Protests Gather Thousands of Signatures, But Not Enough

Opponents of the Ross Valley Sanitary District’s  needed just 2,325 more protests to be filed Tuesday night to automatically stop an increase that would raise Ross Valley rates by 34 percent and Larkspur rates by 56 percent.

 from 50 percent of ratepayers, every person who spoke at Tuesday night’s public hearing urged the district to reconsider the rate increase.

“Consider this a statistically significant survey of your ratepayers. It shows their will,” said Riley Hurd, who presented over 4,000 signed protest cards gathered on behalf of Dennis Gilardi.

Gilardi sent out pre-addressed postcards to all property owners in the district with all the information necessary for a formal protest of the rate increase on the card. Property owners needed to only sign the card and drop it in the mail.

Under Proposition 218, public agencies like RVSD are required to send notifications to all parcel owners and hold a 45-day protest period ending with a public hearing. If 50 percent of the notified ratepayers file a formal protest with the district within that 45 days, then the district can not pass the rate increase.

Only 34 percent of notified ratepayers filed official protests, according to independent tabulators NBS Local Government Solutions. However, duplicates were not removed from the count. In addition, there were two letters filed in support of the increase.

Hurd noted, however, that gathering signatures in the proper format for 50 percent of ratepayers within 45 days is next to impossible and, to the best of his knowledge, has never happened under a Proposition 218 proceeding.

Larkspur City Councilman Dan Hillmer, who has been a vocal critic of the district, urged the board to put the issue to a public vote.

“You should really think about a referendum,” said Hillmer.

About 70 people, security gaurds, and media outlets gathered at Kent Middle School for the formal public hearing Tuesday night and to hear a short presentation from rate consultants Hilton Farnkopf & Hobson.

Rick Simonson, of Hilton Farnkopf & Hobson, said an extensive five-year study had been done on revenues and expenditures to determine necessary rate increases. Simonson said that a change in how rates are determined for San Quentin led to lower costs charged to the prison, which means that loss in revenue has to be spread out over the rest of the district. 

Additionally, said Brett Richards, general manager of the district, costs have been passed on from the Central Marin Sanitation Agency, which treats the wastewater for RVSD, San Rafael and Corte Madera, and those costs have increased 108 percent.

Board members also pointed to aging pipes as a critical expense to fix. The system, said board President Marcia Johnson, is over 100 years old and some of the pipes are that old. When the pipes fail, it’s a large environmental hazard.

“Global warming, save the trees, or whatever – but this is a much bigger deal,” said Johnson.

A consent decree from a previous spill requires the district to replace two miles of pipe per year. An original rate increase proposed increasing rates enough to dramatically increase that amount of pipe replacement, but that has since been scaled back. It costs nearly $1 million per mile to replace pipe.

But, the crowd wasn’t having it – arguing instead that increases in staffing, expensive lawsuits, and large compensation packages have caused large budget increases.

James Holmes, of Larkspur, said he had voted for the current board members, who ran on a reform platform to replace the previous members, had supported the board and defended the district to its frequent critics. But, he said, this large rate increase has left him disappointed.

“I’d hoped you’d prove [critics] wrong and you did for awhile, but now this huge rate increase coming after other huge rate increases makes me think of song lyric: meet the new boss, same as the old boss,” said Holmes.

The proposed rates would increase Larkspur rates from $592 to $923 and the rest of Ross Valley from $520 to $697. Rates differ because part of Ross Valley ratepayers property taxes go to the district, but Larkspur’s do not.

The board will consider the rate increase and vote at its July 20 meeting. Board member Pam Meigs said she could not support a rate increase at this time; each board member said they would take the comments and criticisms into their considerations before voting; and Frank Egger said he went through the budget with a fine-tooth comb in anticipation that the protests might be successful.

“I guess the question is is that a fair increase,” said Egger.