Recently, Santa Paula Mayor Clint Garman and several City Officials met with representatives of the Ventura County Taxpayers Association (VCTA) to discuss a development impact fee known as the water resource in lieu fee. This fee is paid by developers and used to generate additional water resources or water rights through, among others, the purchase of water rights, construction of projects to import state water or other water, construction of projects to increase groundwater recharge, and construction of projects to use reclaimed water. As part of the City’s 2018-2019 operating budget, the City appropriated a portion of these fees toward its water replenishment charges. In a recent article authored by the VCTA, it questioned the budget appropriation using words like “gimmick,” “shortchanged,” and “misuse” in an apparent effort to imply a nefarious intent to the City’s budget process. Nothing can be further from the truth.
While City staff never agreed that the appropriation violated the water resource in lieu fee ordinance or the Government Code to use water-in-lieu fees to pay city water bills or for any general operating expense as asserted by the VCTA, the City did agree to reallocate the budget appropriation to the water operations fund. To date, the budgeted line item has not been expended for water replenishment or any other purpose.
It should be noted that water replenishment charges are paid for out of the water operations budget, not the general fund as indicated in the VCTA article. Both the water replenishment charges and the in-lieu water fees charged for new development all are part of the water operations and water capital improvement budgets and have nothing to do with general fund monies. All of the water funds in the City budget are based on fees paid by each utility user of water – or fees for service – charged for a specific service.
As always, our mission as a City government is to provide the best possible service for the most economical cost for the large array of services the City provides, including police patrol and 911 dispatch, police investigations, code enforcement, graffiti abatement, fire protection, engineering services, water and sewer operations, street maintenance, parks and recreation classes and sports programming, park and building maintenance, , planning review, building inspections, special events such as parades and festivals, and all the support services to implement the core services such as information technology services, human resources and risk management, finance, payroll, budgeting and accounting, city attorney, city council and the city manager’s office which also includes public information and economic development.
It is the City’s desire to continue to work with the VCTA on any and all matters that need to be addressed in the most transparent manner as possible. We look forward to discussing the next City Budget (Fiscal Year 2019/20 Budget) in the coming months with the community.
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At our meeting with city officials, everyone (City Manager and City Attorney) agreed paying the water bill with in-lieu fees was improper. City Manager indicated the budget error was somehow due to a lack of people working on the budget.
Two weeks prior to publishing our Newsletter, VCTC sent the City Manager and City Council a draft copy for review and comment. We heard nothing back so we published the Newsletter. We are pleased to learn the city is not using water in-lieu fees to pay ongoing water bills.
15% of the city’s General Fund (100) revenue is derived from transfering monies from the Enterprise funds (610, 620, 621) to the General Fund. In that the proposed budget uses 621 and 610 to pay UWCD, 15% of which is transferred to the general ($2 million), then some of these monies could indeed end up in the General Fund as a result of the transfers. This would be an appropriate time to audit the transfers in detail forbProp 218 issues . See piechart.
http:s//www.citizensjournal.us/santa-paula-creative-budget-fy-2018-2019/