Superior Alternatives to Measure U
SLVWD ratepayers can recognize the severe problems with Measure U and still legitimately be unsatisfied with the current state of affairs. What alternatives might our community consider pursuing?
First and foremost, we need our community to come together so we can address these challenges from a position of shared understanding rather than selective outrage. SLVWD ultimately answers to all of us via its elected Board of Directors. It is in our collective interest to vote for Directors who will provide the most responsible oversight on our behalf. As a general principle of good governance, we are far more likely to get well-informed results from a dedicated set of public servants than from a citizen’s initiative that forces the public to vote on an arbitrary intervention into the District’s operation.
Secondly, our community needs to communicate to our elected representatives that even as we understand the forces outside of our control that are driving up our water rates, we still want Board members to be as resourceful as possible in keeping water affordable for all residents. California has formally recognized access to safe, reliable, and affordable water as a basic human right. As yet, however, the State has been slow to provide adequate funding to follow through on this commitment. In the absence of external funding, it falls to SLVWD to innovative as much as possible in finding ways to minimize the burden on our lowest-income community members.
The SLVWD Board did, in fact, commit to increasing its Ratepayer Assistance Program monthly benefit in conjunction with the new rate structure. However, this did not come close to compensating for the substantial increase in rates, and it remains possible that the Board could do even more on this front. Unlike Measure U, this would at least be a constructive direction for the Board to continue to explore.