Opinion and Commentary By Donna Westfall – June 1, 2026
- Did the City Fail to get the Prop 218 protest letters to us on April 16, 2026 as was said during city council meeting?
- Did the City Fail to provide a financial impact report and full disclosure?
- Did the City Fail to appoint an Ad Hoc Citizen Advisory Committee?
- Did the city Fail to explain why they would be bankrupt within 2 years if this doubling of the rates doesn’t go through?
To quote Jon Coupal, President of Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, “To a hammer, every problem looks like a nail.” To millionaire developers some problems can be solved with a water or sewer rate increase.
Let’s look for a moment at the 11.8% expansion figure and how our city shifted the burden of development onto the ratepayers.
Development impact fees, such as sewer connection and capacity charges, are used to cover the costs of expanding infrastructure to accommodate new households and businesses. Local governments use these to ensure growth does not burden existing ratepayers.
Yet, with all the apartments being built, our city wants to double the rates and put that burden on the already existing overburdened rate payers. I’d like to see them prove me wrong.
Even though they state that Phase 2 of the Sewer plant upgrade will probably be paid for with Grants by the State. They claim to have only 10% of the design done. What about the other 90%?
It seems to me that our City is not interested in hearing that the doubling of the rates will cause unnecessary inflation. And they certainly don’t want to look at the fraud, corruption and collusion of the past.
The City mailed out thousands of letters costing nearly $16,000.
A handful of concerned citizens spent under $1,500 of their own money to alert the ratepaying public about the Prop 218 Protest. This included radio ads, copies of flyers, ads in the Triplicate newspaper and purchasing a scanner. Many volunteers went knocking door-to-door. The response was overwhelmingly against any rate increases.
With more volunteers and another week, I’m pretty sure the increases would have been defeated. While the City claims to have received few responses, we have nearly 1,400. Not enough to stop the increases, but indicative that the ratepaying public was finally getting the message.
Meanwhile a Notice of Legal Challenge, Notice of Intent to Seek Writ of Mandate and Demand for Preservation of Evidence was delivered to the City on May 28th.
Tonight’s meeting at the Flynn Center, 981 H St will start at 6 pm. A Press Conference by those opposing the increases will take place at 5:30 at the Flynn Center.
Be sure to attend.
