Candidate for
Director; Otay Water District; Division 1

If you live in the Otay Water District you have seen your water rates rise over the last 3 years. Now, if we do not do anything we will see an additional 80% increase over the next 5 years! Our families and small businesses cannot afford it.

The current board leadership just voted to spend $1.5 million dollars on the salary of the General Manager and his 5 person staff. The current board leadership approves of $250,000 for a lobbyist, the only water board in the county to employ a lobbyist. The current board leadership approves of an undisclosed amount of our money vanishing over the border into Mexico for a project with no accountability.

Desalination Plant

The Otay Water Board wants to fund a desalination plant across the border in Mexico with our money. We have to ask why would the small, 49,000 hook-up Otay Water District fund a multi-million dollar project in Mexico--providing the project is actually ever built, and the money doesn't simply evaporate-- to produce water that will not come back to the Otay Water District? We are paying for all of this, and will continue to pay even more via the 80% fee increases which are over and above the cost of water. This doesn't have to continue, we can stop it.

Already, we are paying for the time and travel to "discuss" this plant. We have no way of tracking our money once it flows across the border to build the infrastructure of another country. Chula Vista money should stay in Chula Vista and in the Otay Water District.

Mismanagement

The Otay Water District has been forced to pay out $1.7 million dollars of our money in judgments and settlements due to employee discrimination. One of these employees is the former in-house council who was replaced by a law firm with previous ties to board members. When the rate payers sued because this new law firm grossly overcharged the District, it was discovered the current Board voted to use our money to pay for lawyers to defend this new law firm against their own ratepayers.

These are just the things we know about. What else is there we don't know about? We have seen what happened with the City of Bell when there is little transparency in public agencies. This will continue to happen and we will continue to pay the price unless we stand up and do something about it. Vote for Chris Shilling for Otay Water Board.