Also serving the communities of De Luz, Rainbow, Camp Pendleton, Pala and Pauma

Rainbow MWD brings customer service back to own office

The Rainbow Municipal Water District customer service staff, which had relocated to the Fallbrook Public Utility District office in November, has returned to the Rainbow district office.

We’re all physically back,” said Rainbow general manager Gene Buckley.

The Rainbow staff left the FPUD premises for Rainbow on Thursday, April 3, and Friday, April 4. “The real move was mostly Thursday,” Buckley said.

Rainbow left one staff member at the FPUD office on April 4 to handle any necessary customer service matters. “Everybody on Monday morning was here,” Buckley said.

Excluding staff time, Rainbow’s only cost was a rental truck which was used in the April 3 relocation efforts. The one-day rate for the rental truck was $39.95.

“Everybody seems to be pleased,” Buckley said. “Everyone at Rainbow’s pleased.”

On March 5, Rainbow’s board voted to end the joint powers agreement which created the North County Joint Powers Authority with Rainbow and FPUD; the 30-day notice provided to FPUD the following day meant an April 5 end of Rainbow’s involvement in the North County JPA.

During the August 2013 JPA meeting, executive officer Brian Brady, who was also Rainbow’s general manager at the time as well as FPUD’s general manager, gave a presentation which noted that the center of the combined districts from a demographic point was closer to the FPUD office while the center from a geographic basis was nearer the Rainbow office. That led to a decision, which was neither ratified by board approval nor overturned by any board, to move the engineering and systems operations functions to the Rainbow facility while transferring customer service matters to the FPUD location.

In October, the Rainbow district prepared for the customer service staff move with public outreach notification, an order for pre-printed remittance envelopes with the new address, and testing to ensure that communications and information systems were linked.

FPUD didn’t move its engineering or systems operations staff to Rainbow prior to the dissolution of the JPA. “We never got to that stage,” Buckley said. “There were difficulties that were logistical and equipment-wise.”

Buckley explained that issues involving the electronic equipment which communicates between district facilities prevented FPUD from moving its field operations staff.

 

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