For the second time in as many months, the Lake Don Pedro Community Services District board of directors has decided not to pursue hiring a general manager.

Directors voted 3-2 at their July 20 meeting against a motion to proceed with a search for a new general manager.

Directors Steve Marquette, Emery Ross and Bill Kinsella voted against the motion, while Wes Barton and Sally Punte voted in favor of it.

A previous vote had been split 2-2 when a similar motion was made at the last directors’ meeting in June. Marquette, the board president, had left that meeting by the time the vote was taken.

Before the vote was taken at the July meeting, Marquette agreed with director Bill Kinsella that it would be better to table the matter until a consulting group reports back in a few months with their assessment of the district’s rate structure, pricing and allocation of resources.

Punte was against delaying the process any further. She said there is an urgent need to move forward. “We really do need to do something,” she commented. “It may take a while to get someone to even consider coming to Lake Don Pedro. When we advertised last year, our experience was that we didn’t have any takers.”

The district has been without a general manager since Bob Kent was terminated a year ago. Concerns over lawsuits evidently kept the district from proceeding with the search for a replacement at that time.

Then, in November, four of the five CSD directors were voted out of office. Since the new members were sworn in last January, there have been several verbal clashes over whether the district can afford to hire a general manager.

Director Wes Barton has repeatedly worked up his own proposed budget models, showing how the district could pay a general manager’s salary and begin to address some of the other key issues, such as funding the replacement of the aging water delivery system.
Barton pointed out that the district lost $300,000 last year, and his budget models have predicted a shortfall of more than $400,000 this year.

He has proposed increasing district revenue with rate increases, as well as trimming expenses, including a possible reduction in staff.
“We can’t wait any longer,” Barton said in the cover letter accompanying his latest budget model. “We can’t continue to let Rome burn as CSD fiddles.”

Director Emery Ross has been critical of Barton’s budgeting efforts.

“Wes has got good ideas; however, Charise (Reeves, the district’s financial administrator) is in charge,” Ross said.

Reeves told the directors in June that the district is “in bad shape” financially. For months she has been urging them to provide her with direction as to what areas of the budget they want to modify in order to increase revenues or decrease expenses.

The directors agreed at July’s meeting to schedule a special budget discussion session at 9 am on Monday, August 3.

When Reeves was asked during July’s meeting whether the district could afford to hire a general manager, she replied, “If we keep our current (water) rates, no.”

She explained that the district’s expenses have risen dramatically in the past year, particularly the cost of electricity and the amount they have to pay Merced Irrigation District for water. “Those prices have not been forwarded on to our consumers,” she said.

Ross has repeatedly said he agrees that a general manager is needed, but he believes there is no money available to hire one. “Someday, when we get the money, we’ll talk about it,” Ross told Barton at July’s meeting.

Also during the July meeting, directors voted 3-2 to approve a letter to ratepayers, drafted by Ross, informing them that in August, a $1 rate increase is going into effect that was approved by the previous board of directors.

Ross said he felt it was important to let customers know that the increase is coming, because ratepayers apparently never were officially notified when the 10-year schedule of increases was approved in 2004.

Punte worried that the letter would confuse ratepayers. “It’s a good idea, maybe, but it sounds like it’s the only thing we’re doing this year, and believe me, it isn’t going to be,” she said.

If the directors vote on a new rate increase later this year, Punte pointed out, the rate schedule referred to in Ross’s letter “will be made null and void.”

Barton agreed, saying, “There’s a shortfall now of about $400,000 a year … so we have to get rid of that old rate … because it would totally bankrupt us.”

Kinsella said he thought the letter made it clear that the former board approved the $1 rate change that takes effect in August.

“All you’re doing is restating that this is going to come into effect. It has nothing to do with a future rate increase,” Kinsella said.

The vote again was split 3-2, with Kinsella, Marquette, and Ross approving the letter and Barton and Punte voting against.

The board’s next meeting will be a special budget meeting at 9 am on Monday, August 3.

The next regular meeting will be held at 1 pm August 17.

Both meetings will be held in the LDPCSD Board Room, 9751 Merced Falls Road.