Ratepayers need to pay attention to FPUD budget

This is in response to a mention of Jack Bebee's salary in a story about FPUD (Fallbrook Public Utility District) back in October. There are two websites that list employee salaries for Fallbrook Public Utility District: TransparentCalifornia.com, and http://publicpay.ca.gov/reports/specialdistricts/specialdistricts.aspx [Government Compensation in California – GCC: Fallbrook Public Utility District (2016)<<Special Districts]. In TransparentCalifornia.com, 68 employees are listed for FPUD for the 2015 reporting year. The following salaries were shown that include wages, retirement and health care benefits: General Manager, $313,756; Assistant General Manager, Jack Bebee, $231,345; 31 employees – between $221,180 and $100,146; 10 employees – between $99,816 and $91,451; eight employees between $87,843 and $75,391.

I could not find out how much FPUD paid the consulting firm that developed its water price increases, fixed rate increases, pumping charge increases, etc. “for the next 5 years”.

FPUD ratepayers who support the utility have stagnant incomes and are struggling to make ends meet. Water costs are vastly increasing beyond the rate of inflation, and it isn't just because of wholesale water increases coming from San Diego County Water Authority. FPUD should better represent the community it serves.

More needs to be done to ensure that ratepayers are getting the best value for their utility payments. No one has the time to do the research required to make sure FPUD is conserving our hard-earned money.

However, the outrageous water increases coupled with outrageous FPUD salaries make us realize we need to pay attention to correct a budget that appears out of control. We have not yet seen a budget breakdown or dollar allocation plan from FPUD.

We’ve been led to believe by FPUD that more money is being paid for wholesale water than what is really being paid. We should demand a rollback in water pricing to correct the false information provided to ratepayers about how much is being paid to San Diego County Water Authority.

Suzanne Paulsrude