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"What's in the paper is false?"Read for yourself and decide
by Jay O'Brien
At the Rio Linda/Elverta Community Water District (RLECWD) Board meeting June 19th, the accuracy of information previously published in The NEWS was questioned by an audience member and then by two remaining members of the so called "Reform Board".
Resident Henry Bafia, during the "public comment" item on the agenda, questioned The NEWS' stated cost to hire an interim General Manager to run the District until a new General Manager could be recruited. The NEWS article to which Bafia refers, published on June 15, 2006, included this statement: "...the cost to hire a temporary General Manager while recruitment proceeds could be as much as $94 per hour, or $16,000/month, if a temporary employee service is used to pay the temporary manager."
Bafia asked Board President Darrell Nelson, "Is that what he gets paid a month? That was quoted in the newspaper? Are these prices accurate that are quoted in the newspaper?"
Nelson responded, "I don't read the paper. I don't know... You'll have to talk to the General Manager about that."
Bafia continued, "I was just curious. The general manager's going to make sixteen thousand dollars a month?" Nelson replied, "I doubt that. Talk to the General Manager about that."
RLECWD Director Mary Harris, who recruited members to the original "Reform Board" interjected, "What's in the paper is false. That information is false."
Harris was wrong. What was in The NEWS was not false. In seconds the truth would come out, from the General Manager.
Bafia replied, "I think maybe the Board should start reading this newspaper. I mean if they're publishing figures here and they're telling the public they're spending these outrageous sums of money, it's making you guys look bad."
"We've got no control of the local newspaper. Freedom of the press", responded Nelson.
Bafia bristled, "At least you can complain to them, right? This is bad publicity."
"That's life.", said Board President Nelson.
"Ninety-four dollars an hour you're paying the new General Manager?", asked Bafia.
General Manager Dave Andres then spoke up and provided the facts. Andres said, "Well, we're paying ninety an hour, is what we're paying." Andres continued, "In defense of our interim, he's not getting all that either. The firm that's representing him is getting paid that."
To recap, our article in The NEWS said "as much as $94 per hour". However, the actual cost is, according to Andres, only $90/hour. The $90 doesn't include the RLECWD costs for a furnished apartment and travel reimbursement for the Interim General Manager.
RLECWD Director Zack Arbios compared the cost to the shop cost for repair of a quality import vehicle. Arbios said, "If I'm paying my General Manager less than I'm paying my mechanic, I think that's a win."
Remaining members of the "Reform Board", Harris and Nelson, continue to misstate facts. A previous example was at their January Board meeting, when Nelson stated that their changes to benefits would save RLECWD $186,000 over the next 15 years. The NEWS, through a written public records request in January, asked the District to provide the facts upon which Nelson's statement was based, and the calculations used to derive the amounts stated by Nelson. General Manager Dave Andres, by telephone on February 22nd, after diligent research, told The NEWS, "There are no facts available to give you to support this claim."
Also at the January meeting, Board President Nelson reacted to the disclosure by The NEWS in January of the $43,616.94 his Board spent in the ten months tenure of the Reform Board's special counsel for health and benefit matters. Nelson stated that a previous Board had spent $436,898.19 in legal fees over its four year term. Apparently Nelson was attempting to justify his Board's legal expenses by comparison.
The NEWS, again using a written public records request, asked for the details upon which Nelson based his $436,898.19 claim. Based on the information received from RLECWD as a result of our request, Nelson's figure was nearly $84,000 low!
The actual amount spent on legal fees by that previous Board was $520,442.17. Of this, $348,586.19 was spent on the Boyle lawsuit; the settlement received by that legal action paid all of the legal fees and then some. Also included was $37,664.11 paid to the law firm that represented RLECWD in dealings with Florida Power and Light (FPL) over the proposed power plant; FPL reimbursed those costs.
Remaining, and actually paid by RLECWD, was only the cost of the General Counsel, who was at that time McDonough, Holland and Allen (MHA). The MHA total was $134,191.87 over four years, or an average of $2796/month. Compare that to the $73,187 the Reform Board has spent with their special counsel, Chiurazzi and Stubbs, in only 15 months. That's $4879/month for the Reform Board's lawyers, in addition to the General Counsel costs for the same time period.
It's time to re-form the Reform Board. Maybe then the Directors will read The Rio Linda Elverta NEWS, as aptly suggested by Mr. Bafia.
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