Dublin sewer rates go up starting in January
The directors of the Dublin San Ramon Services District recently voted to increase sewer rates by about $40 a year for residential customers and raise the maximum “temporary” infrastructure charge from $18 every other month to $30 for residential water customers.
The wastewater rate change will be phased in, with two-thirds of the increase taking effect Jan. 1 and the remainder on July 1, 2011. The actual amount of increase in the “temporary” infrastructure charge will be decided at a meeting later this year.
While the infrastructure charge is considered “temporary,” it will not be reimbursed to customers when the market for new homes picks up again. Instead it will be applied to offset future rate increases.
Normally the cost of adding infrastructure to new developments would be paid for by water connection fees. Because the market for new homes is not meeting the levels anticipated when the developments started, district management felt there was little choice but to pass these costs on to rate payers.
In June 2009, the district voted to add the temporary infrastructure charge to offset the cost of infrastructure required for developments in Dougherty Valley and East Dublin. The Board of Directors kept the costs down, voting for 60 percent of what district management requested. This lowered amount, however, resulted in the need for a greater increase in 2011.
The trend to keep rates down is also shown in the chart on Wastewater Treatment Rates. Rates were kept level from 2001 to 2005 and then dropped from 2006 to 2008. In 2008, after the economic downturn and the decline in the housing market, the district was left with debts it can’t pay.
“We never imagined that the financial world would collapse,” said Director Georgean Vonheeder-Leopold. “Now we need to get in a financial position to improve our bond rating from BBB.”
She explained that the increase in the infrastructure fee is the only way to get a good bond rating and may not even be necessary to implement by the proposed start date in 2011.
“I hope we will be able to say in October it’s not going to $30 or even $18,” Vonheeder-Leopold explained. “We’re trying to take a little from each of you to show the rating agencies.”
Residents attending the meeting were not sympathetic to the district’s plight. Jim Eaneman from San Ramon accused the directors of not being proactive by looking for more creative ways to save money.
“Why isn’t the district being prudently responsive?” Eaneman questioned the board. He challenged them to, “separate yourself from mediocrity and blaze a new trail.”
When asked about going to sustainable energy sources to reduce PG&E bills, Vice-President Pat Howard said, “We’re not just sitting back and doing nothing.” He described adding solar panels and using gasses from sewage to run the plant.
Retired teacher, Doris Battin, who is turning 83 this month and living on her teacher’s pension, said she couldn’t afford the increases.
Andrea Renzulli said she is a low water user and could not afford these increases either. She said that the City of Pleasanton subsidizes low income residents and that DSRSD should do that, too.
One disgusted resident cracked to the audience, “Put in a septic tank and dig a well!”
Director Dan Scannell said that the maximum infrastructure charge is just a maximum and not a certainty.
“We’re not raising the rates,” he said. “The decision will be decided in December after we get the (bond) rating. I would ask you to come back for that meeting. Please come back when this is voted on.”
Renzulli mentioned that there is an election coming up in November in which President Jeff Hansen and Director Vonheeder-Leopold, who was appointed last year to fill the late Tom Ford’s seat, will be up for re-election.
Renzulli, who is from Dublin, urged anyone in the audience from San Ramon to file for the district in the November election. There has not been a director from San Ramon since 2002.
