Letter to the Editor: delighted with Ronald Wastewater
Monday, December 3, 2012
To the Editor:
I was pretty damned surprised to see the complaints re: the Ronald Budget in the recent Shoreline News. I have been a Ronald customer for eight years. The Ronald portion of my sewer bill has been the same rate for as long as I can remember (despite paying the City of Shoreline a HUGE annual fee). Why all the sudden complaints?? What other public entity do you know has kept the same rate for these last four or five years? The King County sewage treatment portion has gone up astronomically – but the Ronald portion remains unchanged. City of Shoreline has raised taxes and the City of Seattle utilities have raised rates at a horrific rate.
I reject the City of Shoreline taking control of the Ronald Waste Water district. I am getting some less than competent service from the City of Shoreline. I have not experienced that with Ronald. My experience with the commissioners indicates tremendous awareness of managing the Ronald waste system. There was a reason citizens formed this special utility district. It is not broken – don’t try to fix it!!
While I have no problem with reviewing any entity’s budget, I find the fact that Ronald has maintained their rates to indicate their budget is likely very, very reasonable. The mailers that one of the writers complained about are very informative and helpful and standard for any utility.
Greg Logan
Shoreline
Posts
8 comments:
Well Greg,
The RWD commissioners just voted to raise rates as reported in the Shoreline Area News yesterday.
The reason RWD rates have remained the same is that they had been overcharging for years. Look at their reserves. They have far more in reserves than they should for a utility their size and the reason is they overcharged for years.
So with all those reserves and knowing that they will be taken over in accordance with their own interlocal agreement, why are they raising rates?
And the district was formed originally to actually build the sewers as there weren't any in this area, the only existing system in 1951 was from Firlands into part of Richmond Beach. The sewer district didn't actually begin construction until about 1959 as the potential ratepayers disagreed with many of their policies. Surely we are all thankful that we now have a sewer system, but I feel that the need for a separate management system is now outdated and Ronald Wastewater should be incorporated into the City of Shoreline as was agreed by the Sewer District some 12 or so years ago. It is only now that they are faced with actual dissolution that they are resisting the transfer.
Wow, Ronald raised their rates an entire SIX CENTS a month, it will now cost you an additional 72 cents per year on your bill, stop the presses!!!
In comparison, the City raised the surface water utility monthly household rate an additional $4 per month, from $131 to $135 (plus change). That is an additional $48 per month per household and a rate increase of 3%. In comparison, Ronald raised their rates by 0.5%.
@8:37 am - you might do well to go and inform yourself as to what the best practices for reserve funds according to the GFOA (Government Financial Officers Association) - they recommend reserves of at least 5% and up to 15% be kept on hand to cover any fiscal or capital emergency - or at least two months of general operating expenditures on hand as a reserve fund. The city, even though it subscribes to the GFOA standard, may not presently meet this standard for reserves, but that is why Ronald has a reserve fund -- NOT because they have overcharged their rate payers. Nice try at your lie.
Dear Tracy Tallman - have your forgot all of your history or are you just cherry-picking your information? The sewer district you are describing was created to serve Innis Arden, another point upon which Innis Arden disagreed with the County and Washington State was their covenants prohibiting persons of color and creed from becoming property owners. Want to discuss that aspect too?
An additional $48 per YEAR ($4 per month x 12 months) for the city surface water management increase per single family householod.
Ronald Sewer District was created in 1951 by a vote of much more than just Innis Arden. Ronald initially wanted to take over the Innis Arden "treatment plant" - not the same as today's definition of that word, and that did create a lot of animosity amongst the other voters/potential ratepayers, but there were many other issues too deep to go into here. If you want to take this discussion offline, just email me. I spent several hours at Ronald going over their old records..... Email lacquer@oomcast.net
Tracey - are you going to go over what happened in 1959 to determine what should happen in terms of public policy in 2013? A lot of people have been born and died since then. In fact, the 1959 great red menace, the Soviet Union, no longer exists. In 1959 people used to build backyard bomb shelters, so are you suggesting that is our reference point?
As an owner of rental property in the Ronald Sewer District, I have been very frustrated with thier unfair Billing practice's.
I have a small 4 bedroom 2-bathroom house. Some work was done to seperate 1 bedroom and bathroom from the larger portion of the home, adding no square footage. Essentially creating a duplex. With no other changes in occupancy or use of the Sewer, my sewer bill doubled, yes now twice as much as my neighbors 6 bedroom 3.5 bathroom mega house. (my bill now $99.00 per month) (My neighbors bill now $49.50 per month)I am forced to pay twice as much per month for the Sewer, while actually making less use of the Sewer System than my neighbors.
I have complained many times to Ronald Sewer District,they finally admitted that thier Billing System (Reads Taxation) is flawed and they do not know how to make it fair. They would not help me with the double Billing. They said they were collecting so much because they could.
It does not surprise me to hear of other shady activity and citizen tax dollars paid towards propoganda, but it still angers me. The Sewer District does not care how many homes in the District have apartments in them, and they do not police the issue, but if the find out you have an apartment in your home, then they will double your bill. This is another example of how unfair the Sewer District can be, since the Sewer District could easily obtain this type of building information from the Tax assesors Office. The current magagment has known for years, that thier system is unfair taxation, but they don't care!
Yes, it is time to flush "Ronald Waste Water", don't forget to put the lid down!
Post a Comment