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Court hears first phase of sewer fee challenge

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Phase 1 of the class action suit challenging the Ramona Municipal Water District’s wastewater fee structure began in San Diego Superior Court on Monday and concluded Tuesday morning. A tentative ruling had not been issued before press time.

Whether the trial would proceed to the second phase depended on the ruling, according to the court.

Eugene Plantier, who owns the commercial property at 109 10th St. that he leases to Marisco Mar De Cortez restaurant, filed a lawsuit against the water district in January 2014 after he was told in 2012 that he would have to pay $33,000 to bring the building’s wastewater service into compliance with the RMWD code.

Certified as a class action suit in February, the legal challenge claims that RMWD’s method of charging sewer fees based on a parcel’s assigned equivalent dwelling units (EDU), which estimate wastewater flow for various types of occupancy, violates Proposition 218 because the charges can exceed the proportional cost of the service. Joining him in the suit is Ramona businessman and developer Orrin Day.

At the request of the attorneys representing the water district, the case was bifurcated so the court would first consider whether the plaintiffs sufficiently protested the fees or exhausted their administrative remedies before filing a lawsuit, which the attorneys said would have bearing on their cause of action.

“There’s a long-standing dispute between Mr. Plantier and the district,” attorney John Alessio with Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch LLP, representing RMWD, told Judge Timothy Taylor in his opening statements.

Representing the plaintiffs, attorney Allison Goddard told the judge that Plantier had appeared before the water board and tried setting up meetings with the district “but trying to communicate with the district, to put it mildly, is like hitting a wall.”

Alessio said dating back to 2012, the plaintiffs never showed up at a water district public hearing that gives the public an opportunity to protest rates before the board votes on rate increases and its new fiscal year budget.

“This is the time to be heard,” he said.

Alessio said the court would hear that the plaintiffs felt that attending a hearing was a “waste of time.”

Goddard, however, said the Proposition 218 letter to customers notices them on wastewater and water rate increases, and the public hearing.

“It just says the fee is changing,” she said.

The letter tells ratepayers what to say when protesting the rates but doesn’t include “why,” said Goddard, and it says the board will be authorized to approve the rate if it does not receive protests from the majority of ratepayers.

Goddard ran through a timeline from April 2012, when Plantier received a letter from the district that the parcel should have 6.82 EDUs, covering meetings he set up with district staff and board members. According to Goddard, Plantier told RMWD General Manager David Barnum that the sewer charges are unfair because “it’s arbitrary and based on square footage.”

When Plantier got a hearing before the board, he was denied any relief, she said, although Alessio noted that the board waived a $96,000 mitigation fee for the additional EDUs.

Goddard said Plantier “tried everything he could to get them to listen to him that this charge was illegal.”

The plaintiffs are seeking refunds dating back to 2012 in the class action suit that includes RMWD customers who have paid a sewer service charge on or after Nov. 22, 2012.

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