Just like residents and businesses, EOCWD’s budget has been impacted by COVID-19.
We’re responding by making at least a three percent cut to our budget. We are cancelling attendance at non-essential meetings and conferences. We are eliminating employee cost of living compensation increases. We are forgoing planned capital improvements, including much-needed improvements to our district office.
We also plan to dip into “rainy-day” funds. These funds have been set aside by our board of directors as part of our annual budget process and the board’s direction to operate in a fiscally responsible manner.
We understand that many of our customers may also be looking at household budget cuts, or facing job furloughs or unemployment.
That’s why we have also decided to defer a planned water rate increase that would have been effective on February 1, 2021. The increase had been part of a multi-year phased increase which was approved by our board of directors in 2016 after a public review process.
Our governing board took these steps so our customers can focus on recovery and not an increase in their water bills.
We will continue to provide high quality water and sewer service throughout these challenging times.
In addition, several previously planned and initiated projects will continue, including our PFAS capital projects designed to address groundwater quality, as well as our Vista Panorama Reservoir replacement project.
We remain committed to developing greater water reliability and maintaining excellent water quality for our customers.
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