New board will consider water rates
By John Loesing
Acorn Staff Writer

Two new faces will appear on the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District (LVMWD) Board of Directors as a result of last week’s election, but whether or not the change in leadership will result in lower water rates for LVMWD’s 65,000 customers remains to be seen.

The district approved a new billing structure earlier this year that places more consumers into a lower rate tier, but newly elected Charles Caspary and Glen Longarini–along with Vern Padgett, who was elected in 1998–say rates for both potable and reclaimed water still remain high.

LVMWD’s last across-the-board rate change was 1996 when potable water increased 15 percent. Padgett introduced a 7 percent rate cut last year, but the effort failed.

Acrimony over the rates and the LVMWD’s growing $45 million budget caused the formation of a grassroots organization called Citizens for Lower Water Rates. The group provided Padgett, Caspary and Longarini with some $60,000 in campaign backing during the past two water board elections as it sought to build a coalition in favor of lower water rates.

Its efforts to control the five-member board paid off.

Although ousted board members said the spending was exorbitant for a small election, results at the polls gave the Citizens group the mandate it needed.

Caspary, the 49-year-old former owner of Las Virgenes Refuse, defeated LVMWD Board Chairman Gordon Knopp 62 percent to 38 percent in Division I, an area that includes Calabasas Park, Hidden Hills, West Hills and several unincorporated parts of western Los Angeles County.

Longarini, a 35-year-old civil engineer who works for local development and property management firm, beat incumbent Ken Rufener 58 percent to 42 percent in Division IV, which includes Westlake Villages.

Knopp and Rufener served just four years.

"We definitely tried to focus in on the fact that Ken wanted to expand the district ... budget-wise," Longarini said.

"He kept talking about infrastructure and the need to expand that and we said, ‘Look, we’re business people here–we can continue to maintain our infrastructure, but there’s very little growth in our community and we can manage that.’"

Longarini said LVMWD overestimated growth in the area and the resulting revenue that comes from connection fees.

Brian Boudreau, a local developer and founder of the Citizens group, said LVMWD is lagging 10,000 hookups behind its current projection because fewer homes and businesses have come on line than the district originally thought.

Gene Talmadge, a water district planning director, said LVMWD’s growth plan matches the recently approved Santa Monica North Area Plan, the area’s new official blueprint for development.

"Our planning was based on the current proposed land-use plan, not only from the county, but the cities," Talmadge said. "The land use plan clearly identifies growth in the area. It didn’t say things have stopped."

LVMWD says it has the money to replace aging pipes and pumps, but not if water rates are cut. The new consumer-friendly billing already is costing the district $440,000 a year in revenues, according to Rufener, the water district’s outgoing treasurer.

Rufener said LVMWD residents are being duped into believing rates will go down with the changing of the board.

"I think the people were lied to and they believed it," said Rufener, the 80-year-old former Westlake Village mayor who plans to retire from political life.

"All of us are for lower rates, but we want it understood you can’t just live with all the things that go along with it. Our priorities were infrastructure and integrity of the system," Rufener said.

Boudreau said Longarini’s engineering and real estate background and Caspary’s experience in waste hauling will be valuable to the new board.

"We thought [Caspary] was the best guy to figure out how to handle the compost problems and we needed somebody to deal with that $50 million problem," Boudreau said.

When the new members take office in January, a top priority will be to figure out whether to continue making compost out of sewage at the Rancho Las Virgenes plant in Calabasas–an environmentally friendly but costly process–or ship the mostly untreated sewage out on trucks, a plan that would save money, but raise the ire of environmentalists and local homeowners.

The Citizens group favors shutting down or curtailing compost operations.

"In the short term, hauling the sludge away is certainly the cheapest option," Caspary said. "I don’t know that it’s the best option long term. That will take considerable study.

"I have been a little distressed with the water rates for many years. I was distressed that the composting facility did not live up to its expectations," Caspary said.

Knopp, 72, said he leaves the board with the no regrets.

"I feel that I left that district in good shape," he said. "Financially we’re in good shape, fiscally we’re in sound shape and operationally we’re in sound shape. I’ve enjoyed working with that staff and I think we’ve got a tremendous staff and a tremendous general manager."

"My plan is at this point to just go to Tahiti," Knopp said. "We have plans to go on a cruise next week."