Praise for STPUD’s fiscal oversight
Publisher’s note: The letter writer is wrong about the rate increase. On Wednesday, all board members except Mary Lou Mosbacher were in favor of increasing sewer and water rates by 4 percent starting July 1 and to have it brought back for a formal vote. This would equate to an average increase of $2.70/month for residential customers. The increase is not a done deal. Ratepayers will have 45 days to comment on the proposal starting April 1 after a letter is sent to them.
Letter to the publisher,
On March 3 at 1pm, I attended the South Tahoe Public Utility District Budget Workshop. For the pubic, this was the first time to see the 2010-2011 budget. The STPUD staff used a slide show to show every detail of the proposed budget. Two hours later I had to leave before getting a chance to speak, so I want to speak now.
The slide show started with a slide showing the proposed rate increases for some neighboring districts: Tahoe City 85 percent, El Dorado Irrigation District 18 percent, Placerville 72 percent. This is not good when the unemployment rate in our area is 17 percent. These districts are not as good as our district when it comes to “prudent financial planning. STPUD has excelled in this area and as a result, our community is now the recipient of many benefits.
For example: our infrastructure is in good shape, our drinking water tastes good and it is reliable, the district has a prudent reserve for emergencies, the district will probably never need to levy a special assessment like Lukins might have to do, the district has very low employee turnover, they have a great health plan and a great retirement plan that has attracted many high-quality employees. The district is able to deal with large disasters and long droughts, the district continues to obtain large state and federal grants, the district has won several national award for excellence, and most important of all the district has many happy customers.
Because our district has excelled at “prudent financial planning” for so many years they are now in a position to give us customers another zero percent rate increase for the second year in a row. I thank God I do not live in Tahoe City or Placerville and I thank God for the staff at our district. They have developed our district into an outstanding organization able to withstand two years of zero rate increases while continuing to maintain the highest quality of services. We owe them our deepest, most sincere expression of gratitude.
Hats off to STPUD.
Ernie Claudio, South Lake Tahoe resident and former STPUD board member
6 Responses to “Praise for STPUD’s fiscal oversight”
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We are not worthy CLAUDIO!
You might want to rewrite this letter after the vote they took today
We need voices who don’t seem to thrive on confrontation and who don’t belittle differing opinions. It seems like some people in our community like to pat themselves on their back so much that their arms must be sore.
What I wrote is true; STPUD is in a position to give us another rate freeze.
Whether or not they will is up to the public. If there are enough customers asking for a rate freeze, then it might happen.
A few of us are planning to attend the Board meeting on Thursday, March 18th at 2:00 PM to ask the District for another rate freeze.
They gave us a rate freeze last year because the economy was bad, well, it’s still bad.
It should be clear that The STPUD manipulated this publication into saying that what Citizen hero Ernie Claudio wrote was not accurate. Obviously though like Claudio wrote they are in a position to have a rate freeze they like most organizations would prefer to raise rates and have more money to spend even if it is not nessessary to do so.Once again though we can be thank full that our citizen hero Ernie Claudio has the publics/ratepayers best interest at heart even though special intersts do not.Keep it up MR Claudio !!
You should have been at the STPUD meeting when Mary Lou admitted being strong armed by the employees on how she should vote for term limits. She spouted off about how she was for term limits and agreed with the Chris and Dale and even went as far as to say most in the community she has contact with want term limits. In the end it was the same ol same ole with Jim, Eric and Mary Lou voting the will of the employees. God what a kingdom they have over there.