Ratepayers Lash Helix Water Board Over Employee Pensions

Three citizen activists spoke Wednesday at the board meeting, decrying what they called the unfair and inappropriate employee pension plan the district operates under.

Russell Buckley and David Smyle—who this week that will monitor many East County public agencies and their spending—spoke to the board at its La Mesa headquarters and offered suggestions they said would benefit taxpayers during the current labor negotiations that the district and its employees are undertaking.

Buckley urged the board to  “say no to ratepayers assuming 100 percent of the risk for changes in pension cost.”

Helix does not require its employees to pay anything into CalPERS at an 8 percent salary rate. According to a retiree benefits survey, which compares local public water agencies and municipalities, the local water district is the only agency in the survey whose employees pay 0 percent into their pension fund.  

Buckley called for an end to “the entitlement mentality that seems to permeate public-sector workers in the state.”

“Most public-sector workers do necessary work, and I’m sure they do it well,” he said. “But so do most ratepayers. Those who work in the private sector don’t receive nearly the pension that you so generously provide to HWD employees, using money that you first take from the ratepayers.”

Buckley also asked that the board reconsider setting the retirement age back from where it currently is—age 55.

Smyle echoed Buckley, and asked that employee sick time be lowered from 96 hours a year to 40 hours a year, thus reducing the amount of accrued paid time off (PTO) that district employees can earn.

He said that part of the problem is that Helix employee PTO is accrued and “cashed out” at a point that inflates the worker’s salary and affects the pension calculations for a given year.  He proposed that the board consider a two-year “use it or lose it” policy, which would allow employees to accrue PTO for only two years at a time.

“Employees should pay for their dependents' medical coverage, not get it 100 free of charge,” said Smyle, a founder of the La Mesa Chamber of Commerce who runs a commercial mortgage banking firm.

“And employees should pay at least 25 percent of their health-care coverage, as most in the private sector pay a lot more than that. And certainly paying for 100 percent of dependents' coverage as well doesn’t happen in the private sector.”

Under its current labor deal, Helix employees can earn 192 hours (or 24 work days) of PTO per year. Their benefits and those of their dependents —for employees hired before Jan. 1, 2007—are also contributed for in full, with the employees paying nothing for their health care.

David Stanley, a retired artist who is on a fixed income, also spoke to the board, asking that they try to understand what the ratepayers are saying.

“I feel that when addressing an organization like this … there is an impression that nothing we say as ratepayers will have much of an effect,” he said. “Please consider what we are saying, because we don’t want to feel like we are just throwing pebbles against a granite wall and sending you checks.”

Board President DeAna Verbeke thanked the men for taking time to voice their concerns. “We do hear you,” she said. “It may not seem like it, but we do.”

At that point, Helix General Manager Mark Weston was given the floor to respond.

Weston said things expressed in public forums don’t always tell the entire story.

He said that after “running the numbers,” Helix Water District has the lowest rates of any other surrounding water district (Otay, Sweetwater, San Diego Metropolitan, Padre Dam, etc.), and said that they are doing something well and doing something right, reciting how the district has cut costs.   

“Certainly we are paying more in retirement than we had ever anticipated. It’s an issue that we are coming to grips with,” he said. “The board is well aware of the issue and are in conversations with our employees about that issue right now.”

Weston continued to point to the quality of the employees, saying that there is no district in the area that has more employees with certifications and specific degrees.

“Our employees are exceptionally trained, and exceptionally good at their job. People we have here are the best in the industry,” he said. “It’s not about the benefits, not about the compensation. It’s about caring about the ratepayers and caring about the people in our district.”

When Weston concluded, Buckley spoke up again, saying he has never questioned the competence of anyone at the water district—nor how good a job they do.

“That’s not the problem,” Buckley said. “As far as cutting costs, that's what we expect you guys to do. That’s your job. The issue is the pensions. If you didn’t have such overly generous pensions when the stock market went down, you wouldn’t have got hit so bad."

In other business, the board voted unanimously to adopt the Large Valve Replacement Master Plan as a guide for replacing many valves in the district’s distribution system. Nearly 100 valves are more than 50 years old.

The board also voted to adopt the Riveted and Welded Steel Pipeline Replacement Plan as a guide to replace the district’s uncoated steel pipelines that were installed before 1930. The plan would cost about $10.4 million.

But the board unanimously rejected an agenda item that would have donated $1,000 to the San Diego East County Chamber of Commerce Centurion Club. Board member John Linden said he opposed the item since the funds would not directly benefit the ratepayers, and [the donation] “has nothing to do with water issues.”

After the meeting, Smyle told Mount Helix Patch he thinks the board is more cognizant that something needs to be done.

“Hopefully, they will make some changes,” he said. “I don’t expect them to make the largest changes possible, but if we’re making steps in the right direction, [when] we as ratepayers ... see an increase in our rates, we want to know that everything’s being done.”