Richard Bunck for Town Council 2014 (September 29, 2014)
A message from Richard
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[…] For too long, Apple Valley residents have been gouged by our water providers. As your town council member I will put an end to these unnecessary rate increases and raise the quality of service.
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Source: https://www.richardbunck.com
Water Rates
Publicly regulated utilities are a disaster. For profit companies who can get guaranteed pricing from un-elected political appointees. The public hearings thus far have been a joke. The companies will get the rate increase that they wanted and only then will they have a public hearing about it. The companies have guaranteed monopolies and they swindle the public in plain sight.
If the town of Apple Valley bought Rancho Water Co, if it even could happen, could lead to even higher rates. Municipal utilities are not known for their low rates. The entities with lowest rates are consumer owned utility corporations, also known as mutual utilities.
These exist in California. They have elective governing boards.
I think that we need a panel of citizens from Apple Valley, from varying backgrounds, to look into the possible approaches to relieving the burden of extravagant rates on Apple valley residents. We need to get creative and maybe even join forces with citizens from other cities who face the same issue of excessive water rates, to lobby for deregulation or take other actions.
The town government can help the rate payers, not by blocking, but rather by allowing creative solutions. There are a lot of smart people in Apple Valley. We need to enlist their talents to solve this issue. It can be solved if we have a can-do,
not a can’t-do
approach.
Source: https://www.richardbunck.com/issues/