CULVER CITY : Consortium Takes Aim at Halting Hike in Water Rates

After banding together to seek lower electricity prices, Culver City and half a dozen South Bay communities have turned their attention to water rates.

The Southern California Cities Consortium, organized about five months ago to press Southern California Edison for rate reductions, includes Culver City, Inglewood, Hawthorne, Gardena, Redondo Beach, Lomita and Carson.

The latest target of the group’s attention is a request by Southern California Water Co. to increase rates 30% over three years. The company buys water from local water districts and resells it to consumers living in the South Bay and on the Westside.

Southern California Water submits documents establishing the need for a rate increase to the California Public Utilities Commission, which sets water rates after holding public hearings. If approved, the first incremental increase would take effect in January.

Culver City Councilman Albert Vera objects to the increase and has led members of the consortium to oppose higher rates. Vera doesn’t think the PUC should be allowed to set rates.

“The PUC should be declared illegal. . . . What they have is a license to give permission for those utilities to rob people,” Vera said.

Ronald Mullen, a spokesman for Southern California Water, said his company needs the increase because costs for labor and mandatory water-quality monitoring have gone up. In addition, it’s more expensive to maintain miles of infrastructure to deliver water to consumers’ homes, he said.

Mullen emphasized that water-rate regulations prohibit his company from changing rates at will, but the company also has to answer to its stockholders. This is the first increase Southern California Water has requested since 1991, although it had been eligible for others, he said.