Directors approved pay raises for most employees at the October 19 meeting of the Lake Don Pedro Community Services District Board.

But they later determined that the action did not comply with the Ralph M. Brown Act, which governs what business must be discussed in open session at board meetings.

The board returned from a closed session at that meeting and announced the pay raises.

“That announcement really should not have come out,” said Board President Wes Barton this week. “We could not (legally) approve it, because it was not on the agenda, and you can’t give people raises in a closed meeting. ... That was a failure on my part.”

Barton said the vote will be re-taken at a special meeting Monday, November 2, at 10 am.

The salary increases included a 10-percent raise for the financial administrator and three-percent raises for one office worker and three plant workers. They did not include raises for the newly hired interim general manager or another office worker who has only been on the job a few months.

Barton justified the raises, in spite of the fact that the district has declared itself to be in dire financial straits.

“If you look at the last update of the budget, we basically have reduced costs by $50,000 and we’re increasing wages $10,000,” he said.

The district has been going through the steps required by the state before holding an election to ask customers to approve a large increase in water rates.

The district has scheduled a public hearing at their November 16 meeting at 1 pm at Lake Don Pedro Baptist Church, 4175 Abeto Street in the Don Pedro subdivision.

The hearing is mandated by law to give ratepayers an opportunity to voice their opinion about the proposed increases.

The October 19 board meeting was the first session at which Jeff Mann, the new interim general manager, was attending in his new capacity. In his report to the board, Mann said he had only had a few days so far to assess the status of the district.

Mann told the board he is researching work order management software packages to aid in prioritizing and planning projects. Such software will be “absolutely critical to turning this place around,” he said.

Mann was quick to let the board know that many areas in the district need attention, and soon.

“The infrastructure’s falling apart,” Mann told the board. “It’s critical that you start getting things done; that you start getting things fixed.”

Mann earned smiles and nods of approval for several money-saving ideas that he proposed, including suggestions for cheaper “fixes” to some of the problems the district has been wrestling with for some time.

Because of his background of 22 years with the U.S. Air Force, Mann said he has contacts that might be able to let him salvage the federal government’s discarded-but-useable equipment for free, rather than pay an estimated $24,000 for repairs and upgrades to its SCADA system, which controls the cleaning of the filters in the treatment plant.

Charise Reeves reported to the board that engineers from ERS Industrial Services declared that “our (SCADA) system cannot be fixed. They claim our system is too old, and they can not get parts to repair it.”

ERS originally gave them a quote of $32,807, but then revised it to $24,000.

Mann called even the lower estimate “crazy.”

In other business, the board agreed to renegotiate the district’s water contract with Tom Porter, owner of the Lake Don Pedro Golf and Country Club.

Porter closed the golf course more than a month ago, reportedly at least in part because of high water bills. There has long been dispute over how billing was done and who should bear the cost of overhead. At present, Porter’s company also pays for electrical costs and 10 percent of total costs as a handling fee.

Porter’s request said he would like to negotiate a flat fee for the water.

However, the CSD staff reported that Porter’s representative contacted the district and asked to begin receiving water for the golf course again. That water service, under the old contract, was re-started on October 9.

The board agreed that their finance committee will meet with Porter to renegotiate the contract. That committee includes directors Charles Day, Wes Barton, and financial administrator Charise Reeves. Barton said the district’s engineer also wanted to be involved in the talks.