charged for what they actually use, like your water fee, only non residential parcels are charged a proportional fee. The people in single family parcels are overcharged when there is less then 4 people per parcel. Multifamily parcels aver overcharged when there is only one person per parcel.

Other laws the city has violated:

The city was suited for not disclosing who was at the mayor’s private party at city hall. The city lost $80,000 of the tax payer’s money. In this case the city had violated California public records act. The city sued a private citizen because the sign was too big. The city lost $20,000 for violation of a citizen right of free speech.
There is no penalty when the city is violating state laws , the result is the council members do not care and they are not going to bite the hand that feed them. They work for the city not the public or voters who put them into office.

Will the city start upholding state laws with an outside attorney firm, I doubt it.

If  you like to contact me or comment send email to marini4mayor@yahoo.com or twiter.com/Milpitas_news.

Send in your protest letter before August

Milpitas sent out a written notice to all parcel owners of the new fees for your utilities and you’re asked to conserve more water by 20%. The problem is if you conserve more water they will raise your water fee even more. The reason is the city distributes their overhead over all the water the city purchases from two sources, which are the SFPUC and SCVWC. The city distributes their cost over fewer gallons so they just raise the fee to cover their overhead. The other problem is that the city is always increasing the number of parcels. Debbie Giordano is a real estate agent so her interest is to provide as many homes as she can to act as an agent for buyer or seller in the future. The more stock available the more profit she can make as an agent. Marsha Grille was provided pack money from real estate agents and the other council members care less about the drought they care more about raising revenue for the city.

 Increasing the number of parcels undermines the goal to conserve more water. For example if 10 parcels conserve 10% of their water usage, then only one new parcel can be built without increasing the amount of water that the city buys form the water agencies and will not increase the demand for water. The city has approved over 1,000 new parcels in the last 6 months, and 500 this month. See Milpitas Post May 8.  This means that it will take 15,000 existing homes to conserve 10% of their water usage without increasing the amount of water the city uses, that over half of all the parcels in Milpitas. That is why the city want you to conserve by 20%. The more water you conserve the more new houses they will build without buying more water from SFPUC and SCVWD. For every 1,000 new households the city needs 54.7 million more gallons per year. The more you conserve the higher your fee.

The result is in 4 years you will be getting recycled toilet water to drink. The city benefits from the additional property tax money on the new parcels. On average the city gets about $1,000 for every new parcel. Eighty percent of the city's revenue is spent in salary and benefits. Half of all the city revenue comes from property tax. This means it in the city interest to increase the number of parcels, conserving water is your problem, the city is going to increase the demand. Council members will even approve drinking recycled sewage water in the near future if that becomes necessary and you will pay $7.00/HCF or more.  (1 HCF = 748 gallons) . The cost to water has doubled in four years from 2011 and will double again in less than 4 years.

What can you to stop the city from increasing the number of parcels?  Send in your protest letter to stop the fee increase so the city gets the message before August, you not going to approve a new fee increase until the city stops increasing the number of parcels and next year do not reelect council members who are approving more housing units. Vote for mayor or council members that will put a moratorium on increasing housing units. The choice is yours.
 

What should the message say is shown below: Make sure that you put the date,  address  and sign the protest letter.
example:
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7/25/2015

Name :          John Doe
Address:       1234  Space way
                    Milpitas ca. 95034     

I protest the new utility fee increase.

Signature ___________________________

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Send protest letter to:

 Milpitas City clerk
 City of Milpitas
 455 East Calaveras Boulevard
 Milpitas, Ca. 95035
(408) 586-3240

Contact Robert Marini at

marini4mayor@yahoo.com for comment.