In This Issue: Only Two More Weekends Left to Sign Recall Petitions; Why We Need a New Water Board
Time is running short, but you can still sign the recall petitions this weekend for the three Trabuco Canyon Water District board members who will remain in office through 2026 unless they are recalled. 2,250 valid signatures will place their names on the November ballot, allowing voters to hold them accountable for their votes to double and triple water rates last June 29. All registered voters residing in the TCWD—not just the ones paying the bills—are eligible to sign the petitions. If you need to register or check your registration information, you can do so online at registertovote.ca.gov and then sign the petitions.
Just ten minutes out of your day to sign could save you thousands of dollars every year in excess water charges, and spare you the remorse of opening your ballooning water bills each month, knowing that you failed to do something about them when you had the chance. Our volunteers have donated their time and money to provide you this one-time opportunity. Please take advantage of it. Help them help you. Please bring along all registered voters in your household, and text or email your neighbors to do the same. Look for our volunteers this week:
Saturday April 6 and Sunday April 7, 12:30 to 3:30 p.m., Concourse Park in Portola Hills, 18931 Saddleback Ranch Road, Trabuco Canyon 92679
Saturday April 6 and Sunday April 7, 12 to 3 p.m., Trabuco Highlands Central Park, 32248 Robinson Ranch Road, Trabuco Canyon 92679
Saturday April 6 and Sunday April 7, 1 to 4 p.m., in front of Smart and Final, 21672 Plano Trabuco Road, Trabuco Canyon 92679
Saturday April 6, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Trabuco Canyon General Store, 31021 Trabuco Canyon Rd, Trabuco Canyon, CA 92679
WHY WE NEED A NEW WATER BOARD—READ ALL ABOUT IT HERE…
These three voted for the huge rate hikes last June 29, ignoring the protests of a standing-room-only audience of rate payers. So did the other two—Don Chadd and Stephen Dopudja—but their terms expire this year so they will be on the November ballot anyway, should they choose to run.
They have the discretion to reconsider their outrageous June rate increases, but have since refused all requests to do so, and limited public testimony to three minutes, even when only one person has requested to speak. On the board for decades, with no election since 2008, they seem to have lost sight of the concept of representative government.
While claiming on their website that the TCWD “is prohibited by law from charging more than the cost to provide service to customers.” board members collect medical, dental and vision insurance benefits for their part-time work, and waste our money on:
air fare, car rental, meals and lodging for board members and spouses to attend weekend conventions
stipends for board members to attend non-district related city council and planning commission meetings in Rancho Santa Margarita
public relations consultant ($74,518.82 charged to date) to sell us on the rate increases
$10,000 bus tour
Rates were supposed to rise only 8% from June to July of 2023 under a 2021 board-approved “5-year” schedule, but instead increased 123% after the board jettisoned that plan, citing the need to replace aging infrastructure. How did it age so suddenly in one month? Didn’t the board members anticipate and plan for routine maintenance and replacement during all their years in office? The infrastructure in neighboring water districts is aging as well. Why are their rates so much lower than ours?
The board has cited the “increased costs of purchased water” as justification for its hyperbolic rate increases. But those increases are not included in the rate schedule approved by the board in June. These increases will be “passed-through” —i.e., added to our water bills—as they occur.
A new $5.9-million reservoir atop the Harris Grade in Trabuco Canyon to serve a proposed new development on El Toro Road near Cook’s Corner, Saddleback Meadows, has also been baked into the district’s 5-year budget and the rate increases existing customers currently pay.
If, as the board assures us , “TCWD requires developers to enter into construction agreements that bind the developer to pay for all development infrastructure and for the District’s systems to serve the development,” why are we paying in advance for this $5.9 M reservoir? When will the developers of Saddleback Meadows (a project not yet finally approved by the County of Orange) pay their share? When (and if) that happens, will our rates be reduced accordingly?
The board has also blamed their rate hikes on the relatively small size of the TCWD, with fewer rate payers (4,100) to bear the fixed costs. If board members believe this, and they truly represented the rate payers as their top priority, they should apply to LAFCO to consolidate the district with a larger neighboring district. Why haven’t they done so? We need new board members committed to getting us the best rates, even if it means eliminating the TCWD and their positions in it.
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