3 Camrosa Officials to Face Recall on Nov. 5 : Drought: The revolt against higher water rates has been spearheaded by many of the Santa Rosa Valley's wealthiest homeowners.

By CHRISTOPHER PUMMER

July 22, 1991 12 AM PT

SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

To discourage the squandering of its shrinking supplies, the Camrosa Water District recently imposed punitive rates for water wasters that hit some homeowners with bills of $500 and more for a 25-day period.

Intended to penalize water gluttons during the drought, the rate increases sparked a recall campaign against three water district directors and a payment boycott by some customers. The top billing tier of the new rate schedule was rescinded by district officials scrambling to mollify customers.

As California heads into a possible sixth year of drought, water supply officials say the Camrosa rebellion may portend similar backlashes by consumers pushed too far by mandatory conservation measures and punitive water bills.

“Most water agencies are going to be looking for some solutions that will not be popular,” said Gregg Lowry, a partner in Glenn M. Reiter & Associates, a San Diego-based consultant to water and sewer agencies.

The Ventura County registrar of voters certified the necessary number of petition signatures Thursday to put the recall of Camrosa board President Jack C. Rogers and Directors Kenneth P. Gerry and Kenneth Goth on the Nov. 5 ballot.

Recall leaders needed to gather a minimum of 2,403 signatures representing at least 20% of the district’s 12,015 registered voters. They exceeded the required number by about 2%.

The Camrosa Water District supplies about 8,400 residential and 200 agricultural customers in eastern Camarillo and the neighboring Santa Rosa Valley.

The revolt has been spearheaded by many of the Santa Rosa Valley’s wealthier homeowners, who faced the stiffest bills. Under the four-tiered rate structure imposed in May, those homeowners are socked with monthly bills of $300 to $700 for using up to 10 times the average household amount to water lawns on their multi-acre lots.

The recall organizers also collected hundreds of signatures from Camrosa customers of more modest means who were dismayed by a 38% increase in base rates this spring.

Leaders of the recall campaign contend that the district is poorly managed and too small to administer the complex tiered-billing system. They said that some customers are withholding payment until the rates are readjusted.

“It is so out of control that the public outpouring is far more than we ever expected,” said Bob Hickman, 47, one of the recall organizers. “We had people literally standing in line at the supermarket, waiting to sign the petition.

“The district has chosen to treat the drought issue as an opportunity for windfall profits,” said Hickman, who is an administration manager at General Motors Corp. in Thousand Oaks.

Camrosa officials and heads of other water agencies said the recall leaders have appealed to selfish interests of some water users. Although many of Santa Rosa Valley’s larger landowners have cut usage 20% or more from past levels, officials say they continue to consume as much as 4,000 gallons a day--far in excess of the average household’s use of 400 gallons daily--to keep their vast lawns watered.

“We’re in a water debt situation right now, just like the national debt, borrowing from future generations,” said Camrosa General Manager Gina Manchester. “The whole activity and idea of distributing water, allocating and limiting people’s use, it’s a change that people in Southern California are not readily accepting.

“I think the recall is a reflection of people’s frustration in general about their inability to control their surroundings,” Manchester said. “It’s easy to touch this water district, where it’s not so easy to get attention from, say, the governor’s office.”

Manchester said the district has basically passed along rate increases from its suppliers. She said the tiered system, in which the highest rate is four times the lowest, is not unlike ones used in many other communities.

Yet district officials acknowledged mishandling the way the rate hike was imposed on customers.

Manchester said Camrosa adopted the tiered pricing after the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California called for 90% cutbacks for agriculture and 30% for residences last February and threatened to impose penalties on water agencies that did not meet the reductions.

“Because the board felt compelled to act fast to maintain the financial stability of our district, we had to restructure our rates,” Manchester said. “We did it without communicating to the public more readily. We sent out a newsletter, but we didn’t send out two or three before we did it.”

But MWD dropped the required water cutbacks in April and Camrosa failed to lower its prices at that time, provoking charges of price gouging when the May water bills were sent.

“There were complaints, and justifiably so, since the May bills were very high,” said Rogers, one of the three directors facing recall. “I can understand people getting mad about it, but the board and the district took the responsible position by saying, ‘Look, something went wrong, we’ll adjust it and straighten it out, give us time.’ ”

On July 9, the Camrosa board dropped the costliest price tier. Manchester said Camrosa’s prices are now in line with surrounding water agencies. She said the owner of a single-family home would pay 33% more in the Camrosa district than in Camarillo for low water usage, but nearly 50% less for heavy use.

A homeowner in the Camrosa district would pay an average of 10% to 15% more for water than in Oxnard, and between 50% and 60% less than in Ventura.

Camarillo City Manager Bill Little said Camrosa officials may have set themselves up for trouble when they raised their base rates while imposing the punitive rate. Little said the Camarillo water department imposed a top-tier rate 50% higher than Camrosa’s, but did not raise its base rate when the tier system was put into effect.

The Camrosa board will continue to review its pricing structure while awaiting the outcome of the November election. With the removal of the top billing tier, the district will refund portions of the charges levied in May on the heaviest users. Along with the three directors facing recall, Director Carolynn Nickerson faces reelection, and a fifth seat will be open as a result of Director Douglas P. McDonald’s recent resignation.

“We will have to reevaluate the rate structures and see that excessive charges will be credited to accounts,” Rogers said. “In the meantime, I’ll do what I can to get this thing straightened out. The rest is up to the voters.”