Unused Cash Reserves at EVMWD Top $172 Million…No Wonder Our Water Bills are so High!

The above graph shows the amount of unused and unrestricted reserve cash the EVMWD presently has compared to other water companies. EVMWD’s reserve is $3,200 per house verse $600 for Riverside, and $250 for Los Angeles water companies! EVMWD also has many more millions in restricted reserve for projects already in work and future projects.

The EVMWD Director’s role is to work for the rate payers and keep their interest first. Over the last decade little progress has been made to upgrade water quality and water costs have increased more rapidly than at comparable water companies. I place this failure on EVMWD management which needs to understand that we are a water company with a first responsibility to our customers.

We need to upgrade our water recycling facilities and secure future water contracts with our suppliers. I will stop the addition of Aluminum Sulfate and Fluoride into our drinking water because a Harvard Study has found it be harmful to unborn children during a mother’s pregnancy, can cause bone decay, and arthritis among other long term illnesses.

I have served as an aircraft maintenance officer and Captain in the United States Air Force. I served overseas in Japan and the island of Diego Garcia near the Persian Gulf. I have a bachelor’s degree in engineering and a master’s degree in accounting. For the last twenty years I have worked as a manufacturing manager at Ready Pac Incorporated, a fast paced food manufacturing facility with over 2000 employees. I have been married 22 years and we have two boys. I previously served as the Lake Elsinore City Treasurer and as a Council Member where my decisions resulted in positive changes for the city’s finances and management operations. I have experience in the financial, planning and management aspects for large projects needed to ensure successful completion.

I have a proven track record of positive results in the military, manufacturing, and government sectors and as an EVMWD Director I promise make positive changes at EVMWD as well. Please vote for me this November 4, 2014, my name is Peter Weber.Thank you.

Recent Aluminum Sulfate additions to Canyon Lake are a “band aid” fix to make the lake water look clear, but the chemical can negatively affect a person’s health…..

So why is it being added to Canyon Lake?……

The resultant reaction of the Aluminum Sulfate with the Canyon Lake water is sulfuric acid and aluminum. The sulfuric acid evaporates into the atmosphere after a short while killing all living organisms, but the aluminum drops to the lake floor and smothers any life or growth. With every chemical application the Canyon Lake bottom is being polluted with aluminum.

Canyon Lake is our drinking water and yet Aluminum Sulfate is being added to clear the lake water of particles for a small amount of time. I am opposed to this chemical being added to our lakes and will stop the addition of this Aluminum Sulfate into Canyon Lake and Lake Elsinore if I am elected to EVMWD as a Board member.

My name is Peter Weber, I am running for the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District. Voting day is November 4, 2014 and I will work to stop the addition of Aluminum Sulfate to our lake.

Vote for Peter Weber, EVMWD Director, November 4, 2014

EVMWD Told by State Controller to Get New Auditor for Financial Statements….

The e-mail below ( it is somewhat technical but please read it) was sent by me in 2009 to the EVMWD accounting firm that used to audit the EVMWD financial statements. Basically is says that the accounting firm had made a mistake when accounting for lost money with regard to the LEAPs electric project. The LEAPs project was a project I opposed which was going to take water from the lake, run it up the mountain at night, and back down into the lake in the day though an electric power plant. I discovered the plant would lose $80 million per year in operating cost, the project was shelved but $10 million in EVMWD was wasted on the project for lawyer and consultant fees. The accounting firm did nothing to correct the statements. I sent a letter to the state controller and told them of the serious mistake the auditor had made in accounting for the lost money on LEAPs. Within a short time after sending my letter the State Controller told EVMWD to discontinue using this accounting firm because they worked for the corrupt City of Bell, I think my letter also helped the State Controller tell EVMWD to dismiss the firm as the auditor.

Ken **************

Dear Ken:

Listening to your presentation at the Annual GFOA conference in Anaheim last week titled, “Risky Business: A GAAS Update”, was very informative. I believe as you stated in your presentation that the new SAS suite statements will make communication of internal control deficiencies for entities more transparent due to increased communication and auditor responsibility to openly convey deficiencies in the auditor letter.

After the presentation I spoke with you about a deficiency in the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water Districts (EVMWD), Comprehensive Annual Financial Report (CAFR), for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2006. Your firm audits the basic financial statements for EVMWD and gave an unqualified opinion of the basic financial statements. I showed you a copy of the CAFR and on page 36, section 13 of the notes to the financial statements, titled, “Notes and Contracts Receivable”, the last paragraph on this page states:

Noncurrent receivalbe amount relating to a contract with, 2006, 2005 the Nevada Hydro Companyto build a water storage and electric generation facility [The LEAPS Project]. Contract amounts plus interest will be paid once the project has been approved by federal regulators and project financing is secured.                                                                             $554,251    $337,986

I then showed you an EVMWD invoice from June 30, 2006, for an amount of $169,325.69 related to this loan by EVMWD to Nevada Hydro which is a private company. The invoice states that the accrued amount for the noncurrent receivable to be reimbursed by Nevada Hydro to EVMWD is $1,527,350, yet the audited CARF states the amount owed to EVMWD is $554,251. The $973,099 difference between the CAFR and the invoice amounts shown as owed to EVMWD by Nevada Hydro is significant.

You replied to me that your company didn’t investigate this portion of the statements and that you would talk to the client to get them to address the issue.

I also spoke with you about a recent decision that had recently been published by the California Independent System Operator (CAISO), who was asked by Nevada Hydro and EVMWD to approve and then take over the project. CAISO has opposed this request for many reasons that can be read by you in the attachment. This has made the probability of the project being completed remote.

Presently you are getting ready to audit the June 30, 2007 financial statements for EVMWD. I request that you expand your auditing oversight into the correct classification of this noncurrent receivable as an expense due the fact that it is remote that the project will ever be started and is no longer fiscally sustainable or viable due to CAISO’s rejection of the project.

I request that you scrutinize the invoices for this project and the amount owed to EVMWD by Nevada Hydro. The difference between the CAFR and the invoices of $973,099 is substantial. An in-depth audit to April 2001 should be sufficient to get an accurate understanding of how much money is actually owed.

I request that you make an accrual of the interest owed on this loan for the time it has been owed to EVMWD IAW GAAP. I did not see an accrual of interest owed or a percent charged per year.

I have spoken with several other CPA’s, even Stephen Gauthier, and Professors at Cal State Fullerton on what I have found and everyone has said it doesn’t look right and that I should talk to the accounting firm who audited the financial statements and to EVMWD. I am glad I saw you at the conference so I could make you aware of this accounting error at EVMWD.

What I have found to be most beneficial about financial conferences is the information learned and the plethora of help that is available from fellow accountants, professors, and agencies to ensure that financial statements are accurate, free of material misstatement, and fairly represent an entities financial position.

Please contact me if you need any help in understanding the information I am bringing forward to you. I can send you hard copies of the financial records in question to help you.

Peter Weber

EVMWD has a Whopping Unused Cash Reserves of Over $170 Million……..

 Graph made by Peter Weber, EVMWD candidate, 2014

So why don’t that dredge the lakes and fix the septic problems that pollute the lakes?

The above chart was made by myself and shows a simple representation of how much money the EVMWD has in unallocated cash reserves in 2014. Please take a look at the Consolidated Annual Finanacial Reports (CAFR) for EVMWD with your computer on-line, check page 58, to see the numbers for yourself. The unused cash reserves have grown steadily…and so have our water rates. A mere fraction of this $174 million dollars would be enough to clean-up Canyon Lake which is a source of our drinking water. Septic tanks that pollute our water could also be fixed and Lake Elsinore water upgraded  with  a mere fraction of this huge amount of money.

As an EVMWD Board member I will change the way EVMWD management operates and stop making “band aid” fixes to our lake pollution such as adding Aluminum Sulfate. Aluminum Sulfate is a temporary fix that adversy affects fish, lake ecology, and people’s long term health. Why would anyone want to add this chemical to our drinking water! We need safe drinking water, we have the money to accomplish this task now we need the leadership in EVMWD to make it happen. I promise I will if elected.

Our water rates are much higher than other water companies, this unused cash reserve equates to over $3,000 per household, we are being charged too much. Many other water companies have only $600 in cash reserve per household.

Please vote for Peter Weber, EVMWD Director, 2014. Voting day is November 4, 2014.

Peter Weber, EVMWD Director, 2014

Time For Intelligent Change At the….

…EVMWD

It is long past time to make positive changes at the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District. Which is what an election is all about.  I want you to vote for me but I want to tell you about myself first.

Many of you may recognize my name, Peter Weber, from when I previously served as the Lake Elsinore City Treasurer and a City Council Member.  My past decisions have resulted in positive changes for the city’s finances and management operations.  This fall, I am running as a candidate for the Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District’s Board of Directors. With your vote, I promise to make positive changes at EVMWD as well.  As a board member I will work to ensure:

• We have quality water at the lowest rate; Our water rates are among the highest in the state with little progress made to upgrade drinking and lake water quality.

 

• Stop the addition of fluoride into our drinking water; Fluoride is a carcinogen and a Harvard Study has found it be harmful to unborn children during a mother’s pregnancy, can cause bone decay, and arthritis among other long term illnesses.

 

• Stop the addition of the aluminum sulfate into Canyon Lake; This is a “Band Aid” fix which temporarily increases water clarity but can cause severe problems to lake ecology, fish and negatively affect a person’s health. This is our drinking water!

 

• Eliminate pollution in both Canyon Lake and Lake Elsinore; I will  “make real progress”  to eliminate lake pollution by utilizing some of the tens of millions of dollars in EVMWD unallocated funds  to get projects moving to remove our lakes from “impaired” status by
  • dredging of both lake bottoms
  • upgrade  upstream septic systems which contaminate our lakes and drinking water

Over the last decade little progress has been made to upgrade water quality and water costs have increased more rapidly than at comparable water companies. I place this failure on EVMWD management which needs to understand that we are a water company with a first responsibility to our customers. Recently, EMVWD has spent over $10 million on trying to transform into an electric company which failed miserably. This wasted money should have been used to finish dredging the lakes and fixing the septic problems that pollute our lakes and drinking water.

I have served as an officer in the U.S. Air Force and have a bachelor’s degree in engineering and a master’s degree in accounting. I work as a manufacturing manager in a national food manufacturing facility with over 2000 employees. My wife of 22 years is a Registered Nurse and we are raising two sons in Canyon Hills.  My phone # is (951) 579-1734. Thank you.

Peter Weber

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