CALABASAS : Higher Water Rates Receive Tentative OK

The Las Virgenes Municipal Water District has given its tentative approval to a proposal to increase customers’ rates by an average of 7% to make up for the district’s declining revenues.

There will be a second reading and final vote on the increase Sept. 26 at 7 p.m. at district headquarters, said Bobbe Wymer, spokeswoman for the district. The board is expected to give final approval then.

No one spoke in opposition to the proposal on Monday during a public hearing before the vote, she said.

The average customer would pay about $51.48 a year extra if the proposal is approved, Wymer said. Customers would see the change on their Nov. 1 bills.

“I think people realize that we have been so financially responsible,” Wymer said. “This very small increase, I think, people are willing to accept.”

The increase would help fund the district’s $34.3-million operating budget for fiscal 1994-95, which has already been approved, she said. Some customers would be charged “slightly” higher percentage increases than others, depending on where they live.

The increase would be the third in as many years. During the 1993-94 fiscal year, the district increased rates for residential customers $2.75 a month for water and $3 a month for sanitation. In fiscal 1992-93, the agency increased rates by $3.36 per month for water.

The district’s revenues have dropped over the past few years due to the decline in construction, Wymer said. Over the past three years, the district has lost $1 million annually in new connection fees. Previously the connections brought in $9 million a year.

At the same time, the district still has to fund repairs, maintenance and other costs, she said. It has also undertaken several ambitious projects, including the $50-million Rancho Las Virgenes Composting Facility, which officially opens this month.

Diane Eaton, a candidate this year for the Board of Directors, Division 2, said just because no one spoke against the increase at this week’s meeting does not mean there is no opposition to it.

“People are just very busy, and they don’t have time to go to these meetings,” said Eaton, who attended the session but did not speak. “But they are going to be surprised when their rates increase.”

Eaton also wondered aloud whether the district wants to increase customers’ rates because it needs a way to repay $60 million it borrowed.

Ernie Dynda of Agoura Hills, president of United Organizations of Taxpayers, a Los Angeles-based taxpayers watchdog group, said homeowners in many communities will be hard-pressed to afford any increases in utilities.

In Agoura Hills, for example, a 4% tax on utilities was levied for the first time this year.

“You start adding all these things up compared to what the base was and you’re getting a substantial tax increase,” Dynda said.

Dynda has argued in the past that existing customers should not have to pay any increases because they have already paid their connection fees.

Wymer said the district made budget cuts, instituted a hiring freeze and has put off some capital improvement projects.

Also, each department trimmed its budget by 20 percent and the district skipped pay raises for many non-union employees that were due in July.

The agency serves about 60,000 people--or about 18,000 households--in Agoura Hills, Calabasas, Hidden Hills, Westlake Village and several unincorporated portions of Los Angeles County.