Council Committee Endorses Water Rationing

A Los Angeles City Council committee Tuesday unanimously endorsed a proposal to impose mandatory water rationing in the city March 1.

The rationing plan, the toughest in the city’s history, requires residents and businesses to reduce water use by 10% from 1986 levels beginning March 1, and another 5% May 1. The proposal goes to the full council for consideration Tuesday.

“I’m willing to go along with it because we really don’t have any water,” said Councilwoman Ruth Galanter, who voted for the plan. “If we don’t have any water, we don’t have any choice.”

The 3-0 vote by the Commerce, Energy and Natural Resources Committee comes 11 days after Mayor Tom Bradley, with the backing of the Department of Water and Power, urged quick approval of the mandatory rationing proposal.

Councilwoman Joan Milke Flores, who chairs the committee, was instrumental in killing a mandatory program pushed by Bradley last summer. Flores said recent reports of extremely low snowpack levels in the Sierra Nevada persuaded her to vote for the plan.

City Council President John Ferraro, the third member of the committee, also voted for the proposal, which is expected to encounter little opposition in the council.

The committee also unanimously endorsed a DWP request for permission to raise its water surcharge to 15 cents per billing unit from 9 cents, even for customers who comply with the rationing limits. A billing unit is 748 gallons.

DWP officials said the surcharge is necessary to offset a $40-million drop in revenue likely to result when customers begin conserving water under the rationing plan.

Officials said that even with the increased surcharge--which amounts to about 1 cent for 50 gallons of water--customers who conserve the required amount of water should receive lower bills.

The committee took no action on a proposal that would allow landlords to pass on to tenants 50% of any penalties imposed under the rationing program. The issue is being reviewed by the city attorney’s office and is expected to come before the council with the rationing proposal.

Barbara Zeidman, director of the city’s rent stabilization division, said the 50% pass-along measure would apply to the city’s 480,000 rent-controlled apartments. The landlords for the 650,000 units that were built after 1978 and do not fall under the rent stabilization law conceivably could raise rents to recoup 100% of the penalty charges, Zeidman said.

The committee put off for 45 days a proposal by Galanter and Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky that would slow development by limiting water hookups. Several city agencies have been asked to study the matter and report back to the committee.