Residents in Livingston have organized two marches to city hall in the past month, protesting the raising of water and sewer rates by 40%. Meanwhile, regular readers of Modesto Anarcho will know that Livingston has also found the money over the past couple years to put in surveillance camera systems that ran in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Money for pigs and not for regular people - same game, no matter the city. The rich look out for the rich. In Fresno, working class people are getting uppity around the implementation of "Smart Meters," which have driven some peoples rates from around $500 to over a $1,000! PG&E is also pushing for more rate increases. We can take a lesson from the Greeks. Don't dialog with them - occupy and takeover!
Livingston residents still angered over water rates
By JONAH OWEN LAMB
jlamb@mercedsun-star.com
LIVINGSTON -- The city of Livingston may have passed its controversial water, sewer and garbage rate hikes in July but the furor over rate hikes of up to 40 percent has not died down.
Tuesday night the City Council was confronted by an angry crowd demanding the city reduce the rate increases because it was hurting people already down because of the recession.
A sometimes raucous crowd of more than 200 spilled out of City Hall onto Main Street, some calling for resignations, and others asking the council if it had any conscience at all. The crowd held signs demanding a reduction in water rates and voiced anger at the mayor and even the city manager.
Like many in the crowd outside of City Hall, Daniel Hernandez, 64, had attended the meeting because of the sudden jump in his monthly utility bill. He said the first time he learned about the hike was when he got his bill. He usually pays about $64 a month. That number jumped all of a sudden to $130. "No one can pay, that's why we are here," he said.
Maria Maldonado, 59, said her bill had skyrocketed as well. It went from $60 a month to $183. She said she was not against an increased rate just not so high. "I need a reasonable price."
Almost every speaker at the gathering said the rate was too high for a town of farmworkers who did not make a lot of money.
The exception, Celeste Herrera, reminded the crowd the issue had not come out of nowhere. "This water issue did not happen overnight," she said. Herrera also said the rate hike had been in people's bills, and in several languages.
Luis Flores, 25, one of the protest's organizers, said the council passed the rate hike with little public notice and with little transparency. He said he and several others went to churches, made posters and even talked with the Foster Farms union to organize the protest, which was the second such protest in Livingston against the rate increase. Flores said he is not against he hike, they just need to be less extreme. "We were using their outrage to build momentum," he said.
That outrage came with the first increased bill, in many cases 40 percent above what it was just a few months ago.
The council, which has been split 3-2 on the issue, faced the crowd with differing points of view.
Councilman Rodrigo Espinoza, who put an item on the agenda addressing a change in the fee schedule, said he wanted to give the people a chance to voice their opinion.
Councilwoman Margarita Aguilar said the council should have thought of the harm these increases have caused before they voted.
The rate increases, the first since 1995, are needed, said City Manager Richard Warne, because the city cannot continue paying roughly $30,000 a month from the general fund for a water and sewer system that are not paying for themselves.
A community meeting on the water and sewer rates will be at 6 p.m. Nov. 4 in the Portuguese Hall.
Reporter Jonah Owen Lamb can be reached at (209) 385-2484 or jlamb@mercedsun-star.com.
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Crowd vents on PG&E meters at Fresno hearing
Customers at meeting say readings are faulty.
Published online on Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2009
By Pablo Lopez / The Fresno Bee
More than 100 people packed a town hall meeting in downtown Fresno to vent their frustration with PG&E's newest metering technology -- SmartMeters -- that customers say has led to faulty spikes in utility bills.
"The meters, in my opinion, are not very smart," PG&E customer Joe Riojas told Senate Majority Leader Dean Florez, D-Shafter.
The meeting lasted 4 1/2 hours. No one spoke in favor of the SmartMeters.
Florez held the hearing at the Hugh M. Burns State Building amid concerns that the SmartMeter technology -- funded largely by consumers -- failed to deliver on promised savings.
"As ratepayers, you deserve answers," Florez told the crowd.
Crowd vents on PG&E meters at Fresno hearing
DARRELL WONG / THE FRESNO BEE
A standing-room-only crowd gathers Wednesday at the Hugh M. Burns State Building in Fresno for a town hall meeting about PG&E's SmartMeters hosted by Sen. Dean Florez.
Questions?
PG&E customers who have questions about their bills or other issues can visit an "answer center" at the Fresno Holiday Inn Airport through Friday.
Hours are 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. They can also call the utility at (800) 743-5000.
But Pacific Gas & Electric Co. officials blamed the higher utility bills on summer heat.
Smith also said much of the increase came from rate hikes approved by the California Public Utilities Commission in March.
Many customers brought their PG&E bills to show Florez their skyrocketing costs.
For example, Don Vercellini of Fresno said his bill recently went from $500 a month to $1,173.
“It’s straight-out fraud. I want my money back,” he said.
Smith acknowledged that the utility did a poor job of explaining the rate increase and the multibillion-dollar SmartMeter project, which is supposed to give consumers real-time information on their energy use so they can make adjustments to save on their bills.
Florez complained that the technology for customers to check usage will not be in place for years.
Florez also said PG&E did a poor job of getting the word out. PG&E had budgeted $23 million for outreach, he said.
PG&E has more than 9 million customers from Bakersfield to the Oregon border, Smith said, and so far, about 1.7 million customers have electric SmartMeters and 2.3 million have gas SmartMeters.
About 78% of PG&E customers in Fresno County have SmartMeters, he said.
Smith said customers with high utility bills can call PG&E to set up payment plans and to have their SmartMeters tested.
Many people in the audience said they had asked PG&E to test their meters, but their requests were denied.
Florez asked Smith about the reliability of the SmartMeters. Smith said every meter is tested at the factory.
In addition, PG&E has tested 1,700 electric SmartMeters out of the 1.7 million that have been installed.
Florez said that was too small a sample to prove the meters are reliable, and independent testing should be done. He also said he didn't think it was wise of PG&E to seek a rate increase before the SmartMeters were proven sound.
Smith said PG&E plans to ask for another rate increase later this year.
Said Florez: "People don't see the value [in this program]. They just see higher cost, and that makes them angry."
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