Divided Costa Mesa council endorses sanitary and water district merger measure
Costa Mesa City Council members waded Tuesday into the dispute over a possible merger of the Costa Mesa Sanitary and Mesa Water districts, opting to officially support the concept.
The council voted 3-2, with members Katrina Foley and Sandy Genis opposed, to endorse Measure TT in the Nov. 8 election.
The measure is an advisory question Mesa Water placed on the ballot to gauge public support for Mesa and the sanitary district combining.
Mayor Pro Tem Jim Righeimer asked his colleagues to consider supporting Measure TT, calling the merger question a “very, very, very important issue.”
Foley, however, blasted the maneuver as a political ploy.
“I don’t think we should be involved in this matter,” she said after the vote. “I don’t think we should be voting on this matter. I think this is a purely political tactic.”
Foley suggested delaying the vote to a future meeting and having Mesa Water and the sanitary district give formal presentations to the council.
Righeimer, along with Mayor Steve Mensinger and Councilman Gary Monahan, opted instead to endorse the measure with little discussion.
Righeimer said Wednesday that Measure TT would “give people the chance to say what they think” about the merger idea.
Genis, however, said, “I believe it was highly inappropriate for us to be giving anybody advice on an advisory measure when we have such limited information.”
Monahan, who can’t run for reelection to the council this year because of term limits, is one of five candidates for two available seats on the Costa Mesa Sanitary District board.
Mesa Water provides service to about 110,000 people in Costa Mesa, parts of Newport Beach and sections of unincorporated Orange County, including John Wayne Airport.
The sanitary district provides sewer and curbside trash collection services to about 116,700 ratepayers in an area that is similar, though not identical, to Mesa Water’s.
People who are ratepayers in either district can vote on the ballot measure.
Measure TT isn’t binding, so even if it passes, consolidation isn’t a given. Mesa Water officials, however, have said the results will indicate whether ratepayers support a merger.
“If the citizens of Costa Mesa don’t want this — vote it down, that’s fine; we won’t pursue this,” Ethan Temianka, Mesa Water’s board vice president, said at Tuesday’s council meeting. “But this is the right thing to look into. There are millions of dollars of savings.”
In June, Mesa Water officials retained consultant Arcadis U.S. Inc. to study whether merging the districts would make financial and operational sense.
The analysis determined that the fiscal benefits could be significant — up to $15.6 million in one-time savings and as much as an additional $2.7 million annually.
Righeimer said he believes the districts “need to be consolidated” because of the “massive amount of savings” a merger could bring.
“It’s pretty simple,” he said.
According to the study, the savings could result in a $650 rebate for each ratepayer and up to a 28% reduction in wastewater rates.
The sanitary district declined to participate in the study, raising concerns with the level of input it had in shaping it and how fast the process was moving.
Since the document’s release, sanitary district officials have criticized it as flawed and inaccurate. They claim Measure TT is a political stunt and that Mesa Water is trying to stage a hostile takeover.
“Measure TT has been touted as being about good government and fostering efficiency,” said sanitary district board President Mike Scheafer. “Unfortunately, everything we have seen has shown us their motives are not so benevolent or pure.”
Scheafer took Mesa Water to court in August over the wording of the Measure TT ballot question, which originally cited all the possible savings identified in the Arcadis study.
Attorneys for both parties struck a deal Aug. 31 that removed the disputed language from the question, which now reads, “Shall the Mesa Water District and the Costa Mesa Sanitary District pursue consolidation?”
Twitter: @LukeMMoney
