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Voters nix sewer-water rate rollback measure

City officials relieved as Measure K is defeated

Published: Thursday, Nov 6, 2008

By COREY YOUNG
ARGUS-COURIER STAFF

Petaluma voters on Tuesday rejected Measure K, a controversial proposal to roll back water and sewer rates to 2006 levels.

Supported by former council member Bryant Moynihan and a group called Petalumans for Fair Utility Rates, the measure would have repealed a five-year package of rate increases adopted by the council nearly two years ago.

However, the rollback effort lost Tuesday, with 54.2 percent of voters voting no.

The measure was opposed by the current City Council, all the council candidates and a variety of environmental, business and community groups.

“I’m extremely gratified to see K go down by a decisive margin,” said Mike Healy, one of the leaders of the No-on-K group Petalumans for Clean Water and Fiscal Responsib-ility and a winner in the council race.

Opponents and city officials maintained that rolling back the rates would jeopardize needed infrastructure improvements and cause the city to default on a $125 million state loan that was used to build a new sewer plant on Lakeville Highway.

If the city couldn’t pay the loan back with rate revenue, it would have to gut its already depleted General Fund at the expense of other city services, opponents said.

Moynihan and Measure K supporters disputed that scenario, but late in the campaign the city received a letter from state water officials warning that “all funds available” would be sought to collect on the loan if rates weren’t sufficient.

The sewer plant, which is nearly complete, is a key piece of the city’s plan to recycle wastewater for use in irrigating parks, playing fields and landscaping.

“I’m very, very happy that the voters were able to understand that what we did with that wastewater treatment facility is in the best interests of this community,” said former mayor David Glass, also a council winner.

Moynihan said Wednesday he was surprised by the result, expecting Measure K to win.

“We had felt from talking with people that there was a lot of support to keep the rates lower,” he said. “We felt it would pass very strongly.”

Petalumans for Fair Utility Rates gathered more than 1,900 signatures in support of the measure after the council adopted the new rates in January 2007.

That qualified the measure for Tuesday’s ballot after the council refused to adopt it outright, citing the impacts a rate rollback would have on the city’s budget.

A similar proposal, Measure L, passed in Rohnert Park, and Moynihan said the campaign there emphasized supporters’ contention that higher rates subsidize future development.

“We did not campaign in a similar manner” in Petaluma, he said.

Despite the loss, Moynihan said he hopes the city follows through on its pledge to examine the rates for possible reductions.

Petaluma’s water and wastewater rates are in the middle of the range of rates in Sonoma County cities, opponents noted during the campaign.

While some voters aren’t happy about the rates, “they recognized that K is not a reasonable solution,” Healy said.

(Contact Corey Young at corey.young@arguscourier.com)