Costa Mesa Sanitary District rejects latest merger overture from Mesa Water

The Costa Mesa Sanitary District this week rejected the latest overture from the Mesa Water District to further study the concept of merging the two agencies.

In a letter dated Thursday, sanitary district board President Mike Scheafer declined Mesa Water’s invitation to jointly petition the Local Agency Formation Commission, or LAFCO, for a municipal service review of the two districts.

Such reviews, also called MSRs, are studies of “future growth and how our local agencies are planning for that growth within our municipal services and infrastructure systems,” according to LAFCO’s website.

In his letter, Scheafer wrote that LAFCO is already scheduled to conduct a new round of MSRs next year and that the kind of review Mesa Water proposed “is extremely costly — likely well in excess of $100,000.”

From the sanitary district’s perspective, he added, any consolidation discussions need to include other parties, such as the cities of Costa Mesa and Newport Beach, the county of Orange and the Irvine Ranch Water District.

“CMSD certainly shares Mesa Water’s commitment to preserving the public’s trust, and we are always open to discussing and considering all opportunities to enhance our services with the greatest efficiencies,” Scheafer wrote. “We continue to believe that these discussions and analyses must include all stakeholders and look forward to engaging those parties in the most appropriate manner and time.”

Water district officials said last month that a joint MSR would provide detailed information on whether merging the two districts would increase efficiency or cut costs.

Mesa Water board President Ethan Temianka said Friday that there is “significant potential for ratepayer savings.”

“We are simply asking the sanitary district to collaboratively study consolidation and join Mesa Water in best serving the public with the most economical, efficient and effective services possible,” he said.

Scheafer’s letter is the latest in a year-long back-and-forth between the two agencies over the idea of potentially combining their operations.

Last year, Mesa Water commissioned a study from consultant Arcadis U.S. Inc. that concluded merging could result in up to $15.6 million in one-time savings and as much as $2.7 million annually.

Sanitary district officials, however, have repeatedly disputed those findings and said the study is flawed.

Mesa Water took the merger question public in November with Measure TT, an advisory ballot question asking voters whether they wanted the two districts to look into a possible merger.

The measure passed with 54.7% of the vote. Officials in the sanitary district, though, have alleged it “misinformed and misguided the public into believing that the savings it [the Arcadis study] purported … would in fact occur via consolidation.”

luke.money@latimes.com

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