Amador County – The Amador Water Agency board of directors in late September looked at a new report of its most recent fiscal year, with the president saying it has the agency going in the right direction, and the former president accusing agency staff of lying.

Agency Controller Marvin Davis said the budget overall was reduced by $700,000, and is still on track, even though the agency made two unplanned payments to Sutter Creek.

Board President Don Cooper said “we came out pretty darn good” and have the “ship turned around and heading in a pretty good direction financially.”

Former AWA president Bill Condrashoff accused staff of “false claims,” and thought the documents showed a discrepancy between the budget and actual spending. Davis said they cannot count numbers twice, and booking grants in the previous fiscal year accounted for $527,000 of a $533,000 budget shortfall. Davis said it may help in the future to only partially “book” some grant revenues.

Condrashoff said “critical documents have been withheld” but did not elaborate, and said “I believe the disjoint is intentional” to cover up “faulty cash-flow projections.”

AWA Director Paul Molinelli Senior asked for Condrashoff and Davis to submit their exchange in writing for board evaluation.

General Manager Gene Mancebo said the report showed “an $80,000 improved cash balance” that was 5 percent shy of Davis’ projections. Mancebo said last fiscal year’s budget included $200,000 in severance packages from layoffs, but “this fiscal year you don’t have those payouts,” and the budget will reflect the benefit from salary reductions.

Davis said transfers-in equal transfers-out, and the agency would “not have to play the internal shell game” of transferring funds, if it consolidated. He said he is working on a massive spread sheet to show costs across all of the agency’s different systems.

Davis suggested Directors spend some time with the “cash position schedule” and also the “transaction cash report,” which “tells how the cash position got to where it is.” The board directed staff to plan a workshop on the new fiscal year report.

Sutter Creek City Manager Sean Rabe said AWA has made two payments to the city since May totaling $175,000 and they are “working on a repayment plan for the Agency for the outstanding balance owed” the city of about $585,000 – about half for capacity, half for quarterly back-payments. He said the city and AWA “still need to resolve how much the Agency will be responsible for paying for the Sutter Creek wastewater treatment plant upgrade.”

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