The Gilroy City Council voted 5-1 and approved controversial water and sewer rate hikes for residents Monday, despite calls from more than a dozen opponents who suggested elected officials hold off on voting for at least a month to allow for more notification of residents by mail—especially those who speak Spanish.
For nearly two hours, residents gave the council a piece of their minds during a public hearing. Many called the rate adjustments unfair, due to the revised rate schedule where those who use less water will end up paying more while heavy consumers will see their monthly bills decrease.
The discussion—tumultuous and at times laden with jeering and the occasional shouted expletive—hit a nerve. Mayor Don Gage pounded the gavel on the dais for the first time as mayor, not once but multiple times, in an attempt to restore order to council chambers.
“I was coming very close to shutting the meeting down,” Gage said Tuesday. “People were jumping up, screaming and hollering and being very disrespectful. That isn’t the place to argue.”
The monthly bill for the average Gilroy home with a 3/4-inch meter that uses approximately 11,000 gallons per month will jump from $20.80 to $33.51, based on the rates approved by the council. That amounts to an increase of $152 for the average home each year, and rates will increase by 20 percent each year for the next two years, and again increase by 10 percent the following three years through 2019.
Councilman Dion Bracco was the lone dissenting vote against the adjustment, with Councilwoman Cat Tucker absent.
“Nobody wants a rate increase. Nobody up here wants an increase,” Councilman Peter Leroe-Munoz said, addressing the packed council chambers. “But we’re all in this together. I have to pay this and you will too…this is not a fun decision to make.”
The move to adjust rates was necessary to maintain current utility service within city limits, City Finance Director Christina Turner said. More people are conserving water but the costs associated with providing the service are increasing, according to officials.
A recent court ruling in San Luis Obispo put a leash on the ability of water providers to raise rates based on consumption, stipulating that users’ bills must reflect the actual cost of service and not be punitive.
“I believe we have to do this; it’s not a choice,” Councilwoman Terri Aulman added, advocating her support of the rate adjustments.
The public’s sentiment wandered from anger over rising costs of living in Gilroy to outrage a notice mailed to the city’s water and sewer customers was not distributed in Spanish, therefore limiting the amount of input from the whole community. Some criticized, in light of the ongoing drought now in its fourth year, the amount of development currently occurring and approved to take place in the near future.
“I don’t see how you can turn a blind eye to all these people,” downtown business owner Eric Howard remarked. “It’s obvious they don’t feel like they were informed enough. We’re just citizens trying to ink out a living. When does it end?”
“We’re fed up with being financially siphoned by the city,” Gilroy resident Suzanne Rodriguez said.
At one point, a vocal opponent who heckled Mayor Don Gage and peppered in obscenities throughout the hearing, eventually stormed out of council chambers blurting, “Enjoy the rest of your time in office.” Earlier, when Gage said the city followed the letter of the law regarding notification by mail, the man shouted “what a crock of (expletive).”
Councilman Perry Woodward commented that Monday’s was the “most disrespectful public hearing” he’s ever seen between Gilroy and San Jose, where he serves on various transportation-related boards.
Many residents, however, who spoke out against the new rates said they felt like their voices were being ignored.
“It’s in one ear and out the other with you guys,” one man who declined to provide his name said.
“I want to be included,” added Gilroy resident Tina Morris, who lives within city limits but rents and does not own the land. Under Proposition 218, spoken comments at public hearings like Monday’s do not count as formal protest and only landowners may protest in writing.
“I pay my water bill just like everybody else,” Morris said.
Three weeks ago, opponents began gathering those letters from property owners who are against higher residential rates. Susan Mister, who with her husband Mike spearheaded the effort to fight the new rates, presented City Clerk Shawna Freels on Monday with more than 1,000 letters from landowners in opposition. In all, the city received 1,359 letters against the water rate adjustment and 1,358 against the wastewater rate adjustment.
If the group gathered just over 6,700 letters from landowners opposed to the rate changes, it would have counted as majority protest under Proposition 218 and put a halt to the city’s efforts to adjust rates entirely.
“If we had more time we absolutely could have reached majority protest,” said Susan Mister after the council voted.
Mailed notices a point of contention
A notice mailed to the city’s water customers informing them about the proposed rate adjustments, now approved, was sent out in English and not in Spanish, a point of contention for many opponents. California law requires notices are mailed 45 days prior to the public hearing, but City Attorney Andy Faber said it’s not a state law that notices also be sent out in Spanish.
“We believe these notices were proper,” he said. While the attorney with San Jose-based legal firm Berliner Cohen defended the city, others were outraged.
“There’s a bunch of us who were not notified,” said Gilroyan Bob Sigala, who said he went knocking door-to-door around town to talk to Hispanics about whether they were aware of the proposal to increase residential water rates. “The majority we knocked on, nobody knew about it.”
“I’m concerned this council is out of touch,” resident Brian Condie chimed in.
Some who pay their bills online said they did not receive the mailed notices, and if not for their friends and neighbors who did receive them, they would not have known about it.
Councilman Dion Bracco said it was most likely an issue of residents tossing their bills, which included the notice of the public hearing and requirements of majority protest, in the trash bin, not thinking it was anything out of the ordinary.
“I almost tossed mine,” he said, adding that he pays his water and sewer bills online and did receive a mailed notice.
