March 9th Council Meeting

I was reading through the council agenda and two items caught my attention. One of the items brought up was the issue regarding the operation of the wastewater plant. Apparently, the $400k contract with Severn Trent has not worked out as well as the mayor said it has. At the January council meeting Melendez defended the contract and even went as far as to say that no other city around us could operate their wastewater facilities at such a low cost. Well if you read the agenda excerpt it appears that city staff has concluded that operating the wastewater plant in house would be more cost effective. So if we have such a good deal with Severn Trent, why are we once again shopping around for another solution?
http://www.shafterchevron.com/resources/030905+Meeting+Agenda+Items.pdf

Another item that was placed on the agenda was a proposal to modify the fee collection process with R&F. Former city administrator, Anthony Lopez, recommended that the process should be changed so that R&F conducts their own billing and we stop collecting fees through the property tax billing. Here is a copy of Mr. Lopez's reasoning for why the city should stop handling the billing. I wonder though, why isn't Sunset Waste being asked to conduct their own billing? Reading through this proposal it is clear that this is simply a personal attack on R&F and Lopez does not have a clear grasp of what a great position the city is in to be collecting the garbage fees upfront through property taxes. The claim that we are subsidizing costs for customers that don't pay their garbage fees is false. A property owner that doesn't pay his garbage fees would have a lien placed on his property and the city would eventually recover any lost fees through a tax lien sale. This is a very rare occurence in McFarland if you research tax lien sales in Kern County. Also consider what would happen if someone doesn't pay their garbage fees once R&F does their own billing. In that situation, R&F would not be obligated to pick up garbage at these sites leaving trash to accumulate and create an eye sore, potentially decreasing our property values.
http://www.shafterchevron.com/resources/031406_Lopez_Recom.pdf

Here is a rebuttal to Lopez's recommendations.
http://www.shafterchevron.com/resources/031406_Rebuttal.pdf