Let me ask the citizens of Thousand Oaks and surrounding areas served by City of Thousand Oaks Water whether or not you would spend 44 cents and two minutes of your time to save yourself $1,440 over 10 years? Here is your opportunity.

Just send a note to the Thousand Oaks city clerk protesting the proposed increase in water rates with the words “I do not support the proposed water rate adjustment,” along with your parcel number (can be found on the rate increase notice, your property tax form or online at County of Ventura website).

Make sure you mail it in time to arrive by Feb. 7. Address it to City Clerk, 2100 E. Thousand Oaks Blvd., Thousand Oaks, CA 91362.

The city literally just takes a tally of the protests to decide if the rate increase is justified. Your vote counts. They are counting on your apathy to turn a blind eye to this money grab.

Water rates have doubled over the last five years with a series of rate increases presumably under the guise of a water shortage. Last year the California water shortage was officially declared over by the governor. Yet here comes another rate hike.

The hikes are a sham. Since water is a natural public resource, the increases go directly into the pockets of the people providing the water, in this case, the T.O. supplier Calleguas Municipal Water District employees and management.

A quick look at their financials tells the story. From 2009 to 2010 fiscal year, cash payments to employees went from $3.9 million to $7 million. They are awash in cash and investments, too, up from $208 million to $298 million in one year.

From 2008 to 2010, their annual pension funding per employee went from $492,000 to $914,000, an increase of 86 percent in two years.

This is a scandal under any circumstances. It is particularly repugnant when we are in the worst recession since the Great Depression with so many people out of work and their homes being foreclosed on.

I urge everyone to show up at the City Council meeting on Feb. 7. Michael Adams Newbury Park