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Dra. Letter to Committee Cha,r <br /> March __, 2002 <br /> <br /> The Hon. Tom Todakson, Committee Chair <br /> Senate Committee on Local Government <br /> State Capitol, Room 2068 <br /> Sacramento, CA 95814 <br /> <br /> Re: Senate Bill 1870- SUPPORT <br /> <br /> Dear Chair Torlakson: <br /> <br /> On behalf of the City of Redwood City, I'm writing to urge your committee to approve Senate Bill 1870, <br /> introduced by Senator Jackie Speier (D-San Francisco/San Mateo). SB 1870 would enable the local <br /> governments that are dependent on the San Francisco regional water system and are responsible for <br /> water distribution to their customers, to voluntarily form the Bay Area Water Reliability Financing Au- <br /> thority. <br /> <br />The attached resolution expresses the City Council's serious concern about the possibility of our <br />community being without water from the system for up to 60 days. The health, safety and economic <br />risks of such a catastrophic outage are unacceptable for our community. This is a regional problem <br />affecting 2.4 million people, thousands of businesses, and vital community organizations. The state <br />and the nation depend on a vibrant Bay Area economy. In Redwood City's water service area, over <br />82,000 residents and major employers including Oracle Corporation, Electronic Arts, Granite Rock <br />Company and Perclose / Abbott Laboratories Co. are 100 percent dependent on water from the re- <br />gional system. <br /> <br />The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC), which operates the Bay Area regional water <br />system, has failed for several years to approve a multi-billion dollar Capital Improvement Program to <br />fix the system and has not acted to obtain financing to pay for the necessary work. For this and other <br />reasons, it is not certain that San Francisco is ready, willing and able to secure the financing neces- <br />sary to carry out essential repairs and improvement to the regional water system. <br /> <br />Our customers and residents that depend on the water made available by the regional system have <br />no right to vote in elections in San Francisco and are not represented on the commission that over- <br />sees operation of the regional system. There is currently no multi-county governmental agency that <br />represents the customers of the regional water system outside of San Francisco that is authorized to <br />assist in the financing of essential repairs for the regional water system. The Bay Area Water Reliabil- <br />ity Financing Authority, as enabled thru SB 1870, would be able to independently raise funds that <br />could be used to assist San Francisco construction of projects to improve the reliability of the regional <br />system as the wholesale customers' share of cost of the regional system improvements. <br /> <br />Because this matter concerns the health, safety and well being of our constituents, action must not be <br />delayed. We will be pleased, therefore, to testify in favor of this bill. <br /> <br />Sincerely, <br /> <br />Richard S. Claire <br />Mayor <br /> <br />CC: Members of the Senate Committee on Local Government <br /> Senator Jackie Speier <br /> Bay Area Water Users Association <br /> <br /> <br />