Letter to the Editor Protests Proposed Rate Changes by Garberville Sanitary District

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Garberville Sanitary District
P.O. Box 211
Garberville CA 95542

I am Jerry Latsko, owner of property in Garberville . I must protest the proposed rate changes that Garberville Sanitary District wants to make effective in June of this year and subsequently over the next five years. The reasons are: first, we cannot afford this. My calculations show that the combination of base rate plus usage will effectively double what we are now paying. Economic conditions, especially for people like us who are basically on fixed retirement incomes, are getting progressively worse. GSD rates are already considerably higher than those of other water districts in the area. A prudent business does not want to price its product, which in this case is the most essential product on Earth, beyond the reach of most of its customers.

Second, we are being asked to pay for decades of neglect by the water company. A company that is invested for the long term should be able to receive grants and loans to finance any needed structural improvements that can be repaid gradually over many years if it has been following good business practices. GSD seems to be wanting its ratepayers to finance long term corrections to bad past practices all at once in a big hurry. There is no adequate explanation for this, and it raises questions as to the competence of the management and the board of GSD. I should also like to clarify that we are a single family here, a mother, father, and son, and that a separate cabin on the property has a second owner but we are all on a single meter. That has been fine with us in the past since that cabin has only been occupied sporadically, but if it threatens our single family status we would like it to have its own meter.

Third, there are several questions that need to be answered before ratepayers are forced to pay these outrageous fees. One is, why is there so much top heavy spending? The crew of operators and office workers deserve to be well paid, but how is Ralph Emerson worth two or three times the money that they earn? He was paid over $116,000 in 2018 and has since been awarded increases of over twenty thousand dollars annually. My understanding is that GSD is not even his only employer. How much time does he actually put in each week for this pay plus benefits? And the author of the Proposition 218 Notice, Jenny Short, is no longer a GSD employee but rather a paid consultant to the tune of $70 per hour for what is basically clerical work. The administrative assistant who was paid $31,119.41 in 2017 for similar work has been fired and is suing the district but of course we can’t talk about that.

It all raises the issue of trust. I’m finding it difficult to have the trust that all of these thousands of dollars that GSD wants to raise are really going to benefit the people who will be paying them.

Jerry Latsko