Is it time to absorb Yorba Linda Water District?

Water availability and low pressure problems in last month’s tragic firestorm has brought new attention to the Yorba Linda Water District—and resulted in renewed calls for the city to absorb the longtime independent agency into the folds of municipal government.

Some residents wonder why building a new administration headquarters took priority over construction of the long-planned Hidden Hills reservoir, as others maintain “too much fire” overwhelmed the district’s infrastructure in several parts of the city.

Whether or not anything develops from inquiries into district actions or a rigorous self-examination by water officials, citizen interest in elections for the low-profile positions on the district’s governing board is sure to increase.

Formed in 1909 as a mutual serving mostly farmers, the water district became a public agency in 1959, when voters approved $1.9 million in bonds to buy the existing assets. Twenty-five elections have been held to select district directors.

And in the agency’s near 50-year history, just 19 individuals have served on the five-member board, three of them for 26 years each. Six elections were cancelled because only incumbents filed to run, with eight members first appointed to their positions.

One longtime member was appointed to the board twice, serving the district as a salaried employee between appointments. Only two incumbents have been defeated in reelection runs—Carl Scanlon by Mark Abramowitz in 1998 and Abramowitz by past director Bill Mills in 2002. Director salaries and benefits total nearly $90,000 per year.

Periodically, the issue of converting the district into a city department is aired, but usually the discussion dies without significant action. The last serious move came in 1996, when then-Councilman Hank Wedaa’s motion for a city report on a merger procedure lost 3-2.

Complicating consolidation is the district’s 23-square-mile service area, which includes 23,634 accounts: 20,554 in Yorba Linda, 2,670 in Placentia, 342 in Anaheim and 68 in Brea. The district has 47,613 registered voters in those four cities and county territory.

The city did absorb the formerly independent Yorba Linda Library District in 1985, but that action took place with the concurrence of the district’s elected directors. The passage of Proposition 13 in 1978 severely curtailed the district’s ability to raise tax revenues.

There’s no doubt the water district’s directors would vigorously oppose a takeover. Seats now held by Mills, Paul Armstrong and John Summerfield, who were unopposed in 2006, are slated for the 2010 ballot. Mike Beverage and Ric Collette were reelected last month.