Padre Dam in Hot Water, but It Won't Ask Ratepayers to Bail It Out

is in —and there is no way it can, or would, ask .

That became painfully clear at Tuesday’s .

“We asked the ratepayers to conserve, and they . It’s now our responsibility to make the changes necessary to retain a stable financial situation.”

Those words from General Manager pretty much sum up the problem (you’ve heard it before): We were .

As a result, Padre Dam water sales to the ratepayers are down 34 percent from what was expected and predicted in the district’s .

Carlisle says things have to change—now.

“We’re facing significant budget challenges that require us to change the way we operate.”

It’s going to hurt at district headquarters and in the field.

By the end of 2013, 26 people will have lost their jobs, reducing the district's workforce total from 138 people to 112.

Some will be from attrition, but there will undoubtedly be layoffs somewhere along the line. One management level employee has already been laid off.

of up to 12 days a year for employees have been suggested, depending on talks with employee groups.

More than $12 million in needed capital improvement projects will be deferred, and no one knows for how long.

Four new trucks and two new backhoes will not be purchased.

Overtime? Forget about it, unless it’s an absolute emergency, like another .

New employees? Again, only in an absolute emergency, where a badly needed person cannot be found and promoted from within.

There will be major cuts in operating expenses, from the offices at headquarters to operations in the field.

So how much can be saved in the short term?

Probably better to ask, how much money MUST be saved?

Right now, the need is to somehow make up for the $3.5 million deficit the district is running at right now.

The district had planned on selling 16,000 acre feet of water this year, but now it’s looking at water sales of roughly 11,000 acre feet.

Putting it bluntly, Carlisle explains: “We have to get used to the reality of selling one-third less of our product than we planned on.”

Will you ? Possibly.

Not necessarily on your water bills, but there may be some slowdown in response to calls for service—calls for help with problems.

There just won’t be as many people available to answer those calls.

It’s being felt at the top of the district, as well.

Directors voted unanimously, with absent, to cut both the per diems they get for acting on district business and their health care packages as well.

Director Augie Caires said he’d like to cut those things even further, and it’s likely that will happen somewhere down the road.

Former Director told the it should not be approving 3 percent raises for some management people without first doing a comparative salary survey, apparently forgetting that those same people had suffered a 6.3 percent cut just last year, which was pointed out to him.

Board President commented that this probably isn’t going to be the end of the cuts and reshuffling.

“But there‘s not much of any fat left in this operation,” he said.

Will this do the job?

We’ll have to see what happens, but the clear truth is, anything that will is welcome.

Anything.