Background: About two years ago, many neighbors woke up to massive fees being imposed on water usage. As hot and dry weather persisted, water bills were in the hundreds of dollars per month for many. In some cases, water bills were reported to be higher than summer electric (air conditioning) bills. Driving water bills higher was an obscure agency whose history dates to nearly 25 years ago named the North Harris County Regional Water Authority (NHCRWA). The  NHCRWA board of directors then consisted of five long-time directors. They had zero turnover in over twenty years. The November 2022 election provided a mechanism for change. Three challengers were successful in their campaigns, each with about a 3:1 LANDSLIDE vote margin. Mark Ramsey (Klein High graduate and Northampton resident) was one of those successful challenger directors. One long-time director barely survived another challenger. 

Report Card—Deficiencies found and improvements made: The new directors promised better transparency, accountability, and most importantly—stopping the ever-increasing water rate increases imposed by the long-time board of the NHCRWA. After taking office, they  uncovered multiple areas of great concern, including: 

• The prior board did not optimize financial returns on NHCRWA financial assets • A complete lack of any conflict-of-interest disclosures by contractors, staff, or directors • A lack of competitive vendor selection for some services—some had never had competitive  bidding 

• Poor quality financial modeling 

• Massive bond indebtedness—closing in on $3,000,000,000 ($3 Billion)—about $11,000 per household and climbing! 

• Obsolete operating rules 

• Overcharges to ratepayers adding up to nearly $300,000,000 

• A $10 million dollar bank account that was earning no interest 

• No effective program for obtaining assistance from the legislature 

The three new directors, having a majority on the board, have worked hard to remedy these areas, some successfully and some with more work to do. Many of the votes have been 3-2 with the new directors voting for reducing the cost of water to the ratepayers and other changes. The two older long-term directors voted against additional rate cuts and other strategic improvements. Unfortunately, one of the new directors is no longer a reliable vote and now usually votes with the long-time directors. Multiple votes for additional rate cuts have been rejected. 

Director Mark Ramsey shepherded significant accomplishments, including not just stopping rate increases but went further to achieving two rate cuts of $0.50/1000 gallons each. These two cuts amounted to a little over 20% of the NHCRWA water rate and are estimated to save ratepayers  $60,000,000 in fees each year across North Harris County! Mark Ramsey was also instrumental in “putting NHCRWA money to work” after discovering the $10,000,000 account that was not 

earning any interest! (At current interest rates, that amounts to $500,000 per year of non-ratepayer revenue!) 

Reminder: This November 5, 2024, two of the current five directors will be on ballots. The  NHCRWA race will be at the end of the long Harris County ballot. Vote to the very end of your ballot and vote for 40+ year resident Mark Ramsey to continue fighting hard for more cost savings and water rate cuts! His opponent this November 5th, 2024, is the same director Ramsey beat in 2022. Ramsey’s opponent raised water rates over 2000% in the 23 years he was on the board. You kicked him out in 2022. Don’t let him back in! Vote for Mark Ramsey and let your friends and neighbors know!