Wednesday, Aug. 10, Bartle Wells Associates (BWA) submitted its proposal to Idyllwild Water District (IWD) to conduct water and wastewater rate studies for the district at a cost of $30,850. Seven days later, at the Aug. 17 meeting, on the recommendation of General Manager Leo Havener, the IWD board approved accepting BWA’s proposal over the proposals of three other bidders: Specialized Utilities Services Program ($23,200), NBS ($42,470) and Raftelis Financial Consultants ($68,990).

BWA’s formal proposal to IWD included “Client References” which recounted water and wastewater rate studies it had conducted, and was conducting, for other water agencies. Its first-listed client reference was the City of Calistoga. BWA asserted that in 2018, it had updated Calistoga’s five-year water and wastewater financing plan and rate studies, “and in 2022, we were selected again to update the water and wastewater rate studies.”

But acting on information from a reader, the Town Crier last week reviewed the actual online video meetings of the City of Calistoga City Council for the dates of June 7 and July 19 of this year.

At the June 7 meeting, the city council considered the proposals of four firms to conduct water and wastewater rate studies for the City of Calistoga in 2022, one of the four firms being BWA. During the discussion, a council member espoused strong disapproval of BWA, asserting that firm had performed unsatisfactorily in the past for the City of Calistoga, particularly regarding BWA’s handling of citizen concerns. This complaint was endorsed by a second city council member, and the proposal of BWA was unanimously “removed as an option” by the council’s five-member board. (www.youtube.com/watch?v=2hOSLqLhy14 beginning at timestamp 1:36:35.)

At a subsequent special meeting of the City of Calistoga city council on July 19, it was reiterated that BWA had been “eliminated as a contender” and the city, having considered the proposals of the remaining three firms along with staff recommendations, unanimously selected the firm Raftelis to conduct its 2022 water and wastewater rate studies. (www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzH9krJuN4k beginning at timestamp 2:15:20.)

Yet in its Aug. 10, proposal to IWD, BWA claimed that — after having conducted the City of Calistoga’s 2018 rate studies — “in 2022, we were selected again to update the water and wastewater rate studies” of the City of Calistoga. Quite apparently not true.

In an Aug. 10, letter accompanying its proposal to IWD, BWA emphasized in boldface type: “Bartle Wells’ major strengths are 1) our many years of successful rate setting experience and 2) our successful prior experience with the General Manager.”

The Town Crier telephoned the office of Doug Dove, BWA president, for comment, as to why it had represented in its proposal to IWD that it was doing work in 2022 for the City of Calistoga, but received no call back. The Town Crier telephoned the offices of City of Calistoga City Manager Mike Kirn and the city’s Administrative Services Director Gloria Leon, but the TC received no calls back from either one.

The Town Crier also emailed IWD General Manager Leo Havener, who replied, “IWD is pleased to have BWA performing the rate study. BWA is a firm with decades of experience and success regarding financial matters benefiting public agencies and the ratepayers. I am positive we will experience a good outcome.”