Steady at the Helm

By Charles K. Beatty

The first concern is that the Board of Directors is not really "elected". Every four years CVWD Board members run for election, if no community member who is a registered voter, which by the way is the only specific requirement, wants to do the job of CVWD director then there is no election. Directors give time and commitment to be in the community to attend Board meetings twice a month and in between to take classes, attend seminars and conferences, all to help keep the community informed about water issues. In many years no one wanted to make that commitment.

A second concern was that CVWD had no wildfire or flood chapter in the emergency plan. District actions during the Station Fire were guided by the general provisions of the Emergency Plan and the specific provisions of the chapter on water shortage emergency. District crews kept the reservoirs full throughout the fire and worked 24 hours per day until the emergency was over. All management staff has had Standardized Emergency Management System and National Incident Management System training. CVWD plan will be updated in the next edition.

An old concern, going back nearly six years ago was about tree removal at the general office. The goal was to demonstrate California friendly and native landscape to the community to show that drought tolerant plants can be beautiful and save water. Today this is more important than ever. A very current concern was that in regard to the Station Fire, the board has not made allowance for those who used sprinklers to protect their property in threatened areas. Allowances have been made by staff in recent days since the bills for areas threatened by fire were just sent to customers. All water used above the "normal amount for any given customer is going to be billed at tier 2 rate. Tier 3 and 4 rates will not apply. Tier 2 is the district's "cost of service rate." Another statement was the Los Angeles DWP bills according to lot size. Why not CVWD? Water budget style billing formulas are becoming more popular and are deemed to be equitable. To enact this billing system more data is needed for each account, lot size, people in the household, area of landscape, size of the home, weather data, etc. CVWD does not yet have all this data on file. CVWD rate structure is designed to promote conservation. The last statement was that Multi-family housing causes a stress on the water supply. Why does CVWD not acknowledge this? The District is obligated to provide water to property owners within the District. CVWD does not have authority to control zoning or development (LA County is responsible). District growth rate is extremely low in terms of new meter hookups per year. This is a fully developed community. It is healthy for communities to have a variety of housing stock to provide shelter for people of various economic levels. Prohibition of new apartments would deny housing to socio-economic levels that cannot afford detached single family housing. I hope this helps to answer some of these concerns. Again, the CVWD Board is always available on the first and third Tuesdays of each month to talk with you about any of your water concerns and I am available to talk with you wherever you see me in the community. Sincerely, Charles K. Beatty Director, CVWD