The directors of the Idyllwild Water District met on June 5 for their Budget and Capital Improvement Plan Workshop for financial year 2024-25. The budget predicts, if all the CIP items are completed, a deficit of over $807,000 on the water side, and a surplus on the sewer side of $157,000, for a net deficit of $649,794. After several wet years, water sales have gone down, while expenses continue to rise. Last year’s passage of a program of rate hikes was intended to remedy this shortfall over the next five years.
CFO Hosny Shouman told the Crier that the district “never” finishes all the projects on the CIP, and so the deficit is unlikely to be as large as it looks on the proposed budget. Last year the Strawberry Creek Diversion project was budgeted at $500,000, but was not begun and has been removed from the CIP this year. We are told it will take at least another year for California Environmental Quality Act compliance.
The largest budget increases were for payroll and retirement/life insurance. The Water side calls for a 34% increase in payroll, from $795,000 to $1.2 million, and the sewer side calls for a 20% increase, from $192,000 to $242,000. The retirement/life insurance for water is drafted for a 35% increase, from $795,000 to $1.2 million, with retirement for sewer set to increase 23% from $17,000 to $22,000. The district had only three water operators early this year, and now has five, while the sewer side, which will eventually have two full time employees, now has one full time operator and a part timer who works one day a week.

Sauer and Shouman also gave the Crier numbers for the two consultants Sauer hired. The cost of the consultants has been questioned by board members and ratepayers at the workshop, and at previous meetings. Sauer said that the two, former IWD employee Bill Rojas and SCADA expert Randy Little, will end their service on June 28, unless the new GM decides otherwise. They earned together $25,700 for the quarter, which is $8,756 per month. The are here one day a week, which works out to about $1,094 per man day.

That $25,700, Sauer pointed out, was much less than the pay of the former Chief Water Operator, who was not paid in April or May. The publicpay.cal.gov website quoted the former CWO’s pay in 2022 as $147,639 including benefits, more than $12,000 monthly; $36,909 for the quarter. Consultants, Sauer continued, also do not earn retirement contributions, health or life insurance, although one of them did get mileage. The consultants provided extra staffing as new crew are being trained and the district’s problems being cataloged, without hiring a new permanent CWO, leaving further personnel decisions to the next, hopefully permanent GM.

The current year’s figures do not include the final payout for Leo Havener, the GM the board terminated in January, but board president Charles Schelly told the Crier this was still in negotiation and would be announced when determined. This will not be a settlement, he said, but severance included in Havener’s contract.

Debt free, the district essentially borrows from its reserves in deficit years. If income meets the projected 6.5% increase, and all the work called for in the CIP is finished, the budget foresees the reserve fund accounts to fall from the usual $3 million to $2.35 million. Demand is hard to predict, but meter fees are slated to rise by 8% this year and for three more years, and tier 1 customers began paying more than double per gallon last year.

The board began to discuss paring back on the draft CIP. The draft suggested $205,000 for sewer and $706,000 for water, totaling $911,000. The construction of the new WWTP is not on the CIP because it will not begin this coming year. The sewer CIP included continued refurbishment of the aging infrastructure that must still serve a few more years; new mixers for the equalization tanks ($40,000) and a new electronic gate ($23,000) and paving ($22,000.) Directors discussed leaving the later items until after the plant is replaced.

The plan also included $90,000 for a GIS (Geographic Information System) for the sewer lines. This is a GPS type survey and mapping of the district’s lines, locating every junction, concrete box and covered manhole with pinpoint accuracy, making maintenance easier. After further discussion, Sauer said he believed the system would likely cost half that amount, and the board asked about the possibility of getting GIS for both water and sewer, or at least finding out if there would be any savings in doing both together.

The water CIP included $360,000 for continued work on the Jameson raw water pipeline from the Strawberry Creek diversion, $180,000 for re-coating a tank, $90,000 to reroof the Foster Lake shop building, $36,000 to build a new chlorine room. The shop is a WWII era metal hangar, bought surplus from the Air Force in 1976. The interim GM estimated a cost of $90,000 to reroof it but said the entire building should be replaced. The board asked him to find estimates for a metal replacement that the district crew could assemble. The chlorine room attached to that structure was also described as an amateurish makeshift that has outlived its span but is small and could be redone by crew. Part of the estimated cost is for the two chlorine analysis machines, now obsolete, which will cost $4,500 each to replace.

There is also $70,000, divided between both water and sewer CIPs, to maintain and improve the district’s “upstairs” office now that the downstairs has been renovated and is back in use. That figure too will be debated. Sauer said he is pointing out these, and other things now, and it falls to the board to prioritize and do what can be done, but the Foster Lake shop should be tackled, he thought, “if not this year, then the following.” Ponchos were suggested in the meantime for rainy days.

Director Steve Kunkle asked about the progress in finding a new GM. Directors Peter Szabadi and Mitch Davis have been a committee reviewing applications. They said they plan to recommend a single candidate to the board at the next meeting and to have them available for the board to interview, going into closed session if needed. Legal counsel Ryan Guiboa said he would explain the process to the board in detail; they may have to make a preliminary offer and then hire the candidate at the next meeting. Kunkle asked that they get this properly agendized.

After the open session, the board went into closed session to discuss the district’s exposure to litigation. After this they came back into open session, and Schelly communicated by text that the board had voted unanimously in open session to uphold GM Sauer’s decision to fire Chief Water Operator Joseph Reyes. Reyes appealed that decision at a public hearing on May 15.

The budget and CIP work will continue at the regular board meeting, which was scheduled for Wednesday, June 12th because the third Wednesday will be a holiday, Juneteenth.