By Randy Kugler
The survey allowing registered Manzanita voters to express their preferences on the City’s charging and transfer to the General Fund of indirect cost services for our Water Operating Fund has been completed. Manzanita’s voters approved the City Charter language as to how water revenues are to be used by the City Council. A City that was confident in its policy regarding these transfers to the General Fund should welcome the opportunity to receive the affirming confirmation of its citizens on the amount of these transfers in order to bring closure to this matter.
Voters were given nine options to choose from. Those options started with no indirect costs charged to the Water Operating Fund all the way to affirming support of the Council’s current policy which this Budget year charges approximately $200,000 annually for these administrative services.
I offered no opinion on what I believed the best option was, committed to providing whatever results that I obtained to the Council for their review and clearly stated, “This survey is your opportunity to express your preference as to how much of your water fees should be used by the City for indirect cost support services related to the Water Operating Fund.”
126 responses were received with the following breakdown as to the prefered amount of indirect charges respondents wished to see transferred from the Water Operating Fund to the General Fund:
No indirect costs – 57%.
Not more than $25,000 – 20%.
Not more than $50,000 – 9%.
Not more than$75,000 – 2%.
Not more than $100,000 – 2%.
No preference noted – 3%.
City continues with its present overhead allocation policy – 7%.
The City recently announced the results of their Comprehensive Housing Plan survey. This survey was not restricted to registered voters but open to anyone who wanted to respond. The survey results: “We garnered 76 responses which is huge for a city of our size!”
Citizens might reasonably expect a similar level of gratitude from the City for those 126 registered voters who took the time to complete this survey and give their feedback on this ongoing controversy but I expect more time will be devoted by some who will find fault with the survey. These individuals will conclude that the respondents were misled or do not understand the issue therefore the results were not a valid expression of community preference. The City is free to conduct their own survey of registered voters on this matter but I sense that they have no interest in giving you that opportunity.
The use of these Water Operating Fund transfers for General Fund expenses unrelated to the operation of the water utility has been taking place for years according to Councilor Campbell. Expect that use of water revenues to be continued in next year’s Budget to include helping pay the annual loan debt on our new City Hall for the next 20 years.
I will ask the Mayor and City Manager to include this letter along with a copy of the survey explanation to the City Budget Committee for their April 29th meeting. Perhaps the citizen Budget Committee members can get better explanations on the use of indirect costs for expenses unrelated to the water utility or encourage the Council to recognize that a substantial number of citizens do not support their present policy and recommend a reduction in these transfers to be more in line with the voter’s input from this survey.
In 2020, Manzanita Councilor Spegman offered his observations about how our City receives citizen input and the fate of those who raise these issues and ask unwelcome questions.
“What they’ve been doing when Randy raises legitimate and detailed concerns about any issue is insidious. They shoot the messenger and call him a malcontent, trying to quiet others who may feel the same but be a little more gun shy than Randy. So we’ve got a small insular group of elites who don’t want any input about how they wield their power, and if you offer it they villainize you so others won’t join in.” The City Manager is equally clear on how to respond to those individuals who point out inconsistent and contradictory public statements by advising the Council that “we must discourage or even ignore them if necessary.”
The use of our water revenues is a Council policy that should be able to answer one question:
What is in the public’s best interests with respect to the use of the revenues that are collected to operate our water system?
1. Keep more revenue in the Water Operating Fund for utility operations and maintenance as well as construction of needed infrastructure improvements.
2. Transfer Water Operating Fund revenues to the General Fund under the guise of staff reimbursements for administrative support of water operations.
Thank you to those that took the time to respond to this survey.
