Wednesday night’s meeting of the Joshua Basin Water District was dominated by discussion of NextEra Energy’s efforts to secure water for their proposed solar plant in Joshua Tree. And as important as that is, the board dispatched a handful of other items as well. Reporter Mike Lipsitz breaks it down in part 2 of his report …
Water district directors unanimously approved extension of a joint study with the U.S. Geological Survey, and authorized new job descriptions for a human resources/contract administrator and executive assistant to fill vacant positions. Director Robert Johnson opposed. A resolution aimed at incorporating changes to transitional and inactive meter charges drew harsh criticism by a couple ratepayers who spoke passionately about what they considered inconsistent application and enforcement. Without question, some particularly obscure rules with significant financial impacts have been unevenly applied at worst and inadequately explained at best. For the ratepayers affected, the net outcome was loss of service and/or meters that they’d been paying on for years. From their perspective, the District was changing rules midrace, and their arguments did not seem unreasonable. Director Mike Reynolds agreed and in the end, the resolution passed with Reynolds the lone opposing vote. For its part, the district offered to meet individually to try to work out the differences.
JOSHUA BASIN WATER: PART 2 – NEW JOBS AND METER CHARGES
