Financial issues, primarily the draft fiscal year 2024-25 budget,dominated the May 16 meeting of the Fern Valley Water District’s Boardof Directors. The major budget item was about the District’s unfunded liability forretirement through the California Employers’ Pension Plan Trust Fund.Other items included the warrants, the General Manager’s Report, andwater consumption’s effect on District revenue. Draft…
Near the end of his revised budget presentation last week, Gov. GavinNewsom described two major legislative initiatives that hisadministration is preparing. One is an effort to limit the appropriation of expected higher revenueuntil it is collected and the State assured of its availability. This isintended to avoid expansive budgets which later need to be trimmedbecause…
At its May 21 meeting and again at the June 4 meeting, the County Boardof Supervisors will approve two ordinances raising their salaries andthose of the County’s other elected officials, e.g., the Sheriff and theCounty Auditor. “For most of these elected officials, these ordinances were lastaddressed in 2014,” County Executive Officer, Jeff Van Wagenen, wrote…
Last week, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced his May revision for the comingfiscal year (FY) budget. For FY 2024-25, beginning July 1, Newsom’srevised total expenditures, including federal, special and bond funds,will be nearly $288 billion, of which $201 billion will be for theGeneral Fund accounts. This is about $25 billion less than available forthe current FY,…
Thursday, May 9, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC)unanimously approved a change in how large investor-owned utilities maybill for electricity in California. In late 2025, electric bills will be the total of a fixed or flat rateand a usage charge. Current bills are based on usage alone. The changeintroduces the separation of the electric bill…
The Fern Valley Water District (FVWD) Planning Committee, composed ofBoard Chair Jon Brown and Director Kevin Scott, met May 9 to develop thecapital improvement plan (CIP) for the draft fiscal year (FY) 2024-25budget. This will be submitted to both the Budget Committee May 13 andto the board of directors at its regular meeting May 16….
Last week, the state’s Department of Water Resources (DWR) announcedthat the state’s groundwater supplies were improving. Although moregroundwater is needed, the rain year 2023, which was October 2022through September 2023, resulted in significant increases in the state’sgroundwater inventory. Many of California’s urban areas rely on surface water, such as theColorado River project transferring water to…
The Idyllwild Water District (IWD) directors held a special meetingWednesday May 1, to discuss the status of the waste water treatmentplant (WWTP) replacement project. The firm doing the initial engineeringwas expected to join the meeting by Zoom, but did not, instead providinga six-page memo which did little to answer the board’s question. Thememo projected that…
At the end of April, the American Lung Association (ALA) released itslatest air quality report, “State of the Air 2024.” The results analyzedata through 2022. “We have seen impressive progress in cleaning up air pollution over thelast 25 years, thanks in large part to the Clean Air Act. However, whenwe started this report, our team…
At its Dec. 12, 2023, meeting, the county board of supervisors asked thechief executive and Cal Fire to develop a strategy to alleviate theshortage of firefighter II/paramedics vacancies in the Riverside CountyFire Department (RCFD). This was approved without any discussion and the board expected a reportwith recommendations for a solution to be given to its…
