OJAI : 2 Water Groups Seek Staffing Position

Two members of a newly formed agency that will manage ground water in the Ojai area submitted competing proposals to become the organization’s staff during an inaugural meeting Thursday.

An engineer representing the Southern California Water Co. said the company could become the Ojai Basin Groundwater Management Agency’s staff for $35,000 this year, while the Casitas Municipal Water District offered in a written proposal to do the job for about $49,000.

The goals of the new agency are to limit the drilling of new wells, limit ground-water extraction and eventually levy a tax on every acre-foot of water pumped from the ground, officials said. The agency must select a staff before a state-mandated study of existing ground-water supplies is undertaken, Ojai City Manager Andrew Belknap said.

The staff will also conduct the administrative chores necessary to raise its first budget.

Both Southern California Water and the Casitas Municipal Water District could profit from becoming the agency’s staff because neither indicated in their proposals that they would hire additional employees to conduct agency business.

The agency’s other three members are the city of Ojai, the Ojai Water Conservation District and a representative of the three largest community-owned water districts in the area.

Michael Gutierrez, the Southern California Water Co. engineer who delivered the company’s staff proposal, said the water company’s main concern in its staff proposal was protecting ground-water resources.

Agency directors voted to hold regular meetings on the fourth Thursday of each month. The issue of who will provide staff services will be discussed Feb. 27.