Saturday, July 7, 2007

CM PRESS # 171

Saturday, July 7, 2007

CM PRESS # 171


MORE ABOUT THE COSTA MESA SANITARY DISTRICT--THE OUTFIT THAT WANTS TO RAISE YOUR RATES

According to the Costa Mesa Sanitary District's Website:

"The Sanitary District provides two services: collecting and recycling trash for 21,000 residences and owning and operating a 325-mile sewer system...." (emphasis added)

When you read the part of the above sentence that we put in bold face, didn't you get a mental picture that the District itself picks up trash from homes in Costa Mesa and has a fleet of trash trucks?

Silly you.

Actually, we think the sentence would be more accurate if it were to be rewritten as: "The Sanitary District provides two services: awarding contracts to private firms to collect and recycle trash for 21, 000 residences...."

As far as we know, the District has no trash trucks.

According to the District's budget, the District will pay $ 2, 411,000 to a private trash hauler to pick up our trash and another $ 2, 470,000 for recycling/disposal in fiscal year 2006-07.

And, the District was able to give out the above contracts with the help of 5 board members and 12 management and staff personnel and with an employee (not counting management) payroll of $ 640,000. Whew! Those elected board members need a raise, by gum!

Now, don't be cynical and say that you could have made a couple of phone calls and arranged for trash pickup from 21,000 homes for a total cost (including your lunch) of about $ 25.00. You apparently don't understand how bureaucracy works.

And, you have to realize that the District does more than just have a bunch of people sitting in an office giving out lucrative trash contracts.

It also does work on our sewers...we think. However, we're not completely clear about how much actual physical "Hey, Norton," work the District does on our sewers, since the City of Costa Mesa, as we reported in # 170, also apparently works on our sewers.

We'll try to get some straight answers from the District and pass on what we learn.

In the meantime, if you're concerned about your rates going up and about the board members giving themselves a raise, you might want to do a little research yourself. Here's the link to the District's Website.

You might also want to reread # 170.

Don't forget, the District is having a meeting on Monday, 7/9/07 to discuss raising your rates. Don't be shy about going. These people work for you and you're paying them.

THIS JUST IN...

The mail just arrived at the CM PRESS skyscraper and with it came a notice of a public hearing in August about a proposed water rate increase! Yup. The bureaucrats want to raise our rates on what goes into our bodies and what leaves them. Your current rate per unit* of potable water is $ 1.99 and the Mesa Consolidated Water District wants to raise that to $2.17 per unit.

We'll write more about this later.

*One unit equals 100 cubic feet or 748 gallons.

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