Sunday, May 13, 2018

[San Mateo County] GCSD adds newsletter for ratepayers

Blog note: this article references a 2016 grand jury report with regard to sewage collection and agreement agencies were efficient and beneficial to residents.
About 2,200 Granada Community Services District ratepayers can expect a new newsletter in their mailbox near the end of the month.
On April 19, the district board took action to streamline its communications with the community, discussing potential changes to the management of its website, social media and other outreach channels.
The board moved to draft new bylaws to be considered at a later date, as well as allocate up to $6,000 for a quarterly Parks Advisory Committee newsletter to be designed, printed and mailed.
“The advisory is looking to do a quarterly newsletter, which I think is a good idea,” General Manager Chuck Duffy said. “We’re looking at doing the first one as a paper copy, which I also think is a good idea, to alert people that we exist, this is what we do, and if you’re interested in more information, you can go to granada.ca.us.gov.”
Through the newsletter, the board aims to communicate meeting and program updates, as well as other initiatives as determined by staff.
“We need to make sure we’re getting out to the community because we’re going to be having so much happening in the year ahead,” board member Barbara Dye said. “We’ll figure this all out. This is high priority.”
Before the community services district’s conversion from being strictly a sanitary district in 2014, it had a newsletter called “The Main Line.”
“I thought it was kind of cute,” Dye said of the name.
“We’re kind of segueing from being a sewer district,” Duffy said, “So maybe we should think about changing the name ‘Main Line,’ because people will interact with us more as a parks agency.”
Board member David Seaton said that previously the board had some heated discussions, and some members said that newsletters were a waste of money because “no one reads them and they just go in the trash.” But Seaton argued they could help fulfill an important function.
He pointed to a 2016 San Mateo County civil grand jury report that sought to determine whether sewage collection and treatment agencies were efficient and beneficial for San Mateo County residents.
“Its conclusion is that it is emphatically not. San Mateo’s cottage industry of sanitary districts fails in three important ways — public accountability, fiscal responsibility and operational competence,” the report said.
Recommended measures included mailing notices to ratepayers regarding the rationale behind service charges, as well as encouraging active participation in district board activities and notice of how to become a candidate. Seaton said the newsletters might be an appropriate venue for these messages.
“We can say, once a year (in that newsletter), we are meeting that threshold that they’re asking for notification to the public,” Seaton said.
The board will consider how to best distribute the newsletter online soon. In the meantime, stay apprised of Granada Community Services District activities at granada.ca.gov.
May 9, 2018
Half Moon Bay Review
By Sara Hayden


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