Response to Brian Sipes’ Ventura County Star interview [“Five candidates seeking two seats on Fillmore City council” 09/27/10]:

SIPES’ INTERVIEW, VC STAR: “Sipes said the current City Council is grappling with what he characterized as the overspending of past councils, including the approval of the city’s new water recycling plant. Fillmore Public Works Director Bert Rapp has put the price tag at $70 million, to build the plant, related components, and a recycled water main throughout the city. Sipes believes the cost could have been considerably less, which might have averted sewer rate increases that the council adopted earlier this month.

“In 2006, we as citizens brought up numerous issues with the plant in respect to increases to our rates,” he said. “The City Council at that time refused to take our concerns seriously. And now we’re paying dearly for it.”
Sipes said the City Council chose to finance the plant with state bonds, as opposed to state revolving loans, at least part of which could have been erased with federal stimulus funds.

With the tacit blessings of a majority of the city’s property owners under Proposition 218, the council on Sept. 14 adopted an initial $2-a-month increase in sewer rates, raising a property owner’s bill to $82 a month, to help offset the costs of the plant. On July 1, 2011, and continuing each year until 2014, the sewer rates will increase by 5 percent plus the inflation rate.”

RESPONSE:
Use of the State Revolving Loan fund would have increased rates $4.00 per month, due to 20 year payback of loan. The goal is to have the lowest monthly rate as possible. It was considered and rejected. Now Mr. Sipes can stop saying “I don’t know why it wasn’t considered”.

The new Sewer Plant work was advertised nationally, competitively bid and the least cost vendor was selected to do the work. Mr. Sipes has buried his head in the sand and refuses to acknowledge the truth on this matter because it does not serve his political purposes. Mr. Sipes cost saving idea was to put the new plant near the Santa Clara River without flood protection (to save money) and to pump the sewage from the new business park up to the new plant thereby increasing costs forever.

Delaying the project to study his and Gayle Washburn’s Google research on uncertified impractical and in some cases experimental concepts may have delayed the project to the point it could not meet the State Mandated Time Schedule Order which would have started the meter on Minimum Daily Mandatory Fines. If he followed Gayle Washburn’s lead he would not have competively bid the work at all and would have single sourced the work. Mrs. Washburn stood before the Santa Paula City Council, just like a salesperson, and got involved with their affairs now their sewer bill is $77.12 plus $0.58 per unit of water starts Sept 1, 2011 (see attached table) and the city doesn’t even own the plant. The construction bid price was $57M but if Santa Paula gets tired of high operating costs and wants to own their plant it will cost them $85,000,000 to buy it plus pay another $1M operations termination fee. Wait till that bill is added to the rate they are paying now.

Concerning “Obama-money” Brian Sipes fails to mention that Fillmore, and Santa Paula for that matter, did not qualify as economically disadvantaged communities because the median incomes were too high. Piru qualified and got an $8M grant. Fillmore did get a $3M Prop 50 grant for water recycling. Brian won’t tell you but Santa Paula did not get any grants.

For all the time he sits in council meetings one would think that he would be able to present facts and truthful information, but that just doesn’t seem to be his style.

Brian states that his voice wasn’t heard. The truth is every time he speaks at Council Meetings his comments are in the minutes. He’s in a lot of City Council Minutes. He says “past councils” didn’t listen to him or others. Does he not remember, or does he just not want you to remember, the numerous sewer workshops specifically the one with the panel of experts which answered every single question posed to them. All concerns were not only heard, but addressed with answers being provided. No Brian, if anyone is not listening it is you. You failed to listen then and you fail to listen now.