Politics & Government

Are You Voting in Tuesday's Sewer Agency Consolidation Election?

Residents of Alto, Almonte, Homestead Valley and Strawberry decide today whether the four sewer agencies representing those areas should be consolidated into one.

Marin's first election in 2013 is arriving this week with considerably less fanfare than the fevered pitch of Nov. 2012, when a presidential race and a slew of local and statewide ballot measures drove Marin to the highest voter turnout in California.

Voters living within the Alto, Almonte, Homestead Valley or Richardson Bay districts have until Tuesday at 8 p.m. to vote on whether or not those districts should be consolidated into one.

The election is the latest attempt to resolve a long-standing debate over what to do with the tiny districts on the heels of Assembly Bill 1232, then-state Assemblyman Jared Huffman's bill that moved decision-making authority for consolidation away from districts' boards of directors and into the hands of the countywide Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO).

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Talk of consolidating the districts sparked in the wake of the a pair of sewage spills in 2008 that cost the Sewerage Agency of Southern Marin (SASM) $2.6 million in fines and fees. SASM consists of six member agencies, including Mill Valley, the Tamalpais Community Services District and the sanitary districts of Almonte, Alto, Homestead Valley and Richardson Bay.

Through a contract agreement, the city of Mill Valley operates the SASM waste treatment plant on Sycamore Avenue and oversees its staff and management.

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Those spills also incited a 2012 lawsuit filed by the Richardson Bay district, which collects sewage for more than 4,000 households in Strawberry and parts of Tiburon, against the city of Mill Valley. The district wanted the city to reimburse and compensate “SASM and its respective agencies for the losses, fines and forfeitures they suffered as a result of the city’s operation and management of the facility.”

A Marin County Superior Court judge rejected that lawsuit in March.

Huffman's bill was signed into law by Gov. Jerry Brown in 2010, but the LAFCO board, with southern Marin Supervisor Kate Spears serving as the swing vote, voted 4-3 against using its authority to force consolidation that was granted by Huffman's bill.

Those supporting consolidation face an uphill battle. For consolation to be approved, at least 50 percent of voters in all four districts need to vote in favor of it. If the measure loses in any one of the four, consolidation dies.

A 2009 Marin County Civil Grand Jury report prepared in the wake of the spills concluded that the six sewer districts that comprise SASM could run more efficiently if they combined.

The Marin County Elections Department has set up an outdoor ballot box to assist voters who haven't yet mailed in their ballots. The ballot box is at the main entrance to the Marin Civic Center at 3501 Civic Center Drive through 8 p.m. Tuesday for voters to drop off their ballots for both the SASM consolidation election as well as a parcel tax on the ballot for San Rafael City Schools.

Voters also may cast ballots in person on Monday, May 6, from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Tuesday, May 7, from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the Elections Office in Room 121 of the Civic Center.

On Election Day, from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., there will be two additional locations where voters can drop off their ballots: the San Rafael City Clerk’s Office, 1400 Fifth Ave, Room 209, and the Mill Valley Community Center, 180 Camino Alto.

The city of Mill Valley has been the operator of the SASM plant on Sycamore Avenue since 1979. Although Richardson Bay district officials suggested the possibility of cutting ties with the city in 2010, the SASM board later approved a revised operations and maintenance agreement with the city to continue operating the plant.

If you live within one of the four relevant sanitary districts, are you voting in the consolidation election? Tell us why or why not in the Comments below.

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