Tax Refund Claim on Sewer Surcharge for San Antonio Hills Residents

Residents who live in the Los Altos Country Club area as we Realtors like to call it, the unincorporated/county area, are urged to file an individual claim form for property tax refund on the surcharge that was unfairly added to the annual sewer maintenance fee to residents who live outside of the City limits. The Sewer Fairness Project Committee, established by the Board of Directors of the San Antonio Hills Homeowners Association (SAHHOA) that represents the interests of the largest of the unincorporated areas in Los Altos sent out a letter on August 23, 2006 outlining the sanitary sewer issues together with a claim form to all homeowners in the area since 1969. The Committee intends to get a $585.96 refund for each single-family property owner whose property was connected to the sewer for the last four years. The residents are asked to return the claim forms by this Friday, September 15, 2006. Should the City of Los Altos reject the tax refund claims, the Committee has indicated it would file a lawsuit against the City. Please refer to the letter for details. Also, you can get info on SAHHOA's website

I suspect many others would be surprised to realize as I have how the public service territory limits are drawn. Los Altos Country Club is outside the City and is in the unincorporated County. These residents can't vote on issues and matters in the City of Los Altos. But while residents of the City and the unincorporated County share same name "Los Altos", we do not receive the same public services, such as street pavement, sewer services, police, and the fire department. Some Country Club area residents felt the unfairness because the sewer surcharge bill passed in the City of Los Altos meeting without the presence of the representatives from their area.

I have served as a bilingual poll worker each election for the past several years. I am not interested in partisan politics. However, I do believe in electing good public servants and encouraging voters to go out and vote for good candidates in hopes of bettering our community and society. Supporting this process is one of the ways I give back to my community. I know neither the system nor the results are always perfect. Read my other posting Building the Ark in 2006 a humorous way of looking at the systems we create. However, I do believe that over all progress is being made and the value is in the process.

Los Altos is a small quiet bedroom community with about 11,600 homes. It has always been a nice and congenial community. We have a lot of community events throughout of the year for the local people and neighboring cities like Mountain View, Palo Alto, Sunnyvale, Cupertino. There are several places you can find the Community Events Calendar. Here is Los Altos Downtown link, one of the great ones provided by the Los Altos Village Association. Enjoy it.