Sanitation District to Buy Oak Park Water Firm

The Triunfo Sanitation District on Monday approved the purchase of Oak Park’s water company, along with an accompanying 35% increase in rates for its estimated 9,000 to 10,000 customers.

Monthly rates for the typical Oak Park customer, who uses 11,220 gallons of water a month, will increase from $27.77 to $37.19, said Triunfo manager David Burkhart.

The new rates will become effective after the sale is approved by the California Public Utilities Commission. Burkhart said the sale is expected to occur before July 1.

The Triunfo board will sell a total of $9.67 million in municipal securities to buy the Metropolitan Water Co. Burkhart said most of the amount above the $7.7 million purchase price will be placed in a reserve fund as a guarantee to investors.

He said Triunfo’s rate increase is smaller than a 39% increase sought last year by the company. And rates probably would have gone even higher than that under existing ownership, he said, because the company had not added in the impact of a 19% increase in the cost of the water it buys from its wholesaler, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. That increase is scheduled to go into effect July 1.

Triunfo’s proposed increase will mean more of a financial strain for Oak Park’s largest water customer, the Oak Park Unified School District, Assistant Supt. Stan Mantooth said.

Mantooth said the district will pay an extra $30,000 for water under the proposed rate increase. That will fall on top of an anticipated $217,000 deficit projected for the district in the next fiscal year.

“I’d be hard-pressed to find any additional methods of conservation, short of allowing certain portions of our landscaping to die,” said Mantooth. He said the district cut its water consumption by 13% from 1991 to 1992.

Oak Park’s current water company--sometimes called “Little Met” to distinguish it from its much larger wholesaler--was established by the Los Angeles-based Metropolitan Development Inc., the master developer of the fast-growing and affluent unincorporated community just east of Thousand Oaks.

“We’re not in the water company business. We’re developers,” said Keenan Behrle, president of the development company. “That was our only water company. We’re not very good at running it.”

For instance, Behrle said, the company went for five years before asking the PUC for a rate increase. Most water companies file every three years.

Although several private companies approached Metropolitan about buying the company, Behrle said Triunfo, a public agency, seemed better suited for it.

“We felt because Triunfo already handles sewer in that area and because of the synergies involved, it would be a perfect fit for the homeowners out there,” Behrle said.

Triunfo now provides sewer services and recycled water to the east county areas of Westlake Village, North Ranch, Oak Park and Bell Canyon.

“We happen to believe quite strongly that water companies should be in public hands,” Burkhart said.