WATER CONFUSION REMAINS … apparently it you repeat a false statement often enough, it becomes fact … so it is with our new-fangled and now very official water rates, which will be coming to a mailbox near you in the very near future … beginning May 1 of this year we will be billed under the so-called “Bartle-Wells” rate structure, not to be confused with Bartle and Jaymes, which may ultimately be cheaper to drink than Davis water … Bartle-Wells is a relatively straightforward rate structure where you pretty much pay for the water you use at the time you use it …

However, on May 1 of 2014 — just one year later — the city will switch to the much more complex CBFR (confusion-based fixed rate) to calculate your bills … this didn’t stop the Major Metropolitan Daily on the other side of the river from reporting that “Krovoza said the city will keep a rate structure similar to its current one until 2015. In 2015, the rate structure changes to a formula that also accounts for the cost of providing water to city users and costs related to water supply and treatment.” …

Am I the only one in town who realizes the CBFR structure kicks in on May 1, 2014? … true enough, you won’t see the actual bill for this until Jan. 1 of 2015, but trust me, when that bill arrives you will become painfully aware that the CBFR structure did indeed begin on May 1, 2014 … and the water you used in May of 2014 you will still be paying for in December of 2015, a full 20 months later …

If any members of the Davis City Council or reporters from major out-of-town newspapers need a refresher course on the rates and when they start, I’ll be happy to run a tutorial for their benefit …

CAN ANYONE HERE COUNT TO FIVE? … although Proposition 218 doesn’t allow rates to be approved past a five-year maximum, the city posted rates for five years and eight months and may have to revise that or hold a do-over on the whole shebang … in the rate card the city sent out in January, posted rates run from May 1, 2013, through all of 2018, overshooting the legal limit by a full eight months … when a member of the public brought this to the council’s attention during public comment, the council seemed not to be paying attention, which has been par for the course for those trying to point out difficulties with the rate structure …

THE READERS ALWAYS WRITE … my friend Tee, a longtime Davisite, writes to express “distress” about the water rate hikes … “It’s forcing those of us who are aging and on fixed, very fixed, incomes to scramble to figure out where we can cut even more corners to pay the increase. I am going to be forced to probably sell the family home.” … Tee is also distressed that the proposed $10 a month low-income allowance for the handful of those who qualify is a mere “pittance” … while most Davisites may see increased water rates as nothing more than a nuisance, such is not the case for folks like Tee …

ALAN FOR MAYOR … although a staunch supporter of the surface water project, Natural Resources Commissioner Alan Pryor, also known as the Bag Man, scolded the council the other day for not including a postcard to make it easier for those wishing to protest the rates to do so … Pryor said including a postcard would have been the stand-up thing to do, and he’s right … a current black eye for a council that received praise not so long ago for including just such a postcard the last time the issue came up …

— Reach Bob Dunning at [email protected]

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