The Idyllwild Water District (IWD) Board of Directors covered a great deal of ground at its Wednesday, April 19, meeting. Here are some of the highlights:

Brown Act

The Town Crier reported on two potential Brown Act violations that occurred at the special March 29 meeting. The first was that the board voted on a Discussion Item that was not under Action Items. IWD Attorney Ryan Guiboa, who was present at the meeting, said the board’s vote was directing IWD staff to take action and therefore permissible.

Also at that meeting in closed session, President Charles Schelly resigned as president. When asked why at last week’s meeting, he did not disclose the reason. Guiboa also said this was not a Brown Act violation because it was not a board decision and that Schelly did not have to give a reason.

Vice President Peter Szabadi ran last week’s meeting that had an agenda item to elect a president and vice president. Schelly asked for this item to be placed at the end of the open meeting and when the agenda item came up, Szabadi nominated Schelly as president. The vote was 3-1-0 with Schelly abstaining and coming back as president, and Szabadi remaining vice president. One director was not present.

When Schelly was reelected president for this year he had said he would only serve if directors asked to be recognized before speaking up. At last week’s meeting, Szabadi, who is known to interrupt Schelly, said he and Schelly had talked through things.

Resignation

Director Gene Schneider resigned Monday before the board meeting. He said he has had a personal health issue. He also said he’s not a bureaucratic, pencil pusher type. He respects and likes all the directors and what they do but, “My heart’s not in that,” he said. The board is accepting applications at the office to fill the position.

Water conservation

General Manager Leo Havener reported that Foster Lake is overflowing at above 18 feet.

Schelly asked, “… why are we still in a conservation stage?”

“We’re no longer in a conservation stage … We took down all the signs. We didn’t take it back to the board; we just didn’t think about it.”

Resolution for rate study

Several members of the public appeared just to argue about the proposed rates of 5% increase per year for water over five years and 13% increase per year for wastewater over five years.

Leslie Schelly, the president’s spouse, spoke out against the 5% increase as she said, “… independent of him … We had a 5% increase not long ago … What’s been done with the 5% increase?” she asked Havener. She pointed out that Idyllwild School qualifies for free breakfast and lunch programs for students because of the financial demographics. She said she had a “complete lack of confidence” in IWD.

Several other customers spoke out against the rate hikes.

Directors explained to the public that the 13% wastewater hike is the worst-case scenario in which IWD is not able to secure grant money to build the new wastewater treatment plant. The other reason it is high is because it will only be charged to the sewer customers of which there are only about 600. If a grant(s) is obtained, they said, the rates will go down.

“Pardon my skepticism but that’s not what utilities do,” said Dave Bradish.

Director Steve Olson said, “So we’ll redo the analysis to see if a rate increase is even needed or if it’s less.”

Szabadi said the process will probably occur sometime in the middle of next year.

Bradish responded, “Will there be enough institutional memory in this board to remember this?”

Chief Financial Officer Hosny Shouman pointed out that three of the board members were on sewer, too. He also said IWD has $2 million in reserves.

Dave Hunt, a former IWD director who has been vocally opposed to the rate increases, said, “There’s a lot of really low-income people that have to choose between food and gas.”

Bradish noted that in the rate study comparison with other districts, “Idyllwild is already on the higher end … It would push it much higher than the others.”

Two consecutive Town Hall meetings will be planned with Bartles Wells Associates in attendance before June 21. Property owners and tenants will be able to file a written protest with only one vote per parcel. If the protests equal 50% of parcels plus one, the rate increases will not take place due to Proposition 218. Notices about the meetings and how to file a protest will be mailed.

Building

The building committee of Olson and Director Steve Kunkle reported that Havener and Shouman’s office does not, after all, have black mold as was reported in past meetings.

“There’s no black mold in the report at all,” said Olson. What mold is there can be eradicated, he said. Havener and Kunkle took a tour with the inspector and will get a quote.

Schelly asked if the original ServPro quote is still good. It has not been 90 days, the quote’s term limit, said Havener. “The longer we wait on remediation …,” Schelly added. “I think we’ve overblown the situation,” said Kunkle.

Property

The board met in closed session to discuss two property acquisitions and to evaluate Havener. No decisions came out of the session.