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What made these messages more intriguing than most is that they had nothing to do with home improvement services, or if I was interested in hearing about an exciting investment opportunity. Rather both had to do with the City of Sierra Madre's proposed water and sewer rate increases and the current so-called "Proposition 218 Process." Something that allows residents, should they choose to jump through some rather inconvenient and, for many, confusing hoops, the opportunity to say NO to paying considerably more for basic City services.
The first voice message was from a gentleman named John Govorchin. John identified himself as being a retired Sierra Madre resident who is concerned about the very large increase in rates our city wants to charge for water and sewer services. As someone living on a fixed income, as many of Sierra Madre's retired residents do, John wanted to know if we had returned our Prop 218 protest ballot yet to City Hall. And if we hadn't, could we please do so? He also thoughtfully left his phone number in case we had any questions, or just wanted to talk things over.
I have heard rumors about John and his campaign. Every few days or so someone will ask me if I know Mr. Govorchin because they had just received a call from him. The story I've heard is he is a concerned resident that has vowed to call each and every rate paying customer of Sierra Madre's now waterless water company to discuss these substantial new rate increases with them.
No matter how you feel about the topic, I think you will agree this is quite a service he is performing for the community. Something that nobody from the pro-water rate increase side of the debate seems willing to do right now.
The other voice mail message was from the robo-calling outfit known as "Water For You." As far as I know this is not the first call they have put out to Sierra Madre's residents. I personally have received two of them. I jotted down their latest message so I would be able to relay it to you here. This is what was said:
This is a public service message from Water For You. Many in Sierra Madre believe the water rate hike will fix the City's water service. It will not. The truth is most of the money will go to pay down almost $15 million dollars in old water bond debt from 2003.
The city has paid interest only on this debt for many years. They are wasting our money by not pursuing other alternatives.
The rate hike will not improve water service. The city needs to go back to the drawing board. Your water rates will increase 61% unless you send City Hall your ballot voting no. If you don't send it in, your vote is yes.
If you don't have a ballot call the City at 355-7135. That is 355-7135. The deadline to submit your ballot is January 28.
You may recall that in a previous call Water For You erroneously identified the water rate increase percentage as being 69%, something that caused great indignation down at both City Hall and The Mountain Views News. Two organizations not often celebrated for complete accuracy themselves.
It is good to see that whoever is responsible for those calls heard that criticism and made the correct change. We should all be wise enough to learn from our mistakes.
One other interesting thing to note about Sunday's robo-call is this time it was a different male voice. A person who did not speak quite as quickly. What this indicates to me is whoever is organizing these calls, it is not just a single lone individual with access to an automated phone bank.
All that said, I think we are now at a tipping point with the increasingly active Prop 218 water rate increase protest. As you can see by the count we are keeping in the upper right hand corner of this webpage, there have been a considerable amount of ballots returned by rate paying residents choosing not to go along with these latest cost increases. And with the final deadline to return protest ballots still several weeks away, anything can happen.
We hope to be able to update the Prop 218 protest number later today. This should be for the number of ballots City Hall received on both Saturday and today.
Things could start getting exciting, and soon.
In case you missed this story over the weekend ...
Councilmember Josh Moran has announced that he will not be standing for re-election. You can link to The Tattler post on this important matter by clickinghere.
http://sierramadretattler.blogspot.com
