City of Chico and County of Butte have applied for “party” status in Cal Water rate increase case – doesn’t “being a party” to something imply you helped pull it off?

I finally got around to writing a letter about the city and the county filing for “Party” status in the Cal Water rate hike. I don’t want to be mean, but you probably feel same – when somebody is a “party” to something, that usually means they helped pull it off. If Chico city council and Butte board of supervisors want any respect out of me (especially after that juvenile remark Doug Teeter made about the protests of his raising his own salary), they need to get off the pot and fight this rate increase.

Here’s what Kern County supervisors were up to while Butte County supes were mulling over their own pay raises:

https://chicotaxpayers.com/2015/09/23/kern-county-supervisors-vote-to-formally-oppose-cal-water-rate-hike-what-are-our-local-elected-officials-doing-about-it/

I post my letters to the editor here in hopes some of you will do same:

Cal Water has applied for another rate increase, as well as consolidation of Chico District with Oroville, Willows and Marysville (CPUC Rate Case A.15-07-015). This consolidation means Chicoans will pay for long-needed repairs in those other districts because the CPUC determined that previous rate hikes proposed for those districts were too onerous. 

These rate hikes are really related to Cal Water’s pension liability, which they will not discuss without a court order.  Cal Water management employees receive “defined benefits” plans for which they pay nothing out of salaries exceeding $100,000/year. 

Both the city of Chico and county of Butte have applied for “Party” status in this proceeding.  “Party” means, they will receive e-mail updates on this case. “Intervenor” status means a formal protest. 

When I looked into applying for Intervenor status, I found this is an onerous process that requires legal counseling.  You have to write your application in legal format, and the smallest error will send it to the round file.  They even expect you to appear at hearings in San Francisco, at your own expense. 

 I’m not a lawyer and don’t have money for the expense related to this process. City and county staff are qualified and more than adequately compensated for this kind of work. 

If you think your water bills are already high, wait til this rate increase kicks in. Write to your city council and board of supervisors now and ask them to stand up to this rip-off.