Common sense would tell you that when a small city considers spending several hundred million dollars on a water project that will dramatically raise water rates for its residents, there should be no rush to judgment.

The process should be slow and deliberate and take as much time as necessary for all stakeholders to be heard and all options to be considered.

Davis, apparently, is different. Already we’re hearing the voices of those city leaders who have already made up their minds, leaders who are telling us the hour is late and doom and gloom are just around the corner if we dally any longer. Some of them seem perfectly happy to have the city of Woodland dictate water policy for the city of Davis.

While the Davis City Council did grant a deadline extension to its own Water Advisory Committee earlier this month, it still seems bound and determined to put something on the November ballot, which is much too soon when you consider that the Yolo County Elections Office requires final ballot language by Aug. 10, which is less than two months away the last time I looked at a calendar.

Interestingly, the council gave the WAC until Aug. 21 to figure out exactly what sort of surface water project it favors, and until September 18 to finalize a rate structure to pay for the project.

Both of those dates, obviously, are past the Aug. 10 deadline for November ballot arguments, which means whatever the city chooses to put on the ballot will be absent the hard numbers many of us would like to see before voting Yes or No.

The obvious solution here is to delay any vote on the water project until the WAC has finally and fully weighed in. But any time such a logical suggestion is made, the voices of doom and gloom become louder.

Councilmember Stephen Souza says any delay will cause Woodland to “go it alone,” which would probably be just fine and dandy with a majority of Davisites.

City Manager Steve Pinkerton says a more timely mail-only election in early 2013 could cost the city from $80,000 to $100,000. Given that the proposed surface water project is likely to cost several thousand times that much, I’d say allowing the people to vote with all facts and figures at their disposal is money well spent.

I always get a little nervous when our leaders start telling us it’s too expensive to allow the citizens of this town to express themselves.

For his part, Souza seems to think Davis voters aren’t up to the task even if we allow them to go to the polls.

Said Souza: “If a (water) committee that’s composed of dedicated people has spent 12 meetings — three to four hours (apiece) — and they need more time to understand, how in the world do we think our community of citizens that have spent hardly any time (learning about the project) and going to get it and understand it well enough to vote on it intelligently?”

I realize Steve works around water on a regular basis and most of us don’t, but please, don’t insult our intelligence. Or our diligence in sorting through this proposal. Put simply, Steve, if folks in Woodland can figure this one out, I’m confident Davisites can, too. Trust me on this.

To get around the sample ballot deadline, the WAC hopes suitable language can be developed for the sample ballot that will refer voters to the Prop. 218 rate noticing the city will undertake in September. Whether such a plan will survive certain legal challenges is “iffy” at best.

In other words, the sample ballot, which voters have relied on for decades to tell them exactly what they’re voting on, will simply indicate you’ll be given a Yes or No choice in November on rates that won’t even be published until September.

It will be up to you to be sure the city mails you those rates and you read and understand them before voting. It’s an end run around the sample ballot deadline, but whether it will fly when a judge gets a hold of it remains to be seen.

Stay tuned. Things are about to get a whole lot more interesting.

— Reach Bob Dunning at [email protected]

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