Moving Oxnard Forward

Here are links to the KEYT Channel 3 coverage of our protest effort and the utility rate increase hearing on January 19, 2016.

http://www.keyt.com/news/oxnard-residents-fight-utility-hike/37525502

http://www.keyt.com/news/oxnard-council-votes-for-utility-rate-increase/37525464

Though we are disappointed at the stubbornness of the Oxnard City Council in forging ahead Tuesday night with abusive utility rate increases, we are so very proud of the residents of Oxnard.

THANK YOU for showing up by the hundreds on a rainy night to send a message to our elected officials!  And thank you to those who patiently waited and then mustered the courage to speak during the hearing!  It was a night many of us will remember for a long time.

It is easy, but the first thing you need to know is that TIME IS SHORT!!  The protest forms must be RECEIVED by the city clerk before the end of the public hearing on TUESDAY, January 19, 2016 at 6:00 p.m. at Oxnard City Hall (305 W Third St).

Get your protest form on page 2 of this document.

At this late date, it might not arrive in time if you just drop it in the mail.  The best option is to bring it in person to the hearing on Tuesday night because the more people that are present the better!  If you can’t make it to the hearing, to be sure it arrives on time, deliver it in person to the city clerk’s office at 305 W Third St some time before the hearing.

We tracked down Ken Ortega, the former Oxnard Public Works Director, to get his opinion on the city's proposal to increase utility rates for water, sewer and garbage by 60%, or $750 per year for a typical household.

It's difficult to find someone on the outside with his expertise and knowledge of the inner workings of utilities in Oxnard.

It turns out he largely agrees with our position that these rate hikes cannot be justified. We asked him to write a letter stating his position.

Sometimes you have to dig deep to find the facts.  When we dug into a two-word phrase in the city’s cost-of-service study, we were surprised to learn what kind of digging Oxnard’s ratepayers might soon be paying for.

The City of Oxnard intends to charge some ratepayers less and expects you to pay the difference.

Oxnard wants to raise your city utility rates by 60% so that they can spend $1.23 BILLION on capital improvement projects.  Many of these so-called “improvements” will not provide value to ratepayers.  

For example, according to pages 14-15 of the cost-of-service report produced for the city by outside consultants, $254 million of that is proposed to be spent to expand the water recycling facility, dubbed by the city as the “GREAT Program”.

Oxnard’s government is going all out to sell you on proposed 60% utility rate increases that will cost the typical household an extra $750 per year. 

But can you trust their sales pitch?

Here are some things Oxnard hopes you won’t notice about the proposed increases to Oxnard’s water, wastewater, and solid waste rates… 

The City of Oxnard is proposing very large increases for the utility services they provide.  If the city council approves it, for a typical single family household in Oxnard:

• Water rates will increase by 66% over the next four years
• Wastewater rates will increase by 88%
• Garbage collection rates (solid waste) will increase by 23%
• It will cost about $750 extra each year for these utilities combined

And that’s not all.  The city is also proposing automatic annual increases without a requirement that they give you future opportunities to protest those future increases.