About the Cambria Community Services District

It seems there are many fewer Cambrians keeping a close watch on the CCSD our finances. Last year there were a few dozen of us meeting on a regular basis, analyzing the annual audit, expenditures and spending policies and keeping the district on its toes. This Thursday, the Board will be receiving the annual audit (a copy of which is available on the CCSD website for download). It looks as if March or April will bring fuller discussion  of rate increase specifics and possible changes in spending and procurement policies. You can bet your bottom dollar Cambria is likely to be looking at a serious jump in water and sewer rates.

I’ve been updating the expenditures spreadsheets each month as the expenditure reports are published. You can view the spreadsheets online at editgrid.com or download them to read in a few different formats, including Excel. Click below to view the FY 2008-09 sheets. FY 2006-07 (partial) and 2007-08 are available at the Cambria workspace of editgrid.com

 

I started the worksheets to track specific expenses I’ve found of interest. Specifically, you’ll be able to view fiscal year spending for Pine Knolls Tanks-related expenses, for internet service and computer tech support (mostly through Innovative Concepts), details for independent (and indespensible) contractor Davidson Associates, rebates paid for retrofitting with a low flow toilet or clothes washer, and many of the expenditures made for SCADA, desal, BRP and the water master plan.

My worksheets aren’t complete, but I tried to catch anything related to the issues mentioned above. My top two questions on specific expenditures and policies this month:

1. What is included in the cost we pay for Broadband services? Water, Wastewater, Administration, Fire Department and Property Management each pay around $840.00 monthly for broadband – that is a total of $4,250.00 each and every month for the District’s internet connectivity. That amount could be justified, depending upon what is included and whether it is needed for the District to do its business.
2. The contract proposed for the new District Counsel sets a base of 40 hours of service monthly, with provisions for additional hours billed at a couple of specific rates. I’m concerned that we may use 40 hours of legal services every month (and possibly more) for the term of the contract.  Why does the district think this will be appropriate?

There are a few policy issues that need to be addressed too, but I’ll save them until after this next meeting.

One can hardly engage a conversation of any length about desalination without tripping upon the “Santa Barbara Desal in mothballs” cautionary tale.  Not every community using or chasing desalinated water to save it from dehydration has the same set of challenges Cambria is facing. In fact, I’m hard pressed to find any yet planned to serve a land area and population even close to Cambria’s. This doesn’t mean there aren’t lessons to be learned from other communities facing water limitations. Since the “Santa Barbara tale” seems to come up so frequently, a brief primer in the facts (as presented by the City of Santa Barbara) could be useful. We should at least make sure our facts are right. Of course, the City of Santa Barbara has reason to spin the story a bit to save face.  In spite of this, I found their description of their desalination plant and their water supply planning helpful.  But don’t just take my word for it, you should evaluate it for yourself.

Read about Santa Barbara’s Desal Plant here.

Being a former Teacher of English and graduate of the California State University system, I must offer Cambrians (whether you say Came-bri-ans or Câm-bri-ans) a pronunciation correction.

According to the Last Word in Words, YourDictionary.com, potable is one of the 100 most frequently mispronounced words. So there’s no reason to feel alone in your mispronunciation of a word used so frequently.

And, until now, no apologies needed.

Now, let’s just say it correctly.

You should say Câmbria – rhymes with Sangria (sort of) and “potable” rhymes with “notable”. Potable and Potion share the same origin, and not many of us say paw-shun, do we?

Yourdictionary.com says this:

Click here to “Hear” the correct pronunciation for potable.

For a glossary of water terms, check out this Texas-based site.