Second of two parts.
The following is a look at public and council comments at the most recent water and sewer rate hearing. Due to space limits, the following will look at the highlights.
Background
If you missed the news last week: Proposed Seal Beach water and sewer rate increases have been postponed for now. (See “Water, sewer rates on hold,” Sun Newspapers, Thursday, Feb. 29, 2024, at sunnews.org.)
The City Council will hold a study session to look at the subject in-depth before sending out a new round of Prop. 218-mandated hearing notices. Then there will be another water and sewer rate hearing. Dates of those meetings have not been released.
Public hearing
The first to speak was a man who said his wife went to college with City Manager Jill Ingram. A former city manager himself, he suggested spreading out the rate increases and improvements over time.
District Four Council Member/Mayor Schelly Sustarsic asked if he would share his name.
Someone said it was Ray Cordner.
Resident James Jenson said he had been a proud Seal Beach resident for almost 70 years.
“This used to be a town proud of being small and unlike our big city neighbors and in fact got rid of public officials who tried to overbuild around the beach. The city operated like an old school family, cautious with spending, avoiding debt and taking care of residents is a priority. Somewhere along the way we started making big mistakes and trying to be like our big, famous neighbor cities and I think that’s where things started going wrong,” Jenson said.
He said all advertising is hurt and rescue and that’s what the public was getting. “Pipes are old and cruddy,” he said.
“A break could give you service interruptions and worse; give us money,” he said.
“We’ve got high paid government officials and they get treated really well, with good pay, days off, lots of perks, and the reason we do this is so that they can help us avoid these things when they come up,” Jenson said.
“Otherwise we could have place holders in these jobs and saying we need more money,” Jenson said.
“Several of my neighbors on Catalina have paid 13, 14, 15 thousand dollars to fix the sewer line and an insult to injury have had to pay for a city permit to fix the city’s sewer line,” Jenson said.
He said he wished City Hall would buy insurance as he does every month.
He complained that instead of being rewarded for conserving water, instead they get a bill.
“I think the city needs to do what they’re asking us to do which is tighten their belts and re-budget,” Jenson said.
Siriporn Hikins said she wanted to thank the city staff who worked with the Golden Rain Foundation (the non-profit that runs Leisure World) and qualifying the number of parcel owners who can submit the protest letters.
“I think at this time we have to focus on how to make this work between the city, the council members, and the citizens, giving us more time to study this proposal,” Hikins said.
She said the inflation rate was 4.2% and the Social Security benefit cost of living increase was 3.2%. “So when you look at a 140% increase for the 5 years starting with 33% on the second year, after this year’s increase, it it’s not realistic, it’s not workable,” Hikins said.
She said the average Social Security beneficiary received around $1,000 a month. She said their association fee, cable, phone bill, and electric bill come to about $800. That was not including bedding, care, transportation, insurance, and food.
She asked if there was a way to recalibrate what is urgent need and what maintenance the city can defer.
Hikins said it was not the council’s responsibility that no one took care of the infrastructure for the past 100 years but at the same time it’s not responsible to have the public take care of 100% of the negligence.
Hikins asked if there was a way for the city to look at the budget and focus on anything to do with the health and safety of the public and forego any project they can do without.
Hope Horning thanked the City Attorney’s Office for obtaining the facts about the number of parcel owners in Leisure World.
She said she was concerned with the council resolution that adopted additional protest requirements specifically for Leisure World.
Horning suggested that the Prop. 218 notice to Leisure World residents include a list of documents that the city attorney would find acceptable.
Horning said city staff also needs to seek out qualified participants who did not receive any notice.
She said staff was not presenting any planned choices for the council to consider.
The audience applauded.
Teresa Miller said she attended all of the water and sewer meetings. She said at the Jan. 18 meeting she spoke with the consultant and asked if there were options that were presented to city staff and he said yes.
“Where are they? We haven’t seen anything. We see one. There’s one option in here and it is the 140% increase, which is unacceptable,” Miller said.
She said on Feb. 12 she thought she asked for a list of things for the staff and the city to respond to. Miller said what they were looking for were alternatives. “You know, 140% is a lot of money,” Miller said.
“Even now I have a neighbor that lives across the street from me who doesn’t know how she’s going to spend the additional 25% increase in the water rate that she just received in January 1,” Miller said.
“There’s no end in sight. I looked at the 2019, the 2000 and before that the rate hike increases,” Miller said.
She said it was unfair to the residents who live and work here to always shoulder the responsibility.
Miller said at the previous meeting (Feb. 12), they had pointed out that there was an issue with people not getting the notice.
“We’re asking you to go back, find another way, slow it down,” Miller said.
According to Miller, she recently received a notice that the rate increases were investing in the future. Miller said it started out with scare tactics.
According to Miller it was first the city needed the money for infrastructure, then it went to the consultant who said we need the money for reserves for the bond and now the public was being asked to invest. Miller said the materials the city was printing are costly.
“Just stop, stop it, go back and figure out a way to make some of these repairs that you need,” Miller said.
Patty Senecal thought rate study sessions were a good idea.
She proposed holding off re-noticing Prop. 218 hearings. She said she didn’t know how many protest letters came in.
She said there was a lot of money coming into California. “I mean, every city’s going after this money,” she said.
The audience applauded.
John Kochevar said the city needed to break it down to the physical thing they want to do with the funds.
He suggested showing a diagram.
“You’re talking about things that aren’t concrete, physical things,” he said.
He suggested showing what physically needs to be fixed in the pipes.
Council comments
The staff recommendation was to close the Feb. 26 hearing and directed staff to re-notice the process and set the hearing for a date in May.
However, the council ultimately decided to hold a study session before starting the water and sewer rate hearings all over again.
District Two Council Member Tom Moore suggested a planning meeting with the entire City Council to review the improvement projects in detail so council could go through each of them. “I would also like to get the city’s bond expert to come and explain how bonds work,” Moore said.
He then wanted to have a general discussion among the council members.
According to City Attorney Nick Ghirelli, if the council wanted to have a special meeting they could set a date that night.
District Three Councilwoman Lisa Landau favored having a special meeting where the council just discussed water and wastewater rates. She agreed with Moore on having a bond expert explain how that works.
She made a motion to postpone sending out notices until the city has the town halls and the special council study session so residents have an opportunity to really ask questions and hear more information.
She asked if they needed to work out the parameters of the meeting that night.
Ghirelli said the format can be whatever the council wants.
Sustarsic said she prefer it to be so a lot of conversation can go on.
Moore suggested a regular public meeting, where the public can speak at the beginning and again at the end.
Sustarsic also wanted the public to be able to speak at the beginning and ending of the meeting because sometimes the public hasn’t seen the presentation.
“Do we have consensus?” Moore asked.
Steele said he was happy his Leisure World neighbors had an opportunity to vote on this process. He was concerned about the city’s infrastructure. “We can do it again, which is what it sounds like what we’ve been doing for the last five months,” Steele said.
Moore said the Leisure World rehabilitation pump would be $5 million, but if Seal Beach rebuilt the other three pumps, would that be necessary. That was the discussion he would like to have.
Ghirelli read back the motion as he understood it: To schedule the new rate hearing after the special council study session.
There was some discussion of the timing of the water and sewer hearing.
District One Council Member Joe Kalmick asked about the logistics. If they were going to go through the improvement projects and the financing, were they ready to have a long meeting?
Moore suggested the meeting could be during the day or something.
“I’ll take a vacation day,” Moore said.
Landau said they needed to look at alternatives to the 140% increase.
Sustarsic suggested limiting public comment to 3 minutes to make comments more concise.
Ghirelli said the mayor could limit the time for comments and the total amount of time, based on how many people want to speak.
Steele asked if they were stopping the process and starting all over again.
Ghirelli said they are stopping the clock process, but not starting the clock on the new process.
Ghirelli said the hearing has to be held 45 days after the notice is sent out. He did not believe the hearing could be held by the staff’s proposed date in May.
Steele asked if they were talking about July now.
“It kind of depends on when that special meeting is held,” Ghirelli said.
Steele said he had no idea what they were voting for here.
However, Steele voted “yes” along with the other four council members to end that night’s hearing, to hold a study session at a date to be determined, and after that happens to once again send out Prop. 218 notices for a public hearing on water and sewer rates.
