Reconsideration of Water-Billing System Is Urged : Utilities: Two Valley council members say they have been deluged with complaints from area residents over monthly bills as high as $700.

Two San Fernando Valley lawmakers urged the Department of Water and Power on Friday to reconsider a water-billing system that has hit the pocketbooks of Valley homeowners hard with the arrival of the hot summer months.

The request by Los Angeles City Council members Hal Bernson and Laura Chick comes in response to a deluge of complaints from Valley homeowners about DWP water bills as high as $700 a month.

“This isn’t working for the Valley,” said a Bernson aide of a new billing system approved last year over protests from residents. The new system created a two-tier water rate that forces large users to pay nearly twice as much for their water.

The request for reconsideration might get a more sympathetic hearing this year because the Valley’s clout at the huge city-owned utility has been strengthened by the appointment of two Valley residents to the powerful DWP commission.

“It could be an opportune time for us, having two Valley commissioners on the five-member board,” Chick’s deputy, Karen Constine, said. The DWP commission that recommended adoption of the new rates had no Valley residents on it.

Still, the final say on rates rests with the City Council. The new rate plan was adopted in December, 1992, by the council over the objections of only two of four Valley lawmakers--Bernson and Councilman Joel Wachs. The council has two new Valley members, including Chick, but it is unclear what position the council might take on the billing issue if it comes back to them.

Bernson authored Friday’s request for the DWP’s Blue Ribbon Committee on Water Rate Restructuring to take a second look at its new billing system, but could not be reached for comment.

One of the primary goals of the new rate system is to promote the efficient use of water, and as a result rates were adjusted so that high volume water users were hit with bigger bills.

Under the system, two rates were enacted for the summer and winter months. Any DWP customer who uses twice the median amount of water is billed at the higher rate.

In the summer, the median DWP customer uses 1,400 cubic feet of water a month. Customers who use less than 2,800 cubic feet per month pay at a rate of $1.73 per 100 cubic feet of water. Customers who use more pay the higher rate of $2.98 per 100 cubic feet.

Community activists predicted in 1992 that the new system would disproportionately hit the Valley because the area is hotter and its larger lots require more watering.

The customer uproar emerged as residents began receiving DWP bills with the summer rates that took effect June 1.

“We’re going through absolute hell out here,” said Sandy Clydesdale, the field deputy to Bernson handling water issues. “I’ve got people coming to me with $600 and $700 water bills. It’s horrendous,” she said. “And we haven’t even seen the bills for July yet.”

Constine said Chick’s office also has been flooded with complaints.

With the motion introduced Friday, the lawmakers hope to persuade the DWP to reconvene the blue-ribbon committee on water rates. Chick wants the committee to provide her and the public with a “better understanding” of the logic and fairness of the new rate system, Constine said.

Riordan, whose election victory was heavily dependent on Valley voters, announced last week the appointment of two Valley residents to the commission, Marcia L. Volpert, a community activist from Sherman Oaks, and Judy M. Miller of Van Nuys, a former public relations executive who now runs a nonprofit agency fighting alcohol abuse.