Water Company Serving Ojai May Be in the Soup : Utilities: The company’s denial of new hookups to 20 customers was illegal, an attorney for state regulators charges.

A water company serving Ojai has violated state law by denying water to applicants for new hookups, an attorney for the state Public Utilities Commission said Thursday.

The commission’s staff is recommending that Southern California Water Co. be ordered to serve about 20 customers it has denied water to this year, to dig two new wells and to free itself from any reliance on Casitas Municipal Water District for supplemental supplies.

The five-member commission will decide on the matter in several months after it reviews the staff report and a separate recommendation from Administrative Law Judge Michael J. Galvin. Galvin heard the first of two days of testimony on the matter Thursday at a public hearing in Ojai City Hall.

Company officer Floyd E. Wicks, who was questioned for several hours, said Southern California Water denied hookups before obtaining permission from the PUC. He said company officials feared threats of stiff fines and water shut-offs from Casitas if they did not comply with the water district’s orders. Casitas ordered its 14 resale agencies in April to adopt a one-year delay on new or expanded service connections.

The PUC’s staff concluded that Southern California Water, which has 2,700 customers in Ojai, had no right to adopt that moratorium if the Ojai aquifer is not being overused.

Ojai developers supported the staff’s conclusions, but City Manager Andrew Belknap and Casitas officials objected, saying that more wells could jeopardize attempts to manage the aquifer.

Wicks said his company also feared that it could lose the franchise it has held since 1929 to provide water to city residents unless it complied with Casitas’ orders. He said the fact that Ojai City Councilmen James Loebl and Robert McKinney are connected to Casitas was another reason for the fears.

Loebl has served as the board attorney for the Casitas district for several decades. McKinney, a former general manager of the district for 16 years, is its consultant on importing state water to northern Ventura County.

“I understand you believe the threats were real, but were they in fact made?” commission attorney Izetta C.R. Jackson asked Wicks. “No,” Wicks said.

McKinney, who monitored the hearing from the audience, later laughed at Wicks’ fears. He said Wicks had said all that needed to be said on the matter.