Hillcrest ballot vote begins today

Hillcrest residents hoping to find out where they will get their drinking water will have to wait.

Yuba City City Council will not learn the results of a count of protest —and unprotest — ballots until Aug. 26 because there were too many to count at Monday's meeting.

Counting of thousands of ballots will begin today at noon at City Hall.

Rick Dais, of Jones Road, said approximately 2,750 protest ballots were turned in at 5 p.m.

If those were the only ballots and they were all verified, it would appear that the city's proposal to connect 4,000 Hillcrest residents would be shot down. Opponents needed just over 50 percent to veto the proposed surcharge to connect residents to surface water.

But there are likely to be some ballots rescinding earlier protest ballots after letters and post cards were mailed last week by Yuba City Mayor Rory Ramirez giving residents the chance to rescind their protest, or file one. There was also a similar effort by citizens that hung flyers on people's doors.

People were allowed to turn in ballots until 8 p.m. at Monday's hearing, the last chance for homeowners to protest — or reconsider their objection — to the city's Hillcrest water plan.

The hearing was peppered with claims and counterclaims regarding misinformation and distortions.

Darin Gale apologized for beco ing choked up when told how he was called a liar. Gale, a spokesperson for the North State Building Industry Association, was involved in an information campaign that some said was funded by developers.

Gale said no association members had property interests in the water area. Gale is a resident of the Hillcrest service area and has said he wants better water.

"Here's the facts of the issue, we have bad water in Hillcrest," said Gale.

Murky Waters representative Elaine Miles said the opposition was not about the water, but about the city and its failure to mail out a ballot at the start of the protest period. Mayor Rory Ramirez sent out a flyer last week that had a ballot of sorts.

"It has been said, the citizens have said, 'You're trying to shove it down our throat,'" said Miles. "I think that maybe I'm about to buy on to that."

Ramirez said citizens had made up their minds about the issue. And they made factual misrepresentations during their outreach to gather signatures against the city's proposal, he said.

Ramirez noted a flyer that said the $6,000 cost per household was for a 30-inch pipe. And claims that a $6,000 to $10,000 lien would be put on homes to pay for development would frighten some homeowners into signing protest petitions.

"I'd be scared to death if I was a senior citizen," said Ramirez.

The city has proposed a $19.80 monthly utilities surcharge to pay for the costs of an improved piping system to ship the surface water to the Hillcrest area. Total costs for a homeowner would be $3,570.

Connecting the Hillcrest area to surface water would provide a reliable water source, according to the city. The water would be free from arsenic contamination that prompted warnings to residents last year —and extensive treatment at the Hillcrest water plants that has brought the water into compliance with stricter arsenic regulations.

Some critics have questioned whether the city could not just hook up Hillcrest to the existing piping network, rather than spend millions on piping, storage tank and other equipment. But the city says the water pressure would be too low.

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