District directors hear class action suit report

To start off the new year at their Jan. 12 meeting, Ramona Municipal Water District directors postponed election of officers, heard a review of the class action lawsuit against the district regarding sewer fees, and approved measures to allow the general manager to file small claims actions for delinquent accounts.

The board plans to elect officers at its Feb. 9 meeting as only three of the five were in attendance. Absent from the meeting were directors Jim Hickle, who was out of town, and George Foote, who had jury duty.

Because water district customers have been receiving in the mail a document from San Diego Superior Court about the class action lawsuit judgment, ruled in the district’s favor, and many have called the district office, Attorney Gregory Moser with Procopio, Cory, Hargreaves & Savitch LLP, which represented the district, reviewed the case and provided deadlines for further action by the plaintiffs.

Moser said the plaintiffs’ deadline to file a Notice of Appeal is Feb. 2.

“They said they will do that. Whether they will actually do that, we’ll see,” said Moser.

The attorney said the court ordered the plaintiffs to mail notices of the ruling to the “class members,” and that cost them about $13,000. The district, he said, is entitled to reimbursements of trial and expert witness costs and is asking for $85,616.73, which the plaintiffs are disputing. A hearing on that is scheduled for March 2, said Moser.

Filed in January 2014, the lawsuit alleged that the district’s method for charging sewer fees based on a parcel’s assigned equivalent dwelling units violates Proposition 218 because the charges can exceed the proportional cost of the services.

The district requested the trial be split into two phases, with the first phase to consider whether the plaintiffs — Eugene Plantier, Orrin Day and George Newman — had exhausted their administrative remedies by first protesting fees at Proposition 218 public hearings on sewer and water rates. After hearing testimony in phase 1, the court found on Nov. 3, 2015, that the plaintiffs failed to submit such protests and ruled in the district’s favor, preventing the trial proceeding to phase 2.

The court said it found the testimonies of district staff to be more persuasive than that of the plaintiffs, and Plantier had an ax to grind over a dispute regarding grease discharge. Plantier owns the commercial property at 109 10th St. that he leases to Marisco Mar De Cortez restaurant. In 2012, district staff said the restaurant was releasing grease into the sewer line and required him to pay $33,000 to bring the building’s wastewater service into compliance and to obtain an industrial waste permit.

Moser said the plaintiffs’ history of complaints dated back to 2002, when Newman complained of a water bill.

According to Barnum, the case cost the district several hundred thousand dollars to defend, although Beck noted that it could have cost a lot more if it lost. Moser said the district would have had to pay back millions of dollars to class members — customers who paid a sewer service charge on or after Nov. 22, 2012.

In other action, the board:

• Authorized its general manager to file small claims actions on delinquent accounts without first obtaining board approval.

• Amended its Legislative Code to require a lien against a property when the owner is paying undocumented sewer connection fees through a promissory note. The lien would be lifted after full payment.

• Approved an agreement that would allow San Diego County Fire Authority volunteers to be mentored by the Ramona Fire Department and to volunteer at Ramona fire stations.