Orange County, CA | November 7, 2000 Election |
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Invisible Agency and Unknown Candidates?By Ed La BahnCandidate for Director; Municipal Water District of Orange County; Area 7 |
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The November 7, 2000 election of MWDOC directors is a unique event, not soon to be repeated. (Few incumbents are involved.) Based on the nature of MWDOC's operations and a lack of media coverage, few voters are familiar with the District and its issues. In the absence of candidate forums, voters will find it difficult to evaluate the relative qualifications of candidates.The November 7, 2000 election of directors of the Municipal Water District of Orange County (MWDOC) is a unique event for many Orange County residents. (All seats are contested--only voters resident in the cities of Anaheim, Fullerton and Santa Ana, which are outside MWDOC, are excluded. Few candidates are incumbents.) Thirty-nine candidates are vying for seven seats on the Board of the reorganized MWDOC. (The situation of Division 7 is even more extreme with eleven candidates vying for a single seat.) The reorganization reflects the dissolution of Coastal Municipal Water District and the subsequent consolidation of that district with MWDOC according to terms and conditions established by the Local Agency Formation Commission of Orange County. The characteristics of the reorganization include: a) election of directors by division (with one director for each division); b) a reduction of divisions from a total of ten (for the two predecessor districts) to seven for the reorganized MWDOC; and c) changes in the boundaries of existing divisions. Certain operational characteristics also are important. Neither CMWD nor MWDOC, which are mainly paper organizations with little in the way of infrastructure, have direct links to potable water end users. Both are member agencies of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MET). They purchase imported water from MET and, in turn, sell this water wholesale to local retail water agencies. These indirect links have resulted in the two wholesale agencies having low levels of visibility to the public. As a result, the general public is relatively unaware of regional water supply issues. These issues include: reliability in meeting present and future demands, water rates and transfers, water quality, pending changes in legislation and MET governance. Although the consolidation of the two existing districts is unlikely to significantly change this situation, the future scheduling of water supply public workshops to discuss and evaluate these issues would help. Due to the high priority given to other elective offices and ballot measures reflected in the November 7, 2000 General Election ballot, there has been no attempt by the media or others to schedule candidate forums for the 39 candidates running for MWDOC's seven seats. Depending partly on the extent to which both candidates and voters choose to utilize the California League of Women Voters Smart Voter website, voters will find it difficult to evaluate the relative qualifications of candidates. |
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