When the people speak do our leaders really listen?
Some may say yes of course they do, that is what we elected them for. While others may say no they don't, they are just after their own personal agenda.
Well in today's public city council meeting the topic of utility rates and the proposed increase will be discussed again.
And it appears that the citizens have let the council know that they are not happy about this increase, to say the least.
Now why are the citizens not happy about this increase? Well it is because they feel as if they are being punished for doing what they were told to do.
You see our city leaders urged their citizens to conserve water due to the drought conditions this area has seen. And the citizens did just that. Now the citizens are being told by the same city leaders that urged them to conserve water that part of the increase to their utility bill is to make up for the lost water revenue.
So to be clear and that everyone understands, our city asked it's citizens to conserve water. They did. Now because they did exactly what they were told to do by their city leaders, they are being punished by increasing their utility rate to make up for lost money due to the citizens conserving water.
And now it seems that the residents of this city have spoken up just enough to be heard. The council has discussed but not decided on a alternative to the rate increase. It could possible use some emergency funds for a period of time until a new rate can be agreed upon.
The Mayor was quoted as saying "This council tackles systemic problems,
instead of find quick-fixes to get through crises. Culture is changing." If that is true, is the best systematic solution to a revenue shortfall (they created by urging every single citizen and business to conserve water) raising rates?
Councilperson Riojas was quoted as saying "The best part of this process is that we listened to residents." Should this not be a part of every process and every decision the council makes when the decisions affect their citizens?
Councilperson Loeb was quoted as saying (when speaking about using emergency funds) "We have reserves for emergencies, this is an emergency." This may be true and we are not here to debate if this is a emergency or not, but the citizens have faced much greater emergencies and still do to this day and no emergency funds are being used to address those issues. So why now?
Councilperson Scott said "Utility costs are related to street improvements." Did the city leaders not just hit it's citizens with a street user fee not too long ago, is that not related to street improvement? Are they double dipping?
So it seems that the people have spoken and maybe someone is listening...
But here are some very simple and valid questions to ask yourself:
When the drought conditions are over and yes they will be over. Our lakes will be back up to capacity eventually especially in the coming wet winter months here, will our city leaders lower our utility rates?
Did our city leaders not plan for the reduction in revenue while asking its citizens to stop using so much water?
Are our rate increases tied anyway to the streets?
If a household which on average uses 6,000 gallons of water a month reduces their usage to 5,000 because they were asked to, should that household be punished?
These are just a few very simple questions with very simple answers, yet it seems that our city leaders either did not think of them or do not care....
Either way, are these the leaders you want representing you? Are they looking after your best interest socially, fiscally, physically?
Those are questions you have to answer for yourself and remember you will have the loudest voice come November...
Make sure you check back for our next update on THE UPDRAFT!
