Landers Water Rescue: the advocate for ongoing affordable BDVWA rates.

Posted by Concerned CSA70W-1 Customer.
Last updated 21 April 2017.

April 21, 2017:

Now that neither the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors (SB-BOS) nor the Local Agency Formation Commission of San Bernardino County (LAFCO) can, in retaliation and on their own whims and spite, block Bighorn-Desert View Water Agency's (BDVWA) takeover of CSA70W-1 from County Special Districts (SDD), the June 17, 2014 backstab that Mr. James Ramos dealt our community of East Landers can finally be safely stated:

June 18, 2014:
In an effort to stop SDD from burning our reserve fund on garbage that would give no benefit to our community, a reserve fund that took more than 20 years to get built up, and on a very short 2 day notice, our community presented SB-BOS with over 60 written petitions requesting that SB-BOS block SDD's proposed FY2014-15 budget for our community at their June 17, 2014 regular meeting. Further, five community members personally attended that June 17, 2014 regular meeting and gave SB-BOS clear and specific examples of the complete waste in SDD's proposed budget.
However, Mr. Ramos chose to ignore our community and instead swallow Mr. Rigney's lie of "we are now making the improvements we said we would in our April 19, 2013 rate increase notice." Mr. Ramos could, and should, have immediately recognized Mr. Rigney's lie, since SDD is proposing to spend the entire reserve fund and the audited financial statements for CSA70W-1 clearly show that it took years to build up that reserve fund.
Unfortunately, it's quite clear that Mr. Ramos has absolutely no concern for the welfare of our community and that politics rules as far as he is concerned, since, when it came time for the vote on SDD's proposed budget, Mr. Ramos simply "went along with the crowd" and rubberstamped SDD's proposed budget. Perhaps, the worst aspect of this backstab on Mr. Ramos' part is that he could have stood his ground and voted no, and made it stick. Ms. Josie Gonzales, another SB-BOS supervisor, was, possibly intentionally, absent at the time of the vote and it requires 4 votes to pass a budget item.

It should be clear at this point that Mr. Ramos, as the 3rd District County Supervisor, is a threat to our community and that he needs to be replaced. Hopefully, word will spread widely about what he did to our community and that other communities will see that if Mr. Ramos can backstab us, he can also backstab them, and enough people will realize that Mr. Ramos can not be trusted as the 3rd District County Supervisor and that he will be removed come the next election.

Unfortunately, this also applies to all of the other currently sitting County Supervisors as well, even though, at their latest meetings on April 4, 2017 and on April 18, 2017, they all voted to block SDD's latest water rate increase proposals. The County Board of Supervisors is only doing this because they believe they are "feeling the heat." Were they to no longer believe to be under pressure, they would instantly revert to stabbing people and communities in the back, just like before. Their past behavior and actions amply proves this point. Incidentally, those SDD water rate requests that the SB-BOS blocked on April 4, 2017 and on April 18, 2017 were so outrageous that they would have decimated the communities involved.

April 7, 2017:

Under threat by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) of being hit with far larger extortion fees if they didn't pay this extortion fee, Bighorn Desert View Water Agency (BDVWA) was forced to pay BLM an extortion fee of more than 86,000.00 to cover 22 years, until 2038, of so called right of way (ROW) rent for the water mains that BDVWA has going through the easements of unclaimed 5 acre parcels, intermixed with privately owned parcels, that BLM calls "federal land." This is after BDVWA was forced to pay an extortion fee of 14,400.00 for 2016 for the same so called ROW rent, an extortion fee that was more than 4 times the 3500.00 that BLM extorted from BDVWA the year prior. With the consent of BLM, BDVWA originally installed those water mains in 1979 and, for the first 30 years, there was no ROW rent. Then, in 2009, BLM suddenly started charging BDVWA that ROW rent and for the first year, that ROW rent was 1000.00. Then, it very quickly ramped up to the 14,400 that BDVWA was forced to pay in 2016. Ongoing details about the BLM problem are here.

Congressman Paul Cook needs to hear from every resident in BDVWA's service area, and from as many other people outside of BDVWA's service area as possible, that BLM's extortion is unacceptable, that he needs to fix this problem and get BLM held accountable for its extortion of BDVWA. Unfortunately, Congressman Cook couldn't care less unless enough people communicate this problem to him.

December 31, 2016:

Now that Bighorn Desert View Water Agency (BDVWA) has been managing our water system for about 18 months, BDVWA has been able to examine our water system to find any problems it might have. The following is what BDVWA found: no problems at all with our water mains, so San Bernardino County Special Districts (SDD) lied; and a complete lack of routine maintenance, so SDD took our water rate revenue and gave nothing back in return. Further, the pressure reducing valves that SDD wanted to burn up 300,000.00 on, BDVWA fixed for 3500.00, and the hole that was punched in one of our water tanks around July 2015 and that SDD wanted to spend 50,000.00 to fix, BDVWA fixed for 350.00.

March 26, 2015:

On 26 March 2015, Ms. Kathleen Rollings-McDonald of the Local Agency Formation Commission of San Bernardino County (LAFCO) held what she called a protest hearing to determine how many people in our community were opposed to Bighorn Desert-View Water Agency (BDVWA) taking over as our water provider. Ms. Rollings-McDonald stated that she had received only 5 protests, of which 4 were invalidated. It would have required at least 25% of the community to protest in order to force a special election and 50%+1 of the community to cancel BDVWA's bid to take over as our water provider.

Given that the one protest was nowhere near even the 25% threshold, Ms. Rollings-McDonald then declared no community opposition to BDVWA taking over as water provider and stated that BDVWA would take over effective July 1, 2015, meaning that our community could finally breathe a sigh of relief. Links to the LAFCO petition and to the CSA70W-1 map are immediately below for your reference.

LAFCO petition (JPG, PDF) CSA70W-1 boundary map (JPG) (small, large)

January 21, 2015:

On January 21, 2015, the Local Agency Formation Commission of San Bernardino County (LAFCO), by a vote of 7 to 0, approved Bighorn Desert-View Water Agency's (BDVWA) application to take over as our water provider in place of San Bernardino County Special Districts (SDD).

Interestingly, two of the 7 LAFCO Commission members, Mr. James Ramos and Mr. Robert Lovingood, both County Supervisors, voted to approve BDVWA's application to take over, in total contrast to their vote on June 17, 2014 to allow SDD to plunder our community's reserve fund (see above). Apparently, they believed that sticking to their past behavior would be too damaging to the image they want to publicly project, so they "went along with the tide," two faced hypocrites that they are.

September 5, 2014:

On September 5, 2014, someone from the LandersWaterRescue.com ratepayers group was finally able to get enough information, from sources other than SDD of course, to prove what SDD was about, and sent an email statement to the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors formally stating to them what SDD was about. Since the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors never responded to that email statement, that would mean that they couldn't dispute that email statement. The full text of that email statement is available here.

It is also worthy of note that, even though the person, who sent in that email statement of 5 September 2014, actively tried to get a response to that statement and to get the news media to expose the contents of that statement, that person was stonewalled at every turn. Public officials who did the stonewalling were SDD and San Bernardino County Counsel attorneys, Ms. Dawn Messer and Ms. Regina Coleman. News people who did the stonewalling were: Mr. Joe Nelson and Ms. Kimberly Guimarin of the San Bernardino Sun; the SB Sentinel; and Channel 7 news.

August 15, 2014:

On August 5, 2014, the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors (SB-BOS) approved the transfer of property tax revenue from County Special Districts (SDD) to Bighorn Desert View Water Agency (BDVWA), pending the successful completion of BDVWA's takeover of CSA70W-1, otherwise known as LAFCO 3181. Per Ms. Kathleen Rollings-McDonald at LAFCO, this was a necessary step in order for BDVWA to take over in place of SDD and she had asked SB-BOS to have this done by August 11, 2014.

June 16, 2014:

On June 8, 2014, someone from the LandersWaterRescue.com ratepayers group sent a public information request to Ms. Kathleen Rollings-McDonald asking her to justify the extension she gave the San Bernardino County Special Districts Department (SDD). Ms. Rollings-McDonald responded on June 16, 2014 and her refusal to rescind the extension she gave SDD was very disturbing and suggests that she doesn't fully appreciate just how much of a threat SDD is to our community.

Considering Ms. Rollings-McDonald's response, and in particular the statement of "difference of opinion," to having been made aware that her actions had caused harm to our community, it should be clear that the Local Agency Formation Commission of San Bernardino County (LAFCO) still isn't aware of how serious we, as a community, are about wanting SDD out and Bighorn Desert-View Water Agency (BDVWA) in. We, as a community, need to get more in LAFCO's face and make it clear to LAFCO that we want SDD out and BDVWA in.

June 4, 2014:

Ms. Kathleen Rollings-McDonald, the executive officer of the Local Agency Formation Commission of San Bernardino County (LAFCO), at the request of San Bernardino County Special Districts Department (SDD), just handed SDD a 7 week extension for a key meeting that was to take place on June 12, 2014 as part of the process by which Bighorn Desert-View Water Agency (BDVWA) would replace SDD as our water provider.

True, Ms. Rollings-McDonald didn't give SDD the entire extension that SDD wanted but her having given SDD any extension means that we, as a community, haven't adequately communicated to LAFCO that we want SDD out and BDVWA in. In any event, this means 7 more weeks of delay and uncertainty in the process of our community wanting to get rid of SDD.

Ms. Rollings-McDonald granted SDD that extension without even consulting our community for input, and over the objection of BDVWA, who made it clear to Ms. Rollings-McDonald that our community didn't want any kind of delay. We, as a community, need to get in LAFCO's face and stay in LAFCO's face until SDD is gone, or more nasty surprises like this are going to happen.

May 22, 2014:

The Local Agency Formation Commission of San Bernardino County (LAFCO) agrees to reduce their fee, thereby saving Bighorn-Desert View Water Agency (BDVWA) $10,000.00. That decision suggests LAFCO will not oppose BDVWA's application to take over water service in east Landers. Still, the risks are too high for ratepayers served by San Bernardino County Special Districts (SDD) to relax. We, as a community, must continue to demonstrate to LAFCO that we want SDD out and BDVWA in.

May 7, 2014:

In a surprise move, customers open their May 2014 bill and County Special Districts’ (SDD) annual rate increase notice is conspicuously missing! Last year SDD director, Jeff Rigney, was sounding the alarm about how the infrastructure was falling apart and that, without the planned drastic rate increases, the system could fail.

Fast forward to the May 6, 2014 County Board of Supervisors meeting. Mr. Rigney is suddenly claiming there’s no need to raise rates… opposite his claim at the June 4, 2013 Board of Supervisors meeting.

Ratepayers can only speculate why the infrastructure is no longer at risk of collapse, especially considering no capital improvements were made. Perhaps the knowledge that ratepayers in east Landers have begun to take notice of SDD's every move; perhaps SDD has visited LandersWaterRescue.com and realize we are on to them. Whether those in charge of running our water system are incompetent or dishonest we don’t know. All we can say with certainty is that ratepayers and county supervisors are being misled.

Jeff Rigney’s latest statement was eerily similar the "lead you down the garden path" nonsense I heard from Bruce Davis 11 years ago today.

While you can rest assured that the infrastructure of our water system is fine, we are under lethal threat from County Special Districts’ mismanagement, ineptitude and financial impropriety. Until our water system is safely under the control of Bighorn-Desert View Water Agency, you and I, and those we love, are a billing cycle away from disaster.

April 28, 2014:

Today, Bighorn-Desert View Water Agency (BDVWA) submitted an application to the Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO), thereby starting the process by which BDVWA will replace SDD as our water provider. The move was in response to the approximately 100 community-based petitions calling on the local water provider to provide service to those in the eastern part of Landers. LAFCO has since assigned the title LAFCO 3181 to BDVWA's application here.

The next step is for LAFCO to review and approve BDVWA's application.
But if we fail to make it very clear that we want County Special Districts out and Bighorn-Desert View in, then we risk LAFCO’s rejection of the application and we’ll remain stuck with County water for a long time to come.
We must counter SDD either by attending the LAFCO meeting when it considers BDVWA's application, or by submitting the petition to BDVWA for presentation to LAFCO.
We need YOU to help us convince LAFCO we want BDVWA as our water provider.

There is no limit to how high SDD water rates can go.

Once LAFCO‘s initial review is approved, it will notify our community that BDVWA is on track to replace SDD as our water provider and that the only way to derail that is if enough ratepayers protest the transition … we can’t let that happen!

If you’re wondering why anyone would want to stop the transfer, keep reading. There is a lot of misinformation about BDVWA and a lack of awareness of just how much of a threat SDD really is.

We must counter SDD by getting accurate information to our friends and neighbors. Let everyone you know in this area that Bighorn-Desert View Water is the better choice. Tell them to not respond to LAFCO's invitation to protest.

Further, if you or someone you know still isn’t clear on this, we’re here to help. Call or email and we’ll lay it out step by step. Water is life. It’s just too important to ignore.

September 21, 2013:

According to this report filed by a San Bernardino County Special Districts (SDD) employee on ripoffreport.com back in March 2010, SDD management (i.e. Jeff Rigney, Manuel Benitez, etc.) has been, for quite some time, harmful not only to the community in CSA70W-1, but to all SDD customers, special districts and many of its employees.

September 15, 2013:

As the ratepayers in CSA70W-1 are now beginning to see on their water bills, a majority of property owners were not able to put in written protests against the latest 20% water rate increase. However, 190 property owners did. Given how little time (45 days) we had, this is still a good showing, especially considering that many property owners in CSA70W-1 have empty lots with water meters on them and do not live in the area. If we had been able to contact all of those property owners and get them to sign the protest against the rate increase that just happened, we would have had a majority of property owners protesting that rate increase. Further, we now have a year's notice for the next 20% rate increase that we all know is coming in June 2014. Accordingly, I have uploaded a new generic blank protest letter (JPG) (PDF) that you can use to object to any future rate increases. Please feel free to download and complete this form, and have it ready to send in to the San Bernardino County Special Districts Department right when they announce their next rate increase. Please also spread the word and so that we can make every property owner aware of this problem and what they can do about it, including those who have empty lots and live outside of this area.

June 8, 2013:

The San Bernardino County Special Districts Department (SDD) has raised CSA70W-1 water rates every year since 2001 and just put another 20% rate increase (JPG) (PDF) into effect for the current year (2013-2014). Further, at the June 4, 2013 County Board of Supervisors meeting where the latest 20% increase was put into effect, SDD also said that they have a planned 20% rate increase for next year (2014-2015) and a 10% rate increase for the following year (2015-2016) as well. That makes 12 consecutive years of water rate increases, that I know of, along with a planned 13th and 14th rate increase over the next 2 years (see chart below). By contrast, other water agencies that are not run by San Bernardino county have raised their rates only a few times in the past 12 years and have no plans to raise their rates for the coming year (current rates for Bighorn, Joshua Tree, 29 Palms and Hi Desert (Yucca Valley)).

May 4, 2013:

The San Bernardino County Special Districts Department (SDD) has raised CSA70W-1 water rates every year since 2001 and now wants to put another 20% rate increase (JPG) (PDF) into effect for the coming year (2013-2014). That makes 11 consecutive years of water rate increases, that I know of, along with a planned 12th rate increase for the coming year (see chart below). By contrast, other water agencies that are not run by San Bernardino county have raised their rates only a few times in the past 11 years and have no plans to raise their rates for the coming year (current rates for Bighorn, Joshua Tree, 29 Palms and Hi Desert (Yucca Valley)).

Even more disturbing, the latest 20% rate increase that SDD now wants for CSA70W-1, it already received 10 years ago and the claimed justification for the rate increase then was the same as the one Mr. Rigney just gave. But wait, there's worse: in 1995, SDD sold 75% of CSA70W-1's share (proof here (PDF)), along with all of CSA70W-4's (Pioneertown's) share, of the Mojave water pipeline back to the Mojave water agency so that it (SDD) wouldn't have to pay on the Mojave water pipeline debt (original pipeline debt payment arrangements here (PDF)). However, each and every property owner in CSA70W-1, including myself, is most certainly paying Mojave water pipeline bonds (specifically Mojave Water M Bond Debt) on our property tax bills and those taxes didn't drop after 1995 (Mojave bonds tax before/after 1995). Further, I suspect that SDD is still, through the monthly service charge, billing for and collecting from all of CSA70W-1's customers for the Mojave water pipeline debt that it is supposed to be paying for, but hasn't since 1995. So, it appears that every property owner and customer in CSA70W-1 has, for almost 20 years now, been paying SDD and San Bernardino County as a whole for something that they have not received. Where instead has all that revenue from CSA70W-1 customers and property owners gone and why? SDD, especially Mr. Rigney, and the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors need to answer this question, as well as plenty of others.

The table below shows CSA70W-1's water rates from July 2001 to now, and how those rates have relentlessly increased over the years. For the "Jul 2005 to Jun 2006" and later time periods, click on each time period to see the actual rate increase notice in PDF format that San Bernardino County Special Districts published. Clicking on the earlier time periods will pull up a PDF file of water bills that I received that show the monthly service charge and the HCF rate for those time periods. Clicking on the heading in the time period column will take you to a page detailing the inquiries that I have made over the years, the responses (or lack thereof) that I have received, as well as what I believe needs to be done to fix this problem.

Show this table in a separate window.

Time Period	Monthly Service Charge (3/4" meter)	HCF rate (lowest tier)	Percent increase
Jul 2015 to Jun 2016	38.75 (projected)	6.29 (projected)	10% (projected)
Jul 2014 to Jun 2015	35.23 (projected)	5.72 (projected)	20% (projected)
Jul 2013 to Jun 2014	29.36	4.77	20%
Jul 2012 to Jun 2013	24.59	3.98	3%
Jul 2011 to Jun 2012	23.87	3.87	3%
Jul 2010 to Jun 2011	23.17	3.76	6%
Jul 2009 to Jun 2010	21.86	3.55	4%
Jul 2008 to Jun 2009	21.02	3.41	2.5%
Jul 2007 to Jun 2008	20.50	3.32	3%
Jul 2006 to Jun 2007	19.90	3.22	3%
Jul 2005 to Jun 2006	19.32	3.12	3%
Jul 2004 to Jun 2005	18.75	3.02	9%
Jul 2003 to Jun 2004	17.20	2.77	9.5%
Jul 2002 to Jun 2003	16.25	2.45 (1)	24%
Jul 2001 to Jun 2002	13.65	1.90

You might think that there isn't anything that you can do, and, by yourself, that is true. However, all rate increase notices that SDD puts out, including this latest proposed 20% rate increase notice (JPG) (PDF), are governed by Proposition 218 and one of the requirements imposed by Proposition 218 is, if a majority of affected property owners file written protests, the proposed rate changes will not be put into effect. It even states exactly this in this latest 20% rate increase, just as it has on all previous rate increase notices. Consequently, if all of the people in CSA70W-1 unite and stay united, they can stop this thing. I have uploaded a generic blank protest letter (JPG) (PDF) that you can print out, complete and send to SDD to file your written protest to this latest 20% water rate increase. However, SDD needs to receive written protests from at least a majority of the affected property owners before June 3, 2013. Consequently, I'm asking that you also do what you can to get the word out to all of the people in CSA70W-1 so that SDD does receive written protests from at least a majority of the affected property owners. Personally, I would like to see SDD receive written protests from at least 67% of the affected property owners.

However, I also believe that the people in CSA70W-1 need to do more than just protest future water rate increases and seriously consider whether having San Bernardino County Special Districts manage our water system is in our best interests. With the current water rates and given the latest 20% increase that was just proposed, there are many people in CSA70W-1 that will now have to go without food and/or medicine in order to pay for water. Mr. Steve Samaras, the operations manager for SDD, has told me numerous times that the water system the people in CSA70W-1 have belongs to the people in CSA70W-1 and that the people in CSA70W-1 can decide who will manage it.


The next step is for LAFCO to review and approve BDVWA's application. But if we fail to make it very clear that we want County Special Districts out and Bighorn-Desert View in, then we risk LAFCO’s rejection of the application and we’ll remain stuck with County water for a long time to come. We must counter SDD either by attending the LAFCO meeting when it considers BDVWA's application, or by submitting the petition to BDVWA for presentation to LAFCO. We need YOU to help us convince LAFCO we want BDVWA as our water provider.		There is no limit to how high SDD water rates can go.