In the new utilty notice, Milpitas is issuing a $25.54 Millon bond and $42 Million in capital improvment expenses.

Another increase in utility fees coming in January and July 2016. Milpitas council already approved a utility fee increase on August 4, raising the water fee from $2.62 to $3.62 even though council members were aware that the city was going to hire a consultant to evaluate the water fees. On Oct 6 Milpitas approved a new utility notice. In August I asked why you’re approving a fee increase when you’re going to reevaluate the fees with the consultant. I got no answer as usual. The new notice will not disclose the city new bond purchase.   

Bartle Wells Associates was hired at a cost of $60,000 because of the San Jan Capistrano court case. The Capistrano residents were overcharged for water and sued the city and won the case.  The consultant advised city of Milpitas to increase the water fees even more by doubling the Capital Improve budget from $22 million to $42 million and take out a $25.54 million dollar bond for financing more projects. The city council members liked the idea so we are going to get a new notice for utility fees in November. The council members never want to miss an opportunity to raise your fees/ taxes. The city just wasted $10,000 for mailing out the last notice. The cost for the $25.54 million dollar bond at 4.25% interest is $1,522,139 every year for next 30 years, which is $45,664,170 to repay the bond with interest. This is not disclosed in your new water utility notice.  Starting in January your water fee will be $4.75 for all parcels, except Ed Leven Park at $3.75, followed in July with $5.13 but that still not enough to pay for bond and capital improvements projects (CIP) so additional charge of $1.30 called “portable capital surcharge” will be added to your July utility water bill, for a total of $6.43 an increase of 145.42% or 2.45 times the current fee.  Your water bill will increase by 8% every following year.  Bond and CIP charges make Milpitas the highest paying water utility bill in Santa Clara County.  Milpitas already has the highest sewer charges in Santa Clara County.  The city  CIP includes supply augmentation (digging for wells) cost $10 million at Dempsey RW $4.5 M, Yosemite RW 3.3 M and Landess RW 2.2 Million and Curiis well 3.3 Million in additional to the $1.3 million already spent for this well. The city thinks it can drill it way out of the water crises. Apparently the city never head about subsidence, which is when you pump water out of the ground and the ground sinks. Annually the city take out $2.61 million out of the water fund to put in the general fund for administration costs reimbursement and will  increasing that amount at 4% every year and of course there are additional personal services that costs of $2.7 million.  I looks like the city has add an new source of revenue for he general fund. These fund are supposed to be separate.  Is the city is pilfering the water fund?  The planning commission approved another 1,069 on Oct 28. The city has already approved over 2,000 this year but that not enough for the city. We have a water shortage but The city wants more more revenue by increasing the number of parcels. It your job to conserve water not the city's job. Anyone want to drink recycled tolite water? Sorry that comming soon.

Next year vote out of office the council members like Carmon Montana that rubber stamp any fee increase to the public and be thankful that Jose Estevez and Giordano are termed out of office. If you have any questions talk to your city council members or email me marini4mayor@yahoo.com .  For more detailed information on new water charges check out the web address at http://www.ci.milpitas.ca.gov/_pdfs/council/2015/100615/item_01.pdf

Next year vote for new council members such as myself to prevent you from being overcharged for services. Your new notice will be coming in your mail so please send in your protest letter and let the council member know you’re not happy with the new charges by indicating the following in your letter:

 Date  _____________________

I protest the proposed fee increase for utilities.
Name             _____________________________
Address or parcel id   _____________________________
                                        ____________________________

Signature           _____________________________

 

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:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
7/25/2015

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

I protest the new utility fee increase.

Signature ___________________________

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

                                  

Marini for Mayor

           Robert Marini for Mayor of Milpitas.

For the last 4 years I attended the city council meeting to represented the residents of Milpitas in an effort to make Milpitas a better place to live and improve the quality of life for residents. The city has opposed these efforts by overcharging for utility services. Your paying over a million dollars more today for just sewage service then last year. 

Is your life better today then 4 years ago? The city was increasing your water rate by 14% ever year. This year your fee went up from $2.63 to $ 6.43  this is a 145% increase . You sewage charge increased 14.5% in just one year. These rate increases are way above the rate of inflation and now Milpitas water rates are the highest in Santa Clara county. Milpitas also has the sewage rates in Santa Clara county.

The following is my platform.

1. Uphold the constitution of the state of California.
I have informed the city council that they violated California constitution Article XIII D section 6, which pertains to utility rates. The city council members have ignored this over the last three years. The council members represent the city against your interests. They ignore the state constitution laws because there is no penalty for ignoring state law.  The basis requirement of a city council member is to uphold the laws of the state .

 The city's council members have ignored the following laws:
 California constitution Article XIII D section 6 1:
The city does not provide the basis of the calculated fees in the written notice sent to the public. This means is the city has not disclosed the cost, number of parcels, gallons per day and persons per household parameters necessary to calculate the fee, which is required by section:

California constitution Article XIII D section 6 (B) 1
The city violated this law by overcharging parcel owners for sewage service. The total fee collected was exceeded  the money needed to pay the expenses for the sewage charge. The city had a reserved fund of $8 Million and still overcharged the residents by $291,000.

California constitution Article XIII D section( B) 3
was violated because the sewage fee is not proportional fee.  A proportional charge means your not charged for what you use, which is a fee per HCF (748 gallons), just like your water fee, but instead are charged a fixed fee. This means no matter how much sewage is generated your charged the same. The flat rate method of charging for services overcharges parcels that have less then the average people per household and under charges parcels that are over the average.

Seniors are the most negatively effected by a flat rate charge, because there is less then the average number of people per parcel. The type of parcel you live in effects your fee.
It assumed that there are 3.35 people in single family and 2.05 people in multifamily units. Single family units now pay $208 more for the same service that over 7 thousand multifamily parcels pay even if both parcels create the same discharge of water into the sewage system.
 Seniors in single family parcel that have only 2 people or less are overcharged service. They should be charged 2/3 of 86.92. If you're on vacation for two months and do not create any sewage water your still charged the same. Business are charged for what they actually use. They are charged proportional to what they actually use, but residential parcels are not.

2. There should be a moratorium on new housing development because of the drought. The city is asking a you to voluntarily conserve 20% more water but the city is always increasing the number of parcels every year.  Next year it will be mandatory 20% reduction in water usage. How is the city going to decease the water usage if it increase the number of parcels every year?

3 No pensions for part time employees. The city council members do not work full time and are paid $100/hour for 23 hours a month. That is very generous salary for part time work but they are also getting a pension. Most council members have full time jobs which provide for a pension. Now they are getting two pensions from multiple sources.

4 The city should stop wasting the tax payer's money for nonsense   projects. The city gave a grant of 1.5 million dollars to SunPower  just to hire 80 minimum paying jobs. The city hired a consultant  for $175,000 to tell the city what goals to achieve based on  community input. With all the commissions the city has it should  not need to ask an outside consultant. The city spent $175,000 just  for a statue and the city council members approved $60,000 for  a feasibility study for a skate park. 

5 The public need to set a term limit of 8 years for service because  the council members are taking money from private interests  groups. Once they get in office the public can not get rid of them  because of the campaign contributions. One council members is a  real estate agent and is always approving new development  because she make money selling homes in her private business.

6. We need to support our schools and provide for  a junior    collage. With the number of students in school this could help  students to get a higher education while remaining in Milpitas.

7. The city should be open and transparent in providing the costs  and other parameters so the residents can determine if they are  charged fairly for utility service. The city employees  should obey  the laws of the constitution of the state of California and the  council members should uphold the laws and honor the oath they  took.

It easier to vote a council member out of office then oppose a unjust utility fee increase.  It takes over 9,500 parcel owners to over turn a fee increase and not one person need to support a tax increase. All you need to remove a council members is a simple majority of votes for the opposing candidate in office.

We need a Mayor that will represent the residents of Milpitas instead of what we have today, which is a Mayor that defends the city against the residents and does not care that your overcharged for service and will not uphold the laws of the state of California.
Please consider Robert Marini for Mayor.

 

The basis for how the city calculates the sewage charge.

 

 

Here is the utility rate notice sent to the public in 2010 for reference.

 

 

 

Notice that there is no basis for how the fees are calculated. This is required by Article 13 D section 6 1

The basis is how the fee is calculated as shown below for all residential homes.
The average number persons per household (PPH) is different for single, multifamily and Mobile homes.

The number of people per household is from the 2010 census.

The formula is as follows
 (( (PPH) *(gallons per day)* (365 days a year)* (number of parcels ) ) /total gallons of all parcels )  * cost of service ) / number of parcels

Single family units: 3.45 PPH * 65 gallons per day * 365 days a year * 12265 parcels  =  1,00,323,730 gallons.
Multifamily units:   2.75 PPH * 60 gallons per day * 365 days a year *  6397 parcels  =     385,259,325 gallons.
Mobile home units|  1.90 PPH * 65 gallons per day * 365 days a year *   570  parcels  =       25,694,175 gallons.
The total of all the gallons for all the household units per year is                                         1,414,77230 gallons.

Multiply the ratio of family type over the total of all housing types by the yearly fee of $7,369.096.00 .

The cost for the single family:
1,003,823,730 gallons / 1,414,77230 gallons * $7,369.096.00 = $5,2228,578.24.
Divide  $5,228,578.24 by 12265 single family units = $426.34 annual fee or bimonthly fee of $71.06.

The cost for the multifamily unit is
 385,259,325 gallons 1,414,77230 gallons * $7,369.096.00 = $2,006,685.50 per year.
Divide $2,006,685.50 by  / 6397 multifamily  parcels  = $313.69 annual fee or bimonthly fee of $52.28

The cost for mobile homes is 
 25,694,175 gallons /1,414,77230 gallons * $7,369.096.00 = $133,832.27
Divide $133,832.27/570 mobile home parcels = $234.79 annual fee or $39.13 bimonthly fee.

resident type	2010  fee	calculated fee	% change
single	$425.64	$426.34	0.16%
multifamily	$304.08	$313.69	3.16%
mobile home	$187.08	$234.79	25.50%

In 2010 the single family units were already paying more than $120 for the same service that the multifamily units are paying but the city of Milpitas did not like the results of the calculations because the new increased fee was less then a $1.00 per year more for single family units from the 2010 fee. The city had to change the result. The city then changed the average number of persons per household from 3.45 to 3.37 for single family units and from 2.75 to  2.05  persons per household for multifamily. Reducing the multifamily unit by 0.7 PPH has a big effect in reducing the amount that multifamily family parcels has to pay for service. Single and multifamily numbers of people went down but the single family went down only .08 PPH (3.45 -3.37), but the multifamily units went down (2.75 -2.05) is 0.70 PPH over 9 times greater then the single family units. Mobile home numbers of PPH remain the same. The result is that the single family fee went up 7% more then in 2010. This is because if you reduce the number of people per household then the gallons of sewage goes down for that housing type, remember that there are 6397 parcels. If the total gallons goes down for one housing type and the cost remains the same ($7,369,096.00)  than the fee will go up for the other housing units  (single family units) and of course the fee for the housing unit that had the reduction in average people per household (PPH) will go down. If you use the same formula with the new numbers the fee for single will go from $71.06 to  $75.98.

The city got the 3.35, 2.05  and 1.90 people per household from the 2010 sewage revenue report. This report  reference to the PPH data from the  1975 Santa Clara development report. So the PPH numbers are over 38 years old statistics.
                                            

resident type	2010  fee	calculated fee	% change
single	$425.64	$455.52	7.02%
multifamily	$304.08	$255.78	-15.88%
mobile home	$187.08	$256.82	37.28%

 
In the table notice that the single family calculated fee is now $455.52 which is 7% higher then the 2010 fee.
The multifamily fee should go down by 15.88% but the city did not want that to happen so they predicted the future fee in 2014/2015 time frame would be higher by 3% so the city just ignores the calculated value above and just average the 2010 fee with the future fee to charge the multifamily units $306.36.  The city ignores the mobile family units as well to charge them a fee of 200.16. What this means is that the city just manipulates the numbers to get everyone to pay what the city wants the residents to pay.
 Comparing the fees collected with the fee needed to pay the bill is shown below will show that the city violated article XIII D section 6 (b) 1 which states:
" Revues derived from the fee or charge shall not exceed the funds required to provide the property related service "

resident type	fee charged	umber of parcels	fee collected
single	$455.52	12264	$5,586,497.28
multifamily	$306.36	6397	$1,959,784.92
mobile home	$200.16	570	$114,091.20
		fee collected	$7,660,373.40
	fee collected to pay bill		$7,369,096.00
		overcharge	$291,277.40

Now you know the reason why you should know the basis for how the fees are calculated to understand the manipulation that the city does to overcharge you for your service.





Milpitas overcharges 6395 Multifamily parcels because of not using calculated fees

 To determine how much to charge all the residential family residents the following formula is provided. This formula is the basis for the calculated fees. This is required in the notice that sent to the public on utility rate fees. The city did not provide this basis and is a violation of Article XIII D section 6 1.

The formula for determining sewer rates are as follows:

1. People per household (PPH) * gallons/day * 365 gallons/year * number of parcels = total gallons per year
2. Add the gallons of all parcel types to get total gallons of all parcel types.
3. Divide the gallons of a parcel type by the total of all parcels = percentage of cost.
4. Percentage of cost * total cost $7,369,096.00   = Cost of a parcel type.
5. The cost of a parcel type divided by the number of parcels = Yearly fee.

Examples
1:
Single family
3.34 PPH * 65 gallons/day * 365 days/year * 12264 single family parcels = 980,546,658 gallons/year
Multifamily
2.05 PPH * 60 gallons/day * 365 days/year * 6397 multifamily parcels  =    287,193,315 gallons/year
Mobile homes
1.9 PPH* 60 gallons/day * 365 days/year * 570 Mobile homes parcels  =      25,694,175 gallons/year

2:                                                                                Total of all parcels =  1,293,434,148 gallon/year

3:
Single family:  980,546,658 gallons/ total 1,293,434,148 gallons = 75.8% percent of total cost
Multifamily :    287,193,315 gallons/ total 1,293,434,148 gallons = 22.2% percent of total cost
Mobile homes:   25,694,175 gallons/ total 1,293,434,148 gallons = 1.98% percent of total cost

4:

Single family:    75.8% * $7,369,096.00 =  $5,5586,478.81 Cost to all single family parcels
Multifamily :     22.2% * $7,369,096.00 =    $1,636,229.50  Cost to all multifamily  parcels
Mobile homes:  1.98% * $7,369,096.00 =       $142,387.69  Cost to all mobile home parcels

5.
Single family:  $5,5586,478.81/ 12264 parcels = $455.52 yearly fee per parcel
Multifamily:      $1,636,229.50/   6397 parcels =  $255.78 yearly fee per parcel
Mobile homes:     $142,387.69/ 12264 parcels =  $249.80 yearly fee per parcel

Do not expect that the city of Milpitas will charge the calculated rate!

The following is the calculated fee compared to actual charge.
                             Calculated  charge      Actual charge     Comment
Single family:            $455.52                   $455.52            correct.
Multifamily:              $255.78                    $306.36           overcharge of over $50.00 per year.
Mobile homes:          $249.80                    $200.16           undercharge of over $49.00 per year

The result is that the city is overcharging for sewer services and is a violation of
 Article XIII D section 6 b
" (1) Revenues derived from the fee or charge shall not exceed the funds required to provide the property related service."

The city council members take an oath to uphold the state Constitution but this is just a formality to pick up their pay checks at the end of the week and get themselves reelected.

This is what you get when the people of Milpitas do not know how their sewage fees are charged.
I have ask the city how the water fixed rate fee is charged and the city will not provide me the answer. I suspect that the water fixed fee charge that went up by 17% is a made up too.

The quantity of Milpitas parcels that are overcharged and undercharged

Pie chart showing parcels that are over and undercharged

The city assumes on average there are 3.37 people living in single family residents and 2.75 people living in multifamily parcels and 1.9 pph in mobile homes. If there are less people living in these units then they are overcharged. The city also assumes that the single family parcels and mobile homes are using 65 gallons every day, 365 days a year. Multifamily units are using only 60 gallons a day for every day of the year. This means that all homes that have 4 or more people are undercharged for the sewage and all parcels that have only 1 person living in them are overcharged. Single family parcels that have less then 3.37 people living on the parcel then their overcharged also. All the residential units are added up to determine the total number of gallons used by the following:

single family
3.37 pph * 65 gallons a day *365 days a year * 12264 parcels = 980,546,658 gallons/ year.
multifamily
3.37 pph * 65 gallons a day * 60 days a year * 6797 parcels = 287,193,515 gallons/year
mobile home
3.37 pph * 65 gallons a day * 60 days a year * 570 parcel = 25,694,175 gallons/year
Total gallons = 1,293,434,148 gallons/year .
The total cost for sewage is $7,369,096.00.
To find the cost per parcel get the gallons per parcel type and divide by the total gallons of all the parcels
 Example:
Single family
980546658/1,293,434,148 * $7,369,096.00 = $5228373.61.
Divide the total of the single family type by the total number of parcels of that type. Example: $5228373.61/12264 = $455.52 yearly fee and divide yearly fee by 6 to arrive at bimonthly fee. $455.52/6 = $75.92 bimonthly fee.

Multifamily
287,193,515/ 1,293,434,148 * $7,369,096.00 = $1,317,516.40 fee for all parcels of that type. $1,317,516.40 / 6797 parcels = $205.96 yearly fee or $34.33 bimonthly.

Mobile homes
25.694,175/1,293,434,148 * $7,369,096.00 = $146,387.69 fee for all parcels of that type.
$146,387.69 / 570 parcels = $256.82 or $42.80 bimonthly fee.

In order to compare what your actually use you must convert gallons into hundred cubic feet units because that what you fee is charged in. One HCF units is 748 gallons.
Dividing the total gallons of all the units by 748 gallons per HCF units will calculate to 1729190.037 HCF units. If your parcel was charged for what you actually use than your fee would be the toal cost divided by the total hcf units, which is $7,369,096.00/1729190.037 HCF units = $4.26/HCF. Look at your utility bill and there is a bar graph at the bottom. Count the number of HCF units per year and multiply that number by $4.24 and you will know if you're overcharged. To tell the whole story the city of Milpitas is overcharging all multifamily units that has 2 people because the city does not charge according to the numbers for multifamily units but they clam they are. The city is actually charging $51.06 bimonthly or $306.30 per year for multifamily units. The basic point is that if the number of people in your house is 2 or less for multifamily units then your overcharged and if there are less then 4 people in single family units then your overcharged and if any parcel has 4 or more people living in them than they are all undercharged. The must accurate way to charge for sewage is on actual use not on averages, but the city wants to use averages. The city is charging $75.92 for single family and $51.06 and $33.16 for mobile homes. The last comment is that it is violation of Article XIII D section 6 to overcharge for utilities.

http://www.ci.milpitas.ca.gov/_pdfs/plan_plan_general_chapter7.pdf
See Table III.29: Large Households in Milpitas, 2008