Opinion and Commentary By Donna Westfall – April 8, 2026
Almost 4,000 City customers pay water/sewer bills. It only takes 2,000 +1 signatures to protest. Sound simple? Should be, but not always.
The very first time the City did a Prop 218 protest in 2007 was AFTER the bid was accepted for nearly $44 million for the upgrade/expansion work on the sewer system, after the contract was signed and after the work began.
2007, I bought a list of customers for $30. We were very organized, kept a map and kept track as protests came in street by street. We handed in over 2,000 signatures. Again, we were very organized. We kept copies of all those who signed to protest. We won!
Or so we thought.
Nope, we didn’t win. We didn’t stop the rate increase BECAUSE the former City Clerk gave us a list of customers that was incomplete and inaccurate, then she miscounted the vote. We started a recall. She quit. We went to court. The Judge ruled in favor of the city, because the city said they would go bankrupt if those increases were not done.
IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER
Customers are to pay for operations and maintenance. Developers are supposed to pay for expansion. Both pools of money are to be used to repay the $44 million loan. I’m still waiting on answers from the city to find out how much has been repaid.
Anyways, 18 years later it’s hard to describe just how many lies we’ve been told by our city. It’s hard for some people to imagine the amount of fraud that went on, but suppressed by former officials. It’s all coming out now because we have VP JD Vance looking into fraud/waste/abuse in California. He has been notified. We have Nick Shirley doing the same. He’s the one that helped to expose all the fraud in Minnesota. He’s been notified. And we have the City of Beaumont in Riverside County as an example where 6 former officials were convicted dating back 2 decades. Some paid millions in restitution. Look it up. It’s fascinating.
This time we are at 6 days before the city sends out that letter. Starting April 16th the Prop 218 protest begins. Every homeowner hooked up to water/sewer is supposed to get that letter. Every customer/tenant that pays the bill is supposed to get that letter. Most people just throw it away and that’s why we need dozens of people ready to volunteer and go get those signatures. Knock on doors. Sit at a table. Stand at Walmart and Safeway, outside schools and at the post office. It would help for those that like being on the phone to make calls and line things up.
But here’s the reality of the past. Many people did not get that letter from the city. I’m still holding onto a stack of letters from disgruntled people in my files. I’m hoping the City is organized and truthful enough now to have an accurate list. Years ago I paid $30 for that list. It was inaccurate. So far the city has not contacted me about how much to pay for a list requested weeks ago.
The way the Prop 218 protest works. 1 protest per property. The owner can protest or the ratepayer/tenant can protest. We prefer to have both when possible. There are supposedly close to 4,000 water/sewer accounts. We’ll need to hand in 2,000+1 to win. That’s how it works. We have 45 days to complete the task.
Here’s where it can get dicey. When people take in their own protest to the city without making a copy then we have no way to double check because we cross off protests as they come in. Then, when the count actually begins with the city, several of us go in and count all the protests together. That’s how we found out we were screwed the first time around. Three of us went in to the City and we counted the protests together. When we reached 165 mistakes by the City, we knew it was deliberate.
So far, our current City Clerk, Robin Altman, has a track record of being honest. I can’t see her having an open container on the floor of her office where anyone could come in and yank out protests as happened in the past. But, it would be wise to have someone sitting at a table in front of City Hall by the Water Department just to make sure things are on the up and up. As I recall, a few volunteers spent the day by sitting at that table from one to four hours at a time.
Actually, there’s no reason someone couldn’t sit there now just to hand out paperwork and advise people about the Prop 218 protest. City Hall is open Monday through Thursday, 7:30 am to 5:30 pm.
This is a grassroots effort. Either volunteer, or make peace with paying double on your water/sewer bills.
