Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Tier three water

Lincoln police officers are issuing tickets right and left for violations of the City's outdoor watering restrictions.  Reading reports, I find it remarkable how many people knew that their home or business was watering when prohibited, but hadn't taken responsibility for resolving the matter. For example, officers have encountered a few homeowners' associations with central irrigation systems where an entire street was in violation.While I can understand that each homeowner doesn't control their own system, I would think that the residents would have been burning up the phone lines to property management.

It has been the same thing at some of the businesses, apartment complexes, and professional buildings: some managers knew it was happening, but hadn't taken steps to get it resolved.  Apparently it just wasn't a high enough priority.  While tickets will help make it a higher one, it is a rather cumbersome means of getting people to wake up and smell the coffee.

I suspect that for some residential customers in particular, the arrival of the next bi-monthly water bill, which will cover the July and August usage, will have an impact as great or greater than the arrival of a police officer at the door. Lincoln's water rates are tiered: the first 15 units of water are at a low rate, the next 30 at a higher rate, and after that, you are in tier three water, with a rate more than double the tier one cost. I think a lot of people who are trying to keep their August lawn the same color as it was in May are going to find themselves deep into the tier three pricing, with a water bill bigger than a car payment. Some are probably willing to pay the price, others may be suffering from some sticker shock. We shall see.


36 comments:

Anonymous said...

Director,
Are the homeowners in an association INDIVIDUALLY fined for a water violation or is it one fine for the Homeowners Association?

Gun Nut

Anonymous said...

You sure are getting lots of press out of this Tom. I tend to think you like seeing your name in the media.

I find this whole water situation sad. Sad that the citizen's can't get their act together and use less water.

Sad that we are so short of the precious commodity water, that most of us take for granted.

Sad that the POLICE have to hand out tickets to water scofflaws. Surely there are more important matters that need attention.

Sad that as I listened to the scanner yesterday, nearly every call was for a water violation.

Sad that neighbors who have gotten along for years, now turn to snitching each other off.

Sad that lawns matter more than people and the water.

Sad that this could only happen in Lincoln, Nebraska.

Steve said...

So, when you buy a bottle of water from the stop and go, you're paying nearly 6,000 times as much as it would cost to get it from the tap.

Pastor Fuller said...

Anonymous, Please! Why throw out such snide assumptions about someone seriously trying to do their job? The Director could care less about getting press. What's sad is is people doing drive-bys with their keyboards. Come on man (or woman), give the man a break, follow the Golden Rule. Also, I am sure this could happen in places other than Lincoln, NE. BY all means, opine, but don't be hurtful.

ARRRRG!!!! said...

My duckie only gets to play every other day.

MAMA JONES said...

A friend at her place of work yesterday got a ticket because she was the person in charge even though she had no control over the watering. The watering is set by those higher up then she is, she just happened to be the top of the chain yesterday. She cannot just pay the ticket, but has to appear in court.
Think we need to rethink who gets the ticket in the situation of a business. It also seems like a waste of a lot of people's time when the person ticketed has to appear in court. That would include the time of the judge, the court employees and the officer who wrote the ticket.

Anonymous said...

Sad that LJS posters are coming over here to spam their "sad that..." diatribes.

Anonymous said...

Last week, our average daily water use seemed to be 55.4m gals, which is pretty much the target.

Tom Casady said...

8:10,

Do you really think that I'm excited to be the point person for water restriction violations?

Mama Jones,

Think about the work involved on each of scores of complaints about businesses and other commercial facilities, in trying to track down the actual person who really makes decisions about the watering schedule. Holy cow. With management, comes responsiblity. I hope your friend tosses the ticket on her bosses desk.

BTW, the chief prosecutor has already asked the presiding judge of the County Court to establish a waiverable fine schedule for this offense. We've only had these water restrictions twice in the past 38 years (that's as long as my memory lasts), so please give us a little slack for not having everything down to a fine science yet.

9:19,

Moving in the right direction. I think we might see even more reduction this week with the cooler weather. Fingers crossed.

Anonymous said...

I hope they give some people jail time, even if only 10 days. As my sis (who lives out of state) pointed out, imagine the emarrassment of having to explain you did time for not following the law. I too wondered about HOAs and responsibility. Mine is watered on the correct days, but some probably are not. Hard to do when there's lots of common grounds and scattered townhouses.

MAMA JONES said...

Tom-
She did turn it over to her boss, however, the ticket is written specifically in her name. My understanding is that she then has to be the person to appear. I understand we have only had these restrictions a few times, I am glad to hear they are working on a fine schedule so it is not tying up our already overworked court system. Thanks for your response.

Steve said...

I would never have believed people would get so worked up over something like this. Seriously, jail time for watering your yard?

I'm a law-and-order kind of guy, but I think we need to keep things in perspective. There are far more serious crimes that seldom result in any jail time. Even a $500 fine is excessive in my opinion, but if that is reserved for repeat offenders, I don't have a problem with it.

Where are these people (like anon 11:16) when drunk drivers on suspended licenses with multiple prior offenses have a crash and kill someone? They should be screaming for the death penalty (and perhaps lengthy and repeated torture) in those cases, in comparison to the illegal watering ones.

I'm fine with increasing penalties across the board, but putting people in the stocks for watering their lawn should only coincide with stoning to death of flashers and litterbugs.

Steve said...

11:16

Reminds me of Arlo Guthrie singing about litterbugs doing time with mother-rapers, and father-rapers in "Alice's Restaurant". Talk about embarrassed.

Anonymous said...

How are you choosing who gets citations...looks like lots of calls and many fewer tickets. I was told by officer he was REQUIRED to cite me...why not everyone else. I watched water run down the gutters this morning...but apparently that is ok because it is Tuesday.

Tom Casady said...

7:18,

1. Not every complaint proves to be an actual violation of the law.

2. Probable cause can not be established for every suspected violation.

3. Not all citations are turned in and processed on the same day that the alleged violation was reported.

4. Not every person in violation can be found to receive the citation--yet.

Anonymous said...

Steve, Alice's Restaurant!!! That's a HOOT! I haven't thought about that movie for eons!

Anonymous said...

I do not understand how 450 people deserve warnings one week but the following week people get no break but instead get woken in the wee hours (when there is less water wasted) of the morning. Seems dangerous to have people opening doors in middle of night over this issue also.

Tom Casady said...

7:26,

Okie dokie, then, I'm a reasonable guy. I have been told to see to it that the ordinance is enforced, so,what's you advice? Do we need to assure that every violator is personally contacted by a police officer before he or she receives a citation? Because if so, we are basically saying that you can water whenever you want until you are contacted, and that after that, you better have another family member open the door. Do we need to personally contact every property owner in the City before we can issue a citation? Is 11 days of constant news media coverage in print, on radio, TV, and every message board NOT a warning?

In many ways, this is a lot like a snow emergency, during which the same excuses and explanations are proferred. Should we refrain from citing snow emergency violators until we have been able to find and warn them? If so, there are going to be a lot of burial mounds on our streets containing a Toyota or Hyundai.

Anonymous said...

Truthfully...I think a penalty is appropriate but I think it being a criminal offense with way too stiff penalties is what is soooo crazy. How is this not something civil. I have to report this to my employer as criminal behavior...if effects my life....and I just screwed up my water timer. Can you at least see that point? Did any of your officers get cited? How would that be filed in their personnel record?

Tom Casady said...

8:23,

Well, this afternoon, the presiding judge of the Lancaster County Court agreed with the chief prosecutors suggestion that the court add this violation to the schedule of offense which may be paid by waiver. The prosecutor suggested a fine of $100, and that is where the court has set the fine for those defendants who wish to waive their right to trial, plead guilty, and pay the fine. Court costs will be added to that, in the amount of $48.

I think anyone convicted at trial would likely be looking at the same fine amount, because courts do not like to penalize people for exercising their right to trial. Higher fines could certainly be levied upon conviction, but I am fairly confident that would only happen in extreme cases or for repeated violations.

As to your worry about your record, I certainly understand, but that's how the law is structured. Fortunately, I think any reasonable person would look at this the same way as a citation for an unlawful garage sale sign on public property, an insufficiently covered pickup load of leaves and brush, or 9.24.210, the dreaded flowerpot on a windowsill.

Anonymous said...

That may be how it is structured here...but states that deal with this issue more frequently, such as California, Arizona and Florida all have progressive sanctions that start with things like letter notification and move to civil penalties and then on to criminal....because we shouldn't characterize someone screwing up their water timer as a criminal...especially when there was no intention for misconduct. Plus I am not wasting water...just got day wrong. just a bit busy as a single working mother with house, yard, cars, daycare, bills etc to remember to cross all my t's and dot all my i's everyday. All right I am done....frustrated but done.

Tom Casady said...

10:47,

Like I said, Lincoln's had mandatory rstrictions twice during my 38 year career. I'm sure that if this becomes a yearly experience, we will get progressively better at it. Nobody would like that more than the police officers who are forced to deal with everyone else's inability to manage their watering effectively, never asked for this duty, and have plenty of other work to do.

Anonymous said...

Amen Director Casady

Anonymous said...

I'd like to point out that some folks are completely ignorant of the fact that in Nebraska, our state constitution prohibits revenue from fines (such as the fines from water violations) going anywhere but the relevant public school district in the area where the fine is collected. This admittedly brilliant constitutional clause prevents local, county, and state gub'mints from milking the public like cash cows through speed traps and the like, by putting a firewall between those who assess the fines and those who are allowed to use the revenue from such fines.

Because of this, the City of Lincoln is unable to line their own budget pocket with fines, and that's a beautiful thing. I don't know who wrote that into our state constitution, but they were a bona fide genius.

Anonymous said...

Is it okay for me to turn on a single sprinkler for my kids to run through, on one of my 'off' days?

Anonymous said...

In Austin TX you can't water after 10a or before 8p. Why do we have dead monday most communities go simply even / odd ? Whoohoo midnite even watering day, squirt they go !

Tom Casady said...

12:03,

You are mistaken. Although Austin also limits the hours of the day, They do it about the same way we do on days of the week, But with only two days of residential watering allowed instead of three, and with no watering at all on Mondays. Details here.

The reason you can't do odd addresses on odd dates, evn addresses on even dates is this: automatic sprinkler systems don't have a calendar, and do not know that today's date is even or odd. They are programmed by day of the week.

Not a mover and shaker said...

So why isn't the police dept. enforcing the garage sale sign and flower pot on balcony ordinances?

Steve said...

Tom:

Your answer about odd/even days makes perfect sense. Then again, would it be too much to ask that people manually push a button to turn on or shut off their sprinklers? I'm mean, really, we used to have to hook up a hose and drag the damn thing all over the yard several times a day.

Anonymous said...

I am completely fine paying fine ( lovely that it goes to schools) but I am not ok having criminal record from this. I am very proud to be a citizen who adheres to laws and it is crazy that this will now be a mark against me. Even if case dismissed today it will now be on my criminal record for years. Can't find anywhere else that makes this type of situation into a criminal offense. Tom refers to this being similar to people not moving cars for snow removal but I don't believe that is anything but ticket...with no criminal conviction.

Tom Casady said...

9:10,

I don't claim to have researched other cities, but someone in another comment on one of these posts was telling me how much more reasonable the Austin, TX system was, so I looked: it's pretty much the same system as Lincoln, except only two days per week are allowed, and violations are a class C misdemeanor, punishable by up to $500.

Not that I mind calling it an infraction, though. Does't make any difference to those tasked with the unpleasant job of issuing the ticket.

Anonymous said...

I have a rain sensor, I operate in "semi autmotaic mode" aborting unneccesary days with a rain delay option for X days, and turning it on when I need extra, It needs to be managed with some commen sense human interaction. It's a Rain Bird Contractor series controller, my spray heads are also PRS series which means they are pressure regulated at "each" head. It eliminates lots of problems, They also control water loss in the case of a missing nozzle or broken stem, they located in the base of the stem!

Anonymous said...

And one thing also to note Autstin texas allows hand watering and time or day of week! Check you Glasses !

Anonymous said...

8-23 6:43
I have a clock / controller that is over 15yrs old. It has four programs A, B, C and D. Each of which has 6 available "start times". It allows for short multiple cycles to avoid runoff. It also has 3 available types of operatiion. Even / Odd, Cyclitic (Every X = 1, 2, 3, 4, days etc) or Custom you pick the particular day(s). It also has a battery to retain the onboard clock time and date, maybe some of you need to check that battery too ? There good for about 5 years...I think your referring to an old mechanical one that has the little push / pull pins and a two week dial. Have not seen any of those in years...

Anonymous said...

I can acknowledge the figures are correct and exactly what I was billed to the penny, coincidental, now if I can just shave off a bit to avoid the third tier,,,

crawdad1948@gmail.com said...

I'm in the real estate business and when we sell a home we traditionally have a final walk thru to make sure everything is as promised. One of the inspections involves the sprinkler system.If it is the wrong day for water we are in a quandary of how to proceed?? Moist and moving in Lincoln