Study on Merging 4 Water Districts OKd

After a scandal that enveloped a South County water district, the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved a $37,600 contract for the Orange County Grand Jury to study the possible benefits of merging at least four agencies that provide water to local districts.

The inquiry, hailed by board Chairwoman Harriett M. Wieder as a step toward slicing expensive government bureaucracy, will examine the agencies’ overall efficiency of water distribution.

“Consolidation might increase efficiency and might stop oversized bureaucracy that costs taxpayers millions of dollars every year,” Wieder said. “It’s an idea whose time has come.”

As outlined by the grand jury in a letter to the agencies, the accounting firm of Ernst & Young will study the operations of the Coastal Municipal Water District, Tri-Cities Municipal Water District, the Orange County Water District and the Municipal Water District of Orange County.

The four agencies all function as intermediaries in the county water distribution system and sell water to either city water departments or other water districts.

The grand jury is expected to coordinate the Ernst & Young study with a separate inquiry being conducted by the county’s Local Agency Formation Commission, which is also reviewing the possible merger of water and sanitation service agencies in Dana Point.

Approval of the grand jury audit Tuesday comes nearly a year after disclosures that top executives of the Santa Margarita Water District engaged in excessive spending and gift-taking from firms that were granted lucrative contracts with the water district.

A similar grand jury study of water districts in 1982 found that the agencies were breeding grounds for financial waste and abuse since most operated in relative obscurity, managed by a core of directors who remained insulated from public scrutiny.

For months, Wieder has called for a scaling back of local government bureaucracy, using the Santa Margarita Water District troubles as an example in the quest for change.

“We have 31 city governments in Orange County, one county government and 84 special districts,” Wieder said. “I wholeheartedly support the efforts of the grand jury.”