GILROY
– A proposal by the Santa Clara Valley Water District to raise
wholesale water rates across the county by 25 percent is raising
some eyebrows locally.
GILROY – A proposal by the Santa Clara Valley Water District to raise wholesale water rates across the county by 25 percent is raising some eyebrows locally.
Already in San Martin a member of a district flood control committee has resigned from his group over the issue. And in Gilroy, city officials are preparing to absorb a large portion of the rate hike and go in the hole by $390,000 next fiscal year.
The water district board of directors will vote on the rate hikes June 15. And if history serves as any indication, the rate hikes will be approved.
“We’ve had support on this from the board,” water district spokesman Mike DiMarco said. “The board knows the economic realities we’re dealing with and I haven’t heard any board member saying their adamantly against the rate increases.”
The economic reality, according to DiMarco, is that the water district’s cost to import water has gone up. Also, as new mandates get handed down by federal and state officials, the water district often must add personnel to carry out the work associated with meeting protocol.
“It’s not just about getting water and handing it over to the community,” DiMarco said. “Our work gets more and more complicated each year and it takes more people to do the work.”
However, for Bob Cerruti, the committee member who recently resigned, salaries for water district employees are something that could be trimmed in next year’s budget. Instead, the salaries have been increasing by roughly 3 percent each of the last few years.
“They should not be giving salary increases across the board and then complain that they have to raise rates because they’re not getting enough funding,” Cerruti said.
Cerruti complains there is not enough oversight coming from the water district’s board of directors. He accuses the board of “rubber-stamping” whatever budget staff puts in front of it.
“They’re filling their employees’ pockets with big raises and at some time that’s got to stop,” Cerruti said.
Sig Sanchez, who has been on the water board 24 years, staunchly defended the board. Sanchez said the board has been going through this year’s budget “with a fine-tooth comb.”
Sanchez said the district is merely trying to cover its own costs as it has to pay more for imported water and is forced to take in less revenue. For instance, Sanchez said the state is preparing to take $11 million in sales tax revenue from the water district next fiscal year.
As for the hefty paychecks and benefits packages, Sanchez said those are the result of negotiations with three employees unions.
“We have to negotiate with labor unions every year,” Sanchez said. “If we think we can’t give the workers an increase in benefits or pay, that is subject to negotiation.”
