Oxnard Delays Action on Water Rationing Plan

The Oxnard City Council, acting against its own staff’s recommendation, postponed action on a tough water rationing plan in hopes of persuading its main water supplier to increase the city’s allocation.

After a lengthy debate, the council voted 3 to 2 to put off action on the plan, aimed at cutting overall water consumption by 30%.

Council members Manuel Lopez, Dorothy Maron and Michael Plisky said they could not support the rationing plan because the Calleguas Municipal Water District, which supplies two-thirds of the city’s water, was penalizing Oxnard for being the most austere water user in the county.

The council majority said Tuesday that the rationing plan was too harsh, although a week ago it had instructed staff members to prepare such a plan.

All five council members vowed Tuesday to attend a March 27 meeting of the Calleguas Board of Directors to ask for more water.

Calleguas receives its supply from the State Water Project. Camarillo gets half of its water from Calleguas, Moorpark gets three-quarters of its total from Calleguas, and Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks get all their water from the water district.

Of those cities, Oxnard has by far the lowest per capita use. In 1989, the city averaged about 140 gallons daily per person, compared with about 275 gallons in Thousand Oaks, 215 in Camarillo and about 200 in Simi Valley and Moorpark.

As of March, all of these cities are under a mandate by Calleguas to reduce water use by 20%. The order came after Calleguas’ allocation was reduced by its supplier, the Metropolitan Water District.

Starting April 1, the cutbacks to cities will be increased to 30%, and more cutbacks might be required if the drought continues to dry up the state’s reservoirs. The cities face stiff fines if they do not cut back.

Council members said they will demand that Calleguas change its policy of cutting allocations by percentages, and instead adopt a per capita system.

That system would favor low water users such as Oxnard, the biggest and most densely populated city in the county.

The council will reconsider adoption of a rationing plan April 2, after the Calleguas meeting.

“We were elected to protect our people, and before we do anything, we have to go to Calleguas to protest this great inequity,” Lopez said. “The other cities are getting away with murder.”

Mayor Nao Takasugi and Councilwoman Gerry Fuhr said postponing the ordinance would send the wrong message to their constituents.

“The city needs to make a statement that we are facing a severe drought, and we have to start conserving immediately,” Takasugi said, adding that passing the ordinance would not interfere with the city’s efforts to get more water from Calleguas.

“We are already falling behind,” he said. He said the city was unlikely to reach 20% savings for the month of March, even if the conservation program had been adopted. “We can always adjust the ordinance if and when we get more water.”

Supervisor John K. Flynn, whose district includes Oxnard, said he disagrees with the council’s lack of action. “Let’s deal with the question. The emergency is so strong, so serious, we can’t continue to debate the issue as if we had a lot of time.”

Flynn, however, said he agreed that Oxnard is being shortchanged by the current allocation system and supported the council’s decision to appeal for more water. “We have to find a way to narrow the gap between Oxnard and the other cities.”

City staff members appeared startled by the council’s decision.

“But . . . we’ve already printed 25,000 resident verification forms,” said City Manager Vern Hazen, who urged the council to adopt the plan.

Under the plan shelved Tuesday, residents would fill out the verification form with information needed to determine the household allocation. Each resident would be allowed 80 gallons per day and an additional 10 gallons would be allowed for landscaping.

But the council instructed staff members not to mail out the forms.

“Whatever the council wants to do is fine with us,” said Public Works Director James Frandzen. He would not comment further on the council’s decision.