By Mackenzie Elmer, Voice of San Diego
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Some San Diego water leaders aren’t ready to settle with two defecting water districts leaving the county for Riverside.
Five of the 36 board directors of the San Diego County Water Authority called for a special meeting to cancel peace talks with two North County communities divorcing the district to search for cheaper water elsewhere. The request came in a Dec. 11 letter to the board’s chairman.
The signers were San Diego board member, and former chair, Jim Madaffer, Gary Croucher and Tim Smith from Otay, Marty Miller from Vista Irrigation and Michael Hogan Santa Fe Irrigation water districts.
“There are still significant financial, operational, legal, regional and public issues that have not been fully detailed or addressed,” the letter says. It goes on to list 14 different topics like the costs of losing two water districts on the other 22 member agencies and the authority of the Local Agency Formation Commission or LAFCO – the boundary referees that OK’d Fallbrook and Rainbow’s departure.
It may be a sign that the city of San Diego – the most powerful vote on the board – isn’t ready to give up its fight against the divorce. Vice-Chairman Nick Serrano, San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria’s deputy chief of staff, was on the front lines defending the Water Authority against the break up and lobbied for a new state law that makes it harder for other water districts to leave.
Madaffer said in an interview that he’ll be calling for an independent counsel to evaluate what happened with pursuing litigation.
“This may have been an inappropriate delegation of board authority,” said Madaffer.
Last month during a closed-door deliberation, the Water Authority board voted to drop its 360-page lawsuit and settle with Rainbow Municipal Water District, Fallbrook Public Utilities District and LAFCO. It seemed the matter was settled, as board chair Mel Katz, a Del Mar representative, put it: “It’s time to shake hands and wish them well.”
Valley Center General Manager, Gary Arant, defended the move to drop the lawsuit.
“I think it would be a mistake for us to back away from this agreement,” Arant said. “It would really put the Water Authority in a very bad light.”
Jack Bebee, general manager at Fallbrook, said Thursday that, as far as he knows, nothing has changed since the board authorized the settlement.
“We still anticipate that the agreement will be executed,” he said.
