STPUD ratepayer info may become public information
By Kathryn Reed
South Tahoe Public Utility District board members are expected to vote March 15 whether to release ratepayer contact information to the Citizens Alliance for Responsible Government.
John Runnels, a member of that group, made a presentation to the board Jan. 19. Because all five members were not in attendance the vote was pushed back to this Thursday when all are expected at the meeting.
Runnels said his group wants to be able to send direct mailings to ratepayers – in particular about Proposition 218 notifications.
State law requires the utility district to notify people by mail of potential increases in sewer or water rates. People must be told of the pending vote 50 days before the board is scheduled to take action.
Runnels told the board at the January meeting that the district’s “PR is limiting.” He contends people don’t believe it’s the truth; that the district puts a spin on the information.
“We say what rate increase we are proposing, what it means to various customer classes, what the current rate is and what it would be with the increase,” Dennis Cocking, South Tahoe PUD spokesman, told Lake Tahoe News after the meeting. “You have 45 days if you want to protest. You don’t have to give a reason.”
The district sends its Proposition 218 notifications to all 17,000 ratepayers even though some are only sewer customers.
“We have always met the letter of the law,” Cocking said.
Once the paperwork is sent the board cannot increase the rate beyond what people have been alerted to. However, they may reduce the increase like they did last year when the proposal was to up sewer rates 2.5 percent and the board chose to increase rates by 2 percent.
Notifications will go out this spring because of proposed changes to metered water customers. Right now people on meters have a bill that is based on a 55 percent fixed rate, 45 percent variable based on usage. It may go to a 65-35 split. The eventual goal of the district is for it to be 70 percent fixed, 30 percent variable.
Other rate increases are possible.
At the January meeting the board, with President Eric Schafer absent, was all over the place with the thought of releasing ratepayer information. Part of the problem was setting such precedent. Part was not knowing who else the Alliance might give the addresses to and the potential ratepayers would be inundated with junk mail. Some liked the idea of being transparent.
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Meeting info:
March 15 at 2pm, 1275 Meadow Crest Drive, South Lake Tahoe.
A public entity should in no way be providing my information to a private group!!! Once this information is made available to a private entity, there is no control over who is going to have access to it. This is a total violation of privacy!
I was with a group who wanted to distribute funds to residents who lost their homes in the Angora fire. We couldn’t have access to any records, thus had to wait for people to contact us.
Why should a group have access to those same records just to send us propaganda? They should have to jump through the same hoops and spend countless hours trying to get to residents like others have to.
Put articles out in newspapers, buy ads…good ole fashion pavement pounding. There are ways to make it happen.
This should never be done for any reason, plus I do not trust Runnels at all to do the right thing with this information, he will help himself.
Three words: Gramm, Leach, Bliley
Federal law states that the “liability follows the data” and fines can be up to one million dollars per record lost.
Both STPUD and the Runnels group could be held liable.
Additionally, there may be safety concerns when you release someone’s address to an uncontrolled entity (meaning volunteers).
What I think Mr. Runnels is trying to do is show the un-willingness of STPUD to truly communicate with the public. This info. is already public record thru the county at little or no cost. In the last 6 yrs. 100% of all rate increases went to union, management, employees, & board members salaries and benefits – 0 to infrastructure.
With board members Jones and Shafer’s last stand – they are trying to leave there mark on STPUD with high rates and overpaid employees.
Let’s hope the Grand Jury can shed the truth
Jones and Schafer like handing out high pay, perks, and benefits to the workers as it justifies their own full-tilt, expensive, Cadillac plan health insurance they have bestowed upon themselves, at the public and ratepayer’s expense, questionable by any means for their merely part time positions.
And registered property owner information for each parcel, with home mailing addresses, is available without charge from the county assessor’s office. There are also low cost computer programs available (realtors use them) that will even print out the mailing labels of each property owner.
The difference is between someone finding it on their own and someone being given the information.
Strange, I could have this information from the county in less than an hour. Why are they doing this the hard way?
Scoop, maybe your first post answers my post. Maybe they are showing a lack of cooperation. It is just so easy to get the info anyway.
Great, John and Scoop – just don’t complain when you get your unsolicited penis enlargement literature thanks to your information being obtained by private ventures.
Mick, what part of “this information is already easily available” dont you get?
And what makes you think it would be unsolicited, some of us were not blessed genetically.