June 13, 2008

Vice Mayor Cortese calls for Evergreen and Alviso residents to protest water bill

Vice Mayor Dave Cortese is reminding San Jose property owners who receive their water service through the Municipal Water System (MWS - this system primarily serves Evergreen and Alviso) that if they so desire, they can formally protest the proposed rate increase of up to 8.8%, which will go before the City Council on June 17, 2008.

Cortese maintains that the city’s historical practice of raising fees of MWS ratepayers and regularly transferring excess funds (at least 34 million dollars) collected from those fees to the General Fund is in violation of Proposition 218, which passed in 1996 and highly regulated the manner in which property-derived fees could be utilized. In 2003, Cortese succeeded in convincing the City to phase out transfers that were in contradiction to the permissible uses of ratepayer money. He said that before asking ratepayers to absorb another increase, the City should first go back to the excess collected funds, or utilize funds out of the rate stabilization fund, which Cortese asked to be created to protect property owners from exorbitant increases.

On May 1st, 2008, each property owner affected by the rate increase received in the mail an informational packet from the City of San Jose indicating how property owners can protest the proposed increase (information available in English, Spanish and Vietnamese). As a reminder, protests must be provided in writing and either:

- Mailed (or hand delivered) to: City of San Jose – Office of the City Clerk, 200 E. Santa Clara Street, San Jose, CA 95113, Attn: San Jose Municipal Water System Rate Increase

- Faxed to (408) 292-6207 (Attn: San Jose Municipal Water System Rate Increase)

- Emailed to waterrateprotest@sanjoseca.gov.

Protests must be received by the City by no later than June 17, 2008.

For more information, please contact (408) 535-4908.