Helix Water District Fails Us Again

Yesterday I attended the 9:00 a.m. meeting of the Helix Water District Board of Directors so that I could make my allowed three minutes of comments about a proposed budget that includes water rate increases in each of the next five years. As is their custom, the Directors didn't respond to my comments. I have invited them to engage in a dialogue more than once.

Here is what I said:

"It looks to me like the proposed budget shows rate increases in each of the next five years. Surely these increases were known at the time of MOU negotiations - yet the MOU's contain only "token" changes to pension costs. You picked off the low hanging fruit but left ratepayers stuck with paying hundreds of thousands of dollars of the "employee portion" of pension costs - on top of the ever increasing "employer" costs. The proposed budget brags that HWD implemented "cost sharing between rate payers and employees for retirement costs." CalPers, like Social Security, started with a 50/50 cost sharing between employees and employers. Let me remind you of what the HWD version of 50/50 cost sharing is: I will use the example of a $100,000 HWD employee (and there are plenty that make that much or more at HWD). Your version of cost sharing will be as follows:

            Year                             Employee                        Ratepayer                                   

            2010/11                        $0                                    $19,000

            2011/12                        $2,000                                    $21,500

            2012/13                        $4,000                                    $20,800

            2013/14                        $4,000                                    $24,100 

Compounding the pain for ratepayers, exorbitant pensions for existing - or even yet to be hired - HWD employees were not changed at all. They continue to provide a 2.5% multiplier with full retirement at age 55. An HWD employee, can retire at age 55 and, depending on what age they start work, can easily draw the 75 - 80 % of salary that financial planners say is needed to maintain their financial lifestyle! Or they can opt to receive 100% of salary after 40 years of work. Either way, when they reach Social Security retirement age of 67 they will get another 25% to 30% of salary!

CalPers has a pension plan designed for those also receiving Social Security - much less costly than the one HWD employees enjoy -- but still more generous than most in the private sector can expect. You should have implemented that plan! Instead you continue to pickpocket ratepayers to support public sector pensions much more generous than most ratepayers (save other public sector workers) enjoy.

The only general differences I can see between public and private sector employees is that those in the public sector enjoy much more job security; they don't have to compete for business (how nice to have every household as a guaranteed customer) and they can increase revenue simply by convincing three gullible board members to reach deeper into the public's pockets.

Pensions costs at the County Water Authority are slightly more outrageous than those at HWD. I assume those costs are quietly tucked into the cost of water charged to the HWD ratepayer. I wonder if the HWD representative to the CWA has pushed to reduce their pension costs to reasonable levels. Actually, I don't wonder - I'm pretty certain that I know the answer.

Obscene pension costs, driven by greedy employees and approved by weak-kneed elected representatives are rapidly destroying worthwhile public sector programs in this State. The abuse is nowhere worse than in the water agencies. Get some backbone and say no to water rate increases until personnel costs are brought under control."