The Richardson Bay Sanitary District, which serves Tiburon and Belvedere, has formally rejected every finding and recommendation in a Marin County Civil Grand Jury report that called for merging the county's sanitary districts.
The district said no.
District Manager Johnny Tucker told The Ark on Tuesday, July 28, that the consolidation debate resurfaces every six or eight years and that the district has no interest in relitigating it.
"We don't have time to continually go back and back and back and beat this dead horse," Tucker said.
Under California law, local agencies that receive a civil grand jury report must formally respond within 90 days, accepting, rejecting, or partially accepting each finding and recommendation. Richardson Bay rejected them all.
What the grand jury found
The grand jury report, which urged mergers of Tiburon Peninsula special districts, pointed to fee gaps between Tiburon Peninsula sewer districts as evidence that consolidation could lower costs for ratepayers. The same report also called for mergers among Central Marin sanitary agencies, including districts serving Corte Madera, San Rafael, and Ross Valley.
Fee data cited in the report showed wide variation across the county. According to a July 4 Marin IJ report, the grand jury found Ross Valley Sanitary District charged $1,288 per customer annually, San Rafael charged $1,012, and Corte Madera charged $906. Richardson Bay's own annual fee was not cited in the report.
Why it keeps coming back
Tucker said the district has faced and rebuffed similar consolidation pushes in prior grand jury cycles. He described the recurring debate as unproductive, saying the district's time is better spent on operations than on responding to the same proposal every few years.
The grand jury's recommendation carries no binding authority. Grand jury reports are advisory, and districts can reject findings outright, as Richardson Bay did. Whether the grand jury's consolidation push gains traction with other Tiburon Peninsula districts or with the Marin Local Agency Formation Commission, which oversees district boundaries, remains to be seen.
