Letter: Court should interpret charter’s intent

As a Glendale resident and GWP rate-paying customer, I have been very interested in the Forum letters about how revenues from GWP are distributed — for water and electricity purchases, repair and upgrading of infrastructure, operating expenses, and the General Fund, which I understand pays for city expenses unrelated to water and power. I am very aware that our water and electricity rates have recently been increased fairly dramatically. The city says it is because current rates are insufficient to cover needed capital investment in infrastructure. Citizen groups maintain the city government has transferred funds from GWP illegally to the General Fund, starving the capital investment budget. The city counters that the Glendale City Charter mandates that 25% of GWP revenues be transferred to the General Fund.

In an effort to understand these arguments, I read the Glendale City Charter. Article XI Sec. 17 allocates funds from water and electric power receipts into a Depreciation Fund to cover “repair, replacement and extension” of water and electric plant and equipment. Sec. 20 allocates remaining receipts to a Revenue Fund to cover all GWP’s other demands and liabilities. Sec. 22 creates the GWP Surplus Fund for any receipts exceeding the requirements of the Depreciation and Revenue funds. The charter allocates 25% of this surplus to be transferred to the General Reserve Fund.

I agree that the court is the best arbiter to determine, in an opinion hopefully uninfluenced by emotion and unsubstantiated allegations, whether the funds from GWP are being used appropriately according to law and the citizens’ choices. We are all paying large amounts of money into this utility and water and power receipts should not become a backdoor tax.

Dorothy Black Tifft
Glendale