Local control of water district.

By Mike Healey

Rate payers should be the persons to decide how their water district should be governed.

Legislators have joined the struggle with notions that Orange County should be served by one giant agency and that there are opportunities of scale to be gained by such action. This short sighted approach fails to consider why Independent Special Districts were first formed.

MESA's desire, as well as that of its customers, is to leave things as they are with the control being kept at the local level. Some studies have suggested that MESA should be taken over by the City of Costa Mesa, while others suggest a take over by the Irvine Ranch Water District. Neither of these plans is acceptable to MESA's Board of Directors.

MESA is a well run organization and is quite capable of providing the required services demanded by its customers. Scheduled maintenance is a critical issue and is properly funded. Should the district be taken over by the City, water serve would then be in competition with other City functions with water revenues being diverted to the City's general fund. It has been my experience that Cities for the most part under fund maintenance programs. The recent reservoir failure in the City of Westminster and the general conditions of Costa Mesa's city streets are both good examples of poorly funded maintenance programs. MESA is not willing to see their efforts of development of an effective and efficient operation be destroyed by such consolidations.