Of special note is Ms. Miller’s recklessness and hypocrisy with respect to the water delivery system. As most residents know, the City has a very outdated water main system, which historically resulted in the flow rate being on the low end of the optimal range. The capital improvement program is aggressively working to improve this issue.
At the March 20, 2023 Council meeting, Ms. Miller made several inaccurate and inflammatory statements that panicked residents. She stated “We don’t have the water pressure to put out fires,” “Our residents’ lives are in danger because we cannot put out fires,” and we are “at risk in our City.” To watch Ms. Miller make these statements, click here. These statements were made in an unsuccessful attempt to undermine Council support for a water technology proposal that was being voted upon that evening. In fact, water flow modeling this past spring showed that the aggressive water main improvements made by the City over the past five years have had a significant positive effect on flow rates. At the August 7, 2023 City Council meeting, the City Engineer reinforced the fact that the water system can adequately handle extinguishing fires in the City. Needlessly causing residents to panic in order to win support against a proposal is reckless. To see the Mayor Pro Tem’s response to Ms. Miller’s reckless comments, watch this video.
That same evening, Ms. Miller once again chastised the City and staff for not doing enough to replace dated water mains. She indicated, “Since 2017, only 3,750 feet of water main has been replaced.” This figure is grossly inaccurate, as the City has replaced approximately 12,000 feet of water main since that time. Her stated concern was that the slow pace of water main replacement was putting residents at “great” fire risk, yet when she had the opportunity on March 6, 2023 (Item 10f) to add approximately 2,500 additional feet of water main replacement (Lincoln and San Diego) to the 2023 capital improvement project, she voted against the measure! In addition, in March of 2021, Ms. Miller circulated a petition in a failed attempt to stop the Capital Improvement Program that was specifically designed to make significant improvements to the City’s water system over a three-year period.