A bill requiring a countywide vote before individual water districts can detach from an agency passed the Assembly on Tuesday, but it won’t prevent residents of Fallbrook and Rainbow from voting on Nov. 7.
State lawmakers on Tuesday passed a bill that would require voters across broadwater authorities to allow individual districts to withdraw before they can legally detach from regional agencies.
But the legislation may be too late to prevent two North County water districts from divorcing from the San Diego County Water Authority.
San Diego County elections officials have mailed out more than 430,000 notices to registered voters eligible to participate in the November special election, alerting people to the issues and how they may cast their ballots.
Voters in the 4th District of the county Board of Supervisors will choose between San Diego City Councilmember Monica Montgomery Steppe and activist Amy Reichert in the runoff election to succeed former supervisor Nathan Fletcher.
Residents of the Fallbrook Public Utilities District and Rainbow Municipal Water District will decide whether to secede from the San Diego County Water Authority, a plan that was approved by the Local Agency Formation Commission in June but is still being challenged in court.
Imagine going to dinner with a large group where everyone orders a full meal and one couple leaves just as the bill arrives. Unfortunately, this “dine and dash” is happening right now in San Diego County. Except it’s not just friends at dinner but rather two water districts attempting to leave us all with a tab of more than $200 million as they form a new partnership in Riverside.
What does this mean for the rest of us? All our water bills will go up as we’re forced to foot the bill.
A bill that would have made it harder for two water districts to break up with the San Diego County Water Authority lost a bit of steam late last week.
What happened: The state Senate Appropriations Committee passed AB 399 to the Senate floor for debate but got rid of a clause that would have allowed the bill to become law more quickly.
The bill would require that voters across the county approve any water district’s desire to leave the Water Authority. And that clause was important to the bill’s supporters because it would have stopped two districts from leaving.
The county Board of Supervisors voted 3-1 Tuesday to support state legislation that would require a vote by all customers served by water districts within the San Diego County Water Authority before individual districts can leave the authority.
The San Diego county Board of Supervisors voted 3-1 Tuesday to support state legislation that would require a vote by all customers served by water districts within the County Water Authority before individual districts can leave the authority.
Proposed by Supervisor Joel Anderson in a board letter, the policy follows a July 10 decision from the San Diego Local Agency Formation Commission to allow the Rainbow Municipal Water District and Fallbrook Public Utility District to leave the water authority.
Nick Serrano, a board member of the San Diego County Water Authority and Deputy Chief of Staff to San Diego Mayor Todd Gloria said if Fallbrook and Rainbow detach from the water authority, the rest of the ratepayers in the county could see their bills increase as much as 5% per year.
“I think it’s stunning that there is an argument to not allow people to vote, that people do not deserve a say in this matter and we just disagree with that,” Serrano said. “I think at the very least, we believe that the ratepayers, who will be impacted by this decision, should have the opportunity to vote. It’s not to say that detachment can’t occur, but they have the opportunity to vote.”
The San Diego County Water Authority announced that it has filed suit against the San Diego Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO), challenging LAFCO’s decision to allow two local water agencies to leave the Water Authority without paying certain fees.
Fallbrook Public Utility District (FPUD) and Rainbow customers will have the opportunity to vote in the Nov. 7, 2023 election to consider switching water wholesalers, leaving the San Diego County Water Authority and instead purchasing water from Eastern Municipal Water District.
The district board called the election after receiving approval from the San Diego Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO) to proceed.
The Water News Network is San Diego County’s source for water news and information.
