Letter to the Editor: Ignore Utility Rate Rhetoric

Sunday, August 9, 2009

At our meeting Tuesday, Leesburg Town Council members are scheduled to vote on new utility rates to meet a Circuit Court ruling by a September deadline. The rate proposal before the council has been duly advertised in advance of Tuesday's public hearing.

In April, Circuit Court Judge Thomas Horne ruled that Leesburg must reduce rates for out-of-town customers by about 45 percent for sewer service and 26 percent for water service by Sept. 1. The council is appealing the judge's decision to the Virginia Supreme Court, which is not likely to rule on our appeal until next year.

The majority of council members have spent a significant amount of time researching and deliberating on all of our options to best represent the residents of Leesburg.

In the past week, we have received numerous e-mails from constituents opposing any increase in in-town water and sewer rates. Many residents have asked the council to arbitrarily raise the surcharge on out-of-town utility customers, suggesting a range up to 228 percent, contending that this is "allowable" under the "utility rate method."

Many constituents have argued that folks in some areas outside of town, such as River Creek, are "wealthier" and have "larger estate lawns they want to keep green," so they should be paying higher utility surcharges.

It is probably a fair assumption that we are receiving these exact quotes in so many similar e-mails because Mayor Kristen C. Umstattd has been circulating a flier door-to-door in the past week with this verbatim language.

In the flier, the mayor implies we can raise out-of-town fees from 97 percent to 228 percent. Besides violating the spirit of the court ruling, these rates have not been duly advertised, so the council cannot consider them at its upcoming meeting.

We write today to tell these constituents that what the mayor is suggesting us to do violates the spirit of the court order and puts the town's taxpayers at serious legal and financial risks.

In her flier, the mayor says "that it is not enough to vote against a rate structure or abstain, but they have not said what rate structure they would vote for." The mayor made no motion at our recent meetings to have an alternative rate structure on the table.

The Leesburg Town Council must, and is, conducting a transparent process using justifiable utility rate methods. We are working in earnest to follow the spirit of the April court mandate in order to protect residents at this point in the legal process.

We believe the language and tone in the mayor's political flier detract from meaningful, open debate based on the facts, which would provide for the best decision making by a governing body. The flier serves only to play one group of residents against another. It attempts to pit rich against poor, voters against non-voters and county residents against town residents.

We respectfully request that town residents please learn and consider all of the facts, and that they not be misled by political rhetoric that presents serious legal and other risks for Leesburg. Please contact either one of us or council members David S. Butler, Thomas S. Dunn II, Fernando "Marty" Martinez and Kevin D. Wright. Please also visit the town Web site, www.leesburgva.gov. Council and staff members will also be presenting all of the facts at the public hearing at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Town Hall. We welcome all public input at this session.

Katie Sheldon Hammler, Leesburg vice mayor and Ken Reid, Leesburg Town Council member

Tagged: Leesburg, Leesburg Town Council, Letter to the Editor, opinions

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