Truckee Meadows Water Authority Questions Wisdom Of Legislature

Despite The Cry-Baby Attitude, Audit Will Take Place -- Try To Find Budget Information From Government Agency

by Johnny Gunn

During the last legislative session, AB 323, introduced in the Assembly by Gansert, Smith, Angle, Anderson, Leslie, Marvel, and Parnell, and co-sponsored in the Senate by Townsend, Raggio, Washington, and Mathews, was enacted calling for an audit of the quasi government agency known as the Truckee Meadows Water Authority (TMWA).

AB 323 is "An act relating to water; requiring the Bureau of Consumer Protection in the Office of the Attorney General to conduct an audit and investigation of the rate-setting practices of the Truckee Meadows Water Authority." In other words, it isn't the rates that are in question but the methods used to set those rates. The legislature also indicated that TMWA would be paying for the audit. "The required reimbursement must be paid out of the existing operating reserves of the Truckee Meadows Water Authority. TMWA shall not recover the required reimbursement from ratepayers through any new fee or rate change."

Lori Williams is executive director for TMWA and she appears to be incensed over having to have her agency pay for the audit. Who else did she expect would pay for it? Williams also says, "We are perplexed as to why any legislation is needed to conduct an audit since, as a public agency the ability to audit and/or thoroughly review our financial information is always available under current law to anyone who is interested."

The TMWA web site is http://www.tmh2o.com, and if you were to go to that site, remembering what Ms Williams said, you would expect to find a financial page. I would. The financial information is very well hidden on the site. To see it, go to http://www.h1o.com/about_us/financial_information. But there was one thing mentioned that really needs to be explained by someone.

The Truckee Meadows Water Authority was "Formed under the Joint Powers Legislation of the State of Nevada and is subject to the Open Meeting Law." This is straight from TMWA web site. "The Board of Directors is to be seven total members. Appointed by the Reno City Council (3 seats); Sparks City Council (2 seats); Washoe County (1 seat); and At Large (1 seat).

According to Ms Williams press release, and we quote, "The members of the TMWA Board of Directors are elected officials or their direct appointees, a group of local people who are much more accessible and accountable to its customers that in the prior oversight of Sierra Pacific (Sierra Pacific Power Company, former distributor of water in the Truckee Meadows) by the Public Utilities Commission."

In their own web site, TMWA says: "The cities and county representatives are not required to be elected officials. However," it goes on, "TMWA bylaws require that the at-large seat be an elected official within the three jurisdictions." Paragraph one says one thing, paragraph two says something else, and the current board doesn't reflect either paragraph.

Current Board of Directors, TMWA

• Dave Aiazzi, Reno City Council
• Mike Carrigan, Sparks City Council
• Pete Sferrazza, Washoe County Commission
• Jason Geddes, citizen
• Carlo Panicari, citizen

Neither Geddes nor Panicari is listed as the at-large representative, and neither is listed as representing Reno, Sparks, or Washoe County. According to TMWA, Geddes, a former Assemblyman is an employee at University of Nevada and Panicari is apparently retired, living in Reno.

If there are these kinds of discrepancies just within the bounds of how the authority should be made up, the Legislature may be more than correct in thinking the rate setting may be skewed as well. Specifically, the audit, which must be completed by December 31, 2005, will be looking at rate setting methods. Williams says, "TMWA has followed national standards for rate making."

The Legislature has challenged that. AB 323 in part says, "The Truckee Meadows Water Authority approved a second water rate increase effective March 1, 2005, even though a committee established by TMWA to review its rate making process and a national expert on water utility rates recommended no rate increase." The bill goes on to say, "The rates and related rate design proposed by the staff of TMWA were not consistent with well established rate setting principles."

There have been calls in the past for TMWA to take their rate cases to the Nevada Public Utilities Commission (PUC), but according to a PUC spokesperson, since TMWA is a government agency not a private utility company, PUC is not legally allowed to hold hearings or make decisions regarding the rate structures of the entity.

From all indications it looks from this reporter's angle that it might just be time for a Grand Jury investigation of TMWA. Not just their rate making process, which hopefully will be fully disclosed by the Attorney General's audit, but the complete lack regarding accountability. Suggested things to look at:

• A lack of posted budget
• Non-compliance with creating a Board of Directors
• Rate setting policies that appear to be discriminatory
• And full disclosure on funding of a "Community Foundation Truckee River Fund"

When the audit by the Consumer Protection Office is complete, it is to be delivered to the director of the Legislative Counsel Bureau. It seems that too often today, when these little quasi-government authorities are created, those running them and making decisions seem to forget they are dealing with taxpayer money. You might call it a water bill, and if it came from a private utility company it might be a water bill, but coming from a government agency, it's just another tax.

Government agencies that raise taxes should not get their noses out of joint when the public wants to know why the tax was raised, and where the money is, and where the money is being spent. TMWA is a government agency and is responsible to the citizens. The Legislature made that very plain.

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