As a direct result of the public outrage expressed by ratepayers in Dublin, San Ramon, and Pleasanton over the past few months, Dublin San Ramon Services District (DSRSD) has decided to eliminate the the controversial “Pay for Performance” program that funneled more than $2.5M in bonuses over the past 13 years to the water agency’s employees. The widely criticized bonuses were above and beyond performance-based incentive compensation paid out as part of the agency’s employment contracts. Prior to the unpopular decision to approve these bonuses for DSRSD’s top brass last year, DSRSD had passed a series of rate hikes on to its customers in Dublin, San Ramon, and Pleasanton.

“We probably received a hundred emails from rate payers and a lot of attention was generated through media attention and local blogs,” said DSRSD Board Member Dan Scannell in an interview with Contra Costa Times. Scannell has been a board member since 2000 and a vocal opponent of the controversial bonus program. “The residents were outraged over these huge bonuses during a recession, and wanted to know why we were not reducing rates instead.”

The Around Dublin Team would like to thank our readers for taking action to squash the efforts by DSRSD Board President Rich Halket, Board Member Pat Howard, and Board Member Vonheeder-Leopold to line the pockets of agency employees such as General Manager Bert Michalczyk, who lives very comfortably in Danville and has taken home roughly $300,000 in 2011.

DSRSD provides drinking water and sewer service to Dublin and the Dougherty Valley, as well as sewer service to Pleasanton and parts of San Ramon. The current DSRSD Board is composed entirely of Dublin residents. Rich Halket and Pat Howard are both up for re-election in November.

Similar efforts are underway as residents fight Dublin City Hall to protect the dream of having the upscale retail project known as the Promenade. Residents living in the Dublin Ranch Villages and Sorrento have been mobilized to hold Dublin City Hall and Charter Properties accountable for the upscale retail they have long been promised. They are also tired of the finger-pointing from Dublin City Hall for the much publicized parking nightmare in their neighborhood. For many, the fight has become personal, and they are ready to take matters into their own hands to protect their investments.