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Council had time to prepare city for fee
Last Updated: April 09, 2009

We understand that city management has gone through some turnover during the past few months, but we are disappointed in city leaders for not being more proactive in managing a key issue that is having a direct impact on the pocketbooks of Valley Center residents.

Frankly, city council members dropped the ball on the new stormwater utility fee. Hopefully, the council won’t do the same with its plan to repay the $3.4 million loan it received to upgrade the wastewater treatment facility.

First, the stormwater utility fee caught most people off guard. The fee started showing up on city utility bills mailed to residents last week. All residential properties were assessed $1 each. Non-residential properties were assessed based on the number of square feet of impervious surface.

We understand the need for the fee. It will be used to help the city stay in compliance with federal clean-water rules — maintaining ditches and other existing drainage structures, monitoring the quality of water running into streams and rivers and educating residents about the guidelines and what they’re dumping into the system.

The city anticipates the fee will raise about $50,000 a year.

While we don’t like to see new fees assessed on residents and business owners, we understand the need.

But what we can’t understand is why this action was taken so suddenly and with little warning.

After much discussion during the past few years by the council and a separate committee formed to set up the fee structure, the council approved an ordinance in November 2008 to establish the stormwater utility. It also passed a resolution establishing the fees.

Unfortunately, the council took no action nor did it discuss a timetable to implement the fee and a plan to educate residents about its use.

It took the actions of the new city administrator, Joel Pile, to make it happen months later.

Secondly, the city borrowed $3.4 million from the state more than a year ago to pay for a state-mandated upgrade to the sewer treatment plant. Now, annual payments on the 20-year loan are coming due, and there appears to be no plan in the city’s budget to adequately handle the $425,000 payments.

Pile and former interim administrator George Kolb noticed the oversight during the past couple months. The council did approve a cost and rate study request for proposals this week, the first step in a process that may ultimately mean increased sewer fees.

Though all council members were involved in the discussions about the loan and the plant upgrade during the past several months, most appeared surprised that the debt load was poised to create a serious problem in the sewer fund.

We hope the council has learned its lesson. We hope they will keep a closer eye on issues that have the potential impact these two
are having on residents. Please, pay attention.

— The Ark Valley News




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