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An open letter to the Santa Clara Valley Water District

Posted by: Maven on December 8, 2009 at 6:33 am

From the Morgan Hill Times, this editorial:

“This column is an open letter to Santa Clara Valley Water District board members Tony Estremera, Joe Judge, Rosemary Kamei, Patrick Kwok, Sig Sanchez, Richard Santos and Larry Wilson:

As one of the Santa Clara Valley Water District voters, taxpayers and ratepayers whose interests you are supposed to represent, I’m asking that you immediately quit your defense against lawsuits that allege your agency’s groundwater extraction fee increases violated Proposition 218. In 1996, California voters approved Proposition 218, which requires that all tax increases imposed by local agencies be approved by voters.

Despite this, your agency raised groundwater extraction fees without seeking voter approval. Those increases prompted Great Oaks Water Company, a south San Jose-based water retailer, to file several lawsuits challenging your agency’s actions. Great Oaks just won the first of those lawsuits and was awarded a $4.6 million refund, plus interest.

You’re now deciding whether to appeal this ruling.

Don’t.

Don’t fatten lawyers’ pockets with fees for appeals when your agency is so clearly in the wrong.

Don’t clog our already overburdened court system with a doomed, meritless appeal.

Don’t add insult to ratepayers’ and taxpayers’ injury by first charging them illegally and then using those ill-gotten monies to fight the lawsuits that practice triggered. … “

Read more from the Morgan Hill Times by clicking here.

December 8, 2009 · Filed Under Bay Area

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