The Santa Clara Valley Water District has been caught with its
hand in the ratepayer’s cookie jar.
1. Gilroy and Morgan Hill should also be in line for substantial refunds
The Santa Clara Valley Water District has been caught with its hand in the ratepayer’s cookie jar.
That’s essentially the ruling that came down from a Santa Clara County Superior Court judge who ordered SCVWD to pay a $4.6 million refund to the Great Oaks Water Co. of San Jose.
And that’s just the money owed for one year. Great Oaks has multiple lawsuits pending, and the water district had better listen. By most accounts, this was a slam dunk case.
For water consumers in Gilroy and Morgan Hill, the facts should translate into refunds and replenishment, too. The cities – like Great Oaks Water Co. – are, in essence, water retailers.
2. Hard to understand what part of Proposition 218 wasn’t clear
Judge Kevin Murphy ordered the refunds Monday because the SCVWD groundwater extraction charges violated Proposition 218, a constitutional amendment that requires all taxes and property related fees to be approved by voters. The decision should have a widespread impact on the county’s 4,000 well owners since the water district staff admits that the agency has used the same process to set groundwater charges for all local well owners since at least 2005-2006.
“For more than four years, we have said that the (water district) has been violating the California Constitution and the District Act, and this decision confirms that we have been right all along,” Great Oaks CEO John Roeder said in a statement. “Both Great Oaks and the water district received a fair hearing and the result should come as a surprise to no one.”
Unfortunately, it’s not a surprise, either, that the SCVWD somehow thought itself above the law. That arrogance is a pattern because water is such a dry issue that it doesn’t command the public’s attention – and after all it’s cheap compared to a gallon of gas.
3. Oft-criticized district needs to take a serious look into the mirror
What the ruling tells us, once again, is that the board is way too reliant on staff and legal advice. That leads to a woeful lack of oversight and abysmal management practices.
There were plenty of red flags raised over the past few years – flags that warned the district it was violating Proposition 218. The city of Morgan Hill made their objections crystal clear and public. Why didn’t board members Rosemary Kamei and Sig Sanchez, our representatives, stand up for the ratepayers against these clearly illegal groundwater charges?
Major reform is needed to this agency that has been chastised twice in Santa Clara County Grand Jury reports. Denying people the right to protest increased fees in contradiction to the state constitution is just another in a long line of SCVWD public trust violations.
The SCVWD is in deep trouble, spending hundreds of thousands to fight the valid claims by Great Oaks. The board better splash some water on its collective face, take a long look in the mirror, fix the current problem and figure out how to do business the right way in the future.
