The Citizens should Not have to bear the burden of Past and Current Mismanagement and Corruption.
On the Tuesday, April 17, 2018, Beaumont City Council Agenda, after the presentations and the SB 54 circus, is the Sewer Fee Increase without Voter Approval. The City has two Agenda Items referencing the Sewer Plant, Agenda Items 11 and 12.
Agenda Item 11: Sewer Expansion Update: https://beaumont.civicweb.net/document/13199/Item%2011.pdf?handle=E5641E8DE70745D18E1A9410CB4A4889
Agenda Item 11 Staff Report states: “Since November 2015, the WWTP’s flows have routinely exceeded the 75% threshold of 4.0 MGD design capacity.”
Yes, the Sewer Plant exceeded the 75% capacity threshold years ago, but Council hired Brian Knoll from Webb and Associates who forged reports and repeatedly lied about how Sewer Capacity is calculated.
Agenda Item 12: Sewer Fee Increase w/o Voter Approval: https://beaumont.civicweb.net/document/13200/Item%2012.pdf?handle=E737669369E141AA8E3AABA4EC6D73F9
The City Council hired NBS who created a study to “..ensure that the sewer rates adequately cover the costs of the WWTP Expansion/Renovation and Salt Mitigation Project.”
Page 3 of the Sewer Rate Study B. Key Assumptions: “Meeting Net Revenue Requirements – For FY 2018/2019 through FY 2022-2023, the projected net revenue requirement grows from $6.4 Million to $11.7 Million, annually.”
The City plans to almost double the Sewer Revenue and there’s only two ways; increase sewer fees or increase population.
Page 4 states: “The City is planning to use $84 Million from a revenue bond issue, and the remaining $16 Million needed is assumed to come from sewer capacity charges paid by new development upon the time of connection and rate revenue.”
The Study starts at zero and burdens most of the cost of the Sewer Plant Expansion and Salt Mitigation on the current/future Sewer Ratepayers. Extra fees and taxes collected from developers and ratepayers over the past decade are gone. Fees and taxes collected from developers and ratepayers over the past three years are gone. The additional Fees that are being charged for the sewer expansion on the current Sewer Bills is already gone.
The Sewer Expansion is estimated to be $50 Million. The only reason the Sewer needs to expand the sewer is to accommodate new houses and warehouses. This money should have been collected from the Developers and deposited into an Interest-Bearing Savings Account in preparation for the Expansion.
TO THIS DAY the City refuses to establish a separate bank account and continues to deposit Sewer Fees into the General Fund.
The City has also collected $5.7 Million additional sewer fees in the last five years with their illegal last sewer fee increase without voter approval, but that money is gone too. To quote Beaumont City Manager Todd Parton: “We spent it on other things.”
2001 Wastewater Bond Requisitions shows money transferred from Beaumont’s CFD Bonds to the Wastewater Bond, then paid out to ‘Urban Logic Consultants’: http://beaumontgate.org/beaumo…
In 2015 Citizens requested the City Council limit development until the government was under control, but the Council and Staff ignored the Citizens’ request. Instead of collecting the needed Mitigation Fees from the Developers, the City made ‘deals’.
For example; Heartland is constructing 1,000 houses, but only paid $3 Million total to the City in exchange for $12 Million worth of Mitigation Fees. The $3 Million money was deposited into the General Fund as ‘one-time revenue’ There are no mitigation fees to pay for the sewer capacity, roads, and other impacts that thousands more vehicles and people will have on the City.
The Warehouse Developers in the southwest side of Beaumont paid all of their mitigation fees for ‘Potrero’. There will be no additional fees paid for other roads, sewer capacity, or medical services when the excessive smog effects the citizens’ health.
The other $60 Million is for the Brine Line, which is a sick joke. The reason the City never joined the SARI Brine Line is because there is no Recycled Water Facility to produce Brine.
The Expansion doesn’t include a Recycled Water Facility, as Brian Knoll has repeatedly stated. Now Knoll claims the Expansion includes the Recycled Water Facility, but it does not.
In the last three years Beaumont Staff and Council have made a series of poor choices without considering the consequences. Council has ignored/attacked Citizens that knew the Staff was lying and Sewer Funds were being mismanaged. The Citizens should not have to bear the burden of past and current mismanagement and corruption.
After the Raids on April 22, 2015, the City Council had a chance to hire honest, qualified Staff and right the City. Instead the Council hired dishonest, unqualified people that continued the same corrupt practices.
Albert A. Webb and Associates has been paid $4 Million in the last three years through Beaumont’s two cash cows; the Sewer Plant and the CFDs. The ‘old Beaumont’ illegally charged an additional $6 Million in CFD Services Taxes. The ‘new Beaumont illegally charges $8 Million in CFD Services Taxes thanks to Webb and Associates’ willingness to forge the CFD Tax Rolls.
City Attorney John Pinkney knew nothing about Bond Laws and his only experience as a City Attorney was with a town of 3,000 people. Pinkney’s Law Firm has been paid $2.3 Million in the last three years PLUS the Taxpayers are paying for many other Law Firms including an $895/hr Lawyer to ‘fight the SEC’.
Council hired Urban Futures knowing they worked on bonds with Alan Kapanicas. Mike Busch/Urban Futures has been paid over $500,000 since the Raids to be the ‘Finance Advisor’.
On April 22, 2016 the Securities and Exchange Commission issued Subpoenas against the City of Beaumont, Beaumont Finance Authority, and the Community Facilities District: http://beaumontgate.org/news/sec-subpoenas-city-amid-investigation-into-its-finances/
On June 3, 2016 Council Approved paying $75,000 in Legal Fees for City Attorney Pinkney: http://www.ci.beaumont.ca.us/DocumentCenter/View/27646
Urban Futures was specifically named in the Subpoenas.
On August 16, 2016 Council Approved paying $75,000 in Legal Fees for Finance Advisor Urban Futures: http://www.ci.beaumont.ca.us/DocumentCenter/View/28041
Beaumont City Council Meeting Full Agenda April 17, 2018: https://beaumont.civicweb.net/Portal/MeetingInformation.aspx?Org=Cal&Id=180