Tank revisited




Recently, Doug Rumbaugh commented on the Las Virgenes Water District’s tank project. Unfortunately, like others who trust LVMWD, Doug was misled.

No matter the accounting method, the tank costs each ratepayer from Calabasas to Westlake Village $650. How?

LVMWD regularly collects monies from ratepayers to pay for improvements and maintenance for systems. If the money is used for the tank, it’s not available for something else, and will need replenishing. Regardless of who paid or the accounting shell games, it affects our future payments by $650 per customer.

Doug is correct in that money collected goes into silos. What he does not know is that LVMWD can use most of it to offset rates. Those aren’t my thoughts—it’s in writing from LVMWD’s general manager.

As for Valley Fever, Doug should do his homework. He’ll find that the 2011 tests are out of date, with samples taken while it was raining. Dig deeper and one finds LVMWD is not following the guidelines laid out by L.A. County Health Department experts on Valley Fever.

I do agree, Doug, it’s shameful to distort the truth. So, I was pleased to recently hear LVMWD’s PR person say that they were “concerned about the misinformation being distributed in the community.”

I look forward to when LVMWD finally stops its misinformation campaign using unsuspecting folks like Doug to get their message out. Following the law on proper process would be even better.

It was so interesting this past week to hear LVMWD management and board president chastise the community. Yet at the same time, there was never an open public discussion about the near head-on collision that already happened due to construction traffic on Three Springs Drive. Interesting to see their priorities.

Doug, it’s not your fault. After all, we should be able to trust our water district. But whether it’s misleading the public or the improper process being investigated by the district attorney or president Charlie Caspary’s misrepresentations, we cannot trust what LVMWD does or says.

There is a better way. It’s just not what LVMWD tells you. Conserve water—don’t tank it!

Neil Ticktin

Westlake Village



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