Hillcrest residents: You've got (wrong) mail
Postcards had wrong rate information
Hillcrest households will get another round of Proposition 218 mail from Yuba City after the city sent out protest postcards with inaccurate information last week.
Numbers were transposed on the postcards sent to Region 2, switching the monthly payment with the one-time lump sum payment —a deal that was indeed too good to be true.
The city started getting calls from residents on Friday about the mailing. The phone kept ringing Monday from residents quizzing city officials about the deal.
Since the hearing notices had the correct rates, the city will be sending out only the incorrect return postcards, said City Manager Steven Jepsen. They will go out to all the customers.
"The notices were correct that went out," said Jepsen.
Jepsen estimated the costs of a mailing to the 4,000 households at about $2,000 to $3,000.
The error happened when a field in a computerized form printed rates in the wrong spot, said Jepsen. City employees didn't get catch it because information on the postcards varied.
The city also has changed the date of a protest hearing, from the Nov. 21 date in the Proposition 218 notice to Nov. 24. The 4 p.m. hearing will take place at Lincrest School, 1400 Phillips Road, Yuba City.
Last week's mailer was part of a second chance for a city water surcharge proposed to pay for a connection to the surface water plant. A previous attempt was defeated after just over half of the property owners or utility bill holders protested the surcharge.
City Council agreed earlier this month to try for a second Proposition 218 hearing after claims by some residents that they were misinformed about water issues.
The city is proposing that Hillcrest residents connect to the main city water plant at a cost of $3,570 per residence after arsenic levels in the Hillcrest plant exceeded federal standards for a period in 2006. Additional treatment brought the levels down below standards. But officials are warning that another round of tests may again show the arsenic levels in Hillcrest water to again be above recently enacted federal limits of 10 parts per billion.
Contact Appeal-Democrat reporter John Dickey at 749-4711 or jdickey@appealdemocrat.com.
