Sacramento property owner sues city alleging it illegally raised stormwater fee
A Sacramento property owner has sued the city claiming the city violated state law when it submitted over 2,000 ballots on a measure to raise the stormwater fee earlier this year.
The city cast ballots for each individual property it owns — more than 2,000 — which the lawsuit alleges violated the state’s Right to Vote on Taxes Act. If the city had not done that, the measure would have failed, the lawsuit alleged.
“By casting votes on behalf of city-owned property in favor of a fee that will effectively be paid to the city, the city subverted (state) Proposition 218’s goal of protecting taxpayers by limiting the methods by which local governments exact revenue from taxpayers without their consent,” the lawsuit read.
The city declined comment on the lawsuit because it has not yet been served with it, city spokesman Tim Swanson said.
Dessins LLC, incorporated in Delaware, filed the lawsuit earlier this week in Sacramento County Superior Court. The limited liability company owns a house and a building that was approved for a three-story senior living facility, both in East Sacramento, according to county records.
In addition, the lawsuit alleges the city should have mailed multiple ballots to people who owned multiple properties. The lawsuit seeks to invalidate the resolution the council adopted at an April meeting to approve the fee increase.
About 52% of property owners in the mail-in election approved a measure to increase the fee, Utilities Director Bill Busath told the council during an April council meeting. In order to pass, it needed 50% of the vote plus one.
The city followed all required steps of Proposition 218, Busath said at the meeting. In February, the city sent 130,071 ballots for 154,879 parcels were mailed to all property owners who are receiving storm drainage services, weighted by one vote per parcel. About 42,000 ballots were returned.
The city will increase the fee for most single-family homeowners by about $70 per year, from about $135 to $205 per year, based on the size of impervious surfaces. The increase will bring in about $20 million in new revenue to the city to repair and improve the city’s 100-year-old stormwater system, according to the city.
The city plans to use the revenue to protect drinking water quality; keep chemicals, sewage and human waste out of rivers and creeks; prevent sewage and human waste from overflowing onto neighborhood streets; replace deteriorating pumps that prevent flooding; and repair aging water pipelines and infrastructure, a city web page said.
The city last increased the fee in 1996. The city has a program for property owners who are unable to afford the bill.
