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Will EBMUD (and other water districts) lower their rates now that we're not in drought..

Climber

Climber

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Jul 13, 2004
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Clovis/Fresno
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01 Goldwing GL1800
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Brett
Or will they just keep the rates elevated (100% higher than 10 years ago) and give themselves large pay increases?

Thoughts?
 
"Once the bridge is paid for....."
Next question.
I actually heard them say on the news just yesterday: "Despite the wet January, we are still in a drought".
Don't shoot the messenger.
 
Was talking to a fellow down south that recently had a $300 water bill. Just a 60yo couple in their average size home, no pool, no lawn, no gardening, though I did see a hot tub. The endlessly growing desert population will always need more and more water, which means the state will always effectively be in a drought.
 
We are still, utterly and absolutely in drought. A few weeks of rain changes nothing. Ca groundwater supplies are at their lowest levels ever, and will take generations to resupply, IF they ever do, due to collapsing subsoil structures.

CA is a semi arid desert and never meant to support the current footprint.
 
afm199 said:
We are still, utterly and absolutely in drought. A few weeks of rain changes nothing. Ca groundwater supplies are at their lowest levels ever, and will take generations to resupply, IF they ever do, due to collapsing subsoil structures.

CA is a semi arid desert and never meant to support the current footprint.
Click to expand...
Fuck that! We Need More Skyscrapers! :twofinger
 
I swear someday we'll see lower income people towing ibc tanks on little harbor freight trailers heading up the hill to pump it from various lakes and streams.
 
So here is the thing. EBMUD and other water agencies make their money from selling water to you and I. During the drought (which we are still in) they asked all of us to conserve water and we did. So much so that they had something like a 31 million dollar budget shortfall.

So no, I wouldn't expect them to lower your rates.
 
Brokenlink said:
So here is the thing. EBMUD and other water agencies make their money from selling water to you and I. During the drought (which we are still in) they asked all of us to conserve water and we did. So much so that they had something like a 31 million dollar budget shortfall.

So no, I wouldn't expect them to lower your rates.
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Between 2012 and 2017 they went from 16 people $180k or more to 29 people $180k or more. Meanwhile, the general manager base salary went from $230k to $291k.
 
afm199 said:
CA is a semi arid desert and never meant to support the current footprint.
Click to expand...

End of story. Anything to try to support otherwise has been half baked bullshit, and living on borrowed time.

If there is a hell, I hope Mulholland and others are burning.
 
Brokenlink said:
So here is the thing. EBMUD and other water agencies make their money from selling water to you and I. During the drought (which we are still in) they asked all of us to conserve water and we did. So much so that they had something like a 31 million dollar budget shortfall.

So no, I wouldn't expect them to lower your rates.
Click to expand...

Like the term in any hi-profile divorce, the executives and middle management cannot be deprived of the "manner to which they are accustomed to." Water might come free from space but those suckers still want early retirement, huge pensions and fat livin' now (don't we all, really??).. And the longer an entity exists, the more fat and waste multiplies. So no, no matter how much we conserve, they will continue to raise rates and pay themselves. And stick all that bullshit in my monthly bill to convince me they are doing good for society, rather than doing well for themselves. Even if you go non-profit, you still have the phenomena of executive compensation but at least shareholders don't have to get quarterlies. That's my deal with PGE. They will still have high mucky-mucks but at least if there exists a directive to be not-profit-driven, it MIGHT help. On the surface, EBMUD seems fairly benevolent, but who knows...

I work for a non-profit corp that felt compelled to get in the high compensation game. They gave the CEO a $40K xmas bonus while the rest of us got our $100 Target cards. This year, in my evaluation, my boss was ordered to lower the numerical scale rating of our work so we don't look so good so there will be no January merit bonueses, which I have gotten for five years in a row. Hey, I appreciated that I got em in the past and never expected it but it was a nice addition to the Target card. Whatever...
 
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Junkie said:
1000 people living in a skyscraper use significantly less water than 1000 people living in single family homes
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That's a bit like saying that the world can support 10 billion more people if we just build properly.

The best thing that could happen to planet earth is a massive influenza epidemic that destroys 3/4 of the population and sets the economy and civilization back 100 years.
 
Climber said:
Between 2012 and 2017 they went from 16 people $180k or more to 29 people $180k or more. Meanwhile, the general manager base salary went from $230k to $291k.
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Dude, don't even get me fucking started on that fucking place. I left a high paying consulting gig to take a 40% pay cut to work at EBMUD. You see, I applied for a job that would have paid nearly as much as I made previously, but instead of hiring me (ranked #1 through the second interview), they hired the entry level guy with 3 years of experience (I had 15) because that's how they do it. I was told "Hey, his job is opening and we will have another senior position in a year and since we always hire from inside, you'll get that job."

Two and a half years later, the new budget came out. No new positions. Why? The motherfucking drought and exactly what I said before. "Kind of hard to justify another senior when we are 31 million dollars in the red. Besides, we have two now" (one of which I spent two years training to do his job).

So I packed my bags and am back consulting again. My former coworker? The guy with a total of five years experience in the field. Yeah he makes more than me with full government benefits and a pension.

That place can fuck right off. I have never seen a place where money was spent on shit they didn't need. We had a $4,000 drone. I was the only one to use it, and that was just for fun. We had an infra-red camera for one guy's (the same coworkers) iPhone. cost like 500 bucks. It's still never been used. We bought trail cameras to replace our trail cameras that were 1 year old. We bought new waders every six months whether we needed them or not. We literally had a pile of about 30 pairs of totally functional waders that we didn't use. Couldn't donate them because paperwork.

I have no love for EBMUD. But the answer is still the same. They won't lower your rates, ever.
 
afm199 said:
That's a bit like saying that the world can support 10 billion more people if we just build properly.

The best thing that could happen to planet earth is a massive influenza epidemic that destroys 3/4 of the population and sets the economy and civilization back 100 years.
Click to expand...


I friggin love you man.
 
A Malthusian disaster won't repair the environmental damage we've already done, and will probably make it even harder for the remaining people to survive in a warming world and no technological prospects to tackle it.
 
CoorsLight said:
A Malthusian disaster won't repair the environmental damage we've already done, and will probably make it even harder for the remaining people to survive in a warming world and no technological prospects to tackle it.
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:party
 
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