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ITEM: |
PUBLIC
HEARINGS |
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14. |
CONSIDER SECOND |
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Meeting
Date: |
December 8, 2008 |
Budgeted: |
N/A |
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Program/ |
N/A |
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General
Manager |
Line Item No.: |
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Prepared
By: |
Rick
Dickhaut |
Cost
Estimate: |
N/A |
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General Counsel Approval: Yes |
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Committee Recommendation: The Administrative Committee reviewed this item on November 10, 2008 and recommended approval. |
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CEQA Compliance: Notice of Exemption Adopted on November 17,
2008 – CEQA Guideline section
15273(a)(1) |
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SUMMARY: The Board will consider adoption of Ordinance No. 138 to Re-Authorize a Water User Fee to Fund Aquifer Storage and Recovery (ASR) Facilities and Related Water Supply Projects (Exhibit 14-A). The 1.2% fee on water bills of California American Water (CAW) customers was originally adopted as Ordinance No. 123 on August 15, 2005.
So long as this water user fee is collected, the Board of Directors shall hold a public hearing each calendar year in connection with review of the annual District budget to review the amounts collected and expended in relation to the purposes for which the fee is imposed. The District will require the 1.2% CAW user fee to sunset in full or in part unless the Board determines that the purpose of the fee is still required, and the amount of the fee is still appropriate. If the purpose had expired, the fee shall be required to sunset. If the purpose for the fee is determined to continue, but the amounts needed to fund that purpose are decreased, the fee shall be reduced to that lesser amount.
RECOMMENDATION: District
staff recommends that the Board: 1) approve
the second reading of Ordinance No. 138, An Ordinance of the Board of Directors
of the Monterey Peninsula Water Management District to Re-Authorize a Water User
Fee to Fund Aquifer Storage and Recovery Facilities and Related Water Supply Projects;
and 2) direct staff to file the previously approved Notice of Exemption with
the County Clerk of Monterey County.
BACKGROUND: The District has
collected a user fee since 1983. Exhibit 14-B
is a history of the user fee percentages collected since that time. The current user fee of 8.325% has been in
effect since 2005. At that time, Ordinance
No. 123 increased the user fee by 1.2% to fund ASR Project costs and related
water supply expenditures. At the time Ordinance 123 was adopted, it was
widely interpreted that Proposition 218, approved by the
This matter is brought to the Board at this time as substantial questions posed by the Bighorn decision have now been answered by enactment of the Prop. 218 Omnibus Implementation Act (A.B. 1260 of 2007) which took effect in 2008 by amending amended Government Code § 53750. This Act clarified the type and manner for which notice of the fee authorization is to be given to water users.
The Proposition 218 process only applies to the portion of the user fee
adopted in 2005 to fund the completion of the Phase 1 ASR Project; this amounts
to a 1.2% charge on the CAW water bill.
The remaining portion of the user fee pre-dated enactment of Proposition
218, and is therefore not be affected by this process. The Board may choose either to re-authorize
the 1.2% 2005 User Fee increase, or in the alternative, the Board may direct
staff to modify the ordinance to reduce the user fee in like amount.
In accordance with Article XIII D of the California Constitution, Notice and majority protest proceedings were required before the Board adopts this ordinance. Those proceedings were completed on November 17, 2008. An election, however, was not required because a specific exemption applies to water services. At its November 17, 2008 meeting, the Board of Directors approved the first reading of Ordinance No. 138 without any modifications and approved the Notice of Exemption to be filed after the second reading and final adoption of the Ordinance.
EXHIBITS
14-A Draft Ordinance No. 138
14-B User Fee History
U:\staff\word\boardpacket\2008\2008boardpackets\20081208\PubHrgs\14\item14.doc