Taking the profit out of water delivery (July 10, 2015)

Apple Valley Town council member Scott Nassif’s recent letter reiterates the claim that once the Town takes over Apple Valley Ranchos water Company, eliminating the 9-plus percent profits and other corporate costs will more than offset the millions of dollars needed to complete the transaction (It’s about rate stabilization, Daily Press, July 9, 2015).

This statement seems to indicate that Nassif had as little success gaining access to the Environmental Impact Report recently commissioned by the Town relative to the proposed takeover, as members of the general public who were asked to comment on it sight unseen.

Now that the EIR is finally available, we can see that it reads in part:

There are several options for management of the system including, but not limited to […] management by a private contractor hired by the Town, […] or management by a qualified public agency.

Certainly no businessman as successful as Nassif would believe for a moment that a private contractor is going to work for free? Certainly neither would he believe that a qualified public agency is going to take on the operation of Apple Valley’s water utility at no charge? Yet this new report echoes Town staff’s representations at the April 28th water meeting, which offered these same three options.

We already have a private contractor running the water utility in Apple Valley, and given the excellent job they’ve done for the last 65 years, it strains credulity that some other entity is going to come in and do a better job.

Greg Raven is Co-Chair of Apple Valley Citizens for Government Accountability, and is concerned about quality of life issues.