Amador Water Agency Cancels One Third of all 2011 Meetings

In January 2011, a new Amador Water Agency Board of Directors promised a different direction. Their “new direction” turned out to be a disturbing trend. Instead of regularly scheduling board and committee meetings with adequate time to review meeting materials, the AWA has canceled one third of all meetings, including over one quarter of its Board meetings, and nearly half of its committee meetings. Sometimes they are replaced with Special Board Meetings requiring only 24 hours’ notice. The end result is less opportunity for the ratepayers to participate in their Agency's operational decisions, and an increasing lack of transparency (despite the promise of “public transparency” in AWA’s mission statement).

AWA board and committee meetings are the main opportunity for ratepayers to exchange ideas, speak with their elected Directors and to offer ideas, comments or suggestions on the running of the AWA. Unfortunately, with rare exceptions, meetings are held during the day which makes it difficult for working people to attend.

In addition to the meetings held or cancelled, here are the attendance records of your individual board representatives.

Despite the importance of the public meetings, one third of all AWA meetings were canceled! The agency didn’t hold a single board meeting in December 2011. In a year where the agency has struggled to stay afloat, the people elected to keep the AWA solvent and its systems in good working order chose to meet less often to discuss the issues in public. They are shortchanging the ratepayers and actively keeping vital information from the those who want to know exactly how the Agency is (or is not) being run.