Blog comment: this is a great opening question.
Who wouldn't want to pay the same price for tap water for 34 years?
Such is the case for 189 homeowners in unincorporated Riverdale Park Tract, nestled in a bend of the Tuolumne River southwest of Modesto. And it's not a good thing because the community's water agency is quickly running out of money, civil grand jurors decided in a blistering report on the water board, officially known as the Riverdale Park Tract Community Services District.
The apparently dysfunctional board "must consider increasing rates immediately to keep this service district solvent," reads the Stanislaus County civil grand jury report. The monthly water rate of only $25 has not gone up since the agency was formed in 1984, the grand jury found, and a savings account is quickly dwindling.
The report doesn't spell out why the water price hasn't been raised. But passages like this provide an indication: "Personality conflicts dominate each meeting, making it nearly impossible to accomplish the simplest of required meeting tasks."
The grand jury found that the Riverdale agency wasn't posting meeting agendas or providing minutes from previous meetings, both violations of the Brown Act, California's open-meetings law. With no bylaws to govern procedure, Riverdale board meetings are "chaotic," grand jurors found, reporting "screaming arguments," "outbursts and interruptions."
"A tumultuous board environment requir(es) a security guard be present to prevent physical altercations between board members," says the recently released report.
The document carries this ominous subtitle: "Is Modesto City Water in Riverdale's Future?" Nowhere in the report do grand jurors explain what that might mean.
The average Modesto homeowner pays more than twice Riverdale's monthly fee of $25.
In November, board members told The Modesto Bee they were facing bankruptcy and were exploring asking Modesto to take over the task of providing tap water to Riverdale. Some described a serious power struggle, with some board members refusing to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.
"It's all in an uproar," board member Rudy Caro said in November. Incredibly, Caro at the time had just run for seats in two separate small-district elections, with both ending in a tie.
The other agency whose board Caro sits on is the Burbank-Paradise Fire District — also targeted last month for a scathing review by the grand jury. Problems with the fire board are so bad that it should dissolve without quick improvement, grand jurors found.
Twice last year, sheriff's deputies were called to fire board meetings to settle fierce arguments between board members, that report said.
Caro and his wife, Diana Culwell-Caro, each sit on both the fire board and the water board. The fire agency pays its board members nothing, while the water agency pays members $100 per board meeting, plus extra for taking care of water service emergencies.
The Caros did not return phone messages on Wednesday and Thursday. Nor did Riverdale's Cathy Gatewood, listed as the water agency's point of contact in a county directory; messages left with Gatewood asking for comment from water board chairwoman Linda Nunes and board members Kelly Murphy and Duane Shugart went unanswered as well.
In the grand jury's fire report, Burbank-Paradise officials said they were advised it's not illegal for a married couple to serve on the fire board. The grand jury's water board report does not address the legality of the Riverdale situation, but concluded that "nepotism exists."
The water board must increase rates, obtain training for board members, adopt bylaws, create a conflict of interest policy, establish a website and post agendas, grand jurors recommend.
June 21, 2018
The Modesto Bee
By Garth Stapley
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