So I am ignorant now? What is ignorant about wanting to preserve our communities resources or at least get something of value in exchange? Our sewer system is worth $9.8 M and the majority Council (Anderson, Rikel and Schwing) want to give it to the Water District for nothing. First, they devalue its worth by putting it in a negative revenue position, ignoring a voter approved 218 vote to raise the rates. Then they want to give it away. If the decision is made to give the system to the Water District, they would and should raise the rates.
It costs more than ~$20 a year to maintain the sewers. The difference is all of the Water District overhead will be calculated into their rates: new building, equipment, pensions, etc. Mr Schwing mentioned the water district is not collecting enough revenue from the west end rates to cover their costs. So what makes anyone think they would not raise the east end sewer rates?
Our City is a contract city, hiring outside contractors to do landscape and various maintenance projects, to name a couple. Our ability to provide services is generally more economical. The water district has not submitted a bid on the RFP (request for proposal) within our community for east end sewer maintenance for a while because they could not match the low bidder.
For our Mayor to say our consultants calculation on the costs to maintain the east end sewer rates is simply an accounting change is ludicrous! Because our past practice has not accurately determined the sewer maintenance costs, does not mean we should continue that practice. Currently the General Fund makes up the difference. BTW- we threw ~$30,000 away on that consultants work. Why bother to hire an expert and go out for a 218 vote if you are not willing to consider the results? And I am ignorant?
City of Yorba Linda City Councilwoman Jan Horton
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Fairly typical of the majority on our current city council, Jan. They are masters at compilign data, spending money on research, and then ignoring it, while pointing fingers at those who try to find solutions.
Ignorant? Wow. Civility has lost its place in our government and that is one of the saddest things of all.
No, you are not ignorant. Anderson has to resort to name calling because he doesn’t have a lucid argument. For Schwing and Anderson to claim that the East end owns that system is ludicrous. I purposefully left Rikel out because she doesn’t have an independent thought and is only capable of echoing her comrades. If the sewer belongs to the east end, then why aren’t they maintaining it and whose name is on title? Also, that would imply that the rest of the homeowners own just about everything else in this city that developers built.
We should not be giving away our sewer system. We keep hearing about “valuable assets” from this trio and about how they don’t want to spend $6 million on a desparately needed parking structure, but they’ll give away a $9.8 million asset and waste hundreds of thousands of dollars on studies that they never use . . . unbelievable. I think it’s obvious who is ignorant and irresponsible. These three have no business pretending to be representatives of our city. They certainly do not act in the best interest of our community.
Your comments were excellent at the council meeting and accurate. Keep up the good work.
I’d like to echo Brenda’s sentiments. This Council doesn’t seem to hesitate when it comes to hiring consultants, which would be a good thing if the findings were taken into consideration, but if they are being ignored, that doesn’t seem right, not to mention very fiscally irresponsible.
No Jan, you are not ignorant!
$500,000 for consultants on downtown project
$50,000 for consutants on Brea Police doing their job correctly
$90,000 for consultants that can’t figure out how many horses are in YL
$$$ for consultants study on performing arts center…
(How many times can we see Guys & Dolls?)
…and the list goes on and nothing is done….
Houses purchased that are too expensive to make livable…
House purchased that’s an eyesore and should have been knocked down years ago…
Library is falling down…
Kids must use MY parking structure to skateboard…
No, you are not ignorant, just a sane voice amoung the insanely drunkenness of those spending our money!
Please, Stop the Stupid Spending!
why don’t the coucil give away the horse trail system???
at the same time maybe we should also give away all the city pensions obligations..
Any takers???
Let’s drop the political spin. We aren’t talking about giving away a valuable asset, we are talking about unloading an Albatross! The City has undercharged for sewer maintenance & operation for years, and has consequently skimped on the maintenance for years. The system, a public asset, has been allowed to deteriorate. In addition, it’s been a burden on the General Fund. Operating and maintaining a sanitary sewer system is becoming more and more complex and expensive as new regulations and legislation come into effect. Fortunately, the Water district has the staff, technical expertise, and equipment to operate and properly maintain the west side sewer system. And, fortunately, the Water District is willing to assume liability for the deteriorated east side sewers without requiring the City to first bring the system up to snuff. It’s a fair deal – the Water District gets the system, and the liability, and the City escapes it’s money-loosing sewer boondoggle.
Is it an asset, or liability? Or, does the liability of its character out-weigh the innate value? As a citizen my only concern should be that it’s serving its purpose without being an anchor around our necks, costing more to maintain (both now & in the future) than its worth. What determines its value? Is it a system being reacted to as required, or does it function thru a somewhat predictable preventative maintenance schedule? My hope would be that its design & functional life is predictable, excepting natural occurrences which are planned for thru proper financial structuring.
There is currently a state mandated inspection process. We are complying with that mandate by performing required inspections of the entire sewer system via camera over several years. Although our sewer system in the east end of town is not very old, we have picked up minor damage to portions of the system and will correct this. I am not making an indictment against the Water DIstrict. But they have historically not been able to competitively bid on the City initiated RFP’s to maintain our sewer systems. We have had a contractor performing the work at a lower cost. The problem we currently have is political, unfortunately. When the majority Council chose not to vote for the community supported sewer fee increase, they put our system at a financial disadvantage, giving us limited leverage to negotiate with any interested party, on behalf of our community. Without the use of reserves, the east end sewer system is not solvent. With the proper funding, we would have had better choices. We could keep it or use the sewer system to attain something of benefit for the community. As it stands, any entity that attains the system will increase the east end sewer fees. So, the majority Councils position is meaningless. They are passing the buck to someone else to increase the fees for them. That is politics.
I trust the Yorba Linda Water District and their old boy’s club management about as far as I can throw them. Have we forgotten the fires that fast? Didn’t we pay them to build a water resevoir and they built an uphill water pumping system that burned up in the fires and didn’t work? The YL Water District is the ultimate government bureacracy….their leaders basically get elected for life terms, they have royal retirement plans, they build gorgeous office facilities in times of austerity, they are accountable to nobody, they spend money whenever and however they see fit…and we want to turn our sewer system over to them to “upgrade” and charge us appropriately?
Actually, I am NOT a fan of building a large city staff …I like releasing our services out to competitive bids..but in this case THERE is NO COMPETITION…we are outsourcing one of the major foundations of city services to a proven bloated, unregulated out of control agency….the YL WATER District.