The Amador Water Agency last Thursday approved an emergency update of its Urban Water Management Plan in order to qualify for a $500,000 grant to go toward the building of a transmission pipeline.

The agency already has learned it would get the grant, but the California Department of Water Resources requires the update, which must be completed by Oct. 31.

Due to time constraints, staff pursued consultant scopes of the project, General Manager Jim Abercrombie said. RMC Consultants projected the cost at $39,000 and the board approved the work.

Abercrombie recommended using funds from a $200,000 Water Use Efficiency Grant to offset the expense. Both state grants are contingent on update of the urban management plan.

Attorney Steve Kronick said he expected a draft Environmental Impact Report on the pipeline in the next week or two, with answers to the hydrology section of the EIR, as raised by the Protect Historic Amador Waterways suit and subsequent ruling against section 4.1 of the EIR.

The agency also held a public meeting and discussed adding a surcharge for all retail and wholesale water customers due to a loss of property tax revenue over two years, amounting to $280,000 in funding, Finance Manager Mike Lee said. The surcharge would be 54 cents a month for customers with the smallest sized meter (five-eighths-inch) and incrementally higher for larger meters. A one-inch meter's charge would be $1.36; 1.5-inch meters are $2.72; two-inch meters would cost $4.35; three-inch meters would cost $8.15; four-inch meters would cost $13.59; and six-inch meters would cost $27.18 more per bill.

One customer each has a 10-inch meter and a 12-inch meter. The former surcharge per month would be $78.79 per bill and the latter would be $116.83 per bill.

Lee said the surcharges would pay back the two years' lost property tax revenue in just under four years.

He said the two-year shift of property taxes created the expected annual shortfall of $140,000. Abercrombie reminded the board that they directed staff to see what the agency could do to cut their own costs and they deferred and eliminated $47,500 from the budget.

Lee said the surcharge was figured to supplement the entire budget loss, while board members discussed whether that should all be paid back by the surcharge or just what was not deferred and eliminated.

President Heinz Hamann said customers had said they thought the agency would absorb the losses.

Director Terence Moore said those deferred jobs would still need to be done.

"We put off $47,000 worth of work into the future," Moore said. "We need to do those projects," like a security fence around the agency office.

Abercrombie said pipes need to be replaced and treatment plants need to be refurbished and such things are part of operating the not-for-profit business.

"The board can direct staff either way to collect $232,000 or $280,000," Abercrombie said. "And yes, we did reduce the '04/'05 budget by that amount of money and yes, we need to do those projects."

Moore said the governor transferred $350 million in property taxes last year from all special districts It would have meant a 20 to 30 percent loss of property tax revenue.

"At the last minute they removed all of the special interest special districts," Moore said, including fire, police, hospital and cemetery districts. So only those special districts that did not pay lobbyists lost their property taxes.

"Instead of 20 to 30 percent, it became 100 percent of the property tax revenue," Moore said.

"Some people don't believe we'll ever see it again," Moore said. "They say, 'you just raise your rates.' They don't care.

"They're also looking at our reserves," he said. "They say 'you don't need to have money in reserve to fix your pipes. You just raise your rates.'"

Kronick said the service charge is based on the capacity and the potential for demand.

Lee said the agency got a handful of calls when the notice letters went out and Hamann said he received a letter signed by five customers.

"Starting in 2006-2007, we should start getting this property tax back," Hamann said.

"If you don't get it back, this surcharge could become permanent?" a woman in the audience said.

"Yes," Hamann said. "You should tell your politicians that you want that money back."

Lee said the lost revenue amounted to 1.7 percent of the budget. Hamann said the letter he received urged no layoffs but to cut the agency budget by "less than 2 percent."

He agreed with them in that the agency "should find a way to tighten our belts to a degree." He also wanted to monitor the recompense.

Lee said "at any time, we should be able to tell what went in," but there will be finance charges against the funds.

Director Dan Brown asked Lee to "enumerate the projects being side-winded."

One is a new security and gate system, he said. Abercrombie said the agency was "going from a key to a cardless security system to better track who comes in and out."

Brown said another upgrade, something he has pushed, a Computerized Maintenance Management System, was also deferred.

The Water Agency also OK'd giving $500 of its PR budget money to Cosumnes River Watershed Council, but only after getting a list of member agencies and their corresponding financial input into the council.