Cover Letter to Chairman Doney:
January
18, 2018
Mr.
Richard Doney, Chairman
BWSD
Board of Directors
P.O.
Box 637
Bayview,
ID 83803-0637,
Dear
Mr. Doney,
I
am enclosing a revision of the letter I presented to the Board at the January
17, 2017 meeting.
It
came to my attention last evening that the service provider had charged $200.
per
hour for the 4 hour repair at the pump house vs the $250 per hour he had
charged for the water meter install.
I
would never knowingly provide inaccurate information to this Board or anyone
else
and I apologize for the error.
Sincerely,
Colleen
Dahlseid
PO
Box 642
Bayview,
ID 83803
January
17, 2018
Bayview
Water and Sewer District
Board
of Directors
I
would like some answers from this Board about the financial management of the
district.
The
figures I am quoting to you are taken from the reports and paid invoices you
have supplied in response to public records requests, they are your figures,
not mine.
As
you are aware, for the fiscal year ending November 30, 2017, the district had a
net operating loss of $67,186. The budget for this period had a projected
profit of $3,475. I realize that there
were some one-time, non-recurring expenses that contributed to that loss.
I would like to address the alarming, on-going
cost of water and sewer operations brought about by the transition from knowledgeable
employee-based operations to outside contractor operations. In addition to the $7,000 per month (plus
travel) that is paid to the 2 private contractors, you have expended $44,393
for water and sewer operations since August.
The resulting line item expense account for water and sewer operations
was over budget by $44,443 for the fiscal year ended November 30, 2017. I have listed the monthly costs below, based
on the district’s records:
) August 13,658.
) September
4,360.
) October 6,771.
) November
19,604.
For
anyone, wondering how these costs could have sky-rocketed, I will give you some
background. The former employees performed
most of the operational tasks, with the exception of excavating and tank
pumping; we now have an operator who answers the phone, at his convenience, and
calls outside service providers to perform the work.
Reid’s
annual cost to the district was $60,000, which equates to $28.85 per hour,
including medical. There was not any
overtime or travel and he was on-call 24/7.
Each
outside provider is being paid $125.00 an hour and the invoices I have
been provided indicate that 2 of them respond, not just one. That’s $250.00 an hour! We paid $2,500 to install one water
meter. The former employees would have
provided all the labor and the only additional cost would have been for
excavating. Based on previous records, the average cost to excavate for a meter
installation, was $300. In another instance, the district paid $200 per hour to
repair a leaking pipe at one of the pump
houses, for a total cost of $800.
Who,
on this board is approving these outrageous expenditures? The users of this
district want to know.
For
the 2018 fiscal year, which ends November 30, 2018, the board has budgeted $89,000 for the two (2) private contractors
plus an additional $68,000 for water and sewer operations. For the four month
period, between August 1st and November 30th, a total of
$44,393 has already been spent for water and sewer operations. This spending is
unsustainable and fiscally irresponsible.
On behalf of the
district user-base, I am petitioning this board to put a moratorium on all
spending except for mandatory costs to keep the district operating until such
time as this board adopts a revised budget for the fiscal year that
realistically projects costs, based on what is actually being expended under
your new contract based operations management.
This new budget process needs to happen now, not one month from now or 6
months from now.
We, the users of the district are the
folks who will have to pay the deficits being created here. I might add, this will be in addition to the
100% increase in the monthly water rates that is being contemplated by this
board in their preliminary LOI provided to DEQ regarding projected improvements
to the water system.
Our
other issue with this board, is Service.
The employee based operations management system actually provided us
with service 24/7. Now, the private
contractor answers service calls at his convenience, even during normal
business hours, and then calls a service provider who comes, if and when, they
want to.
Ask
Charlene Soppit how her service was with a broken pipe on Christmas Eve.
We
want an answer to how this board intends to stop deficit spending and provide
service to the district’s user base.
Sincerely,
Colleen
Dahlseid
