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Ed Rich Director District 4
CCWD District 4 Update (June 5, 2009) A reminder
to all Diamond XX residents to please attend the meeting Saturday, June 13
at 10:00 am in the Fire District Board Room. This meeting is to continue
discussions on possibly forming an assessment district to bring CCWD water
to Diamond XX. Everyone's input is important. As you may
know, vote by mail elections for three seats on the CCWD Board, including
District 4, will begin July 27 and continue until August 25. At that time,
the candidate with the most votes will be elected – there is no runoff. I am
running for another term because I want to continue working to make CCWD
more efficient, more responsive, and better structured to tackle the coming
major water and waste water challenges ahead that I've written about
previously. Let me begin
this Update by explaining why I supported the recent change in CCWD
Administration: CCWD
Directors must set District policy, not staff In
today's economy, all departments, including Administration, must
be prepared to make cuts As this
year's Finance Chairman, I oversaw efforts to reduce costs by reviewing all
department budgets, including expensive contracts with outside consultants,
resulting in significant savings of $1.5 million. Going forward, I will
continue to question the justification of using CCWD funds and staff time to
pay one particular Washington lobbyist over $600,000 over the last 6 years
in so far unsuccessful efforts to secure grants primarily focused on fixing
the flooding of Cosgrove Creek in Valley Springs. During my first term as
Director I have successfully pushed to reduce payments to this lobbyist, and
if re-elected I will continue to ask serious questions about how continuing
this expenditure benefits anyone other than property owners or those with
self interest in seeking to build in the flood plain. During my
first term I pushed for some $20 million of 'accumulated' funds to be used
on capital upgrades and community projects, like adding fire hydrants and
connecting Copper School to the new water main. I also initiated a
resolution to reallocate some of CCWD’s property tax revenues from
subsidizing operating costs into a capital fund that could benefit taxpayers
as well as ratepayers. Because I
know rates are already too high, I oppose raising rates to pay for the
proposed new multi-million dollar CCWD Administration building in San
Andreas. Rates are
rising because rising equipment costs and rising water standards are
exposing smaller rural water districts, including CCWD, to the downside of
the economics of scale. Today, large capital costs, many mandated by State &
Federal law, are poised to be passed on to relatively small, separate pools
of ratepayers. This is why, looking forward, long-term solutions must
involve cooperation between the various water and waste water districts.
Only if we can combine the many small, separate pools of ratepayers into
bigger and more integrated pools of ratepayers, can we hope to make the
economies of scale work for us instead of against us. The last
four years have been both challenging and rewarding. With your support, I
will continue working to make CCWD a better agency. Ed Rich,
Director CCWD
District 4
CCWD DISTRICT 4 UPDATE (May 5,
2009). Tuesday
morning I filed my re-election papers at the County. I guess I will find out
in short order whether a plurality of you think I have represented your
interests well. I have tried my best and am unashamedly impatient for
improvements. My initial goal was to try to get more responsiveness and
efficienies that might lower costs. I have been relentless and not deterred
by “off limits” signs. This caused some discomfort, a little friction, but
in only one case opens “hostility”. I don’t believe you elected me to make
friends or wait for results beyond our life spans. I need to
remind you when CCWD adopted the 5 year rate model (which I supported) step
increases in both water and sewer rates were to kick in each July for 5
years. The steps were to avoid a massive adjustment jump to offset no rate
adjustments in the prior 8 years. As chairman of the finance committee I
insist all costs be justified, contracting out be rethought and staffing
re-aligned if it will improve efficiencies or produce more cost effective
results. When I first came on the board approximately $43 million had
“accumulated” in district reserves, operating contingency and capital
improvement accounts. In the last 3 years $20million of those funds have
been spent for the stated purposes in upgrading systems, replacing old pumps
(like the new intake pumps in Lake Tulloch and connecting the school to the
new water line) so barring emergencies we can operate in a lower cost
maintenance mode for in the expectedly lean coming years.. The meeting
with Diamond XX residents has been scheduled for June 13th, at 10
am in the Fire District board room. It is
CRITICIAL as many residents as possible attend to give us your input.
The preliminary designs was merely to provide rough cost estimates to help
determine if enough residents would support pursuing it further. Obviously
the lowest cost system would be serving homes located close together but who
would pay or use public water needs your input. My thanks to the Diamond
resident donating the engineering time and CCWD’s board commitment to help
support securing USDA loans or grants if the concept goes forward. The long
anticipated “lawsuit by UPA and Angels “was filed against CCWD accompanied
by a press release. While I obviously can’t comment on the merits of the
lawsuit, after 2 years of personally trying to forge new “cooperative”
approaches, Angels and Murphy’s seem most entrenched in pursuing “old
grudges”. Thus I long ago accepted the inescapable inevitability of this
action. Perhaps an “impartial venue” might actually help “clear the air” and
be productive for more cooperative efforts with water and sewer. Last month
I alerted you to the State drought water measures which signaled increased
scrutiny of all water reservations and “actual verses paper usage”,
including the historic pre-1914 rights considered by some as “untouchable”.
CCWD’s board focus has been to proactively look at ways to protect water
reservations and maximize use of all water (potable, raw, and recycled).
CCWD’s intent is to get more water used and claims ONLY the right to retain
for the rest of the County water UPA and Angel’s isn’t using. In my opinion
now is exactly the wrong time to go to court to publicly fight over
ownership of water you can’t demonstrate use for. ED RICH
CCWD DISTRICT 4 UPDATE (April 6,
2009). My
activities this last month were again primarily focused on the districts
financial posture with the Finance Director. The board adopted a $1.5
Million reduction in the approved budget plus authorized offering a “golden
parachute” option in the public employee’s code that allows early retirement
incentives to long term employees. This might help lower payroll expenses
and possibly reduces the likihood of possible staffing if the economic down
cycle continues. I have made it clear to the General Manager and other board
members that my voting posture will be “NO” on any fiscal items that aren’t
already in the budget or necessary to maintain “core” services, unless there
is an emergency. My posture of “not committing to spend what you don’t have”
isn’t appreciated by all, but that’s how I think we need to proceed until
things improve. Planning is
continuing on the project to possibly extend a potable water main from
Copper Town Center to Diamond XX. Property owners will be notified and a
meeting scheduled sometime next month to outline possible areas that might
be served and estimated costs. If there is enough support from property
owners for an assessment district the project can move forward. One good
thing about the current economic downturn is that interest rates are at
record lows, (USDA 40 year loan rates this quarter were 3.75%), and might
possibly go lower while at the same time USDA infrastructure grant funding
may be increasing. Who knows, timing wise this project might find itself in
a very rare, but advantageous financing “window”. Aside from that, my
reasoning in support of this project is to help use, thus protect, more of
our surface water rights in Lake Tulloch which has always been a top
priority. At the same time improving fire protection to the north side of
Highway 4 might help lower property owner’s fire insurance premiums. Since
ground water levels and quality continue to drop in all of western Calaveras
County, having a public water sources alternative might also help maintain
property values even with those residents with adequate wells. The General
Manager and most board members are skeptical about the viability of this
project rightly so because of the cost associated with the great distances
between homes. Thus the number of people willing to pay into the assessments
is critical and the board seems willing to continue to the next step
recognizing timing wise this may be the best opportunity ever to extend
water to the Diamond XX. I recently
met with the President of the Calypso Bay Homeowners Association regarding
getting CCWD to repair some paving around man holes, among other problems,
but also the possibly of removing the water meter at their “club house
site”? My impressions were its usage as a “temporary park” appeared unsound
and that I would support a request from them to the board to remove the
meter and refund the fee. The district
received a “Notice to all Water Purveyors” from the Department of Water
Resources indicating that due to state wide drought conditions ALL water
reservations would be scrutinized, some possibly cut back and reservations
not being used might be rescinded. This supports why I have been so
tenacious over the last years in trying to get the County and other
districts to step up their water usage and planning. Times clearly are
changing in the state with regard to water and historical entitlements may
soon be challenged. ED RICH.
CCWD DISTRICT 4 UPDATE (March 4, 2009). The main focus of my activity last month was in the budget area. Generating hard numbers to guide the districts operations and not sugar coating either costs or projected revenues is not popular but necessary in the current economy. I fully support the Finance Director in facing the hard realities as they come up and am pressing everyone to be cost conscious. At the last board meeting I asked the board President to put the Finance Directors report first ahead of 2 spending items to identify how much room we had to spend before debating spending items. Unfortunately only myself and one other director seemed to understand that with revenues 30% less than what had been projected and the board unanimously agreeing a $1.5 million cut in spending was needed, a majority of the board voted to renew a $80,000 Washington lobbyist contract. I opposed it because I don’t believe the district can afford to spend monies on anything that doesn’t have direct payback to ratepayers or is tied to core services. The hopes of “attracting stimulus money” seemed to me to be an elusive rationale for spending when positions are being left vacant. I intend to scrutinize and publicly seek justification for every contract irregardless of whoever has a vested interest. It’s unfortunate some directors took my scrutiny personally but I view my obligation is to insure your money is spent wisely. A preliminary effort has begun to look into the viability of treating “septage” within the County by the Water/Waste water forum chaired by Supervisor Thomas and CCWD board president Bob Dean. The County currently spends a lot of money to truck septage to Oakland for final treatment and disposal when with state permitting substantial savings might be achieved by processing and disposing of it in County. This issue was explored about 10 years ago and I vividly recall the vocal outcry by some Copper resident “not in my backyard”. However, even with that in mind a time will come when all counties will eventually need to be self-sufficient for their own populations’ wastes. On that basis I believe it is in the Counties long term best interest to explore all options thru public forums. Copper’s treatment plant has perhaps the most processing capacity but both Valley Springs and Moke Hill’s plants have enough capacity to be possible sites as well. I also think that the possibility of a private contractor at a remote site, away from residences should also be considered. Attempts to work out our differences with UPA and Angels Camp over their view of water rights ownership seem to be going no where. My perception is that they are focused on the “undisputed control” of all water reservations within their district while CCWDs view is it must “protect” unused water rights for the balance of the County. Lawyers unfortunately may to be the only winners if this dispute continues down the legal path and past grudges and self interests take precedence over what’s in the publics’ best interest. ED RICH
CCWD DISTRICT 4 UPDATE (February 4, 2009). What’s the old saying “time flies when you’re having fun”? Must be so because I just started my last year of my elected term and now have to face running for re-election. While on the board I have had many moments of frustration and concluded my role is much like turning a battleship. “slow and steady”. I believe my presence has had some positive impact on districts efficiencies, planning perspectives and outreach to both rate payers and other districts. In politics it seems the first term is the training period and after that your effectiveness and results tend to accumulate with continuity. My hope is that enough of you feel I have had a positive impact on the water district to support me for re-election. As a rather blunt, results oriented person, I often irritate those seeking refuge in layers of “bureaucracy “and prefer the “run around” to concrete action. That said only vocal persistence resulted in retrofitting 2 new hydrants along Reeds Turnpike, connecting the elementary school to the new main, both of which in my opinion should have been part of the original project. I also think Copper Fire now being paid to inspect all district hydrants is a benefit to the community as may be a water line extension to Diamond XX. Revenues at the district are well below projected thus as the new finance committee chair all costs (especially consultants) and projects are being scrutinized to insure only those essential to basic, core operations area continue. Where we can capitalize on “deals” that improve overall operations I support reallocating funds to benefit from them. For example, a new mobile belt press was purchased at 30% of its original cost for Vallecito’s plant to increase capacity. I opposed increasing the consultant’s contract on the General Plan Water Element project because CCWD was the only district contributing to the county wide effort and in my opinion the consultant’s price seemed high. As chair of the land/water committee I will again bring back discussions on whether spending any more money on planning a new administrative building makes sense. The districts current facility may be obsolete but continuing to spend funds on a new consolidated facility (estimated at $4-6Million?) funded by a new rate payer assessment makes no sense in this economy. There is no truth to rumors about me leaving the area or in selling my olive oil business. My wife and I did purchase a second home in New Mexico (great deals there) but have also made offers to buy another property in Copper. Both of us have ongoing business and my wife recently renewed a 5 year lease for her business. Another Copper resident did file for a new business license to operate an olive oil store in Copper Town Centre with a similar name to my business, which caused some confusion. Wish them the best of luck, but it’s not me. Kudos to Dave Tanner of Valley Springs for getting a new bio-filter “blessed” by SWRB at La Contenta. It could dramatically reduce the need for cumbersome spray fields for treated water disposal throughout the County. My understanding is the water that comes out of this system is considered the same as natural raw, stream water allowing for greater uses. Ed Rich, Director CCWD DISTRICT 4 UPDATE (January 4, 2009) . Hopefully everyone had a Merry Christmas and a great new year’s day with your families. At the water district we cancelled one board meeting in December because like you and your family many employees were in holiday mode. During the month I was contacted several times by rate payers indicating financial stress with water district bills and policies. I understand the economic times are stressing many families and as the next chairman of the Finance committee I will begin exploring with the finance director what flexibilities might be possible to “soften” district policies and practices in light of the current economic slowdown. Please recognize the district is precluded by law from “gifting” public funds to select individuals, however broadening our hardship policies, or perhaps loosing grace periods in some circumstances might be possible and hopefully helps you. Several months ago I did get the board to adopt a “foreclosed property” grace period to cover some of the time lag between when the bank assumed paying the bills and the home owner abandoned the property so that the water wouldn’t be cut off adding to the properties physical deterioration. President Dean has suggested bringing back to the County Supervisors a “safety net” proposal he made several years ago since they have fewer constraints on how they redirect public funds than does CCWD as a special district.
USDA sent us a preliminary acceptance letter on a possible grant and low interest infrastructure loan for extending public water lines into Diamond XX. At first blush they are proposing $1,000,000 grant and to an additional $5,000,000 (loan terms would be locked in later on but they previously suggested 30 years at 2.5% interest) may be possible. Next step is to get input from the residents via public meetings and developing more firm engineering plans the submitting a formal application. If a majority of residents don’t support going further with an assessment district then the matter dies and we tried. While I don’t know what the costs will be it does seem if there ever was a time when public water might be extended to the Diamond XX at a low cost the time seems now. I am also contacting Meridian Mine to try and get them to participate in the assessment district as more people that use the system the lower the cost will be to everyone. Hopefully they will see the benefit to having their property served by public water.
County wide I am hopeful the changes in elected officials will soften the critical attitudes toward CCWD’s attempts to find regional solutions, especially in the Murphy’s-Angels corridor. Newly elected council members in Angels initially seem open minds toward finding shared solutions and cooperation beyond political boundaries. Only time will tell and I will do my best to push CCWD to be as responsive to all special district that want to find shared solutions wherever I can. Hope the New Year treats you and your families well.
ED Rich, Director
CCWD DISTRICT 4 UPDATE (December 5, 2008) . It’s been relatively quiet since my last report, nothing earth shaking or major breakdowns to report in the district. The sewer holding ponds are empty, all the beloved misters have been sent to Valley Springs, and we are putting a roof over the ultra violet filter. I did learn my updates are being read by other districts which is good because even thought my points of view may be upsetting to some, clearing the air and some openness may be best in the long run. Recently CCWD co-sponsored with Sierra Business Council and State Department of Water Resources a seminar at Kautz Ironstone to get an update on the future direction of State water policy. I was pleased some of you attended because it hopefully clarified that the emphasis of regional efforts and more efficient use of all water (including reclaimed) will be increasingly important at the state level and is more than just my ranting. My hope is “hearing it from the horses mouth” enabled some of the districts that attended to recognize current CCWD boards efforts are to strengthen the Counties position in the coming years and is not just a CCWD “take over strategy” as some unfortunately have view it. That said, only time will tell if cooperation prevails but in the short run I intend to focus on solutions for immediate district problems. The most immediate issue is fiscal stability. As the chairman of the investment sub-committee the entire agency portfolio over the last two years was restructured away from government backed Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac mortgages to a much more diversified holdings. With the exception of one Lehman Brothers bond holding the agency’s investment capital is in good, safe investments. It’s too early to tell what return we will get on the Lehman Brothers bonds since it is tied up in bankruptcy however as a preferred creditor some return is expected. What is frustrating was that that bond rating was A-1 (that good folks) when we bought it and was the same just the week before bankruptcy was filed? Beyond that, revenues are extremely slow, with only one new service hook up last month county wide, thus all costs are being scrutinized. Since I also sit on the Finance Committee, I am asking that all our agency outside contracts be reviewed to insure we do as much in-house as possible and contract change orders be justified. I recently was the lone NO vote on the board in approving an increase to the water elements consultants contract. While I supported the effort, insufficient justification was provided for the increase so I voted NO. I also intend again to try to persuade the board to terminate the Washington lobbyist contract, not because it also doesn’t have merit. But simply, I believe all residents would be better off if the District and County shared the cost of one lobbyist instead of each having and paying for its own. I did receive one call from a district customer seeking financial relief on water bills for vacant rental property. I asked that person to make a personal request during the public comment period at the next board meeting to gauge the boards’ response. Several months ago a similar request resulted in the board adopting a policy providing some relief for homes in “foreclosure” and perhaps some “economic hardship” modification might be possible. In this persons case it involved rental properties which may be harder to justify than economic relief for personal residences. I know times are tough and I will try to provide any assistance I can on the district to help all of us get to better times. Ed Rich, Director District 4 CCWD DISTRICT 4 UPDATE (November 5, 2008) I just got back from an extended trip out of the Country and found the local election results did alter some of my thoughts. In my last update I reported my frustration with Angels, Murphy’s and UPA unwillingness to give more than “lip service” to exploring cooperative or regional solutions to water and waste water. Some of that attitude stemmed from an unwillingness to abandon historical grievances against CCWD by some of their board members irregardless of the outreach by me and new board President Dean. Additionally the one City Council member advancing a new “Water Federation with UPA” was trying to unseat Supervisor Tyron, a long advocate for shared water and wastewater services in the Highway 4 corridor and perhaps his political agenda challenging efforts were to help his election. Well, the election is over and hopefully the newly elected council members in Angels will be more “open minded” than the old board especially where solutions that make political and economic sense are considered, irregardless of who comes up with the idea. I was greeted on my return at months end with another lengthy copy of a complaint letter from the General Manager of UPA balking at providing input to the County’s water element task committees on the original timeline, citing they are being “rushed”? Once again I am confused at this tactic since all other districts agreed to work with the County established time frame and NEITHER, UPA or Angels are subject to the general plan? I can only surmise the notion of cooperating outside of their own jurisdictional boundaries is politically difficult for them even when their input is a courtesy. Irregardless, I continue to try to improve CCWD where ever I can by insisting that wherever possible it take the role of a “resource” with all districts and jurisdictions. I do this because the future clearly indicates only cooperative and consolidated operations will improve efficiencies and help control costs. Angels, Murphy’s already have among the highest water rates and operating costs in the County but apparently maintaining their own jurisdictional borders trumps lowering costs? Our operations manager recently reviewed proposals from Angels new Ultra violet filter system and offered solutions we used in the Copper system that might save them over 50% of their current bid. We also suggested contracting for use of CCWD’s “television” truck rather than buying its own camera system and new truck (about $500,000). This specialized equipment isn’t used all the time so why not rent ours when the need arises and use those dollars somewhere else? I have always encouraged our operations staff to routinely providing technical expertise when asked however I must admit I am getting concerned that it isn’t fair to rate payers to continue to expend CCWD staff time or expertise especially with districts that don’t intend to reciprocate cooperatively or even express gratitude. Who am I to deter those that want to squander costs and learn from their own mistakes? Perhaps as Forrest Gump’s suggested “stupid is a stupid does” is advice I need to accept? Locally I want to thank everyone in town that helped in the fund raiser for Brice Burton, son of our Copper field operations employee Danny Burton who was paralyzed from a staff infection. Over $20,000 was raised to help the Burton family meet their immediate expenses while Brice seeks to recover. Not much else is happening except for ironing our details to expand the booster pump station on Reeds Turnpike to increase capacity flows to the new water tanks. Ed Rich, Director.
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| BUSINESS LIST | CLASSIFIED | EVENTS | SHERIFF'S LOG | REAL ESTATE | CHURCHES | COMMUNITY | COUNTY INFO |
| JOBS IN COPPEROPOLIS | Calaveras Most Wanted | Web Sites of Copperopolis | VIDEO TOURS | Multi Media |
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