ELECTIONS / CALLEGUAS WATER DISTRICT : Incumbents Challenged This Time

The Calleguas Municipal Water District of central and eastern Ventura County is offering something rarer than a cut in water rates: contested elections for its board of directors.

Usually, challenger Vince Nowell said, “the incumbent rolls over, gets sworn in and serves four more years.”

Not this time. All three incumbents seeking reelection face opponents. Nowell is challenging an incumbent in a water district division that, he said, hasn’t had a contested race since Richard Nixon first was elected President in 1968.

What’s changed? Candidates certainly aren’t running for the money. Members of the board receive $150 per meeting and typically meet twice a month.

But most said rising water rates, coupled with unhappy memories of last year’s drought-related water rationing, have increased interest in the directors who control the board.

The Calleguas water district is split into five divisions, with each board member representing a geographical portion of the district’s turf that stretches from Simi Valley to Oxnard. Three of the seats are up for election Tuesday.

Anyone looking for mudslinging, meanwhile, will have to tune into another race.

So far, the tone of this election has been set by candidates such as Don Hauser. He’s running against a friend, incumbent Kurt Reithmayr.

“He’s doing a fabulous job,” Hauser said. So why is he taking on his friend? “I just happen to live in Division 3. He’s my opponent.”

Jeffrey Borenstein, the Division 2 challenger, also speaks well of Calleguas board members.

“I think the district is very well-run,” he said. “I don’t have anything negative to say about anyone.”

Nearly half a million people in Ventura County are customers of Calleguas. But few realize it.

Calleguas’ name doesn’t appear on any water bills. Instead, the agency is essentially a middleman, buying water from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California and reselling it to 15 public and private water companies and five cities.

It supplies half of Camarillo’s water, three-fourths of Moorpark’s, and the entire supply of Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks.

“It’s been a sleepy little water purveyor that passes water from Met to the other guys,” Reithmayr said. “Ninety-eight people out of 100, if you ask them who their water wholesaler is, they’d say, ‘Who?’ ”

But Calleguas’ invisible image is beginning to change, and most candidates said it is about time.

Under orders from the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, Calleguas is spending $35 million to build a treatment plant at its Bard Reservoir between Simi Valley and Thousand Oaks, even though the water is purified once before it reaches the reservoir.

The EPA wants the water treated again because it is threatened by contamination from rainfall runoff.

Calleguas is testing underground wells in the Las Posas Basin for storage. With a network of wells, Calleguas could store a three-year supply of water underground, banking water when it is cheap to buy and then using it during a drought.

In this election, voters will decide on the eastern and central divisions of the water district.

In Division 1, which includes most of Simi Valley, Nowell is challenging incumbent Ted Grandsen.

Grandsen, who works for a nursery in Canoga Park, is a former Ventura County supervisor and Simi Valley mayor. He was appointed to the board two years ago to fill an unexpired term. Nowell was also a candidate for the appointment.

Grandsen said his background in the nursery business has convinced him of the need for a reliable and stable supply of water. He is strong supporter of the proposed underground storage system, calling it a tremendous asset for Calleguas.

Nowell is a consultant and technical writer who has worked under contract for Calleguas. He said he supports lower rates for agriculture.

Farmers, he said, “aren’t wasting the water, as opposed to someone watering their lawn and letting the water run down the street.”

He also favors opening the Bard Reservoir for recreational use if the treatment plant is built.

In Division 2, which includes eastern Thousand Oaks, Oak Park and southern Simi Valley, incumbent L. B. (Les) Kovacs faces challenger Borenstein.

Borenstein is an accountant whose firm has been the district’s auditor for 14 years. He said the board needs someone who is well-versed in finances.

“During my tenure as its auditor, I have not run across any project which I deem non-responsible,” he said. Borenstein said he favors better relations with Calleguas’ customers.

Kovacs, a civil engineer, is running for his third four-year term. He said Calleguas should do a better job educating its customers on water conservation and other issues.

“At the risk of sounding corny, I do consider water as our most important resource. We need to use it, not just protecting supplies, but making sure it gets around to all of us,” he said.

In Division 3, which covers Camarillo and part of Thousand Oaks, incumbent Reithmayr faces challengers Hauser and Fred Brook.

Brook, who works for a mortgage-lending company, said fees for developers should be raised before Calleguas approves any more general rate increases.

He criticized the district’s across-the-board rationing plan implemented last year. He said the plan with its steep penalties for overuse hurts poor customers more than the rich. He said residents of Thousand Oaks’ posh North Ranch area, for example, could “slough off” the water reductions because they use more water per capita and could afford to pay penalties, while poorer customers who use water for essential needs could not.

He said Reithmayr has been ineffective because he abstains on issues involving the city of Thousand Oaks. Reithmayr is principal engineer for the city’s utilities department.

But Reithmayr dismissed the criticism, saying those matters concerning Thousand Oaks have been inconsequential. He said his job gives him a useful perspective of Calleguas’ relations with its customers, such as the city.

He favors increased use of waste water for irrigating golf courses and city landscaping. He said recycled water will become increasingly important because the cost of domestic water is projected to double within the next eight to 10 years.

Hauser, a civil engineer, also advocates the construction of dams in the Calleguas watershed.

“I think we should have dams to capture and restore fresh water, also for flood control and water recreation,” he said. “Beautiful parks can be built around these things.”