In December, the Woodmen Hills Metropolitan Districtís board of directors held a special meeting in place of its regular monthly meeting to approve the proposed 2014 budget before the Dec. 15 cutoff. Following the public portion of the meeting, the board entered into executive session but no action was taken at that time.As part of the proposed budget, Lisa Peterson, administration director, presented a reduced rate for water used in common areas of the district and for the parks and recreation division. Keith Moulton, board president, said the reduced rate was a new rate created specifically for these areas because they arenít technically residential or commercial areas.ìThe parks and recreation department and homeowners associations have been previously charged the commercial rate, so we created a mid-area to charge them for irrigation in common areas only,î Moulton said.The parks and recreation department had never paid for water before because there are no meters to monitor water usage, Moulton said. Al Kreps, board secretary, said the water and wastewater department had been supplementing the parks and recreation department to pay for its water usage.ìThat is a violation of our bond agreement,î Kreps said. ìEach enterprise needs to take care of their own budget and expenditures.îGene Cozzolino, water and wastewater director, said the district will get an accurate measure of the parks and recreation departmentís water usage by determining the other usage numbers and estimating from the remaining amount.Several other concerns were raised about the proposed budget, including whether each enterprise should be funded to allow for wage increases. Moulton said not providing the funding could result in the loss of an essential employee.Kreps made a motion to adopt the proposed 2014 budget with the caveat that any wage increases are subject to review by the board, before enterprise directors can give them out. The motion received unanimous approval in a 4-0 vote, with Robert Lovato, board vice president, absent.The next regular WHMD board meeting is Jan. 23 at 6:30 p.m. at the Woodmen Hills Community Center West.
