If you thought the only people getting taxpayer-sponsored bonuses were the investment bankers at Goldman Sachs, you'd be wrong: You're also paying for hefty bonuses to employees of the San Diego Water Department. This money has been paid out even as the Department plans to raise your water and sewer rates.

According to an investigation yesterday by Channel 10's I-TEAM and a San Diego Union-Tribune, 90% of all City of San Diego Water Department employees received bonus money totalling $6.9 million in 2009, and a total of $28 million in the last three years.  Most employees - an estimated 90% - enjoyed an annual bonus of between $1,500 and $4,700 each.

A culture of entitlement?

Typically, bonus money is paid out to attract and retain highly skilled workers, yet the latest round of cash payouts were disbursed during a failing local economy, increasing water rates, and a local jobless rate of 10%.  It seems that given the state of the current economy that retaining workers shouldn't be a problem -- they're lucky to even have a job. What's more, Metropolitan Waste Water employees have excellent benefits already, yet they recently demanded a new round of pension increases.

According to Robert Ferrier, assistant director of the Metropolitan Waste Water Department, the program, known as "Bid to Goal," is a money-saver. The bonus system works like this: If City employees can do a job cheaper than the tony consulting firm of HDR Incorporated, then they are entitled to 50% of the money saved on the project. In theory, the other 50% is returned to you, the ratepayer in the form of lower water rates. One problem, notes Channel 10, is that while the employees get cash, we the ratepayers will often get a reduction in future rate hikes. The City says the program has save ratepayers millions of dollars, but the 10 News I-Team investigation shows millions of dollars worth of irregularities, including an estimated 40% of the goals as being incorrectly reported and $10.7 million in overstated "savings."

We haven't evaluated the report yet and don't know enough about the bonus program to pass judgment, but we do know this: The City has a history of wrongfully charging its customers. We also know that it has never been audited by a truly independent outside entity.

 No competition and no accountability

Part of the problem with the City of San Diego Water Department is that unlike other utilities, it is not regulated and isn't accountable to anyone. Because of this, the City has been able to repeatedly deceive and overcharge its own customers without any meaningful oversight. In fact, the culture of arrogance and entitlement at the City Water Dept. is so pervasive that when UCAN's Executive Director notified the City that it was undercharging large industrial users and overcharging you, they refused to correct the problem, forcing a legal action that cost the City millions of dollars in unnecessary legal fees and returned more than $100.00 each to the average rate paying household.

How you can force an independent audit.

Rather than accept money for his legal action against the City's wrongful billing policies, UCAN's Executive Director, Michael Shames, asked that Water Department Victims be given the opportunity to fund objective audits of the Metropolitan Waste Water Department on a voluntary basis.

As a part of this court-ordered settlement, the City is required to insert invitations to fund independent water audits in their billing statements three times a year.

100% of the money raised will be used to fund Water investigations ... Guaranteed.

If you support our work to hold the Water Department accountable, you can join UCAN by responding to the inserts in your bi-monthly water bills (see below). 100% of the money you donate will be used to investigate and question the City's claims that it needs more money from you.

Click on the image below to see text from the court-ordered inserts.