Water Meters for Some? What Were They Thinking?

The staff of the City of Fresno's Public Utilities Division must have been drinking something strange from the water when they deliberately or inadvertently failed to plan for separate household water meters for shared homeowner Public Utility Developments (PUD's).

Excluding planned gated and non-gated multi-home communities from single-home water metering is unfair to both the homeowner and to the the PUD property association to which each home owner belongs. Even more serious, exclusion of hundreds of City of Fresno PUD homes is a violation of the State of California legislation mandating state-wide water meters.

I am particularly perplexed by the City's Public Utility staff not including PUD's since I was a member of the city council that initiated the process of mandating water meters. In 2001 Mayor Autry and the city council, knowing that a local ballot initiative prohibited installation of water meters, convinced the State legislature to override the local prohibition with state legislation mandating water meters.

Following the state action, the council tasked the Public Utilities Division to develop a multi-year fee and meter implementation program that would bring the City of Fresno into full meter compliance by 2013. The Public Utilities Division contracted with a consulting company specializing in water issues for a detailed planning study, a citizen's Utility Commission was appointed, and hearings were held for the public before the Utility Commission and city council. The meter implementation program was then approved by the city council.

At no time during this lengthy planning process by Public Utilities, planning consultants, and the citizen Utility Commission was there any mention of excluding PUD's from meter hook-ups. If city staff had made a decision to exclude PUD's, it certainly was not shared with the mayor or city council.

It wasn't until the recent "218 Hearing" (referring to the state-mandated requirement of a public hearing before utility rates can be increased) that the "new" council and mayor first heard from citizens living in PUD's that they were excluded from receiving water meters. The council, however, on a divided vote decided to approve the new water rates and meter implementation schedule.

Someone at City Hall really screwed up. Every home in Fresno requires a water meter. PUD's should certainly not be an exception. Mayor Swearengin and the city council need to immediately fix this problem, and to apologize to the public for the error.

I wouldn't want to be the person or persons that are responsible for this embarrassing episode in what is otherwise an extremely important and necessary project to assure Fresno's water future.

Coming Soon. . .

1. Why not buy a house? We taxpayers are paying for it.
2. An update on your local community college.
3. Diplomatic relations between Armenia and Turkey?

Comments are welcome. Click on "Comments" below or e-mail me at abriancalhoun@gmail .com.