Opinion: Reasons Vogelgesang should be on STPUD board

To the community,

My name is Randy Vogelgesang and I am asking for your vote for seat 3 of the South Tahoe Public Utility District board.

My position on the issues was well covered in the Lake Tahoe News here.

However, I would like to emphasize a few points.

Randy Vogelgesang

My engineering experience and my reputation for making common sense, cost effective engineering decisions make me uniquely qualified to represent the ratepayers.

The district and its employees provide an excellent product and we should strive to continue this high level of service, however, all projects need to be evaluated based on necessity, and less expensive options should be considered. In these tough economic times we will need to prioritize our spending and cut costs wherever possible.

I see no reason to justify a rate hike when most of the ratepayers that I know have had their incomes decrease. Wages and benefits for the districts employees should not exceed comparable local private sector jobs.

Until all customers are metered, I would like to lower the metered rate portion of the bill as much as possible. In addition, meter installations need to be done at a more accelerated pace. I don’t think it is acceptable to have customers using the same volume of water paying very different amounts for the next dozen years. The current metering amounts are based on average use in order to remain revenue neutral to the district. However, the district is composed of full-time and part-time residents, neither of which fit the average. It has been known for many years that meters were coming, but inaction has caused this problem.

The priority of the board is to represent the public and oversee how the district spends our money. When making decisions on behalf of the ratepayers I plan on using the same common sense, fiscally conservative, approach that has worked well for my business. The key word in STPUD is public and I will always keep that in mind when making decisions.

Randy Vogelgesang, South Lake Tahoe