Plan to Ration Water Given Tentative OK : Drought: L.A. City Council delays final vote by amending Bradley proposal. Financial penalties will be imposed on those who fail to cut use 10%.

Bowing to the force of a four-year drought, the Los Angeles City Council on Tuesday tentatively approved a mandatory water-rationing plan that imposes financial penalties on those who fail to cut back water use by 10%.

In a 10-4 vote, the council backed Mayor Tom Bradley’s plan, but threw in a number of amendments that will delay a final vote on the measure for several weeks. The plan would take effect no sooner than late July.

While the vote advanced Bradley’s proposal, it was not a complete victory for the mayor. Bradley had hoped to have the program in place before the hot summer months when most of the city’s water is consumed.

If rationing is adopted, it would mark the first time since 1977 that Los Angeles residents have been required to restrict their water use. The 1977 rationing, the first in the city’s history, ended after several months with the coming of heavy rains.

Councilman Marvin Braude, perhaps the staunchest backer of mandatory rationing on the council, said the heat wave serves as a reminder of the severity of the current drought and the city’s projected 10% water shortage this summer.

“How can we forget that we live in a desert?” Braude said. “Isn’t it prudent for us to provide a reserve? The reality is that there has been no rain.” “

The council, in an acrimonious four-hour meeting, proposed 13 separate amendments to Bradley’s rationing plan. Council members rejected a proposal to exempt coin laundries from rationing and a proposal to ban lawn watering in all but mountainous fire districts. They passed amendments requiring the city to issue bilingual water conservation materials and to consider imposing fines on customers who fail to install water-saving devices.

Most of the amendments were defeated but enough survived that the proposed rationing ordinance has to be rewritten before the council can take a final vote. The measure is expected to come back to the council July 10. If not unanimously adopted on that day, the measure would require a second vote a week later before becoming law.

Under an urgency clause adopted Wednesday by the council, the law could be implemented immediately upon Bradley’s signature. “We’re ready to go,” said Dan Waters, acting general manager of the Department of Water and Power.

Waters said dozens of water monitors have been hired and computers have been programmed to alert consumers about their allotments.

Some council members have remained skeptical of the need for rationing. Others remained adamantly opposed to a portion of Bradley’s plan that would add several dollars to every customer’s bill to pay the costs of implementing the program.

“We’re already asking people to sacrifice by cutting use,” said Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky. “That’s enough.”

Yaroslavsky voted for the plan, but only after making an unsuccessful attempt to force the DWP to slash its own water division budget by 6% or $12.5 million to help pay for the program.

Attempts by other council members to derail the plan failed as Bradley and his staff mounted a heavy lobbying effort.

The mayor telephoned several council members in the council chambers Tuesday, including Richard Alatorre, who had threatened to introduce his own proposal to continue voluntary water conservation. Bradley chief of staff Mark Fabiani pulled members aside during the meeting to personally urge them to pass the plan intact.

Fabiani said Tuesday that some members resisted because their constituents do not want rationing and believe the drought will end soon.

But Fabiani said that the heat wave helped persuade the council that the water shortage may worsen before it improves.

The plan approved Tuesday is virtually identical to the one imposed in 1977. All customers of the DWP will be required to cut their water use by 10% from 1986 levels.

For the first violation, customers would be charged $3 per billing unit of excess use plus 15% of their total water bill. A billing unit is 748 gallons.

A second violation would cost the customer $3 per excess billing unit plus 25% of the bill. A third violation would boost the surcharge to $4 per excess billing unit and 75% of the bill.

All customers would be banned from watering gardens between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. Existing law prohibits hosing down sidewalks and gutters, and providing water in restaurants except upon request.

Exemptions to water allotments could be granted if: Cutbacks would result in unemployment; additional members have been added to a household; landscaped property has been added; employment has been increased at a commercial, industrial or government facility; production has increased at a commercial facility; a swimming pool is being filled for the first time.