Pomona Threat Prompts Water Board Switch : More Musical Chairs at 3 Valleys

The Three Valleys Municipal Water District’s Board of Directors continued to play musical chairs last week, voting for the third time to change the area assignments of directors under the board’s planned expansion from five to seven members.

In reassigning the current directors, the board originally voted to place Claremont resident Sandy Baldonado in a newly created north Pomona district. However, William Koch, who will represent south Pomona, complained that Baldonado had expressed her contempt for Pomona and would not properly represent the area.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Pomona City Councilman Mark Nymeyer urged the board to reassign Baldonado to create a vacancy in north Pomona that would be filled during a June special election.

Nymeyer said the assignment of Baldonado to Pomona would violate the intent of the board reorganization, which was to give the district’s southern cities--Pomona, Walnut, Diamond Bar and Rowland Heights--four of the seven seats on the expanded board.

If the board refused to reassign Baldonado, Nymeyer said, Pomona would follow through on a City Council resolution, passed last week, to sue the water district.

The board responded by passing a resolution reassigning Baldonado to represent San Dimas, which otherwise would have been represented by a new director elected in June. The resolution was supported by Koch, Paul Stiglich and Muriel O’Brien. Baldonado and Bruce Milne voted against it, and Baldonado stormed out of the meeting after the vote.

“I think it’s absolutely outrageous and absurd,” Baldonado said in an interview last week. “I have absolutely no connection with San Dimas. I think Mr. Koch has stirred up a hornet’s nest in order to get one of his buddies on the board. I see (the board’s vote) as a cave-in to the shenanigans that the city of Pomona has been employing.”