A judge on Friday cleared the way for the city of East Palo Alto to take over the independent East Palo Alto Sanitary District, which had been accused of mismanagement and incompetence for years.
The sanitary district went to court to appeal a decision by a county agency — the San Mateo County Local Agency Formation Commission or LAFCo to allow the city to take over the district.
Judge Roger T. Picquet ruled that there was “substantial evidence” to support LAFCo.’s decision.
As a result, the city will take over the operation of the district. The city will hire the West Bay Sanitary District in Menlo Park to run the East Palo Alto Sanitary District.
It’s expected that San Mateo County Assessor-County Clerk-Recorder and Chief Elections Officer will cancel this November’s election for the sanitary district’s board.
Three of the five seats on the sanitary district’s board were up for grabs this November, and only those who hold those seats had signed up to run. The three are former Menlo Park Councilwoman Kelly Fergusson, who was appointed to the sanitary district board, and incumbents Betsy Yanez and Glenda Savage.
Board members Dennis Scherzer and Ofelia Bello are in the middle of their four-year terms. They will lose their jobs as a result of the takeover that was approved Friday. Both Scherzer and Bello have signed up to run for City Council.
The city argued it should take over the district because of “years of mismanagement and incompetence in policy decisions.”
The city claimed the district’s connection fees were “unpredictable and unreasonable” and that the district “refused to cooperate in a meaningful way regarding options for financing that would allow for expansion/extension of necessary infrastructure,” the judge wrote in his ruling.
The judge said the city denies the district’s allegation that it will impose substantial rate increases on residents to pay for artificially low connection fees.
Critics of the district had claimed that it was jacking up connection fees on developers to stop growth in East Palo Alto.
The district claimed that the city’s proposal to take over the district was underwritten and driven by developers seeking to make additional profit by paying less than the law requires, according to the judge’s ruling.
Is there a party planned to say goodbye to Dennis and the gang?