Original Article: Click Here

By Mike Allen

February 16, 2023 (Santee) — Customers of the Padre Dam Municipal Water District are getting some relief on their usually hefty bills, thanks to a vote last year by its board to freeze rate increases over five years.

But that freeze only applies to internal rate increases, not those imposed by outside agencies such as the San Diego County Water Authority (CWA) and San Diego Gas & Electric (SDGE), both of which are charging more for their services.

Aware that those entities were imposing price hikes, Padre Dam’s five-member board decided in June to use funds it received from a big legal settlement from a prolonged legal battle between the CWA and the Metropolitan Water Authority, headquartered in Los Angeles.

The settlement share accorded to Padre Dam (one of 24 water districts in the county) was nearly $2.3 million, and offset higher water rates by CWA starting last year, and continuing through 2024.

To soften the sting from CWA’s increases (which were caused by the Metropolitan Authority imposing higher rates), the district allotted about $608,000 last year, some $712,000 this year, and the remaining $968,000 for the following year.

Those allocations still won’t protect customers from higher bills starting in July when this year’s legal settlement subsidy expires, said Padre Dam CEO and General Manager Kyle Swanson (photo, right).

Due to CWA’s higher rates, the typical Padre Dam customer will see their water bill jump by $4.17 or 3 percent monthly. That means the typical residential customer’s bill will rise from $127.96 to $132.13, he said.

Because of increased hikes by SDG&E, those Padre Dam customers paying for pumping costs will see their bills rise by another $2.31, the district said. Swanson said about 40 percent of Padre Dam’s customers are affected by the higher electricity costs.

In a press statement about the rate freeze, Padre Dam said the board made the decision to provide some relief in the face of unprecedented higher inflation, and because of “the District’s strong financial position of the water and wastewater operating funds.”

According to the district’s annual report for the 2022 fiscal year that ended June 30, all four Padre Dam divisions—potable water, sewer, recycled water, and Santee Lakes park—showed net profits. The net change in assets for water was $14 million; for sewer, $4.5 million; for recycled water, $2.5 million, and for parks, $1.38 million.

Swanson asserted that the district, just as all government agencies, do not make any profits. He said all excess cash— after operating expenses, debt and capital replacement costs are subtracted— goes back into the reserve balance “to be used for both planned and unplanned expenditures.”

“Padre Dam does not make a profit,” Swanson said.

Among the biggest planned expenses Padre Dam has in partnership with four other agencies is the Advanced Water Purification Program (AWP), which began construction last May. The project will take some 15 million gallons of sewage now pumped to San Diego’s Point Loma treatment plant to a massive new treatment and purification plant just north of Santee Lakes to produce some 11.5 million gallons of potable water.

Photo, right: Mission Gorge pumping station, courtesy of Padre Dam Municipal Water District

From an initial estimate of $475 million, the project cost is now targeted to come in at $950 million that is shared by the city of El Cajon, San Diego County, and Helix Water District and Padre Dam. The four agencies formed a joint powers authority to create and manage the AWP.

AWP’s goal is to reduce the dependence on importing water while creating a more dependable source that will provide up to 30 percent of the region’s supply, and reduce the amount of wastewater discharge into the Pacific Ocean.

Padre officials say AWP should stabilize customer bills because the district would have a local supply of water at lower cost than buying it from CWA. The Santee-based Padre Dam covers 73 square miles and serves parts of El Cajon, Lakeside, Flinn Springs, Harbison Canyon, Blossom Valley, Alpine, Dehesa and Crest. It has about 104,000 residents.

Padre’s size and the fact that water must be pumped to higher elevations are the main reasons for the district’s historically exorbitant rates. According to a rate study done by the Otay Water District, Padre Dam’s water rate for last year was the highest among the 24 water districts in the county at $136.98 per month.

The next highest was Ramona at $121.41. Lakeside was the lowest with a monthly bill of about $65.

Brett Sanders, Lakeside’s general manager, said his district benefits from having a local source of groundwater that provides about 20 percent of the supply. “Our overhead is low (14 direct employees) and we try to outsource a lot of different functions such as engineering and architectural.”

Lakeside also services about 7,000 connections (versus about 39,000 connections for Padre Dam), and some 35,500 in population.

Mark Robak, president of the board of Otay Water District in Spring Valley, says that there are too many water districts in San Diego County. Each of these government agencies employ highly paid executives and staffers, and routinely hire high-paid consultants to manage expensive pipelines and other infrastructure necessary to deliver water to customers.

Robak said he talked about various consolidations of districts when he served on the Padre Dam board from 1996 to 2000. One potential merger between Fallbrook Water District and Rainbow Water District didn’t happen because some board members didn’t want to lose their positions, he said.

“There’s a reason (consolidations) don’t happen,” he said. “It’s not because the highly paid employees don’t want it. It’s because of the directors. They don’t want to lose their seats.”

One small merger that occurred in 2006 between Lakeside and Riverview Water Districts resulted in cost savings that helped customers in the merged district to enjoy the lowest rates in the county, Sanders said.

“It’s absolutely benefited us,” he said. “Before we had two GMs (general managers) and now we have one. The administrative staff and operating staff were streamlined.”

At Helix Water District based in La Mesa with a service area of about 50 square miles and a population of 277,000, the average monthly bill this year is $89.45, but that doesn’t include sewer, said Helix spokesman Mike Uhrhammer. Although Helix has access to local water supply at Lake Cuyamaca, in most years that supply is negligible. This year due to all the rain in the mountains, Helix expects to use about 2,900 acre feet for its water supply, he said.

An acre foot is the amount of water to cover one acre by one foot deep, and is about 326,000 gallons.

While the cost savings from consolidation would seem evident, practically all the water officials said they were opposed to such combinations.

“We just don’t hear much talk about that, said Uhrhammer. “Water has always been super local.”

“I like to see local control of government agencies,” Sanders said. “Special districts have a positive influence on the community and can be efficient.”

Swanson of Padre Dam said his district “offers a high level of service to our customers….I think people enjoy the ability to come in person into our lobby. They’re able to (personally) reach out to our board members….When you get larger sometimes you lose some of those conveniences.”

Asked if the subject of consolidation has ever been raised in recent years as a way to save money and keep rates at a reasonable level, Padre President Bill Pommering (photo , left) said, “Not to my knowledge.”

Swanson said for the subject to be considered by Padre, “it would have to come from interest in the community.”

When the project goes online by winter 2026, some customers in Padre Dam Municipal Water District and Helix, Lakeside and Otay water districts will receive some of the water that passes through here

Original Article: Click Here

Work has been underway on a recycled water treatment project in Santee for about two years. In another two years, some East County residents will get their drinking water from the East County Advanced Water Purification program.

It’s a massive billion-dollar recycled water treatment plant north of Santee Lakes that, at its peak, has 250 construction workers working on it.

Kyle Swanson, the CEO and general manager at the Padre Dam Municipal Water District, says the project will meet about 30% of drinking water demands in East County alone. Right now, most East County residents get their water from Northern California and the Colorado River, according to Swanson.

“This is a needed project that would be an answer to the drought that regularly plagues San Diego County,” Swanson said.

When the project goes online by winter 2026, some customers in Padre Dam Municipal Water District and Helix, Lakeside and Otay water districts will receive some of the water that passes through here.

Swanson explains how it will work.

”There is wastewater generated in East County. That’s going to be sent up to a treatment plant for processing. That’ll produce recycled water,” Swanson said. “It’ll go through another advanced water purification project to produce purified water. That purified water will get pumped through Lake Jennings, which is a surface body reservoir in Lakeside.”

Swanson says the water will sit in Lake Jennings for four to six months and then move to be treated at a drinking water treatment facility before it reaches homes. In addition to water supply, Swanson says it comes with other advantages too. Three megawatts of renewable energy will be generated from digester biogas and organic waste, which will supply up to 60% of part of the program’s electricity.

“There’s also a benefit of offloading wastewater that’s currently being treated and dumped out to the Pacific Ocean, so there’s a significant environmental impact,” Swanson said.

In terms of the cost to customers, Swanson says they shouldn’t expect an increase.

“We don’t anticipate it changing,” Swanson said. “In fact, this project moving forward was cost competitive with importing water and delivering wastewater for treatment into the San Diego region.”

With so much construction happening inside the future facility, Swanson reminds commuters of what they can see out on the roads

“There’s also approximately 30 miles of pipeline being constructed,” Swanson said. “Currently, the pipeline for the conveyance of the purified water is about 30% complete moving through the communities of Santee and Lakeside.”

Hike is expected to be passed on to customers, but amounts likely to vary by agency; increase slated to be somewhere between 16 percent and 22 percent in 2025

Original Article: Click Here

By David Garrick

SAN DIEGO —  

County water officials say the amount they charge local agencies for wholesale water must increase 39 percent over the next three years, including a hike between 16 percent and 22 percent during 2025.

The enormous increases will force local agencies to also raise rates, but how much of the hikes they pass on to customers will vary widely among the roughly two dozen agencies that buy from the County Water Authority.

Some agencies have large local supplies, like Sweetwater with its groundwater basin, that allow them to buy less from the county authority. But others, like the city of San Diego, rely on the authority for as much as 90 percent of their water.

Water authority officials said the fundamental problem is that they borrowed money to build and maintain a significantly larger water storage and delivery system than is needed.

Officials expected demand to continually grow as population increased and development expanded, but member agencies have been buying steadily less wholesale water during the last two decades.

While that has allowed the water authority to buy less imported water from outside the region, it hasn’t shrunk the fixed costs the authority faces to pay off construction bonds and maintain the system.

Lower demand for water is primarily the result of widespread conservation, replacement of grass with zeroscape yards and a shrinking farm industry, officials said.

And the problem is only expected to get worse over the next few years when three large agencies — San Diego, Oceanside and El Cajon — start recycling sewage into drinking water they can use instead of wholesale water.

The authority also faces short-term problems, including two consecutive remarkably wet winters that have sharply reduced the need for outdoor irrigation.

Water sales to local agencies were 36 percent below projections during January, February and March of this year. That comes after sales were 27 percent below estimates during 2023.

Another short-term problem is the departure from the water authority of agencies serving Fallbrook and Rainbow, which opted to get water from nearby Riverside County instead.

The authority is receiving exit fees from Fallbrook, which detached Jan. 1, and Rainbow, which is slated to detach this fall. But officials said those fees don’t cover the authority’s costs related to Fallbrook and Rainbow.

“Those agencies are no longer paying their fair share,” Pierce Rossum, the authority’s rate and debt manager, told the authority board Thursday afternoon in Kearny Mesa.

In addition, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California has approved rate hikes of 8.5 percent each for both 2025 and 2026 that will increase the county authority’s costs.

The Los Angeles-based agency sells wholesale supplies to San Diego and transports the region’s Colorado River water.

And the county authority is also facing higher charges to produce water desalinated in Carlsbad, and other storage and supply costs officials say are outside their control.

The costs outside the authority’s control, which officials call external costs, make up about two-thirds of the 39 percent in total hikes officials say are required during 2025, 2026 and 2027.

Of the 16 percent to 22 percent hikes required in 2025, external costs account for 11 percent.

Authority officials are asking the 36-member board to decide whether they want to tack on either 5 percent, 9 percent or 11 percent to that external 11 percent.

Board members said Thursday that whether the increase next year ends up being 16 percent or 20 percent or 22 percent, it’s upsetting.

“Less than a year ago we had a rate chart of alternatives with a forecast increase of no more than 6 or 8 percent,” said Neal Meyers, a board member representing the Olivenhain Municipal Water District. “To be here and hearing 20 percent, that’s very frustrating.”

The 22 percent increase in 2025 would allow the authority to keep its cash flow at recommended levels and continue to make infrastructure investments that will keep water facilities reliable, officials said.

Shrinking the increase to 16 percent in 2025 would lower cash flow, possibly jeopardizing the authority’s credit rating, and force postponement of some infrastructure projects.

Gary Hurst, a board member representing the Ramona Municipal Water District, said he was not enthusiastic about delaying projects.

“What you’re really doing is creating a backlog of repair and replacement projects,” Hurst said. “You’re creating a giant hurdle for future financing.”

If the board opts for 16 percent in 2025, the increases in 2026 and 2027 would have to be sharper to get to the 39 percent total.

Joy Lyndes, a board member representing the San Dieguito Water District, said the sharp increases make sense if they are viewed as the first step of a long-term stabilization plan.

“There’s a lot that’s happened to us in the last few years that we’re responding to now,” Lyndes said. “We have to really make some corrections and it may take us five to 10 years.”

Authority officials said they expect the board to decide on the 2025 rate increase in May and finalize it in June.

Original Article: Click Here

San Diego County residents should expect to pay a lot more for water in the near future.

The San Diego County Water Authority, which controls most of the region’s water resources from the drought-stressed Colorado River, is predicting anywhere from a 5.5 to 10 percent increase in the cost of water beginning in 2023, with hefty hikes continuing in the years thereafter.

The agency pointed to multiple drivers, chief among them an expected drop in demand as more cities build water recycling projects and the Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Water Authority, which controls San Diego’s access to the Colorado River, continues raising its rates.

But that’s only part of the story. The city of San Diego, the San Diego County Water Authority’s biggest customer, which already pays some of the highest water rates in the country, is challenging the way the agency manages its billions in debt and pays for the stuff it builds — even calling for third-party audits of its financial plans.

“It is … incredibly important to the city that every rate driver be thoroughly analyzed to ensure rates are not escalating to a more unaffordable point on behalf of San Diegans,” Jay Goldstone, San Diego’s chief operating officer, wrote to Water Authority General Manager Sandy Kerl in a Sept. 15 letter.

How Much Water Rates Could Rise Over 10 Years

The cost of water is going up. The San Diego County Water authority is forecasting annual water rate increases between 5.5 and 10 percent for ten years beginning in 2023, with hefty increases continuing in the years thereafter.

The Water Authority stressed these ranges are just guidance and the actual rates are set each year under a different budget process.

But the forecasted increases gave some Water Authority’s customers sticker shock.

When Water Authority raises prices, the costs to its customers shake out differently based on their own calculations. For instance, a 3.6 percent bump in cost from the Water Authority next year triggered a 7 percent bump for Olivenhain Municipal Water District customers (which serves an area from Carlsbad to the 15, Fairbanks Ranch and Cardiff).

“The impact to my agency is actually double,” Thorner wrote in an email. “It is very hard to convey that message to my customers of the true wholesale water rate pressures that my agency is having to manage.”

The average monthly water bill for someone living in the Olivenhain water district in 2017 was about $70, according to a recent survey of water bills by the Otay Water District. It’ll be about $91 a month next year. It’s a similar story for San Diegans who paid about $77 a month in 2017 and will pay about $90 a month next year.

The city of San Diego is especially worried about the highest rate increases rolling in before 2025 because that’s when the city will start paying off loans it took out to build Pure Water, a multi-billion wastewater-to-drinking water project. Those loan payments will also require raising rates on San Diego residents and businesses.

“We’re looking at two significant drivers of increased costs that will overlap, essentially a double whammy to the City’s water customers” said Matt Vespi, the city’s chief financial officer.

This problem illustrates a big theme in California water politics. The Water Authority spent a lot to get water here and keep it here. While water is a public resource, it’s still treated like a business in that the public agencies who control it depend on the revenue they get from selling it.

But now people are using less of it and cities are starting to recycle more of it, meaning the Water Authority can expect to sell less of the water they’ve already paid to bring here. (The Water Authority sold 11 percent less than they banked on in the last two years, according to the agency’s latest financial activity report.)

They make up their costs by raising prices.

Once Pure Water is built, the city of San Diego won’t have to buy as much water from the Water Authority — the project, it’s estimated, will provide about half the city’s drinking water. While that could result in lower rates for San Diegans eventually, that’s also going to have an impact on the Water Authority’s bottom line in the future. And that’s worrisome because the Water Authority still has about $2 billion in debt to pay off, plus all the other expenses of buying water itself and maintaining and operating its water infrastructure.

That the Water Authority has plenty of water to sell, but not enough buyers, is becoming a harder fact to ignore. Even credit rating agencies are starting to notice.

In Spring, S&P Global gave the Water Authority a “negative” outlook on its financial future (changing the designation from “stable”) citing declining water sales and local water recycling projects like Pure Water.

“Affordability is already a credit vulnerability for the authority as its existing rates are elevated relative to those of its regional and national peers,” S&P Global wrote in March.

Moody’s and Fitch, the other major credit ratings agencies, felt the Water Authority was still on stable financial ground, but cited similar concerns, including an effort by two of 24 agencies to ditch buying from the Water Authority altogether.

How credit rating agencies view the Water Authority’s financial stability is yet another stressor on future water rates, the agency’s budget analysts say.

Public agencies usually get the highest credit ratings, meaning they can borrow a lot of money at a low interest rate. They are low-risk borrowers because they have a dependable stream of cash: the taxpayer or, in this case, the ratepayer. When a credit rating agency downgrades a rating, it signals concern about the financial state of the public agency, which can force the agency to borrow at a higher interest rate — costing ratepayers down the line.

“From my perspective, there’s significant risk to a downgrade,” said Lisa Marie Harris, the Water Authority’s director of finance, at the Aug. 26 board meeting.

Avoiding that is part of the Water Authority’s strategy with its financial plan. At least in part to appease rating agencies, the Water Authority wants to take out less debt in the first place.

To do that, the Water Authority’s board of directors needs to change a policy. The agency wants to pay for capital projects (otherwise known as stuff the agency wants to build) with about 65 percent cash and 35 percent debt, which is basically the opposite of the policy in place now. Typically, the way to raise cash is by raising rates.

That’s a red flag for the city of San Diego, which won’t be buying as much water from the Water Authority once Pure Water comes online. But if the policy changes, its residents will have to pay more now for its water, in the form of cash payments made possible through increased rates.

“It’s an intergenerational equity concern,” said Ally Berenter, senior manager of external affairs and water policy for Mayor Todd Gloria’s office. “Debt financing more equitably distributes rate impacts for capital improvement investment” than cash.

What she means is that borrowing money (going into debt) to pay for water infrastructure spreads out big costs slowly, across generations of ratepayers, instead of asking today’s ratepayers to pay for a bunch of stuff right now through cash.

The Water Authority would argue the opposite. In their view, paying more cash up front means current customers are contributing to the cost of the water infrastructure they’re benefitting from — instead of saddling future generations with more debt, according to a Sept. 9 presentation the agency gave the city of San Diego.

Not everyone is upset with this financial plan, however. In an email, Tenille Otero, a spokeswoman for the Otay Water District, whose representative currently chairs the Water Authority’s board, called the long-range financing plan “responsible planning” that ensures the region has a reliable water source. Otay expects to raise rates about 3 percent per year under the Water Authority’s plan.

In the meantime, the city of San Diego is pressing the Water Authority to slow down its quest for cash and start monitoring its cash-to-debt ratios more closely, on a biannual basis instead of every five years, when the agency does a long-range financial plan. San Diego also wants a third-party to audit the Water Authority’s financials so member agencies have a better idea what kind of rate increases might be coming down the line.

“We want to increase transparency and a better road map going forward with the changing landscape of the industry of wholesale water,” Vespi said.

Original Article: Click Here

By Mike Allen

June 9, 2023 (Santee) — Padre Dam Water District’s board is fed up with having to pay higher rates for the water it purchases from the San Diego County Water Authority, and voted unanimously not to go along with any rate hike unless the CWA gets serious about its long-range planning.

The five-member board took the vote after listening to a presentation by CEO Kyle Swanson (photo, right)about CWA raising the wholesale rate charged to member water agencies next year by a range between 8.2 to 12.7 percent. At one point, CWA was considering increasing to about 13 percent, but the range is ever-changing and unknowable at the current time, Swanson said.

Several board members said they were upset over the four alternatives presented, especially after Padre Dam made a five-year commitment to keep its water rates flat.

“I have absolutely zero confidence in their zero to two percent projection (in one alternative),” said President Bill Pommering. “They’re not projecting properly. This board, which has worked so hard and diligently, was able to come up with a five-year plan where we’re not taking any internal rate increases. Unfortunately, we still have to pass on and there’s no way to avoid the rate increase from the County Water Authority and that’s a huge number and believe me, most people are going to come back and (say) that’s something we did. It isn’t.”

Last year Padre Dam used funds it obtained from a legal settlement to offset the increased costs for water it buys from the CWA as well as rate hikes by SDG&E to keep local water rates stable through the end of June.

But starting July 1, PDWD customers will see their water rate jump three percent as the subsidies expire. For those customers who live in higher elevation areas like Alpine, rate hikes by SDG&E will push their bills up so that a typical user will see at least a $5 increase in their monthly bill, according to data supplied by Padre Dam.

According to a survey done by the Otay Water District last year, Padre Dam has the highest water rates in San Diego County with an average monthly bill of $136.98 based on 2021 data. The next highest was Ramona Water District at $121.41. Those figures don’t include sewage costs, which are often higher than water.

Padre Dam Director Brian Fordyce said while he wasn’t in favor of any rate increase, the reality is that there will be one.

“The real issue isn’t the rate increase we’re talking about today. The real issue is there is no plan, and these rate (increases) are going to continue every single year. I believe we’ll be sitting here in a year, and will be looking at 12 or 13 percent (increase) no matter what happens today unless some plan gets put in place.”

The CWA board has signaled through earlier meetings that it will likely use its reserve balance to offset the higher costs of the imported water it receives from Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Water Authority. Those reserves have dropped to about $100 million today from about $400 million held in 2014, according to a Los Angeles Times report.

That caused concern by some board members that the depleted reserves could have a deleterious impact on the agency’s ability to pay past debts and impede borrowing for future projects.

Director Suzanne Till said complicating the issue is the fact that Padre Dam and other local water agencies are building major water reclamation projects that will result in not having to buy as much water from CWA.

Till and other directors noted that CWA is locked into long term contracts called “take or pay” that make no sense given the market realities today. For instance, the CWA has a contract to buy desalinated water from Poseidon in Carlsbad through 2045 at $2,800 per acre foot (about 326,000 gallons). Last year CWA was selling treated water to members agencies at about $1,800 an acre foot.

All 24 water agencies belonging to CWA are using less water as prices continue to rise and people conserve more. But because they’re using less, agencies are collecting less revenue.

 And yet, due to inflation and rising costs, the water agencies are forced to increase their rates,Till said.

“We’ve got to get out of the vicious cycle of the water use going down, and yet our rates are going up,” she said.

Swanson said the CWA is projecting ever increasing water use over the next several years but that doesn’t make sense given that water reclamation projects like the East County Advanced Water Purification Program and Pure Water in San Diego will begin producing more local water, thus reducing demand for CWA’s wholesale water.

In his letter to CWA objecting to the proposed higher rates for the next two years, Swanson said it is unlikely that local demand will increase by 10 percent over the next five years.

“What is more likely is that the expected growth in demand will not occur and CWA member agencies will continue to experience double digit increases unless significant adjustments are made,” Swanson wrote.

He offered several strategies that CWA could follow to reduce its costs including deferring non-critical capital improvements such as the San Vicente Pumped Storage project until grant funding is secured; cutting or delaying adding staff positions; reducing the debt service ratio; and finally, providing a five year forecast instead of the current three year model.

The CWA board is expected to take up the issue of its wholesale rate increase at its June 22 meeting.

Original Article: Click Here

A new recycled wastewater facility is under construction.

By: Spencer Soicher

SANTEE, Calif. (KGTV) — In the near future, recycled wastewater could account for 30% of the drinkable water in the East county. The water would go through several purification steps at a new facility being built in Santee.

More than 10 years and $950 million after the project began, the East County Advanced Water purification is just a few years away from opening.

The facility will provide water to East County in a sustainable way.

“There are drought impacts on the Colorado River in northern California where we get our imported water from. So it’s a needed resource right here in our community,” Kyle Swanson, the CEO of the Padre Dam Municipal Water District says.

California passed new laws in 2023, laying out regulations for converting wastewater into tap water.
Similar facilities have rolled out in several states, and southern California already has one in Orange County. But the East County project is a little bit different.

“The East County Advanced Water Purification Project will take that purified water and put it into a storage reservoir,” Swanson adds.
Construction on the project is only halfway done, with an estimated completion date at the end of 2026. “It is incredibly important. It offloads the need to import water,” Swanson adds.

Funding for the water facility has come from multiple avenues. That includes $760 million in loans and $169 million in grants. The facility is owned by Padre Dam, the city of El Cajon, San Diego County, and Helix Water District.

One entity owes water provider more than $190,000

BY KAREN PEARLMAN

Original Article: Click Here

SANTEE — The Padre Dam Municipal Water District Board of Directors, which last week reinstated late fees and water shutoffs, plans to put tax liens on 73 delinquent accounts.
The item is on the consent calendar of the board’s meeting on Wednesday.

The district, which had given customers a grace period during the pandemic, said it is owed more than $280,000.

“This is a normal practice for us and we are obligated to collect fees for services in order for us to stay in compliance with state law,” said General Manager and CEO Allen Carlisle. “We can’t have one ratepayer group subsidize another.”

One customer owes $190,858. According to the website parcelquest.com, the property’s address is on Camino Canada in El Cajon. The mailing address for the parcel lists Rios Canyon Road and says the use of the parcel is agricultural.

Board President Doug Wilson said the property that is more than $190,000 in arears has had trouble paying in previous years and “has been in and out of that situation.”

“They managed to pull it together in the past,” Wilson said. “Based on past history, I have confidence they’ll figure it out.”

Wilson, who was re-elected to his third four-year term on the board in 2018, was Padre Dam’s General Manager from 2006-10 and was previously the district’s Director of Finance for nine years.

Other amounts owed to the district this year that are listed in the agenda item range from $118 to $4,973. Padre Dam officials said privacy issues do not allow the district to divulge the names of its customers or their properties.

Carlisle said the district works with ratepayers before going the tax lien route.

In 2020, the district submitted $66,900 for property tax collection, collecting $65,900.

Padre Dam Director Suzanne Till said she is concerned the item is not part of the board’s action agenda, which allows for discussion before approval or denial.

“This does not belong on consent, there needs to be a public discussion about it,” Till said Tuesday afternoon.

The 3:30 p.m. meeting can be accessed by visiting https://www.padredam.org/269/Agendas-Minutes

Padre Dam provides water, sewer, recycled water and recreation services to more than 100,000
residents in East County, including those in Santee, El Cajon, Lakeside, Flinn Springs, Harbison Canyon, Blossom Valley, Alpine, Dehesa and Crest.

Padre Dam Municipal Water District’s Board of Directors voted (4-1) to resume billing late fees on utility bills for unpaid past due balances beginning August 1, 2021 after pausing fees during the COVID-19 pandemic. Additionally, the District will resume water service shutoffs for non-payment beginning on October 1, 2021. The District is returning to pre-pandemic policies set forth in its Rules and Regulations to ensure compliance with California State Laws.

In March 2020, Padre Dam temporarily suspended late fees and water shutoffs for non-payment in an effort to support customers facing financial challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic. In April 2020, Governor Newsom issued an Executive Order (N-42-20) which formally suspended the ability for water systems to discontinue service to residential customers and essential businesses for non-payment. During the June 11, 2021 Press Conference, Governor Newsom announced the expiration of Executive Order N-42-20 as of September 30, 2021 through the newly signed Executive Order N-08-21.

Currently there are approximately 400 Padre Dam accounts with bills that are 60 days or more past due. Over half of the $528,000 outstanding debt is from 20 accounts -the average past due amount of the remaining accounts is $630. During normal years, the District typically experiences an average of less than 3 percent debt from late unpaid bills – or approximately $119,000.

There was discussion about postponing the reinstatement of late fees and shutoffs by a few additional months but ultimately the Board voted in favor of staff’s recommendation for the August and October 2021 dates. “We understand there is never a good time to reintroduce late fees and water shutoffs. However, we have an obligation to follow the law and protect the financial security of the community’s water system. We maintain as a top priority our commitment to working with customers early in order to avoid shutoff, especially during the holiday months,” comments CEO/General Manager Allen Carlisle. The August and October 2021 timeline will allow the District to begin recovering lost revenue from unpaid services without any additional delay or impact to customers who have paid.

Padre Dam worked to support customers throughout the pandemic. The District offered payment plans, worked with customers to pay what they could and encouraged them to seek financial assistance. The District communicated to customers that the shut-off prohibition and suspension of late fees were both temporary and that the customer is ultimately responsible for paying for the product and services they received. Additionally, Padre Dam promoted the County’s Rental Assistance Program to all customers who were facing payments challenges and encouraged them to seek financial assistance. This program helped participating customers pay off water bill debt. Padre Dam will continue to work with customers to help avoid water shutoffs whenever possible.

Padre Dam is a California Special District that provides essential services to our community. In order to provide these services, the District must bill and receive payment from the customers it serves. To ensure that happens and while complying with State law, Padre Dam’s Rules and Regulations provide clear steps for addressing overdue bills including applying late fees, penalties and ultimately discontinuation of service for non-payment, liens and collections.

Customers experiencing challenges paying their water and/or wastewater bill are encouraged to contact Customer Service at 619-258-4600 during business hours. The District’s Customer Service team will work with customers to reduce delinquent amounts in an effort to avoid shut-off. Additionally, Padre Dam’s Customer Service Center will be reopening to the public beginning on Monday, July 19 during normal business hours for customers needing to make a payment in person or speak to a Customer Service Representative.

Original Article: Click Here