Water Directors Stay at a Boil : Latest Three Valleys Dispute Is Over Boundary Proposals

The Three Valleys Municipal Water District’s board of directors normally meets every other Tuesday to discuss water service in the eastern San Gabriel Valley. But recently the board held three long and contentious meetings in nine days, and the subject of water never came up.

Instead, the talk has been about internal politics, with board members hurling or deflecting allegations of “playing games” or possessing “hidden agendas.”

This continued Thursday at an early morning meeting to discuss the realignment of board members’ divisions in June, when a special election will expand the board from five members to seven.

Board President William Koch and newly elected members Bruce Milne and Paul Stiglich, who chose Koch to lead the board, charged that the district’s reapportionment plan is unfair and unconstitutional.

Unequal Populations

In December, when it redrew the boundaries of the areas to be served by the seven directors, the board approved divisions with unequal populations. Under the constitutional principle of “one man, one vote,” such areas should represent roughly equal numbers of people, said James Anderson, an attorney for the water district.

According to district figures, the division including San Dimas and part of West Covina, which Milne would represent, has 35% more residents than the neighboring division, which would cover Glendora. Hence, Milne said, San Dimas voters would be under-represented.

Milne, who currently represents Glendora and a small section of San Dimas where he lives, also argued that he should continue to represent most of the voters who elected him in November.

General Manager Richard W. Hansen said the proposed divisional boundaries were drawn to avoid splitting a city or a water provider’s service area between two board members. It was not possible to accomplish this and still create divisions with equal population, he said.

Milne replied that equal representation for voters is more important than the preferences of water companies.

‘Elected by Public’

“It comes down to population boundaries versus agency boundaries,” Milne said. “We were elected by the public, and that’s the interest we have to protect.”

Anderson has issued an opinion that the unequal boundaries might be open to legal challenge. However, he said, some of the apparent inequities are based on 1980 census data and might be reduced when results of the 1990 census are released.

Board members Muriel O’Brien and Sandy Baldonado, as well as representatives of the 15 retail water agencies in the district, urged the other three board members not to tamper with the boundaries, which were reached after months of compromise. They noted that the deadline to submit a revised district map to the county registrar-recorder is Feb. 6.

“If you’re going to change these boundaries, you’re going to have to do it in the next two weeks, and I don’t know how you’re going to do it,” O’Brien said. “I think there might be ulterior motives here.”

Koch also blasted the unequal divisions but was particularly piqued by the board’s decision last month to assign Baldonado, a Claremont resident, to represent a newly created division in north Pomona. Koch said Pomona officials had been told that their city would have two representatives--Koch himself and a new director to be elected in June.

Insists on Residency

“I resent any water board member representing the city of Pomona who’s not a resident,” Koch said.

He proposed that Baldonado remain in Claremont, Milne represent Glendora and O’Brien, a La Verne resident, represent San Dimas. The north Pomona board seat would be filled in the June election.

O’Brien balked at the idea, saying it would deprive her of the chance to run for reelection in 1990 because she would not be a resident of her division.

After watching the board haggle over division assignments and boundaries for more than an hour, local water agency representatives expressed disgust during a recess in the meeting.

“They’re supposed to represent the district as a whole and not break into little areas and become political,” said Brian Bowcock, director of public works for the city of La Verne. “If they’re going to play politics, they should get out of the water business.”

Edmund Biederman, general manager of the Walnut Valley Water District, agreed.

“Partisan politics has become an issue in this--politics and water don’t mix,” Biederman said. “Water districts are not supposed to be a stepping stone to a political career.”

Shortly after the board recovened, O’Brien came up with a compromise that satisfied everyone except Koch, though it did nothing about the disparities in division size. O’Brien’s idea was simply to have Milne assigned to Glendora instead of San Dimas.

“Let’s be honest,” O’Brien told Milne. “There is a personal agenda on both of our parts. I don’t want to be disenfranchised.”

Milne immediately dropped his objections to the reapportionment plan and said he had been planning to move to Glendora, which would make him eligible for reelection in his new district. Stiglich also approved O’Brien’s plan, but because it made no provision to elect a new director from Pomona, Koch opposed it.

“I still have a problem with the population balance,” Milne said. “None of that’s changed for me. But the second-best thing (to correcting the imbalances) is to be able to represent the people who elected me.”

Schabarum Candidacy

The reassignment of Milne created a vacancy for a San Dimas representative. Even before O’Brien suggested the compromise, water agency representatives had speculated that some board members were seeking a way to enable San Dimas resident Tom Schabarum, brother of the Los Angeles County Supervisor Pete Schabarum, to run for the board.

Asked about potential candidates for the San Dimas seat, Koch and Milne immediately suggested Schabarum. In a telephone interview Thursday, Schabarum confirmed that he is interested in running for the board.

“I’m a friend of some of them,” Schabarum said, adding that he keeps in touch with Koch and Milne. “There was never an opportunity to get involved until I heard that there might be a vacancy as the result of (a change in) the district’s boundaries.”

Koch denied orchestrating the opportunity for Schabarum to run. However, Baldonado said she literally saw the move coming.

“I’ve seen it in Mr. Koch’s notes,” Baldonado said. “I inadvertently used his (fact) sheet to get some population figures. Next to the San Dimas figures was Tom Schabarum’s name.”