Comments on: EID OKs $43.8M budget on 4-1 vote

By: Bill E.

Bill E. — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 16:13:20 +0000

All of the rural water districts are suffering from the same set of problems. State regulation is increasing at an increasing rate for sewer and water, required technical skill sets for operations, Homeland security weighs in with mandates, unsustainable pensions is a government wide issue that remains unresolved everywhere and disproportional size of the the network in relationship to the customer base. I am just not sure that any rural water district, anywhere in the state is dealing with these issues cheaply and efficiently. If there is a template for “success” with the new normal, then EID should implement it today. It does not exist. Jumping up and down and scrutinizing every word or comma is not solution oriented. The time is now to start working on zero based budget with entry level pay rates for employees as needed to establish the floor.

By: Phil Veerkamp

Phil Veerkamp — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 04:32:53 +0000

FACT - The water to supply LINK - this project will be the MOST EXPENSIVE water produced and delivered by EID. The required water CANNOT be delivered by gravity from the eastern plants. Those transmission lines are already running over capacity in the summertime. The required water will have to be pumped ($$$) up to EDH treatment plant (~ 300 vertical ft.) From there it will have to be pumped ($$$) to Oak Ridge – (~170 vertical ft.). From there it will have to be pumped ($$$) to Bass Lake Tanks –(~540 vertical ft.) (Folsom Lake to BLT approximately 1010 vertical feet). The pumping and transmission infrastructure from Oak Ridge to BLT needs to be built. The transmission infrastructure to Parker/Gallo development needs to be built. Do the math. $50,000,000 from the developers might be a starting point.

By: Phil Veerkamp

Phil Veerkamp — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 17:26:35 +0000

LINK - EID by the Numbers - Capital Spending and Labor Costs

By: Phil Veerkamp

Phil Veerkamp — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 17:07:20 +0000

disgruntled - You are correct in one regard only. I am, in fact, not an EID financial expert. I am, in fact, an EID water distribution expert - Sr. Water Distribution Operator, RET. I am not an EID pensioner. I am a CalPERS member. LINK - CalPERS FACTS AT A GLANCE - The entire California tax payer base have an interest in retirement reform.

By: disgruntled phil no EID financial expert

disgruntled phil no EID financial expert — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 15:33:53 +0000

If EID spent less money, they wouldn’t be raising water rates 102% for 2010-2015. But Phil Veerkamp doesn’t like that idea…he’s an EID pensioneer dependent on EID’s 38,000 ratepayers to pay extra to pay his outlandish retiree medical benefits and pension.
Unfortunately for Phil even at retirment he never made it out of the bottom quartile of EID’s pay scale. An EID financial expert he’s not.

By: Evelyn

Evelyn — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 15:05:54 +0000

NOTE: The source document for $358 MILLION Revenue Certificates of Participation is EID’s own 2011 CAFR. pg. 41 @ http://www.eid.org/modules/showdocument.aspx?documentid=2296

By: Phil Veerkamp

Phil Veerkamp — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 05:38:11 +0000

LINK - fixFIXEID

By: Evelyn

Evelyn — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 05:18:35 +0000

Of course, the $358 MILLION comes from the LAST financial year. Add another $60 MILLION (current year) and $60 MILLION (next year) . . .

By: Evelyn

Evelyn — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 05:11:22 +0000

http://www.FixEID.org: Fairly sobering information. Ratepayers and employees alike should be paying attention. The unfunded liabilities & increasing debt are scary. Someone will pay the piper – eventually. In the meantime, I’d like to know who is profiting from the Revenue Certificates of Participation. The holders are smiling all the way to the bank. $358 MILLION is not chicken feed. Sign me up, please.

By: www.FixEID.org

www.FixEID.org — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 04:06:39 +0000

Evelyn, Director Osborne was under the impression that EID’s $53 million unfunded pension and medical liabilities was being paid down over ten years as Management previously had (mis)led the Board to believe was being done. But when Osborne directly asked Mark Price for validation of the paydown, Price surprised Osborne and sheepishly admitted that rather than being paid down, the unfunded $53 million already has gone up further. Even with that financially sobering surprise, the Board then voted 4-1 to accept Management’s proposed budget with no request for offsetting cost reduction evaluation (as requested by Director Day), much less Board direction for Management to cut costs. One wonders why EID even bothers having a Board when all they do is rubber-stamp Management’s ignoring of multi-million dollar cost increases and continuation of $15 million per year deficit spending that will require $60 million additional debt to be raised late next year. The November 2013 EID Director elections can’t come soon enough for 38,000 rate hike-weary regular EID ratepayers. Meanwhile, Editor Raffety (who witnessed this surprising adverse financial admission by Price) chose to withhold this material news from his above story.

By: Phil Veerkamp

Phil Veerkamp — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 17:08:18 +0000

- development -

By: Phil Veerkamp

Phil Veerkamp — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 17:06:59 +0000

EID lacks the infrastructure to service this developmednt. WHO WILL PAY? LINK - The Village of Marble Valley

By: Phil Veerkamp

Phil Veerkamp — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 16:52:55 +0000

LINK - What's Wrong with FIXEID

By: Phil Veerkamp

Phil Veerkamp — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 16:34:52 +0000

LINK - FIXEID People Problems

By: Phil Veerkamp

Phil Veerkamp — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 16:30:59 +0000

Greg, is this you on this thread or is it Jon Jakowatz, John E. Thompson or Richard Boylan? Greg, if you actually, REALLY, wish to impact EID rates then get in front of the wave and secure cost sharing agreements from LINK - Parker and Gallo

By: Evelyn

Evelyn — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 16:09:32 +0000

1. What question did Director Osborn ask? 2. The answer?

By: www.FixEID.org

www.FixEID.org — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 15:59:23 +0000

Evelyn, All EID financial information reported within http://www.FixEID.org is extracted from twelve years of EID’s Consolidated Annual Financial Reports, Board Packets, Cost of Services studies, Water Resources and Service Reliabilty reports, information divulged at EID Board meetings and captured on audio recordings, etc. The $53 million unfunded liabilities is buried in footnotes to the Financial Statements but reluctantly verbally confirmed by Mark Price and Jim Abercrombie in Tuesday’s Board meeting. Director Osborne unwittingly asked a direct question he wished he hadn’t. Editor Raffety heard this but excluded reporting this most material financial fact.
The per employee benefits data of $49,000 is not specifically repported by EID (and in fact EID tries to obscure this disclosure) but is derived by dividing $10.865 million of budgeted benefits by the budgeted 221.5 employees. certain other information similarly is derived from EID-provided data and applying 7th grade algebra. Unfortunately, the EID Board-majority (except new Director Alan Day) never challenges any spending proposal presented by EID Management…the result being 102% of Board-approved water rate increases for 2010-2015…and, counting Property tax subsidies, EID water and sewer rates that are twice those of neighboring Folsom and Sacramento. (Note: 53% of EID’s rate revenues and property tax revenues come from El Dorado Hills and 22% more from Cameron Park so Folsom especially is a very important economic comparison else restaurants and commercial development stop at the El Dorado County line. EID-served restaurants pay sewer bills seven times their water bills and their EID water bills already are double Folsom water bills).

By: Evelyn

Evelyn — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 15:24:35 +0000

(Cont’d) Pgs 106 – 133??????

By: Evelyn

Evelyn — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 15:13:07 +0000

oops. DATA

By: Evelyn

Evelyn — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 15:12:20 +0000

FixEID: Does your date come from THIS: http://www.eid.org/modules/showdocument.aspx?documentid=3213

By: www.FixEID.org

www.FixEID.org — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 14:22:02 +0000

Abercrombie’s 2013 Operating Budget includes $14.3 million of headquarters administration (an increase of $10 million in the past ten years), 6% pay raises for most employees (as compared to a 1.7% Social Security COLA for 2013), $49,000 per employee benefits, $13,000 per employee paid time off, $3.1 million of accounting gimmicks, two $500,000 slush funds, and $60 million of new debt. Yet his budget excludes paying for $53 million of unfunded pensions and retiree medical expenses which are left for future EID GM’s and Boards to address.
See http://www.FixEID.org for more details that Abercrombie neglected to disclose in his news release and Editor Raffety chose to withhold reporting.