Sanitary District Representatives Boycott Meetings

Representatives from the Ross Valley Sanitary District (RVSD) are considering boycotting Central Marin Sanitation Agency (CMSA) meetings until three outstanding issues are considered and discussed.

A letter from the RVSD representatives Pat Guasco and Marcia Johnson says, “Our absence from the April board meeting is in protest” and cites “an us-versus-them feeling at the meetings” and “double standards for RVSD commissioners” before going on to list their demands.

“This is a pretty astonishing action by elected officials,” said Kathy Hartzell, Larkspur Vice Mayor and Larkspur’s representative to CMSA. “Because they’re angry about A, B, and C, they’re depriving the agency and their constituents of their participation on the full gambit.”

The RVSD is a wastewater collection agency serving San Anselmo, Fairfax, Ross, Greenbrae, and San Quentin. Since 1993, RVSD has also served Larkspur as part of an annexation agreement.

The CMSA is a joint powers agency made up of RVSD, Sanitary District #2 (Corte Madera) and San Rafael Sanitation District that treats the wastewater collected from the three agencies. Two representatives from RVSD, two from San Rafael, one from Corte Madera and one from the city of Larkspur (despite the fact that Larkspur is served by RVSD) sit as commissioners on the CMSA board, which meets once a month. Both Corte Madera and San Rafael’s sanitary districts are operated through their cities and their representatives to CMSA are from their respective city councils.

Guasco and Johnson, RVSD’s representatives to CMSA, presented a letter (attached at right) to the CMSA commissioners at their April 12 meeting, which stated they were not attending the meeting in protest and would not attend until three items were addressed or agendized. Guasco did attend that meeting as a member of the public and read the letter to the board during open comment time.

“I’m not quite sure what’s going to happen [at the board meeting] in May,” said CMSA Commission Board Chair John Dupar, the Corte Madera representative.

RVSD will consider the letter and a possible long-term boycott at its own board meeting this Wednesday, April 20 at 6:45 p.m. at the Kentfield School District Office.

“We get out-voted on everything,” said Guasco, which he said then negatively affects the Ross Valley ratepayers.

At the heart the dispute are long-standing issues between the RVSD and the other members of CMSA. In June 2009, the Grand Jury released a report entitled “Bickering Board Breeds Discontent,” which took the RVSD representatives to task for perceived hostility.

But, the RVSD representatives say the issues stem from a lack of a voice on the board.

According to Guasco, RVSD represents 54 percent of the population served by CMSA, including San Quentin, yet they have only a 33 percent vote on the board. Changing the structure of CMSA is one of the demands that Guasco and Johnson’s letter asks to be addressed. They ask that an item be placed on the agenda for May that would change the number of seats to five, allocate those seats based on either the amount of revenue paid to CMSA or on the number of hook-ups, and move away from an appointed position to an election of the CMSA representatives. According to Guasco, the sizes of the districts have changed since the creation of CMSA, including the growth of RVSD, but the structure hasn’t changed.

But, Dupar said it would take five out of the six commissioners to vote to change the structure and there aren’t five who would support that move right now.

“They want it different so they can control things,” said Hartzell. 

Another key demand listed in the letter has to do with CMSA’s rate increases.

Currently, the CMSA board of commissioners considers upcoming capital projects (such as the $74 million wet weather expansion project) and approves rate increases. The member agencies then pay a portion of the rates they receive from their ratepayers to CMSA. 

Of the $520 annual fee that ratepayers in the Ross Valley pay to RVSD, $251.41 goes directly to RVSD and $268.59 gets passed on to CMSA. . RVSD, as all special districts do, also gets a portion of the 1 percent property taxes paid by residents in addition to the annual rate of $520.

CMSA, however, does not legally have to comply with Proposition 218 – a taxpayer protection law that requires public hearings and a protest period. RVSD does have to comply with Prop. 218 if it chooses to raise its rates. Johnson and Guasco argue that CMSA is able to simply pass on higher costs to its member agencies, of which RVSD pays the highest amount, without bringing those costs to the ratepayers.

“CMSA costs increase annually with no direct accountability and no advance notification of dollar amounts, so that member agencies can conduct a Prop. 218 protest hearing first, before the debt to CMSA is owed,” reads Guasco and Johnson’s letter.

The letter goes on to ask CMSA to voluntarily follow Prop. 218 laws.

“When it comes to rate increases, we want it to be a public process,” said Guasco.

“They keep bringing it up,” said Dupar, who said the CMSA board has had extensive discussions about Prop. 218 in the past, for which both Guasco and Johnson were present, and CMSA counsel advises that they aren’t subject to the law as a joint powers agency made up of agencies that are subject to it instead. Additionally, said Dupar, the finance committee discusses any planned increases and projects every year, asks for input from all residents, increases are then discussed at the board level, and every representative takes those proposals back to their respective board, where they can conduct Prop. 218 hearings. So, additional hearings would be duplicative, he said.

“It’s pure grandstanding,” said Hartzell.

The last demand in the letter presented to CMSA asks for “an agenda item by agenda item review of all contracts performed by CMSA.” 

“This is a question mark in my mind. Do they want to go back to the beginning [of CMSA], day one? What does that do? What’s the ultimate purpose?” asked Dupar.

But, for the Ross Valley members, it’s simply the outcome of years of frustration and the feeling that they’re being bullied by the other members, who all work together.

“They’re all closely in bed together,” said Guasco.

Dupar said he will consult with General Manager Jason Dow about how to proceed and bring items for discussion to the CMSA board. He says it’s not practical to bring the items asked for in the letter to the board in May, because of their drastic nature.

CMSA needs a quorum of four members out of the six to hold its meetings, so will continue without the RVSD representatives. Dupar also said that in addition to boycotting the April meeting, both the RVSD representatives did not attend the March meeting because of last minute conflicts, nor did their alternates.

“I’ve never heard of this before,” said Hartzell of the boycott.