By Donna Westfall – October 22, 2026 Although the Prop 218 protest vote was short by 355 votes that was not enough to stop 4 out of the five city council members to approve the doubling of the rates. Which they did: Mayor Isiah Wright, Jason Greenough, Candance Tinkler and Steve Shamblin all approved the rate increases. The only dissenting vote was Ray Altman. Here's the content of my public comment to the Council Monday night, October 19th. "My name is Donna Westfall and I’m a city resident. I own some property in the city as well as the county and I pay water and sewer bills. I’m grateful for having water and sewer. I’m not happy about the doubling of the water and sewer rates. With that in mind, do you remember getting a letter from me and Wes Nunn dated May 28th? It was a notice of legal challenge warning you that should you proceed with the adoption and implementation of the proposed water and sewer rates that we intended to pursue legal action. We asked you to postpone the rate adoption. Months prior to sending you the letter, I asked you to appoint a Citizen Advisory Committee to investigate our concerns. At any rate, the majority of you approved the doubling of the rates. So, this morning, I filed the first lawsuit; it’s regarding the water rates. Part of the legal process is to have someone serve the city with the lawsuit. At this time, I’d like to introduce Margaret Sargent. She's not here to say anything. She's simply here to serve you the paperwork. Thank you." If you'd like to see the video, click on this link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KInimyTf1a0 and fast forward to 12 minutes 31 seconds. It's about 1 1/2 minutes long. If you'd like a copy of the lawsuit or a copy of our Notice of Legal Challenge just request a copy by emailing: donnawestfall@gmail.com.