4 Valley Residents Added to Water Rate Evaluation Panel

With many San Fernando Valley residents up in arms about skyrocketing Department of Water and Power bills, Mayor Richard Riordan on Friday named four additional Valley residents to a 17-member panel that will be taking a second look at the DWP’s new water rate system.

The appointees to the reconstituted Blue-Ribbon Committee on Water Rate Restructuring include Rachel Hernandez from Mission Hills and Rana Linka from West Hills, both of whom expressed unhappiness Friday with their own DWP bills.

“I’ve been very confused by my bills,” said Linka, who owns a real estate firm in Woodland Hills. “It’s been ridiculous and the subject of a lot of talk in the Valley.”

Hernandez, an operating officer at First American Bank, said she has written letters and made phone calls to the DWP trying to get an understanding of why the bills for her home have nearly doubled in recent months. “It’s been very upsetting,” Hernandez said.

The other new Valley members on the panel are Northridge businessman Harry Wilcox and Marcia Volpert of Encino, who is also a member of the DWP commission that oversees the giant utility.

Under a new, two-tiered water rate system, DWP customers who use more than twice the median amount of water in a billing period are charged a rate more than 50% higher than the one reserved for more thrifty water-users.

But many Valley residents have complained that the new system unfairly hits their area because it’s hotter there and its residents have larger lawns that require more watering.

Riordan’s office acknowledged Friday that care was taken to put Valley residents on the new panel.

“The majority of complaints about DWP bills have come from residents of the Valley, and the mayor felt it was important that their voice be heard on the reconstituted committee,” Deputy Mayor Mike Keeley said.

The panel will consist of 11 of the 12 people who served on the same committee under former Mayor Tom Bradley, plus six new members, including the four Valley residents.

Keeley said that the mayor sought to strike a balance between keeping on former panelists familiar with the complicated rate system and bringing on new people with a fresh perspective.

In a brief news release, Riordan was quoted as saying that he wants the committee to “reconvene immediately to receive public input on the impacts of the new rate structure and to determine if this structure provided equity or created new inequities.”

A spokesperson for Councilwoman Laura Chick called the Riordan appointments “a good sign.” Karen Constine, Chick’s chief of staff, said the Valley was not well-represented on the original panel and that the new committee seems to have corrected that situation. “Now there’ll be Valley input,” she said.

DWP officials have defended the system, saying it should encourage greater water conservation. They estimate that it results in higher bills for only about 20% of the utility’s customers.

In response to cries for relief from their constituents, Valley-based council members Chick and Hal Bernson urged Riordan nearly two months ago to immediately reconvene the blue-ribbon water rate restructuring panel to take a second look at the new system.

Keeley said Friday in an interview that the first meeting of the panel will be held on Oct. 14.

Although no deadline has been set for the panel to return a report to Riordan on the rate system, Keeley said the panel’s members have been told that a “sense of urgency” should surround their deliberations.