Ramirez may have broken the rules

Yuba City and Mayor Rory Ramirez may have violated a state law prohibiting mass mailings sent at public expense, according to a Fair Political Practices Commission letter.

But, though commission rules would require the city to be reimbursed for costs of a mailer sent on the Hillcrest water issue, Ramirez said he won't have to pay back mailer costs or fines because the City Council voted to indemnify him and cover his legal expenses. The 4-0 decision was voted on last week in closed session without Ramirez.

Ramirez described the mailer as an informational piece, one of a series of city mailings on the Hillcrest issue, that had his photo.

"I didn't feel, and I still don't feel I violated the spirit of the regulation," said Ramirez, who is not running for another term as councilman after his term ends in November.

City Attorney Timothy Hayes said in a public meeting after the closed session that the council determined that Ramirez had acted in good faith, without malice, and in the interests of the city, within the scope of his office as a council member. Hayes could not be reached Tuesday for comment.

But Elaine Miles, an Anita Way resident who has been fighting the city surcharge to pay for a water connection, said the City Council vote to spare Ramirez from paying any costs was a waste of taxpayer money.

"It is a gross misuse of the taxpayer's dollars, not only with the flier but with the fine," said Miles.

The complaint has not come before the Fair Political Practices Commission board to issue any fines. Yuba City has until Oct. 15 to give information to the commission regarding the amount and cost of the mailing.

Murky Waters, a citizens group opposed to the surcharge, also claims a letter from Ramirez sent to Hillcrest customers on Aug. 8 violated the mailer prohibition and state law because it was sent in an attempt to influence the vote of a Proposition 218 tax issue.

The Aug. 8 letter claimed that door-to-door canvassers misrepresented facts when they gathered protest signatures against the surcharge.

The mailer and letter were in support of a nearly $20-per-month surcharge to pay for a storage tank and part of a 30-inch pipe connecting the Hillcrest area to the city's surface water plant.

Yuba City proposed the surface water connection after arsenic levels in water from the Hillcrest Region 2/3 plant was above federal standards for arsenic. Extensive treatment has since brought the arsenic levels within the limits of 10 parts per billion.

Proposals to enact a surcharge sparked a year of controversy over a city surcharge that appeared to be concluded last month when a slight majority of 4,000 Hillcrest homeowners or utilities customers. But the city may make another run at a surcharge.

Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter John Dickey at 749-4711 or jdickey@appealdemocrat.com.