Dripping property owners should prepare themselves for an increase in City property tax rate of four to seven times the current level to make up for irresponsible planning
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By Charles O'Dell, Ph.D.
With help from State Representative Patrick Rose and State Senator Jeff Wentworth, city officials in Dripping Springs are attempting to achieve through legislation what they couldn’t achieve through a democratically held election recently held by member owned Dripping Springs Water Supply Corporation.HB2166, authored by Rep. Patrick Rose, and the identical companion SB1960, authored by Senator Jeff Wentworth were introduced under the guise of “Relating to increased oversight, openness, transparency, and accountability for water supply or sewer service corporations.” In reality, however, the pieces of legislation attempt to force a locally run cooperative to become governed, in part, by city officials. Moreover, each version (i.e. Rose’s and Wentworth’s) require the water cooperative to accept a board member appointed by the municipality in which it is located.
In other words, the Dripping Springs Water Company, which, for years, has been run by those elected by the co-op member customers in open elections, would, under the Rose and Wentworth plan, have to accept a board member appointed by the Dripping Springs City Council.
You won’t find the current bill language on line because the “committee substitution” language is being withheld so constituents can’t see how outrageous, illegal and insulting these two bills are to members of the Dripping Springs Water Corporation and to member owned cooperatives across Texas.
Co-op members should ask themselves these two questions:
Why are City officials trying to gain control of our cooperative without offering to purchase it?
How would Co-op members benefit from any City control or oversight?
Both the Rose and Wentworth bills violate the basic tenants of our democratic processes, namely, member control of their co-operative and representation through democratically held elections. How would Rose and Wentworth feel if the Co-op board appointed someone with authority to oversee the actions of Rose and Wentworth in the legislature? How would voters who elected Rose and Wentworth feel about having a special interest oversee legislative actions?
Now this doesn’t mean that Rose and Wentworth operate out of sight. It is pretty clear that special interests oversee the actions of these two legislators. Why else would these two legislators file HB2166 and SB1960?
A review of the City of Dripping Springs operating budget reveals that its expensive sewer system, for which taxpayers are indebted to the tune of $15,000,000, is currently operating at an annual deficit of about $130,000. This helps to explain why over $200,000 from the City’s unrestricted capital fund account is being transferred to the Sewer system account.
This small general law municipality of about 1,600 citizens also has an annual City personnel and consultant overhead expense of about $600,000 – an amount that adsorbs almost the entire sales tax revenues the City received last year. Excessive development fees received during the housing bubble have all but gone away. Even so, City officials budgeted almost a half million dollars in development fees this year to help pay for the excessive personnel overhead created for this small town. How realistic is that development fee forecast in this economy? Is this the kind of irresponsible fiscal oversight co-op members want for their water operation?
For years, City property owners have been paying a property tax for the new sewer system that only recently began serving a mere 120 connections. Annual payments for the City’s fifteen million dollar sewer debt is about to jump from $50,000 to well over $700,000, even though the system is currently operating at a $130,000 annual deficit. So much for responsible and open fiscal planning.
And how will this enormous shortfall be covered? City property owners should prepare themselves for an increase in City property tax rate of four to seven times the current level to make up for irresponsible planning. The City can raise property taxes to as high as $1.50 per $100 of appraised property values, and that’s why the Texas Water Development Board approved the $9.4 million ($15 million with interest) loan.
If City officials have their way, the Rose/Wentworth bills will provide access to the member owned Dripping Springs Water Supply Corporation, another source of revenue to help pay for the new sewer system that serves fewer than 20% of the City households. Water rates can be hiked and those who do not have sewer connections or live in the City will pay even more for the Mayor’s new sewer system. Those with sewer connections can also expect their monthly usage fees to increase.
Who will pay for future extensions of the Mayor’s sewer system? No one knows, but just a connection fee will be more than the current $10,000, if the sewer line happens to come by your home.
As one co-op member recently said: “How can we trust City officials who made such a muck of City finances to have any role whatsoever in our member owned co-operative that has provided reliable water service at reasonable cost for over five decades?” The answer is you can’t.
DSWSC members should call the following legislative committee members now and tell them to vote against letting the Rose and Wentworth bills out of committee.
Allan Ritter (Nederland)
Chief of Staff: Sean Haynes
463-0706
Brandon Creighton (Conroe)
Chief of Staff: Becky Dean
463-0726
Stephen Frost (New Boston)
Chief of Staff: Patsy Clapper
463-0692
Jodie Laubenberg (Rockwall)
Chief of Staff: Rachel Hendrickson
463-0186
Doug Miller ((New Braunfels)
Chief of Staff: Fritz Reinig
463-0325
Bill Callegari (Katy)
Chief of Staff: Jeremy Mazur
463-0528
As co-founder of Hays Community Action Network (HaysCAN) in 2003, Mr. O’Dell strives to carry out the mission of ensuring open, accessible and accountable government. He is a long time and close observer of the workings of the Hays County Commissioners Court. He earned a degree in Agricultural Education and a Masters in Ag Economics at Texas Tech, and, later, a Ph.D. at The University of Maryland while employed as a Research Economist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) in Washington, D.C. Texas born and raised on a family farm, O’Dell is a Hays County Master Naturalist and a board member of the Ethical Society of Austin.
22 comments:
So why do people keep on voting in these miserable leaders on the state and local levels? I keep awaiting some positive changes, but they seldom happen.
Vote out Wentworth! Vote out Rose! What's wrong with voters?
I once had a statistics professor who said that to quote Winston Churchill, he said that there are lies, and then there are damned lies, and then - there is Charles O'Dell's b.s. fabrications that he makes up.
Interesting that he doesn't check up on the DSWSC's elections which have a "Credentials" committee to decide who goes on the ballot - just like PEC used to - and that the members of this committee just happened to be the two candidates who were up for re-election. That's very democratic!
HA! Charles your garbage is always funny reading. Better than Charlie Brown. Or is that actually you in the funny papers? Would that make the County Judge Lucy holding the football?
Dr. O'Dell,
This is a good read, but it is a long one, and somewhat complex.
Would you mind doing a summary, sort of a bullet-style summary, in the comment section? Thanks.
HB2166 and SB1960 is a complete scam on all citizens. Check out their campaign contributors and you will find big time contributions from those who will benefit the most from Rose and Wentworth's efforts to make sure that water becomes more and more precious and even more expensive to the individual consumer. These guys are bought and paid for by the water profiteers. It's time for an investigation into these two and their connections.
This is a typical tactic used to confuse readers.
First discredit the messenger by casting suspicion quoting a “statistics professor.”
Then present false information.
Finally, discredit the messenger again with ridicule.
Here are facts:
It was Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, not Winston Churchill who the statistics professor reportedly quoted. The quote was popularized in the U.S. by Mark Twain. I hope the professor had a better grasp of statistics than he did of history.
As in virtually all organizations, the DSWSC bylaws set out qualifications for board members. The DSWSC “Credentials Committee” is comprised of three members (two of whom are also sitting board members). Neither of the two members up for reelection were members of the Credentials Committee as the anonymous poster alleges.
More importantly, anyone who wanted to run for the two open board seats simply had to apply. Only three individuals applied, namely, the two individuals running for reelection and an individual who was friendly to City officials.
The top two vote counts won. The City candidate garnered only 42 votes. He came in third.
Finally, anyone who suggests that I am funnier than Charlie Brown can’t be trusted to tell the truth.
You are missing the point on the DSWSC's elections---the proxies did not even list all three candidates running and prizes (like PEC's previous elections) were given to entice people to sign their proxies over to the credentials committee. How is that a democratic process?
Aqua Texas sent out notices to Wimberley water customers this week notifying that we are now in Stage 3 Drought and water restrictions are now being put in place....on the same day those very notices were hitting residents mailboxes yet another leak occurred. Before Aqua Texas even noticed, over 100,000 gallons of water had been wasted and lost forever...just another example of Aqua Texas' wasting of water and why we desperately need the HTGCD to have Full Chapter 36 Authority over these pirates.
There goes Charles O'Dell again, upsetting the monosyllabic right wing free marketers and the gullible Rose-supporting liberals - at the same time. When, Charles, are you going to learn that it is not nice to put out information criticizing and exposing the hypocrisy of elected officials from both sides of the local political duopoly. How dare you pretend like you are the thoughtful muckraker of Hays County? Shame on you for telling the truth.
Hey, Anonymous #7: What do you mean that "...over 100,000 gallons of water had been wasted and lost forever..."? Didn't that water go into the ground and help recharge the local portion of the Trinity aquifer? And, if Aqua Texas had trucked it in from outside the area, why isn't that a net GAIN for the local Trinity?
Point by point Charles will be exposed for the fraud that he is -
1. "Our" water supply? Come on Charles, even for you that is a lie. You live on Nutty Brown Road (or close to it), so you are not even a customer of DS Water Supply.
2. Reading your gumbo of b.s. closely, it would appear that municipalities will receive "a" seat on local water cooperatives. In the case of DSWSC, there are five or six OTHER seats that make up the Board. How pray tell in the world of common-sense "Dr. O'Dell" will one person take control of a five or six member board all by themselves? Even for you this is an abuse of hyperbole. Again, extreme fear-mongering and exaggeration, or in more common-sense terminology - a lie.
3. I seem to remember, "Dr." O'Dell, that you are a great fan of our new President.
Interesting how you are so lack in commenting on the federal government's role in taking over the PRIVATE industry of auto making by the very public firing of the CEO of GM by none other than your President. Sounds eerily similar to what is proposed by having governmental oversight on a locally controlled board (different only really in terms of one's a utility that is crooked, and the other is a privately held auto making business - key, both are private).
Yet, you appear to be a fine for federal intervention, unless I am incorrect - in which case, here is a very public forum for you to expose your disagreement with the nationalization of the nation's industry - the first step towards National Socialism - ala, Nazism.
4. Also, a program of the new Obama Administration is their ill-fated "stimulus" package, which was rushed through Congress without giving anyone time to read it, contrary to the promises of Democratic Party leadership that there would be given plenty of time to read it. (Notice the oddly similar methodology that you accuse your Democratic brethren Rose of doing in the Texas Legislature?) Perhaps from the same play book as your friends in Washington? Why is this any different in there being secrets in hiding legislation? Once again, another golden opportunity for you to join the ranks of conservatives and Republicans in denouncing your President's hypocrisy in calling for transparency at all levels of government. (Again, these are events in the past for which I do not hear or remember reading one peep from you about their grave errors, or the path that they are leading us down as a nation.)
5. PEC - remember them? You were such a grand advocate of their restructuring - and they too were a locally privately held Coop. And this same Rep. Rose, and some help from Austin, came to the rescue, and skewered these folks for shenanigans of having THEIR slate of candidates as the only ones listed on the ballots. Oh sure, other candidates could run, according to the charter. But, the "credentials" committee, would only list THEIR candidates names on the ballots. They would sweeten the pot with the awarding of prizes to those who would sign their proxies to the "credential committee". Again, sound oddly familiar? Given the chance to expose the DSWSC for the same faulty "democratic" process (your choice of words, not anyone else's) you failed to live up to your own self-titled claim of looking out for the "people". Instead, your blind ambition of looking to skewer those with whom you have personal vendettas blinds you to the real possibility of you living up to HaysCAN's claim to fame - watching out for the taxpayers of Hays County. Instead, you chose the path of siding with fraudulent and potentially criminally motivated gangsters disguised in the clothing of DS Water Supply Board members.
6. Speaking of fraud and waste - Doug Cones - how about an incisive investigation into that waste of coop money? Small water coop paying a $100,000 a year salary to include a truck that they pay for and gets to keep and drive for personal use. They pay for his social security and income taxes (after his $100,000 a year salary). A retirement package that when awarded will amount to almost $750,000? (Sounds real close to a Bennie Fuelberg or Judge Burnett kind of payment.) Sounds like fraud and waste of a grand scale. Just the kind of thing that HaysCAN could have exposed and have been watching out for the members of DSWSC. But instead, you, "Dr." O'Dell chose instead to side with the snakes and low-crawlers of DSWSC. SHAME ON YOU CHARLES. SHAME ON YOU!!!
I hope "Believer" is not overly shocked by these publicly revealed short-comings and character flaws that are all to evident in your latest rant Charles. But oh how the mighty have fallen. "et tu Brute?"
Hey #9: If you think potable water pumped out of the Aquifer that ends up leaking to the tune of 100,000 gallons before being noticed by this Pennsylvania based private water profiteer is a wonderful event then you must be one of the moronic group that love to come out to a our neighborhood during any wet event and mud. Are you a mudder #9? Your comment is absurd and just plain dumb. If the scientific facts show that Aqua Texas wastes over 51% of the water they are pumping out of the aquifer then what part of the word "waste" do you not understand?
#11: Precision, precision...
A "waste" of water? Most certainly. And especially galling if you're one of the people who's paying for it. Which, however, you presumably knew you were going to be when you bought into property that gets its water from an operation like that.
"Lost forever"? Just silly.
The ignorance about the science of aquifers coming out of the Wimberley discourse on the subject is astonishing.
Since #12 disputes the scientific facts perhaps he/she should show their credentials. Go ahead, I double dog dare you!
#13: I'm an applied ecologist. Have worked for over 30 years in the United States, and in nearly 50 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, eastern Europe and the Middle East, including on water, wastewater, surface water and groundwater issues.
How about you?
#14: I am a Summa Cum Laude graduate from the School of Hard Knocks. I hold a P.H.D. in COMMON SENSE!!
But given your bio, perhaps you could enlighten us all as to why you find the HTGCD and Texas State River Systems scientific facts "astonishing"?
#15: The facts aren't astonishing; the facts are just the facts. What's astonishing is the extent to which people around Wimberley--including the most vocal people--either don't understand the most basic facts about groundwater, aquifers and wells, or choose to ignore them.
What would be really useful--so that everybody in the debate is debating from at least a basic knowledge of the facts--is a public short course (or courses) on aquifers and wells. Think: Aquifers 101 and Wells 101.
Aquifers 101 could be tailored in Wimberley to the Trinity aquifer, describing (among other things) the difference between groundwater and aquifers; the various formations that make up the Trinity; aquifer recharge; and the basics of aquifer water chemistry (for the layman). Also, how the Trinity differs significantly from the Edwards Aquifer, and what that means in practice.
Wells 101 could be a 2 hour basic course on wells, including how they're drilled, screened, cased and set; the basics on well pumps and how they work; the well's zone of influence ("cones of depression", etc.); well deterioration and normal life; well spacing to avoid adverse impact on nearby wells; and how well spacing relates to aquifer type and the formations therein. All with a specific focus on wells drilled into the Trinity Aquifer.
The courses should be given by a seasoned (think: 25 years of field experience) groundwater hydrologist for Aquifers 101, and a seasoned well-driller/well troubleshooter for Wells 101. Get the city of Wimberley or a local business or other entity to sponsor the courses. Open them up to the public, free. Hold them in a big enough hall to seat a couple of hundred folks comfortably. Provide lots of handouts. Maybe run them on two separate nights. Maybe run them a couple of times a year.
The takeaway from this exercise would (hopefully) be a public debate predicated on a basic understanding of how aquifers and wells work--in practice, in the Trinity aquifer, in the Wimberley area.
Thank you #15. I hope someone will indeed lead the charge to educate the public...maybe Texas State River Systems would be interested? Our elected officials should be the first to sign up for these sessions.
Joe Vickers and Steve Bond would be two people immediately who come to mind who have a very good grasp of aquifer data. You have well men in Dripping Springs who have been in the well business for most if not all of their lives locally (Ray Whisenant - Whisenant / Lyle).
There are certainly others who could present good local lore of wells and their knowledge of the local aquifers and how they react. Marshall Jennings being another who worked for Texas State University's River Studies Department for years and was a consultant for the Hays-Trinity Aquifer District when it first started up. These folks are all from Dripping Springs (except Steve who lives in the Rainbow Ranch community north of Wimberley), but there are no doubt others who could give credible information or offer counter points if disagreeable with the above mentioned individuals' perspectives and experiences.
#18: You took the words right out of my mouth. On wells, you probably couldn't do much better than Joe Vickers or Steve Bond, or Pat Goodson (also in Dripping). Steve, though, is probably as knowledgeable or more so about the Trinity as anyone. On aquifers, would also throw in Mark Hemingway--recently of the HTGCD. Mark's first rate, and is also out of Dripping. All three are imminently practical, applied field guys with a ton of hands-on experience.
So what are we waiting for? Who needs to be in charge of organizing this?
I think we should just let the developers and Aqua Texas do the public education seminars and workshops. Then, when it comes time to sue someone for negligence and our children's medical bills from polluted water, we know who to go after.
Troublemaker,
That is just the kind of stupid attitude that perpetuates the ignorance and the conflict between neighbors that exists in this County. If it is the government and the community that would get together and work together for the benefit of all, then to hell with who is going to sue who. The freaking attorneys end up with all the money anyway.
Grow up.
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