JERRY LANE
For a small operation, the Crescenta Valley Water District runs with
amazing efficiency.
It has a general manager, a secretary-treasurer and a district
engineer who see to its daily functions. The tasks are not
complicated: Water is pulled up from the wells, filtered, made
potable and pumped up to reservoirs from whence it flows into its
customers' homes. When the wells cannot produce enough water to meet
the district's needs, water is purchased from Foothill Water Co. for
at least three times the cost of the district's well water.
Arrangements are in place to purchase water from Glendale and Los
Angeles should Foothill Water be unable to provide us with the water
we need.
While the operation of the Crescenta Valley Water District falls
on the shoulders of its able staff, policy for the operation of this
facility is the responsibility of five elected members of a board of
directors who are elected for four-year terms: three in one year, the
remaining two in the election two years later. These board members
meet twice a month in the district's offices and receive $100 each
for each meeting they attend. You might not realize it, but this is
an election year -- that's a time when politicians get free speech
mixed up with loose talk. And as candidates for reelection to the
board of directors for the Crescenta Valley Water District hit the
stump, you are going to hear a whole lot of talk that is careless,
inexact, vague, evasive and downright dishonest.
While Crescenta Valley Water District customers have been urged to
conserve water so that the district will not have to supplant its
short supply with expensive, imported water, Crescenta Valley Water
District board members have been extravagant in their abuse of the
district's resources. Richard Atwater and Kathy Ross have been
comparatively conservative in their expenditures. In addition to the
$2,400 they were paid for attendance at monthly meetings, each was
paid an extra $1,400 for committee meetings and reimbursable
expenses.
The remaining three board members were a bit freer with the
district's purse strings. Ernie Weber received only $400 of expense
money over his $2,400 meeting attendance stipend; however, the
district paid $1,113 for his attendance at conferences in San Diego,
Monterey and Kern County. Judy Tejeda, in addition to her $2,400
meeting attendance fees, received $1,300 for attending committee
meetings and for expenses she incurred in the pursuit of her duties.
