I’m concerned with the water losses of 1.29 million gallons per day
inferred in the Bartle Wells Associates study. The losses are costing
Milpitas residents $3 million dollars per year. I received a second
email dated July 16, from city attorney Christopher Diaz. I asked for
the quantity of water sold in 2017.
Diaz’s response was:
“…the city does not have any disclose-able records because the annual
audit will be completed in October of this year. The annual audit will
contain an accurate numbers for the water sold in 2017.”
The amount of water sold in 2017 has been in the city’s records since
Dec. 31, 2017. So the data has been available and accurate for over 8
months. California Public Records Act (CPRA) states that the city must provide
the data within 10 to 14 days. I have given the city over three months.
Why should I wait till October? The city’s desire to give me the data
beyond 14 days is a violation of CPRA, thanks to the council members
lack of concern in upholding CPRA. The council members have reduced the
residents to second-class citizens below the wishes of city employees,
because employees desires have a higher priority than the residents
right for an open and transparent city government. Vote for new city
council members that will uphold federal and state laws. Vote for Marini for
city council, He has been fighting the city over fair utility rates over six
years.
Milpitas has accelerated the amount potable water losses every year and passing the cost to residents, exceeding the amount estimated in the Urban water management report by 5 years. The city employees want $2.4 million dollars of the water fund to be transferred to the general fund for services to the water infrastructure. The problem is the employees can not verify the time they spend servicing the water fund.
votenow
Thursday, August 30, 2018
Wednesday, August 24, 2016
initiative on water rates for ballot canceled by Milpitas city council
Counter claims on initiative
Milpitas
City Attorney Christopher Diaz told the council members that in his
opinion the water rate initiative was illegal and the city could be sued if the
initiative went into effect. Mr. Diaz is the new attorney and has
limited knowledge of the history of Milpitas violations of
proposition 218. This are the facts about in the water rate
proposition with tired rates.
Attorney
made a big deal about the lowest tier not covering the cost to
purchase water which means that tier 1 would be subsidized by other
tiers:
There
are two subsidizes that the city is using now.
-
The city is forcing the residents that do not receive irrigation water to subsidize the parcels that do receive irrigation water by transferring the $10 million dollars for the construction of three wells on the residents that are not going to receive irrigation water.
2. Regarding the sewage rate
fees, the residents that are below the average on people per
household and/or average gallons per day are subsidizing the
residents that are above the average people per household or water
consumed. This means a resident could be paying as much as $90/HCF
for sewage. If the resident is using 10 HCF with the flat rate fee of
$90 dollars the cost is $9.00/HCF above the city cost of $6.15. This
is a definite violation prop 218 and is ignored by the attorney and
all city council members.
Attorney
claimed the initiative could be illegal because the initiative did
not provide the basis for how the rates were determined:
The city has not provide the
bases for how its fees were determined in the written notices sent to
the public for any utility service for that last 16 years. I have
always asked the city to do so but get ignored all the time. The city
did not disclose the existence of a bond, the cost of the bond or how
the $1.30 potable service charge was calculated as required by
proposition 218.
The
Attorney claimed that there was not a public hearing on the rates.
The city discussed the
initiative at 3 public meetings the last meeting was Aug 2. I was
limited to 3 minutes but city attorney and employees could discuss
the issue without any time limit and I was not allowed to present by
spreadsheet on the viewer so the public could see my calculations on
revenue received by the city. I showed a profit of $1.5 million over
the city’s plan using the $4.75 cost for water.
Attorney
claimed that city would have to sue the proponents and city clerk: On
what grounds could the city sue? Obtaining an initiative is not
against the law, and the city’s attorney even participated in the
initiative. The initiative is a right of the public and allowed in
California election code. All election codes was followed, there is
nothing illegal about the petition’s rate structure. The city used
the sue ploy to get the council members to vote against the
initiative from going on the ballot in November and it worked.
The
city of San Juan Capistrano was charging more money than needed to
provide the infrastructure a violation of prop 218. Prop 218 states
that you cannot overcharge for the service. There is nothing about
undercharging. The city can use general fund money if necessary to
provide infrastructure. The city is taking $2.4 million out of the
water fund for services to go into the general fund. The city can use
general fund money if needed to provide more of the infrastructure.
The general fund is paying the city’s water costs so it perfectly
legal to use general fund money for the water infrastructure to fix
the leaking pipe problem instead of passing on the $2.4 million
dollar cost of lost potable water on the water fees.
If leaking pipe losses was
paid for from the general fun, the city would take the problem
seriously and would be a high priority to fix the leaking pipes, but
would rather spend resident’s money on wells which saves the
general fund money instead. The Urban water management reports lost
due to leaking pipes today is 374 thousand HCF units and in 4 years
it will be 485 thousand units a 30% increase that will be passed on
to the residents. Today about 750,000 gallons of water is lost each
day. See report at
http://www.ci.milpitas.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Adopted-2015-Milpitas-UWMP-Revised-6-27-16.pdf
The
city’s water plan was designed to transfer as much costs to the
residents as possible and reduce the city’s costs in the process.
So the residents are subsidizing the city and all parcels that use
irrigation water when the city and other parcel owners could pay for
their own irrigation water, but city chose not to do so and violated
election code by not allowing the ballot to be voted on by the
public. The city should obey proposition 218 themselves and stop the
double standards.
Mayor candidates Carmen Montano and Debbie Giordano
voted for you to subsidizing others for irrigation water and both are
running for the Mayor position. Both are ignoring city’s violations
of proposition 218.
The
city’s claims against the initiative were baseless, but worked in
stopping the initiative from going on the November ballot.
Questions
contact marini4mayor@yahoo.com
Monday, July 25, 2016
Ciy of Milpias increases sewage fee above cost of service a violation of proposition 218
Milpitas new utility schedule will charge single family units $90.27 sewage flat rate bimonthly fee.
You may ask what is the city cost to provide this service and what is the cost per HCF for you?
The city cost to provide the sewage service is $6.15/HCF.
Your cost/HCF depends on how may gallons per day your using and how many people are in your parcel.
Let take a simple case. If there is one person per household and that parcel is using 51 gallons a day the total gallons in a bimonthly period is 3,102.5 gallons and that is 4.15 HCF units. One HCF is equal to 748 gallons. The bimonthly fee is $90.27. The result is $90.27 divided by 4.15 ( fee/HCF = $90.27/ 4.15) so your charge is $21.76/HCF. If their are 2 people using 51 gallons a day per person the total gallons would be twice as much so that would be 6,205 gallons or 8.30 HCF your fee is $90.27/8.30 = $10.88/HCF . The result is for two people the cost is $10.88/HCF. I think you get the idea. Any fee/HCF above $6.15 is a violation of proposition 218, which states you cannot charge more then it costs to provide the service, yet the city of Milpitas does this all the time. The more water you use the less it cost/HCF.
You may ask what is the city cost to provide this service and what is the cost per HCF for you?
The city cost to provide the sewage service is $6.15/HCF.
Your cost/HCF depends on how may gallons per day your using and how many people are in your parcel.
Let take a simple case. If there is one person per household and that parcel is using 51 gallons a day the total gallons in a bimonthly period is 3,102.5 gallons and that is 4.15 HCF units. One HCF is equal to 748 gallons. The bimonthly fee is $90.27. The result is $90.27 divided by 4.15 ( fee/HCF = $90.27/ 4.15) so your charge is $21.76/HCF. If their are 2 people using 51 gallons a day per person the total gallons would be twice as much so that would be 6,205 gallons or 8.30 HCF your fee is $90.27/8.30 = $10.88/HCF . The result is for two people the cost is $10.88/HCF. I think you get the idea. Any fee/HCF above $6.15 is a violation of proposition 218, which states you cannot charge more then it costs to provide the service, yet the city of Milpitas does this all the time. The more water you use the less it cost/HCF.
Thursday, April 21, 2016
Your subsidizing irrigation water for the city of Milpitas
Your subsidizing irrigation water that benefits the city and others but not you. The city of Milpitas uses potable water for irrigation purposes. The city uses 80,000 HCF units and others is 285,000 HCF units. In the water fee increase the city passed in December, the city will issue a $25.5 million 4.25% interest, 30 year bond. $10,000 of the bond is for irrigation purposes. This means the city will drill three wells at a cost of $3.35 million each on average and charge you for it. The problem is your paying for a service (irrigation water) that you will not receive. By state law, proposition 218, the city can not charge for a service that you do not receive, but the city is doing it anyway. The question is what would the city and others pay if they had to cover there cost $10 million for the new wells if paid over 30 years. The total amount of irrigation water is 285,000 + 80,000 = 365.000 HCF units of water.
Annual bond payment $595,982 / 365,000 HCF = $1.62 /HCF. The city does not want to pay $4.38 for irrigation water so it charges you for it in the Capital Improvement Plan. Your not going to believe this but it true, in the notice to the public the city wants to lower the current recycled water fee to $2.78 from $4.08 for irrigation water from the wells that cost $10 million dollars. Your picking up the tab with your portable water fee of $6.43. If the city just left the current $4.08 irrigation fee the city is charging for the service now the city would not need to charge all the residents $10 million for the new wells and would reduce our potable water fee. Over 30 years the current irrigation free of $4.08/HCF + $0.30 can pay for the wells themselves. The city and companies would save on the usage of potable water, and it would be would be a win for everyone.
There is now a petition to charge the residents $3.35 for potable water for the first tier. I hope you sign it. Contact marini4mayor@yahoo.com
The cost of Irrigation water | |||||
bond payment | city irrigation | other irrigation | total irrigation | cost /HCF | |
$595,982.00 | 80,000 + | 285,000 = | 365,000 | $1.63 | |
current fee $2.75/HCF + | well cost $1.63/HCF = | total cost $4.38 |
|||
Table 5 |
|||||
City of Milpitas - Water Rate Study | |||||
FY 2015/16 Est. Water Use by Customer Class1 | |||||
User Breakdown of Water Sales | Est. Potable Sold | % of Potable Use | SFPUC Water | SCVWD Water | |
Residential | 1,591,000 | 54% | 1,121,655 | 469,345 | |
Commercial | 434,000 | 15% | 305,970 | 128,030 | |
Industrial | 476,649 | 16% | 336,037 | 140,611 | |
Institutional | 90,000 | 3% | 63,450 | 26,550 | |
Irrigation | 285,000 | 10% | 200,925 | 84,075 | |
Ed Levin Park | 2,610 | 0% | 1,840 | 770 | |
CITY Domestic | 10,000 | 0% | 7,050 | 2,950 | |
CITY Irrigation | 80,000 | 3% | 56,400 | 23,600 | |
2,969,259 | 100% | 2,093,327 | 875,931 | ||
* Note: If the city wants to pay for a 30 year 4.25% bond the annual payment would be $595.982 so
$595,982/365,000 HCF = $1.63/HCF. The current cost of irrigation water is $2.78. Adding the cost of the bond would make the total bill at $2.78 + $1.60 = $4.38.
Wednesday, April 20, 2016
water petiton
INIATIVE MEASUER TO BE SUBMITTED DIRECTLY TO THE VOTERS
The City Attorney has
prepared the following title and summary of the purpose and points of the proposed measure.
Initiative Measure Regarding
the City of Milpitas
Water Rates and Charges
This Measure would amend
Milpitas Municipal Code, Title VIII, Chapter 1, Section VIII-1-6.13 with regard
to water rates and charges based on quantity per hundred cubic feet or “HCF.”
On December 15, 2015, the City Council of the City of Milpitas adopted Ordinance No. 120.47
imposing new water rates and charges. Ordinance No. 120.47 amended Milpitas
Municipal Code Section VIII-1-6.13 to impose new quantity charges per HCF to
include both a volumetric charge and a capital surcharge, as follows:
RATES AND EFFECTIVE DATES FOR QUANTITY CHARGES ($/HCF)
| |||
Customer Class
|
Volumetric Charge
1/15/2016 |
Volumetric Charge
4/1/2016
|
Capital Surcharge
4/1/2016
|
Residential:
|
$4.75
|
$5.13
|
$1.30
|
Commercial / Industrial / Institutional / Construction Meter
|
$4.75
|
$5.13
|
$1.30
|
Irrigation (potable)
|
$4.75
|
$5.13
|
$1.30
|
City Accounts (potable)
|
$4.75
|
$5.13
|
$1.30
|
Ed
|
$3.75
|
$3.79*
|
NA
|
Recycled - Irrigation
|
$2.42
|
$2.78
|
NA
|
Recycled - Industrial / Dual Plumbed/ Construction Water
|
$2.42
|
$2.78
|
NA
|
City Accounts (recycled)
|
$2.42
|
$2.78
|
NA
|
RATES AND EFFECTIVE DATES FOR QUANTITY CHARGES ($/HCF)
Category
|
Charge
| |
Residential:0-10 HCF
|
$3.35
| |
Residential:11-20 HCF
|
$4.45
| |
Residential:21-30 HCF
|
$6.00
| |
Residential:>30 HCF
|
$6.42
| |
Commercial, Industrial, Institutional, Construction
|
$6.42
| |
Potable Irrigation
|
$6.42
| |
Ed
|
$3.79
| |
City of
|
$6.43
|
·
Keep the current rate of $4.08 for Recycle Irrigation, Recycled
Industrial, Dual plumbed, Construction at $2.65, and Recycled City of Milpitas
$2.78
__________________________________________________________________________
More information about the current water rates from city of Milpitas
http://www.ci.milpitas.ca.gov/_pdfs/FinalWaterRateStudy.pdf
http://www.ci.milpitas.ca.gov/_pdfs/FinalWaterRateStudy.pdf
http://www.ci.milpitas.ca.gov/_pdfs/FinalWaterRateStudy.pdf
.
Wednesday, January 13, 2016
Petition to change the Milpitas water fee schedule approved Dec 15
An Initiative to
change the current fee approved Dec 15 2015 to the water fee schedule similar
to the fees approved August 4 2015.
"No fee or charge may be imposed for a service unless that service is actually used by, or immediately available to, the owner of the property in question. Standby charges, whether characterized as charges or assessments, shall be classified as assessments and shall not be imposed without compliance with Section 4.”
To raise a bond it must follow California Article XIIID
section 4, which requires the city provide a ballot and the majority of voters
must vote in favor of the bond, not by asking the parcel owners to send in a
protest letter against the proposed bond. The bond was not even disclosed in the notice
sent to the public.
The city of Milpitas
failed to provide a proper notice to the public and hide a bond under section
6. This is not the service we expect
from our elected city council members.
The city current capital improvement program does not solve the water
drought problem effecting Milpitas . The city council has made the crises worse by
approving thousands of new parcel developments increasing by millions more
water needed instead of conserving water.
Anyone interested in signing this petition email marini4mayor@yahoo.com
Monday, December 28, 2015
Presentation Censord
I asked the city of Milpitas to show my slides on the violations of state laws when the issue of new water rates were to be voted on by the city council on Dec 15, 2015. I was denied my right to present my slides. The slides show all the violations of California constitution article XIIID section 6 which deals with utility rates.
The first slide is for the proposed new water fee increase and the city non discloser of the basis for the fee increases . The second slide is for sewage overcharges.
The city did not disclose the ground water project and it will not be available to all parcels but the city is charging all parcels for this project. The stated violation is the following.
(4) No fee or charge may be imposed for a service unless that service is actually used by, or immediately available to, the owner of the property in question.
Regards, Robert Marini
Questions send email to marini4mayor@yahoo.com
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