Letter To The Editor
Author: Carolina and Jake Balliew
July 19, 2024
Mayor Vicki Rauser and Council Members,
We attended the July 16, 2024, Townsend City Council meeting with particular interest in the Public Hearing for increased water rates as a local business that will be affected. Other local residents were in attendance as well who also spoke up with concerns that focused on not fully understanding the rationale behind the need for a water rate increase, the rationale for the final upgrades chosen, and the concern for potential impacts to their own current budgets. As we have had a few days to reflect on the Public Hearing and the responses to our and other questions, we are providing these following formal comments:
1. It is imperative for the City to make sure that information is readily available and distributed in a digestible form to the common person on issues that financially affect its citizens. This could include fact sheets, mailers, handouts, and/or local newspaper articles that clearly outline the process of decision making, identification of when and how to provide public input, and discussions of key milestones throughout the process. During the meeting, the mayor and council members pointed to lengthy documents/reports available for the public to review in the office and copies were made of a prior summary and handed out. It is concerning that no additional, plain language materials were created to assist the average person in understanding the impacts of decisions that ultimately financially affect them. In good faith, a response of simply pointing to documents was not founded in the intent of helping someone to understand.
2. A city council response was provided that implied not having a full understanding of the increased water rates was due to a lack of participation in civic duty. We were in attendance of this Public Hearing asking questions and providing comments from our concerns with increased water rates. That in and of itself is participation in our civic duty. We are a couple who believes wholeheartedly in being a public servant to both Montanans and Americans. While not only being local business owners, one of us serves in the military and the other has served as a State employee and, currently, serves as a Federal employee. Placing judgment along the lines of civic duty is a disappointing response from fellow public servants.
3. The mayor provided a response that performing an economic assessment of the financially affected citizens that would be impacted by the water rate increases was not part of the process. While not a requirement, it should be an acknowledged responsibility. This response is concerning because the community will ultimately be required to pay for the much-needed upgrades. There is a balance when understanding what your community can reasonably afford when determining a final budget and developing alternatives that meet the needs of the required upgrades. Concessions could be considered on alternatives that are less optimal or aesthetically-pleasing if more affordable in the long term. An understanding of economic impacts should be performed and used as a factor before a final decision is made.
While it remains unclear on the next steps of this process to increase water rates, we request that you take our formal comments into consideration and more generally remember these comments for future decisions.
Sincerely,
Carolina and Jake Balliew
