Ventura Favors Jail Sentence for Water Wasters : Drought: The council tentatively approves an ordinance that calls for incarceration and a fine for those found guilty. But some question its practicality.

The Ventura City Council declared war Monday on water wasters by tentatively passing an ordinance that would impose a maximum six-month jail sentence and $1,000 fine on anyone found squandering water.

The council voted 7 to 0 in favor of the ordinance on the first reading. It must go to a second reading and public hearing before it is adopted into law.

But Elaine Rosdorff and Peter Drew, the two landlords whose wasteful tenants prompted the ordinance, said earlier Monday that the law might be difficult to enforce because residents often are unwilling to turn in their neighbors.

And City Atty. Peter D. Bulens conceded that successful prosecution will rely on neighbors’ and landlords’ willingness to testify against water wasters in court.

The ordinance is designed to prevent intentional waste of water. It prohibits Ventura residents from wasting water on landscaping and crop irrigation, from allowing water leaks to go unreported for more than 48 hours after they are discovered, and from washing vehicles by hose without a closeable nozzle.

It also forbids washing of paved areas by hose except to eliminate health hazards, restaurants to serve water to customers without first being asked, and homeowners to run fountains that don’t recycle most of the fountains’ drainage.

Building owners are fined four times the regular water rate for every gallon over their allotments. But property owners often have no control over their tenants’ water consumption, Bulens said.

The ordinance is aimed directly at the water user, he said, and it might be more valuable as a deterrent than a punishment.

“All we want to do is turn off the water,” Bulens said. “At least now . . . somebody from the water department could go to the tenant and say, ‘If this doesn’t stop, here’s what will happen to you.’ ”

But Ventura gas station owner Bob van der Valk objected to the ordinance. “You are passing an ordinance that is not going to be enforced, and why do it?” he asked the council Monday.

“You’re going to come between tenants and landlords, husbands and wives. Parents and children are going to tell on each other,” said van der Valk, an unsuccessful candidate for City Council in the Nov. 5 election.

Landlord Rosdorff also questioned whether the ordinance is practical.

“What are you going to do, stand there and watch their meter? Watch them turn their faucets on and off?” she asked.

Rosdorff said that after she raised the rent on a Ventura Keys duplex in August, her tenant began leaving the faucets running out of spite, and finally moved out, leaving $6,000 worth of other property damage in the apartment.

Last month, the city fined Rosdorff $79.20 because her bill showed that the building had used 7,480 gallons more than city water rationing allows--waste probably caused by her tenant, she said.

Rosdorff said the ordinance may be better than nothing. “Maybe we can pass a printed notice around that would say that water wasters are going to be penalized,” she said.

Drew, who manages a Main Street building owned by his wife, Shari, also was skeptical of the law becoming a success.

Many buildings have one meter for several tenants, and it’s hard to pinpoint water wasters, he said.

One of the couple’s retail tenants apparently wasted 2,244 gallons of water last spring by leaving the taps open, Drew said.

Other building tenants called the running water to Drew’s attention. Because he was having the tenant evicted, Drew shut off the building’s water rather than intrude in the store.

The tenant came in the next day and turned off the taps, allowing Drew to restore water to the building. But the Drews were fined $75 by the city for exceeding their water allotment.

“I don’t know how they’re going to enforce it,” Drew said of the law. “They (tenants) have to snitch on each other, and that’s not a fair situation to put people in.”

Bulens said the ordinance will require more than one tenant’s or landlord’s word to prove guilt.

“We’re going to have to have some corroborating testimony,” he said. “Before we’d do anything, we’d have to be very certain that the person is truly wasting water.”