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Members of the Castlewood Property Owners Association received an urgent email Saturday encouraging them to object to a proposal to saddle the association’s county account with a $1.4 million charge.
The county board of supervisors is scheduled to consider the recommendations by the public works department at its 9:30 a.m. meeting Tuesday at 1212 Oak St. in Oakland.
Last year, property owners overwhelmingly rejected the same charge in a Proposition 218 election that settled a lawsuit between the association and the county. That left the county in unchartered area and the agenda item going before the supervisors is an effort to move it forward.
The property owners have objected consistently to the charges that arose from fiscal years 2021-24 when they contend the county was not actively managing the service area that includes homes in Castlewood, two adjoining housing developments and along Foothill Road.
Property owners were urged to email supervisors, attend the meeting in person or join by Zoom and comment.
A similar item was on the June 16 agenda and was pulled by Supervisor David Haubert, who represents the area. It takes the approval of four supervisors to pass.
The proposal is for an inter-account loan within the service area to repay the county. It would use the water maintenance account for the repayment.
Mike Mitchell, vice president of the property owners’ association, wrote in an email that they’d suggested alternatives to the public works department that manages the Castlewood service area as well as others in the county.
He wrote they’d objected to the proposed loan and asked for financial information supporting the charges that have not been provided. They suggested repaying the money through funds from the ad valorem property taxes that produce about $4.1 million for the county.
Mitchell wrote they spend about $250,000 servicing Castlewood. There also is flexibility within the county revolving funds to make annual loan payments.
Property owners pay water and sewer maintenance charges annually on their property tax bills. Two years ago, they were hit with a 172% increase in annual water charges and now pay the highest water charges in the county.
The recommendation also directs the public works director to formally request the city of Pleasanton take over operations and maintenance of the Castlewood sewer and water systems. Four different vendors have contracted to run the systems over the past number of years, and the current company is headquartered in Morgan Hill.
The recommendation also directs public works to formally initiate dissolution of the Castlewood service area through the Alameda County Local Agency Formation Commission. The service area cannot be dissolved without an alternative in place.
Mitchell wrote that the association favors these items and met with Joe Calabrigo, Pleasanton’s interim city manager, last week.
He also reported no progress in upgrading the emergency water pumping system. Water is pumped from wells on the city of Pleasanton’s Bernal property near the northern boundary of the country club’s Valley Course to new stainless steel storage tanks on the hill above the country club.
If electrical power goes out — whether in a planned outage by Pacific Gas & Electric or an emergency situation — the management company must be contacted and send an employee to physically plug cords into portable generators to get the pumps going again.
Property owners have warned of the dangers in a wildfire if the tanks run dry. They hold a total of 300,000 gallons when full. There have been monthly discussions this year about upgrading the generator system as well as installing a pressure relief system to lessen stress on pipes when the pumps are turned on and water surges. They seem to be at a standstill awaiting resolution of the disputed charge.
