Laguna Beach city officials started discussing during its Oct. 18 meeting a proposal to make the city’s water district an independent agency and move its water quality department under the agency’s authority in the name of efficiency.
The city council currently acts as the Board of Directors for the Laguna Beach Water District—which supplies water, in part, to 35,000 people and businesses in parts of south Orange County.
If made independent, the water district’s Board of Commissioners—who currently serve as advisors to the city council—would be elected by voters and take over leadership of the district.
“I’ve always thought the commissioners have as much or more knowledge than we do. I think there may be some benefits to taking the agency into a public sphere,” Councilman George Weiss, who made the proposal, said during the meeting.
According to Weiss, such wouldn’t be unreasonable, since most agencies in California are already set up as independent water and sewer districts, where the public can vote on directors. He also said he believes overlapping the functions of the water quality department and the water district could improve “the resiliency of the workforce.”
“The benefit of returning to an independent district would be direct representation for our ratepayers who would now elect members of the community to serve solely in the capacity of Water District Board members,” Chris Regan, assistant general manager for the district, told The Epoch Times.
Regan estimated there should be no extra cost to make the change.
“The only foreseeable cost would be the district’s share of election costs during each general election to elect Water District Board Members,” he said.
However, city staff said they are concerned combining the water quality department with the water district may be difficult.
“It’s a very complicated process to look at organizational issues that cross water and sewer because you have to look at the financial aspects of the organization, as well as cost-benefit and the organizational structure,” said City Manager Shohreh Dupuis.
Laguna Beach resident Rodger Elble—who receives water through another agency, specifically the South Coast Water District—said it would be more efficient for the city to merge with that water district instead.
“[South Coast Water District] has good leadership. It seems that the remainder of Laguna Beach could possibly be better served by reducing overhead and administrative costs by merging with a larger district,” Elble wrote to the council. “In some cases, it may make sense to maintain local control, but perhaps this isn’t one.”
The water district was originally placed under the city council’s management in 2000, because then Speaker of the California State Assembly Curt Pringle wanted to simplify project approvals for developers by allowing the city council to directly control water departments, according to Councilwoman Toni Iseman.
Iseman and long-time City Attorney Philip Khon, who were involved in that process initiated in 1998, said they didn’t recall it being an expensive or difficult transition.
