You had to be there to know the truth

I never cease to be amazed at how authoritative people can sound on issues when they have no firsthand knowledge or experience. Peter Kunasz and DuMonte Voigt have written with great certainty about things that occurred long before either was ever involved with Rainbow Municipal Water District and about procedures they don’t seem to understand. Their assertions about Russ Hatfield are dead wrong. I know; I was there, attending the meetings, sometimes as the only member of the public present. Their information, doubtlessly secondhand, has the smell of a hatchet job.

I am a domestic ratepayer and a supporter of Russ Hatfield. The trumped-up accusations about water increases demonstrate a lack of basic knowledge about how agricultural rates work. Rainbow does not decide whether or not there is an agricultural discount and what it is; Metropolitan Water District does. Rainbow does not subsidize the lower cost of water to growers; Metropolitan does.

Mr Kunasz’s attribution of higher water rates to infrastructure costs is wrong again! Rates have been raised only as pass-throughs of rate hikes by SDCWA and Metropolitan. Had he attended recent meetings or read meeting minutes he would have known that.