Honesty points won’t buy water officials many future excuses

The two members of the Southern Nevada Water Authority said Friday they didn’t fully understand the ramifications of their previous votes increasing surcharges on water bills.

“Clearly I had no idea this was going to impact churches and nonprofits,” Sisolak said. “We have to make an adjustment to accommodate or there’s no doubt in my mind we’ll put some small businesses out of business.”

Bateman concurred: “I’m not sure I fully understood that some businesses would be so significantly impacted.”

The obvious question: Why not?

They both said they didn’t think they were misled by water officials, but Bateman said the decision was rushed, and the three options should have been studied longer.

“At the end of the day, we did not have a lot of time to understand the options, and as a regional board, we have to rely on what the water authority is giving us,” Bateman said. The board learned of the surcharge proposal in December and voted in March.

Sisolak said he focused more on the $5 residential fee increases more than the commercial increases proposed to pay for the water authority’s construction debt.

The surcharge will be tweaked, both officials predicted.

It can’t be fixed fast enough for David Carter, owner of Carter Powersports, who wrote Sisolak: “My most recent water bill came in at a whopping $874.23. Of that, $39.64 was for the water we used. $834.59 went for the privilege of being connected to the system.”

The surcharge is based on the number and size of water lines serving each property, and commercial properties have large but seldom-used water lines feeding fire hydrants and fire sprinkler systems known as fire lines and fire meters.

Vicki Paulbick wrote commissioners that her family owns three professional buildings with fire lines and fire meters. Those infrastructure charges have increased between 188 percent and 308 percent monthly. “Over the next three years, this new tax will cost us over $60,000,” she said. “This egregious infrastructure tax may very well be the final nail in the coffin for many of our small businesses.”

Along with businesses, churches and charities have said they can’t absorb the increases.

The Las Vegas Chamber of Commerce tried to sound the alarm earlier, predicting some businesses would see increases of 80 percent. When water bills arrived in May, that estimate was low.

Did water officials mislead the officials?

“I don’t think anybody misled me, but they didn’t give me all the information I needed,” said Sisolak, head of the Las Vegas Valley Water District board.

“Whether or not our efforts were sufficient, that’s a subjective thing,” Southern Nevada Water Authority spokesman J.C. Davis said Friday. “We made our best effort to make sure the board had a complete enough analysis to make an informed decision.”

He said a report by Hobbs Ong & Associates gave specific dollar and percentage examples of how the surcharge would increase fees to various classes of customers.

“I sure don’t remember it being pointed out it would be that big an increase,” Sisolak said in response.

I obtained the 154-page rate analysis report and, told where to look, saw that under the various options for 31 classes of water users, the highest increases the largest percentage rate increase would be 71 percent or 81 percent for commercial buildings. Nowhere did I see a 200 percent or 300 percent increase predicted.

This is fixable. What is done can be undone.

However, it must be a solution without additional unanticipated consequences. The refreshingly honest “I didn’t fully understand” excuse only works once or twice.

Jane Ann Morrison’s column appears Monday, Thursday and Saturday. Email her at Jane@reviewjournal.com or call her at (702) 383-0275. She also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/Morrison