Opinion: Is RMWD Doing Right by Customers?

At this month’s board meeting, Ramona Municipal Water District (RMWD) approved “the Proposition 218 Notice for Untreated Water Pumping Rates.” Twenty-five years after the passage of Proposition 218, RMWD is finally admitting that its treated and untreated water systems are separate. As a result, RMWD calculated “(non)uniform pumping rates” for all water customers. The notice will be sent only to about 200 untreated water customers whose “pumping rates” RMWD proposes to increase. At the meeting, Matthew Prickett, among the largest water users, urged that the notice be delayed—not to avoid paying his fair share of such costs, but because the rates were not fairly calculated.