Amador County – The Amador Water Agency board in a special meeting Thursday tentatively approved an employee reorganization plan that would lay off three people in efforts to reduce the agency budget by nearly three-quarters of a million dollars.

Employees and the public will have until the close of business today to submit comments on the draft reorganization plan. An ad hoc committee of Director Paul Molinelli and President Don Cooper will review comments, and could adjust the plan as needed. It will then be considered for possible final approval in a special meeting 9 a.m. Friday (May 13).

Cooper said protests have stopped rate increases in the Central Amador Water Project, LaMel and Camanche service areas, and “a reduction in water sales has heavily affected the bottom line.” He said the board has “a fiscal responsibility here” and if they finally adopt the reorganization, they will have a lot of expenses in the first year paying severances, but “we’ve got to start somewhere.” He said the plan should be finalized to be used as they start work on the 2011-2012 budget in a workshop set for May 25th. Cooper said the draft plan “is a critical element for our budget to move forward.”

Director Robert Manassero said the change was not sudden, and Finance Committee work has been “scary.” He said Proposition 218 protests “killed rate increases” that should have been in place, and “now we’re playing catch-up.” He invited comment, saying: “If we can tweak something here that we haven’t seen, we’ll look at it.”

Molinelli said: “Failure is not an option, but it is a possibility.” Director Art Toy agreed, saying they “need $1 million to come out of the agency budget” or they will be headed for bankruptcy. They cannot cut field staff, and cannot raise rates, so the only thing they can do is eliminate management. Toy said he would “like people to make suggestions for what we can do to make it run right.” And “if there’s a better idea, we sure want to hear it.” He said: “I’ve never run a water agency before,” and staff “knows how to do it better than I do.”

AWA Controller Marvin Davis said in three months at the agency, he has not had the time to “drill down” into finances, but he was “not convinced the gap is that big.” He said the agency could merge metered systems to a single rate structure, and that should be reviewed across all systems. He said he would eventually “like to tear it apart.”

Mancebo said of the reorganization, “we know this alone is not going to fill the gap,” and the agency also must address employee concessions, and increase revenue.

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.