In a Nutshell
- 6 years of prioritizing the Forest and neglecting the Utility has put the District in a precarious financial situation.
- May’s election provides the opportunity to reverse this trend. 4 experienced candidates have come forward from the community for the 4 open Board positions.
- The District’s pressing business, operations and financial challenges require fiscally responsible priorities for the Utility and a viable plan for the Forest
The Districts are at a Tipping Point
The Boards’ 6-year focus on the Forest has neglected the Utilities and put the ratepayers at risk.
1) $1.2 Millions in continually deferred capital projects
2) $120,000+ dollars in neglected maintenance, on top of current maintenance
3) 761,000 gallons/month water leak that has been ignored for 27-months
4) The Water District’s state-permitted water rights have been exceeded by 24 gallons/permit for at least 16 month to cover up the impact of the leak. The Board chose not to notify the State until after last month’s blog was published
5) The highest Utility rates on the North Coast
| Quarterly Rates | |||
| Location | Water | Sewer | Total |
| Arch Cape | $ 175 | $ 264 | $ 439 |
| seaside | $ 145 | $ 232 | $ 377 |
| warrenton | $ 140 | $ 227 | $ 367 |
| cannon Beach | $ 129 | $ 172 | $ 301 |
| nehalem | $ 206 | $ 81 | $ 287 |
| astoria | $ 115 | $ 148 | $ 263 |
6) No long-range financial forecasting for more than 6 years. With a void of expertise on the Boards, Community Interest Group representatives have jumped in to work with the District Manager to create a long-range forecast in order to project and account for the upcoming capital improvement projects, new loan requirements and rate increases.
7) Rate and surcharge increases starting this next fiscal year (July). Budget committee is working on them now.
8) No near-term, mid-term or long range operations-financial plan for the Forest that addresses the need for logging, levies, rate increases.
And the Water Board continues down that path …. At Thursday night’s Board meeting:
1) No Acceptance of Responsibility: Neither Nadia Gardner (current Board Chair) nor Dan Seifer (past Board Chair) acknowledged any concern or responsibility for the neglected equipment maintenance, the water leak, or intentionally exceeding state permitted water right (as Darr Tindal did in February for the deficiencies in the Sanitary District). Rather, Nadia Gardner said that the $30,000+ maintenance neglect identified in the Engineer’s report “is pretty reasonable” (1:09 minute mark of Zoom recording).
2) Prioritize Forest over Utility: Nadia Gardner and Dan Seifer favored a motion to spend $220,000 of the ARPA – COVID Relief money on tree thinning and road improvements in the Forest. Chris Mastrandrea (a recently appointed Board Member and the only other Board member present) argued against spending any of the money until discussions can be had with Business Oregon about using it for repairing Utility infrastructure. Chris was persuasive in limiting the ARPA-COVID expenditures to $108,000 for road maintenance. Per a Board motion, Chris was given 10 days to have a discussion with Business Oregon about using the ARPA-COVID money for much needed repair/improvement of the Utilities. Otherwise, if a definitive answer by Business Oregon is not given within that time, the Board will spend $122,000 on tree thinning, even though there are other grants and donation that are available.
3) Charging ratepayers for Water Leak: Three rate payers asked the Board for relief from excess usage charges for leaks that each rate payer found and fixed. In spite of the 15 million gallon leak that has been ignored by the Water Board for 27 month, the rate payers were charged for the water lost in their leaks.
The current Trend must be Reversed to Stabilize the District
The Water District is facing significant challenges, near and longer term, that put the rate payers in a tenuous financial position. The current trend of prioritizing the Forest at the expense of the Utility must be reversed. The District needs to get back to solid financial ground, to stabilize operations of the Utility and to engage the community in the decision-making process about the Forest.
May 16th is election day and ballots come out as early as next Wednesday, April 26th. This is the opportunity to change the direction of District with a new slate of Board members. Your vote is meaningful in confirming the new Board.
A qualified set of candidates have stepped forward for the open Board Positions
Due to recent Board resignations in response to the information that has been coming to light, 4 of the 5 Water District Board positions are up for election. Only the current Board chair has chosen to run for re-election.
The good news … 4 highly experienced candidates from the community are willing to step up, fill the Board positions and work as a cohesive team to reshape the direction of the District. This slate of 4 candidates bring professional qualifications and expertise in business operations, management and financial planning. They also have over 11 years of District Board experience and are strongly committed to engaging the community in the decisions that will need to be made.
Their intent, hope and request is that you vote for them as a team.
- Tevis Dooley III … long time Arch Cape resident, previous Board member for 9 years, built and manages his own woodworking company
- Chris Mastrandrea … long term involvement with the Arch Cape community before becoming a permanent resident and recently appointed Board member, construction management, contracting, and financial budgeting in representing Boards and public entities in their capital improvement projects
- Bill Campbell … resident of Arch Cape, previous Sanitary District Board member for 2 years and Forest Finance Committee member, private industry consulting in business strategy, operations and financial management, facilitate collaboration in public sector initiatives
- Sam Garrison … long term family lineage in Arch Cape, history of product development and management in private industry, built and manages his own product development company.
A new set of priorities for bringing the District back into balance
Given the business, operations and financial challenges ahead and the decisions that must be made, here are the candidates’ priorities:
1. #1 Priority: Bring sound financial planning and management into the operations of the Water District.
- Implement a prioritized financial plan, operations plan and procedures for recovering from the neglected maintenance of plant & equipment. Secure funding for the long-deferred capital projects. Put protocols in place to monitor and ensure the appropriateness of ongoing operations.
- Determine how best to provide staffing support to the new District Manager until an Operator can be hired and trained.
- Find and repair the 27-month water leak
- Talk with Business Oregon (who manages the COVID Relief Funds for the State of Oregon), explain our pressing need for infrastructure funding, and determine if the District can use some/all of the $600,000 – $800,000 COVID relief funds to repair the Utilities and thereby reduce loan debt and prevent rates from increasing so quickly.
- Develop a mid-long term financial & operations plan for the Forest before any other decisions about the Forest are made. We need to know expected costs and how they will be paid. To do this, the Forest Advisory Committee needs to be staffed more as a Finance Committee, with the requisite skill sets.
2. Let the need for clean source water drive the priorities of the Utility and the Forest.
The purpose for purchasing the Forest was protecting the source water. This protection along with financial implications need to be the foremost criteria for evaluating Forest decisions. Though the District has no control over NCLC driving through and parking in the watershed, it does have control over when/what/where logging is done, whether the Forest is publicized, whether tours and site visits are given and what recreational activities are allowed and in what areas of the Forest.
3. Make transparent decisions that are informed though community outreach.
A Community-engagement process must be put in place to involve rate payers and property owners in decisions about how the Forest should be operated. This outreach process needs to align with and validate the detail planning for how the Forest is to be operated and funded now and into the future. Community engagement must not only gather information from the community but also give transparency to the community about Board activities and decisions.
Again, please vote for Tevis Dooley III, Chris Mastrandrea, Bill Campbell and Sam Garrison
A.C. Water District Board (Go to Home Page) 
One response to “#22 – Part 2: Reversing the current course – May’s election brings a slate of 4 experienced candidates for the open Board Positions”
Thank you for a comprehensive summary of the present state of affairs regarding the interactions of the Water District, Sanitary District and respective Boards and functionaries.
As lot owners in Castle Rock Estates who are very close to construction of a new home, and Washingtonians from Olympia who have hiked, fished and vacationed in coastal Clatsop and Tillamook Counties since the early 1970’s, we are very concerned about these issues.
We VERY MUCH HOPE that the four candidates mentioned here are elected and this neglected and floundering ship is righted.
We look forward to participating more directly in these issues in the near future and we are GRATEFUL to all those who have worked on the discovery process that has brought to light some serious problems. We are relieved that capable and responsible locals are taking action.
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