When the sanitation district Monterey One Water began over a year ago to move from billing six times a year through a third-party contractor to twice a year through the Monterey County Tax Collector, other jurisdictions that have their own sewer collection services planned on making the switch as well at the same time on July 1.
Cities like Salinas, Seaside, Monterey and Pacific Grove all have additional sewer collection services, on top of MW1, but instead of billing themselves, contract with MW1 to collect the fees for them.
The whole idea of making the switch was to save money: M1W staff estimated they would save the district $400,000 annually.
Everything was moving toward approval for the July 1 switch, when a curveball was thrown on June 24 by two representatives to the MW1 Board of Directors from Salinas and Seaside.
In what was to be the final vote of approval, Directors Anthony Rocha of Salinas and Alexis Garcia-Arrazola of Seaside voted no, and since their votes were weighted by population, and it had to be a two-thirds vote, the motion to approve the switch failed, 13-9.
Rocha argued that placing the sanitation fees on the twice-a-year property tax bill would be an unfair burden on senior citizens and residents from underserved populations, among other issues.
Now what's left in the wake of the unexpected vote is what the cities will do. The Seaside and Salinas city councils have already opted out, choosing to stick with the current method of billing.
Pacific Grove City Council was set to decide at its meeting on Wednesday, July 3, but now city staff are recommending the council continue the discussion in order to collect more information.
According to the P.G. staff report, Monterey officials are still weighing options. Meanwhile, the Castroville Community Services District, already voted to switch to billing by the tax collector.
The clock is ticking. P.G. and Monterey have until Aug. 1, when the tax collector needs a list of which parcels would need the sanitation billing added.
The P.G. council meeting is at 6pm on Wednesday, inside City Hall, 300 Forest Ave., Pacific Grove. To participate virtually go to cityofpacificgrove.org/Zoom_CC. It's also available to view on YouTube.