Tri-Cities Directors Not Even Close to Calling It Quits

Last fall, their unique campaign pledge raised eyebrows and made headlines: Elect us and we will vote ourselves out of a job, vowed candidates Ken Mullen and Philip Crocker.

Today, three months after Mullen and Crocker were elected to the board of directors of the Tri-Cities Municipal Water District, there’s been no vote to dissolve the district--and it may be several years before there is.

“It’s still premature to make that move yet,” said Crocker, the manager of a San Gabriel Valley water district. “That’s probably the direction we will go . . . but it is is going to take some time.”

Both the Orange County Grand Jury and San Clemente City Council have urged that the 35-year-old district be eliminated to save money and untangle the jumble of water-related districts in South County.

However, the board voted Friday to approve a one-year contract with a consulting firm to manage the district for a fee not to exceed $82,000.

According to Crocker, the immediate need is to “clean house” by eliminating unnecessary administrative and public relations costs incurred by directors in the past.

Last year, the district spent $52,000 on public relations and another $138,000 on the general manager and his administrative assistant.

The direction now is to make Tri-Cities “a real professional water operation,” Crocker said.

“Once we have this process in hand, then we can see where we are going,” Crocker said. “It might take two or three years before we can get to consolidation.”

Mullen, a San Clemente engineer, declined to comment on the matter. His secretary said Mullen referred calls to to the board president, Ray Benedicktus.

Instead of voting themselves out of office, Crocker and Mullen and the rest of the five-member board have decided instead to commission a “study of the issue of consolidation,” according to Benedicktus.

Former board president Bill Mecham, who lost his seat to Crocker last November, said the unusual pledge got attention for the candidates but hurt serious efforts to dissolve or consolidate the district.

“The rhetoric of the campaign made (other district representatives) a little leery of talking to us,” said Mecham, a four-year director who was president last year. “I don’t know what they are going to do to regain faith among their peers.”

The consolidation of local water districts became a hot-button issue last May when the county grand jury called for a drastic reorganization of some districts. In an era of rapidly rising water rates, consumers are paying too much for water, partly because of government inefficiency, the county panel found.

The grand jury specifically targeted wholesale water districts such as Tri-Cities as a unnecessary layer of government.

Tri-Cities, which operates on a $13-million annual budget, owns a pipeline and serves about 70,000 people as an intermediary in the county’s water delivery system by selling water to local water districts and the city of San Clemente.

Benedicktus, who has been an outspoken supporter of consolidation, still believes it will happen. The city could at some point take over the Tri-Cities operation but the district needs time to make that move, Benedicktus said.

“The consolidation issue is not going to go away. It’s imperative we address it,” said Benedicktus, a retired engineer with the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. “The key thing is to discuss this with our member agencies and get a plan laid out.”

Benedicktus said hiring a new management firm, San Juan Capistrano-based RM and Associates, is a move toward “cleaning up the operations” of the district. The consulting firm will save the district about $20,000 in administrative costs over last year, he said.