The Pine Cove Water District Board of Directors unanimously re-elected its current officers to another one-year term in 2016. Director Robert Hewitt remains board president, Diana Eskew, who was elected to a full term as director this fall, is vice president and Lou Padula is treasurer/secretary.
Before the officers’ elections, the board accepted its 2014-15 audit. Terry Shea, a partner in the accounting firm of Rogers, Anderson, Malody & Scott of San Bernardino, discussed his firm’s findings and recommendations with the board.
“We had no difficulty dealing with management,” Shea said. “There were no corrections and no disagreements.” The expressed opinion of “the financial statements … present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of Pine Cove Water District and the changes in its financial position … ended in accordance with the accounting principles generally accepted in the United States,” and is their highest opinion, he told the board.
PCWD ended fiscal 2014-15 (June 30, 2015) with $2.6 million of net assets, which was almost $70,000 more than the 2013-14 ending balance.
“Overall that is a good year,” Shea acknowledged. “The bottom line was positive and … it’s good you still invested in infrastructure. That’s good because you are a utility plant. ”
He also complimented the district for its 3:1 ratio of current assets to current liabilities. “That means you can liquate your current liabilities with current assets,” he explained. The benchmark for a good ratio is 2:1, Shea stated.
PCWD’s long-term debt is about $870,000. Nearly half is pension liability for retired and current employees. Another $285,000 is the loan from 2012 with the U. S. Department of Agriculture, used to purchase a vehicle and pipeline materials.
He did point out that implementing the General Accounting Standard 71, which all public agencies must adopt this year, and that addresses pensions, resulted in an increase in long-term liabilities for unfunded pension debt of about $415,000. He stressed to the board that this is not a change in the amount, rather it now appears on the district’s financial statement.
Directors also approved a revised resolution for the rebate program. Marge Muir, Pine Cove resident, objected to the omission in the program of selling rain barrels. She argued that if the district was selling them for a discount, then their sales should be included specifically among the other water-conservation rebate actions.
“If you’re going to give away money, you should state it,” she told the board.
In water business, General Manager Jerry Holldber reported that water use for November was 2.2 million gallons, which is about 450,000 less than October and 240,000 gallons less than October 2014.
For the year 2015, PCWD water production has totaled 29.2 million gallons, which is 1.8 million or 6 percent less than the 30.9 million gallons produced in the first 11 months of 2014. Compared to 2013, which Gov. Jerry Brown has been using as the benchmark year for calculating water savings, PCWD production is about 575,000 (1.9 percent) gallons less than two years ago.
While the groundwater level of the static well (no. 10) has declined for several months, Holldber told the board it remains higher than during the last severe drought. During the past several months, he has observed overall improvement in the groundwater level of PCWD’s wells.
One disappointment, which he expressed, was that the amount of unaccounted-for water rose to 10 percent from 9 percent in September, although it remains below the summer level of 15 percent.