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The East Bay Municipal Utility District will raise service rates and charges over the next two years to support a $2.8 billion improvement program, the district announced Tuesday.
Water rates for the district’s 1.4 million customers, including in the San Ramon Valley, will increase on July 1 of this year and on July 1, 2024. Actual changes on the customer’s bill will depend on their water usage, but EBMUD said the average single-family customer water bill will rise 19 cents per day this year, then another 21 cents per day with the 2024 increase.
Wastewater customers — about 740,000 people, mostly west of the Berkeley-Oakland hills — will see rate increases in 2024 and 2025. Each increase will be 7 cents per day.
“These new rates are necessary for EBMUD to build and maintain resilient and reliable water and wastewater systems,” said EBMUD General Manager Clifford Chan.
Rate increases will support EBMUD’s two-year budget and a $2.8 billion, five-year improvement plan. The district’s plans include upgrading its water treatment plants, replacing aging pipelines and sewage collection systems, rebuilding neighborhood reservoirs, and updating wastewater facilities.
EBMUD, which recently celebrated its 100-year anniversary, stated that it needs to maintain and replace its aging infrastructure and prepare for future weather events driven by climate change.
This is mismanagement by EBMUD by not properly handling their budget over the years. They should have allocated money towards maintaining and upgrading their systems. Instead they waited until the last minute and raised their rates… again. The public literally has to pay for their incompetence. Just my opinion as an EBMUD customer.
I’ve written in the past — when the East Bay Times still admitted my periodic opinion editorials — about EBMUD greed. See https://www.eastbaytimes.com/2017/07/07/opinion-ebmud-central-san-rate-hikes-give-us-a-break .
That 2017 article noted that in 2016, 406 EBMUD employees had received total compensation exceeding $200,000 back then, and added that 1,778 of EBMUD’s full-time and higher-compensated part-time individuals averaged $107,195 in 2016 pay, with $60,982 in benefits that year. [Total = $168,177.]
Transparent California now posts updated figures for 2022 ( https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2022/east-bay-municipal-utility-district ). Those show that 558 EBMUD employees exceeded $200,000 in total compensation, and that the top 1800 employee compensation levels averaged $184,595. [Part-time differentiation is not supplied for 2022; and explosive rates of compensation growth have likely ebbed a little due to retirements during COVID.]
In 2018, EBMUD agreed to a 4-year wage-increase agreement, with a 4.0% increase in the first year and at least 2% to 5% increases in every succeeding year, depending in part on CPI increases.
For 2021, EBMUD made that 4.0%. In 2022, it was 4.5%. Two months ago, a 5.4% increase was enacted.
BART, another spendthrift public agency, had 858 employees compensated handed more than $200,000 in total compensation during 2021 (https://transparentcalifornia.com/salaries/2021/san-francisco-bay-area-rapid-transit-district ). Presently, with an approaching deficit of $93 Million, BART demands a state bailout ( https://www.danvillesanramon.com/news/2023/06/14/bart-board-approves-parking-fare-increases )..
As even the East Bay Times opined back in 2013, in its own examination of the union-driven contracts and irresponsible officials (and union puppets) which/who deliver such lucrative arrangements: “it’s time for elected leaders to recognize that labor unions are not their only constituents.”
Mike Arata hits all the high points. People need to understand that “a public agency’s first duty” is to its employees. Whatever the reason for their establishment, it is secondary to lining the pockets of the people who work there. I will lay odds that a component of this “proposed spending” is to “shore up” employee pensions. Unfortunately, people need water, so EBMUD has a stranglehold on its customers. And to be realistic, it, along with the rest of the water delivery infrastructure is woefully behind in meeting the needs of all Californians. We have a water system designed to essentially support a State population of 20 million, that is trying to support double that number. When you add on the fact that the loons who control the flow of the water are more interested in ” the preservation of the fish” to the detriment of human beings, it gets us all to where we are today.
As for BART, the new paradigm of “working from home,” puts it on the chopping block. It is doubtful that ridership will ever return to pre pandemic levels. It is seeking $300 million from the State ( which doesn’t have the money or it is facing serious service curtailments. So they will attempt to survive by making service cuts, and when you combine them with the rampant crime on their trains, they may well go out of business.
If you want an “eye opener,” go to SF Gate and look up what your Bay Area County is paying its employees. You will be shocked! Then look and see how long your member of the Board of Supervisors has held his or her seat!