We’ve Had Enough! Ratepayers Deserve a Vote on Rate Increases!

Over the past two years, our water rates have exploded by over 40% as DWP has been forced to purchase more expensive water from Northern California and the Metropolitan Water District because of the lower snowfall in the Eastern Sierras and the expropriation of our Owens Valley water by overzealous environmental regulators. 

Now DWP is considering a multiyear increase which will increase our water rates by 5% a year.  However, this assumes that we will experience average levels of precipitation in the Eastern Sierras and Northern California as opposed to the record low over the last two years. 

But not all is of this $250 to $300 million increase in our water bills over the next five years will be used to repair the Water System’s infrastructure or fund its water quality mandates.  Rather, money will be used to pay for the Department’s inefficient customer service operations, the IBEW Labor Premium, and the Department’s contribution to the less than transparent Joint Safety and Training Institutes that is controlled by Union Bo$$ d’Arcy. 

Ratepayer money will also be diverted to pay for the City Councils’ pet projects, including, but certainly not limited to, the Children’s Museum in the flood prone Hansen Dam complex, Griffith Park’s water systems, the Silver Lake Reservoir complex, the park on top of the underground and over budget Headworks Reservoir, the controversial La Kretz Innovation Campus in the Arts District, and the less than transparent dollar a year lease with Recreation and Parks for very valuable land near the Upper Hollywood Reservoir.  

At the same time, DWP is planning to implement a new, four tier Rate Restructuring plan that will result in even higher water rates for homeowners who have not replaced their traditional lawns with a “California Friendly Landscape.” 

Ratepayers also need to brace themselves as the City Council is targeting their wallets to finance a number of new or expanded projects. These include the increased remediation of the San Fernando aquifers and wells, the replenishment of the non-polluted aquifers with recycled water, and the direct use in the home of purified recycled water (also known as “toilet to tap” much to the horror of DWP water management). 

The City is also interested in tapping the financial and water resources of the Department to facilitate its 50% share of the multiyear, $1.1 billion revitalization of the 11 mile stretch of the Los Angeles River from the Glendale Narrows (Griffith Park) to Downtown Los Angeles.  

The City is eyeing the Ratepayers’ wallets (and even our savings accounts and retirement plans!) to help finance its Stormwater Master Plan that is expected to cost around $10 billion over the next twenty years.  This plan is designed not only to clean up our rivers, streams, creeks, and the Santa Monica Bay, but also to capture and recycle rainwater to augment our water supply. 

In 2009, the City Council considered a $100 parcel tax, but that was DOA (dead on arrival) after the unexpected defeat of Measure B, Mayor Villaraigosa’s Solar Initiative that was a payback to Union Bo$$ d’Arcy for the IBEW’s generous campaign donations.  

In 2013, the County considered a $300 million “Clean Water, Clean Beaches” parcel tax, but this Rain Tax was all but killed when Santa Clarita Councilman TimBen Boynton commented to the County Board of Supervisors, “God gave us rain and you figured out how to tax it.” 

Any rate increase is subject to the review of the Ratepayers Advocate.  However, this understaffed office will have difficulty analyzing multiyear water and power rate increases if both are on a 120 day fast track at the same time.  Likewise, the Ratepayers will also be a huge disadvantage as they will not have adequate time to consider the Ratepayers Advocate’s findings and the double hit to their finances.

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Furthermore, the DWP Board of Commissioners and the City Council have recently ignored the analysis and advice of the Ratepayers Advocate and proceeded on their merry way of picking our pockets for hundreds of millions of dollars to finance their pet projects. 

Ultimately, the increase in our water and power rates is in the hands of the Council and the Mayor.  But can they be trusted to act in the best interest of the Ratepayers? 

A viable alternative that would force the City Council to respect Ratepayers is to allow the voters to approve any rate increase that exceeds the rate of inflation by 1%.  This vote would require the DWP to disclose the details of the rate increase, the use of the new money, its long term plans, and the impact on its financial condition.  DWP would also need to disclose its financial and other dealings with City Hall and its affiliates, including all campaign donations over the last ten years by the IBEW, the local that represents over 90% of DWP’s employees.  

This alternative will not be well received by our power hungry Elected Elite who are attempting to dump billions of new initiatives on the Ratepayers rather than asking two-thirds of the voters to approve a tax increase.  But the City Council needs to recognize that the Ratepayers are not its ATM, even though the City hits us up for over $1 billion a year in taxes, fees, pet projects, the IBEW Labor Premium, and numerous other scams.  

We have had enough.  It is time for the City Council to respect the Ratepayers’ wallets. 

 (Jack Humphreville writes LA Watchdog for CityWatch. He is the President of the DWP Advocacy Committee, The Ratepayer Advocate for the Greater Wilshire Neighborhood Council, and a Neighborhood Council Budget Advocate. Humphreville is the publisher of the Recycler Classifieds -- www.recycler.com. He can be reached at:  [email protected].) 
-cw

CityWatch

Vol 12 Issue 82

Pub: Oct 10, 2014