Over the past several months, the improvement district has been working on efforts to improve and maintain your service while at the same time finding mechanisms to reduce your rates. In addition, we have made it a priority to enhance the communications flow between the district and those who use the services the district provides.
This article is an addition to that effort. For several months, we have been communicating the issues and discussions of the district on the official Facebook site (https://www.facebook.com/POCIDofficial). This was step one of our overall communication strategy and the quickest one to implement.
On the site, we have described the rate study steps to determine the fairest ways to determine your base rate. This systematic process has allowed citizens to follow the logic and see how the district’s conclusions were made. Despite the complexity of some of these issues, we have worked to make them understandable to everyone so they don’t need to have a degree in engineering or finance. We are in the process of describing in full detail the recommendations from the engineers concerning the upcoming bond initiative. We have listed the first half of the planned upgrades and explained where they will happen. Later this month, we will conclude with the rest of the engineers’ recommended list. If you have not visited the site, we ask that you do, that you “like” us, and that you become part of the online discussion.
We understand that not everyone is on Facebook. As part of our strategy, we are currently developing a quarterly newsletter. We will be submitting the rough version for directors to approve at the April directors meeting. This newsletter will be emailed to ratepayers once it is approved. To save on expenses, the directors approved a digital newsletter. However, for those who do not have email or online access, we are designing the newsletter so that it can be easily printed and stapled and provided at key areas around town and in the office if that is desired.
Inside this quarter’s newsletter, our main story will focus on the May bond election. Ultimately, this election is a decision to fund the district differently by using property tax bonds. Through the rate study process, the directors have found ways to fund the long-term development of the district while at the same time be able to lower most ratepayers’ monthly bills. While the way to reduce rates to their lowest is through property tax bonds, the board did not want to make a single recommendation. Instead, they want to lay out what the property tax changes would mean to your wallet and compare that with our current system.
We are currently working on a comparison table that will allow you to see the overall effect of the property tax increase against the rate decrease. This way everyone can judge their own situation and vote accordingly. This will be the lead article in the newsletter, and we will provide our information to any news media that would like to analyze our comparisons. We will also have all of our analysis available on the Facebook site.
What if you are not on Facebook, have no email address and could not make the April district meeting? Then please call us (361-983-2652 office / 832-278-5510 Imagination Monkey) so we can figure out a way to get the information to you. Our goal is to provide the key information so that you can make the most informed decision possible. We will do whatever we can to make that happen.
Finally, we want to thank the Dolphin Talk for providing this platform. Each month we will provide updates on the district, using factual information free from bias. If you have any questions, please feel free to post on the Facebook page, website, or email me personally (chill@imaginationmonkey.com). We are working each day to improve the information flow of the district, so please join the conversation and post or email us your questions. We are listening.
