COSTA MESA : Ex-MWD Director Sentenced to Prison

A former Orange County director of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California was sentenced Monday to three months in prison and fined $10,000 for federal income tax evasion.

Carl J. Kymla of Costa Mesa, a 20-year member of the MWD board and a former city councilman in Newport Beach, also must spend three months in a community confinement center during a three-year period of supervised release, according to the sentence handed down by U.S. District Judge Terry J. Hatter Jr.

Kymla is scheduled to turn himself in to begin his sentence March 14, said Assistant U.S. Atty. Kimberly Dunne.

Neither Kymla nor his attorney, Paul Raymond, returned phone calls for comment Monday.

Kymla, who runs Newport Beach-based Municipal Services Consultant Inc., pleaded guilty last October to one count of failing to report approximately $75,000 of income on his 1987 tax return, Dunne said. He also admitted failing to report approximately $140,000 in income in 1986, Dunne said.

Although he faced a maximum of 10 years in prison and a $500,000 fine after being indicted in 1993 on two counts of tax evasion, “as part of a plea agreement, the government moved to dismiss one count,” Dunne said.

Kymla resigned from his seat on the 51-member MWD board last October just before entering his guilty plea. He served on the board as a director appointed by the Municipal Water District of Orange County.

As an MWD director, Kymla had been chairman of the special budget committee since its inception in 1976. The committee had the final word on MWD’s $820-million budget.

In 1978, Kymla was the general manager of the Moulton Niguel Water District in Laguna Niguel and one of five district officials indicted on felony charges of misappropriating district property, including using district equipment and employees to handle chores around his home.

At the time, prosecutors admitted that their evidence against Kymla was weak and charges were dismissed against him in February, 1979. He retired from the district post one day later.