Opponents of water rate hike lacking protests

As the Lodi City Council prepares to hold a public hearing on the city's water rate increase, the number of protests lodged at City Hall is far below what is needed to defeat the proposal.

City Clerk Susan Blackston said Friday her office had received 2,135 protests.

To defeat the proposed rate increase, a majority of the more than 18,000 local property owners would have to submit a protest before the end of the public hearing at Wednesday's council meeting.

The city is pursuing a water rate increase to raise the millions needed to remove solvents out of Lodi's groundwater supply.

Lodi draws all its drinking water from the ground and has already had to shut two wells because of contamination and are closely monitoring the rest. The millions raised by the rate increase will pay for the equipment to physically clean the contaminants from the ground as well as cover $12 million already spent on the contamination problem.

A multi-million dollar lawsuit by the city against several downtown businesses' insurance companies, including the Lodi News-Sentinel, to pay for the cleanup failed last year.

Many residents have expressed frustration not at the need for a water rate increase, but at the fact that water rates will be rising based on the number of bedrooms in homes. Several were even shocked to discover they'll be charged a higher rate for a three-bedroom home when only two people may live there.

Local activist Jane Lea held a series of three meetings recently in Lodi to try and drum up opposition to the rate increase. She said in an e-mail that she does not know how many people intend to turn out for Wednesday's meeting or what kind of opposition other protest efforts had been able to generate.

"At the three meetings we held it was the older, respected generation that showed up," she said.

Wednesday's City Council meeting begins at 7 p.m. and the public hearing on the water rate increase is the first item on the agenda after the consent calender, a grouping of items usually approved with one vote and without much discussion.

In other business Wednesday, the City Council is expected to:

• Hear a presentation regarding the Wall Dogs mural painting project scheduled for Memorial Day Weekend, 2006. The Wall Dogs are a group of artists that paint several murals during a weekend.

The council is also expected to approve a property agreement for a mural to be painted on the eastside of the city's parking garage.

• Accept $46,045 in grant funds from the U.S. Department of Justice to purchase various technological equipment such as mobile computers, replacement radar units and new servers for the Police Department.

Wednesday's meeting begins at 7 p.m. and is held in Carnegie Forum, 305 W. Pine St. For more information, call the City Clerk's Office at 333-6702.

Contact reporter Andrew Adams at andrewa@lodinews.com.