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Tag: Ted Costa

  • GUEST COLUMN: What we’re doing at San Juan Water District to transition our elections

    San Juan Water District board members, (left to right): Dan Rich, Ted Costa, Marty Hanneman, Pamela Tobin, and Kenneth Miller.

    Guest column by Ted Costa–
    In the early 1950’s, when Folsom Dam was being built, it became necessary to build a treatment plant to serve eastern Sacramento with American River water. The Legislature then formed the first Community Services District — the San Juan Water District – to succeed and replace the North Fork Ditch Company, which had provided water supplies to the area for the prior 100 years.

    As the wholesale water provider for most of the City of Citrus Heights, we at San Juan are committed to protecting the water rights, contracts, and entitlements we own and use to provide clean, safe, reliable water supplies to your homes and businesses through our customer agencies: which include, in addition to the Citrus Heights Water District, Fair Oaks Water District, the Orangevale Water Company, the City of Folsom (Ashland service area), and San Juan’s retail division.

    The surface water supplies we treat and deliver come from Folsom Reservoir. Our treatment processes produce some of the best water in the world, as we describe for you in our annual water quality reports.

    San Juan delivers water to both its retail and wholesale customers at the lowest prices. In fact, we can’t find lower-priced wholesale water anywhere in the state.

    Citrus Heights voters have been choosing representatives to San Juan’s Board of Directors since 1954 in at-large elections, which allow anyone residing in San Juan’s wholesale service area to run for any of the five Board seats, and allow any voter in the service area to cast a vote for any candidate on the ballot. Two of San Juan’s board seats are on the ballot this fall and the other three will be on the ballot in November, 2022.

    Guest Opinion: San Juan Water District shouldn’t delay move to district elections

    Now, the Legislature has mandated that all California cities, school districts, and water districts use district-based elections to elect directors, or face expensive litigation. The City of Citrus Heights, San Juan School District, Fair Oaks Water District, and Citrus Heights Water District are all in the process of changing to district elections, or have recently done so.

    On May 13, San Juan’s Board of Directors adopted a resolution to initiate the establishment of five geographic electoral divisions, which will become effective starting with the November 2022 Board election. Over the next six months, San Juan will hold four public hearings between June and the end of October to receive input from the public on how the boundaries for these divisions should be drawn.

    Setting up divisions properly is a complicated matter, and San Juan is going to take the time that as much as is needed to do this right. The schedule San Juan is following is similar to the one followed by the City of Citrus Heights during its 2018 process of transitioning to district-based elections, and is actually faster than the process Fair Oaks Water District used for its transition to fully division-based elections earlier this year. Citrus Heights Water District is also in the process of transitioning to fully division-based elections, and its process is scheduled for more than five months.

    San Juan Water District invites all residents in its wholesale service area to participate in this process and help define the five new geographic divisions for San Juan’s Board of Directors. For more information about this process and how to participate, visit: www.sjwd.org/transitioning-to-division-based-elections.

    Ted Costa is a longtime resident of Citrus Heights and is President of the San Juan Water District Board of Directors.

    Want to share your own thoughts on this topic or another local issue? Submit a letter to the editor or opinion column for publication: Click here

  • Guest Opinion: San Juan Water District shouldn’t delay move to district elections

    San Juan Water District board members, (left to right): Dan Rich, Ted Costa, Marty Hanneman, Pamela Tobin, and Kenneth Miller.

    By Ray Riehle and Gary Page–
    Rate payers from the Citrus Heights and Fair Oaks Water districts represent over 60% of the San Juan Water District’s wholesale water service connections; however, four of the San Juan Water District Board’s five members are from the community of Granite Bay – where over 70% of households have income of more than $100,000 annually with an average household income of $125,000.

    Gary Page

    Compare that to the more racially diverse communities of Citrus Heights with $54,000 and Fair Oaks with $76,0000 average annual income.  Our customers are NOT being well-served by this imbalance which is the point of the California Voters Right Act.

    On March 30, 2020, the San Juan Water District (SJWD) received a letter from attorney Kevin Shenkman threatening a lawsuit alleging that the District’s at-large elections violated the California Voting Right Act passed in 2001. The law protects against voting systems that limit minority and disadvantaged population’s political voices and seeks to allow more representatives of their choice. 

    Ray Riehle

    SJWD has known about potential litigation and ignored it for over a year. On Feb. 8, 2019, the SJWD Legal Affairs Committee, and on Sept. 25, 2019 the full SJWD Board, discussed the District’s vulnerability to a claim, and the likely requirement to pay at least the $30,000 in fees provided for in AB 350.

    Despite these clear warnings from SJWD staff, the Board declined to start the process.  

    At its April 14 Special Meeting, SJWD staff presented scenarios for transitioning to “by district” elections for the 2020 election or waiting for transitioning until the 2022 election.  SJWD staff indicated that the cost of transitioning now would result in substantial cost savings in legal fees and transition costs. 

    These savings could exceed $50,000 to the wholesale agency.  In fact, based on these cost savings, an initial motion was made and seconded to complete the process for the 2020 election.  Oddly, a substitute motion was made and approved by a 3-2 vote (Board Members Ted Costa, Ken Miller and Pam Tobin in favor, and Marty Hanneman and Dan Rich against) to delay compliance until 2022.

    At its April 22 Special Meeting, the Board opted to delay its decision again to a special meeting in May. This decision compounds the lack of action from 2019 and likely increases costs by at least an additional $50,000.  These cost increases will occur during this period of significant economic disruption, negatively affecting our ratepayers. 

    District-wide at-large elections tend to produce Boards that fail to represent all neighborhoods, particularly disadvantaged ones. This is certainly the case with the SJWD.

    The communities of Citrus Heights and Fair Oaks have been historically underrepresented on the wholesale SJWD Board, and our customers have been directly and significantly impacted by the Board’s decisions regarding cost allocation, water supply, and operational considerations. 

    Both the Citrus Heights and the Fair Oaks Water Districts are moving to district-based election in 2020, and have recently adopted resolutions committing to assist SJWD in 2020 as it moves through this process. 

    Together, we can ensure a robust public outreach process.  There is no impediment to conducting timely and meaningful public outreach in spite of new meeting protocols due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, many agencies have been able to complete the outreach process in six to eight weeks. Agencies throughout the state and the country have successfully shifted to online and mail-based outreach to continue serving their constituencies.

    We urge the SJWD Board to move toward compliance with the CVRA for the 2020 elections cycle.  There is no excuse for delay, and we urge our ratepayers to contact the Board via its website at www.sjwd.org/board-members, phone (916) 791-0115, email the SJWD’s Board Secretary Teri Grant at tgrant@sjwd.org, and/or attend its special meeting on Wednesday, May 13 at 6 p.m. via GoToMeeting and demand compliance in 2020.

    Ray Riehle is board president of the Citrus Heights Water District and Gary Page is board president of the Fair Oaks Water District.

    Want to share your own thoughts on this topic or another local issue? Submit a letter to the editor or opinion column for publication: Click here

  • Citrus Heights News Briefs: water issues, Gold’s Gym, layoffs

    Gold’s Gym is located at 8485 Auburn Blvd., in Citrus Heights. // CH Sentinel

    Latest local news briefs include the San Juan Water District making a controversial decision to delay its transition from at-large elections, Gold’s Gym announcing plans to reopen in Citrus Heights, and layoffs announced at the Sacramento Bee.

    Water District votes 3-2 to delay switch to district-based elections
    In a special meeting on April 14, the San Juan Water District, which supplies wholesale water to water districts in Citrus Heights, narrowly voted to delay its switch to district-based elections to the 2022 election, rather than this year. Directors Marty Hanneman and Dan Rich opposed pushing the transition to 2022, while Pamela Tobin and Kenneth Miller were joined by Board President Ted Costa in supporting the later date. The board is slated to hold a followup vote via public teleconference call on April 22 to officially declare intention to transition. (See agenda packet)

    Gold’s Gym in Citrus Heights to reopen, while others close permanently
    The general manager of Gold’s Gym in Citrus Heights said in a statement Friday that the franchise location at 8485 Auburn Blvd. will reopen once state health officials determine it is safe to do so. Gold’s Gym International is reportedly permanently closing 30 company-owned locations nationwide amid the COVID-19 shutdowns, according to several media outlets. (See statement)

    SacBee lays off publisher amid slow ad sales
    The Sacramento Bee’s parent company, McClatchy, announced furloughs of ad sales representatives and layoffs of executives last week as advertising slowed amid the coronavirus crisis. SacBee publisher Gary Wortel was among four executives who were laid off, according to the Sacramento Business Journal. (See story)

    News briefs are published each Sunday in The Sentinel’s Weekend e-Edition. To sign up free, click here.

  • Want to run for local office? Beginning Monday, you can

    Sentinel staff report–
    Local elected positions on the city council, water district, school board, and more, are up for election this November, leaving residents with an opportunity to run for office. The filing period begins July 16.

    In some local races, winning candidates only need a few thousand votes to win an election — or, in the case of the Citrus Heights Water District race in 2016, no votes were needed to re-elect one board director since no one else filed to run.

    For Citrus Heights residents, the following local races will be on the ballot and are open for residents to file to run:

    Citrus Heights City Council: Three of the council’s five seats are up for election, all of which are four-year at-large positions that are open to residents from any part of the city. Seats on this year’s ballot are currently occupied by Mayor Steve Miller, Vice Mayor Jeannie Bruins, and Councilman Al Fox, who was appointed last year to fill the vacancy left by the late Councilman Mel Turner.

    Related: How much do Citrus Heights council members actually get paid?

    Citrus Heights Water District: Two of the three positions on the water district’s board of directors are up for election. Each director represents a different portion of the district — and some areas of the city are covered by the neighboring Sacramento Suburban Water District. The seats are four-year terms and are currently occupied by President Ray Riehle and Director Allen Dains.

    San Juan Unified School District: Two seats on the five-member school board are up for election. The seats are four-year terms and are at-large positions. The two seats are currently occupied by Michael McKibbin and Greg Paulo.

    San Juan Water District: Local residents also elect board members on the five-member district which supplies water to CHWD and other water districts in the area. Three at-large seats will be up for election, currently occupied by Ted Costa, Marty Hanneman, and Dan Rich. Each member serves a term of four years.

    Los Rios Community College District: Three of the district’s seven-member board of trustees are up for election, including the trustee position covering the area of Citrus Heights. The seat is currently occupied by Robert Jones, and is a four-year term.

    Metro Fire District: Division 3 of the district’s nine-member board’s will be up for election. The seat covers Citrus Heights and is a four-year term. It is currently occupied by Randy Orzalli.

    The deadline to file is August 10, 2018. To learn more about filing to run for office, visit the Sacramento County Elections website at: www.elections.saccounty.net/CampaignServices/