Water Users and Board Agree to Better Communication

–by Margie Doyle —

Board calls for Membership Meeting on Dec. 8 from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the Eastsound Fire Hall—

At the Nov. 18 meeting of the Eastsound Water Users Board, a group calling themselves the Concerned EWUA Members met with the EWUA Manager Paul Kamin, Board President Brian Ehrmantraut, and Vice-President John MacLeod. EWUA Board member Bob Connell participated by phone; board members Bill Burlew and Patrick Shepler were absent.

The Concerned EWUA group had selected representatives to speak to the EWUA Board regarding implementation of policies that requires properties with guesthouses, RVs, and any other accessory dwelling units (ADUs) to purchase an additional one-half membership with EWUA.

The one-half membership would require a sub-meter and result in an additional monthly base rate. The one-time membership fee of either $3,000 if contracted before Dec. 31, 2014, or $6,000 after. EWUA management had written members that out-of-compliance properties would be subject to penalties and threat of disconnection from Eastsound Water.

Mary Anne Owen, on behalf of the Concerned EWUA member, asked that:

• the initiative be suspended for six months;
• there be a review of the EWUA rate structure to encourage conservation and to be based on usage;
• communication of the EWUA Board with transparency and accountability be restored.

She described the decision to implement the Guest House compliance policy by Dec. 31 as “sudden,” and said the group was prepared to call a Special Meeting.

Klein said that, perhaps because the Eastsound Water system works so well, there is a lack of member participation, The current controversy, he suggested, was a result of “not having member participation and a lack of public engagement.

“As a consequence,” Klein said, “the board and staff have brought an initiative that affects members with different rates, with dramatically different results. High users will see their rates go own. On the other hand, those who practice conservation and limit their own usage to preserve a scarce resource, will see charges go up by 50% month by month into the future.

“That just isn’t fair…. and could be addressed if the board were willing to increase member participation in its decision-making and elections.”

Klein added that the county deals with “a lot more factors than water consumption” in its definition of a second dwelling or guest house.” We are asking the Board to act tonight to postpone the date of implementation [of compliance regulations for ADUs]. If the board is unwilling to postpone that date, we are asking the board to release tonight a list of members to solicit participation in a special meeting.”

Susan Malins was also asked by the Concerned EWUA members to speak to the board; she deferred her closing remarks on behalf of the group until after the board had voted on the primary recommendation — formally requesting a delay in implementation of the 12/31/14 deadline of six months.

In Board consideration of the matter, MacLeod emphasized that the “guest house initiative” was only a new policy in that members were being offered a 50% discount if they signed on to purchase the additional half-membership by Dec. 31. Payment would not be required until May, 2015, and could be made incrementally from that date, Kamin said.

The group also attempted to pin down the definition of an “Accessory Dwelling Unit” or ADU and it was emphasized that all three of the following elements must be present for a structure to be labeled an ADU. It must:

• be a separate building
• have a kitchen (cooking facilities)
• have a bathroom (toilet facilities)

The board clarified that if a signed agreement to comply with the ADU water membership regulations could not be found in its records, members would not be required to purchase the additional half-membership. They emphasized that they were trying to bring all members into compliance with their agreements in a reasonable period of time. They noted that the requirement has been in the EWUA by-laws for 34 years, and that the state was now pressuring them to achieve compliance. Kamin said the board wanted to achieve that “in advance of the 2016 water plan.”

Kamin set out the procedure for collecting the membership fees:

• apply for the additional half-membership by Dec. 31
• vote to authorize the sale of the memberships in January
• notify those who will be upgraded on February 1
• set up plans to make payment plan: which may be all of the amount, or $1500 initially and then $800 on the first anniversary and $8000 on the second anniversary.

In addition, Kamin said, affected members could develop an alternative payment plan, subject to approval by the board.

Following that discussion, the Board members in attendance voted to maintain the Dec. 31, 2014 date for sign-ups for water-memberships at the reduced rate.

The Concerned Users’ representatives also requested that the Board review EWUA’s rate structure. “We believe that water conservation should be encouraged, and that rates should be based more on actual usage than on the number of ERUs assigned to a property. This would also result in a fairer distribution of charges,” said Klein.

Ehrmantruat said that the review of rates and compliance with water membership regulations were two separate matters. Kamin elaborated: “We can’t build a reliable rate structure until we know how many ERU (equivalent residental units) we’re serving.”

MacLeod said that the current rate structure had been implemented after much discussion about various ways to implement rates in light of usage, “With the current base rate, everybody pays for 88 percent of the cost of the system.

“This is the best system we’ve come up with, but I’m not saying it can’t be better.”

Ehrmantraut said the tiered conservation program resulted in additional ERUs (Equivalent Residential Units — a way of metering water consumption) with no extra cost to the EWUA system’s infrastructure. MacLeod asked Kamin to create some models and comparisons of different rate systems for the Dec. 8 meeting.

Last, the Concerned Users’ group said “communications from the EWUA management and Board to the membership suggest a lack of transparency. We would like to restore transparency and accountability in our membership association. We want to be better informed as members and we want to improve communication between the association members and the Board.”

Klein advised the EWUA Board, “The conversations you talk about all the time has resulted in some people with modest usage see their bills go up and heavy users see their rates reduced. The culture of the association has changed for a time when conservation was not encouraged.” He asked that there be “more open conversation about the things you’ve already talked about.”

Susan Malins asked the board to acknowledge that it now has “a great opportunity to have EWUA membership be involved. Because you have most of the knowledge and the membership is uninformed, the six-month period to have discussions goes a long way towards a solution.”

John MacLeod said, “Communication from our standpoint could have been handled differently.” Still, the board cited various mailings and annual meeting announcements that had apparently gone unread, as “no one attends our meetings.”

While Board Members and Manager Paul Kamin said that they had foregone annual member meetings in the past because of poor attendance, Fred Klein said that the recent controversy about additional half-memberships for accessory dwelling units might have been avoided had the EWUA board communicated better to its members.

The EWUA Board agreed to email any “reasonable” message to all membership in support of the calling for a Special Meeting of the Membership in accordance with the EWUA Bylaws.