ORANGE COUNTY PERSPECTIVE : Dirty Water Districts Breed Disease

In light of South County’s change from large family ranches to sprawling suburbs, it is easy to see, in hindsight, how an agency like the scandal-ridden Santa Margarita Water District becomes a breeding ground for the abuse of privilege. Hidden government sprang up quietly and out of public sight, even as the importance of the agencies grew.

Almost as astonishing as the litany of revelations involving expensive limousine rides and lobbying for benefactors is that so little ever was done by way of reform. This is so even though two separate investigations by Orange County grand juries in the 1980s revealed the potential for abuse lurking in a system so lacking in accountability.

Who was minding the store? Therein lies part of the problem. There was no central authority to bring about reform in a system of patchwork, autonomous districts. The Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO), by creating such special districts, had the power to release the genie from the bottle. But now, surveying the scandal, it acknowledges readily that the special district, like any genie, had a will of its own. That was especially so in the absence of sufficient authority by the creating commission to properly regulate what it had set in motion.

We are at the point now where Dana Point, for example, has a total of seven water-related agencies within its small city limits, and they are governed by an army of elected officials. The abuses that such small-time government run amok can permit were abundantly clear as the allegations rolled in about two Santa Margarita district officials, now the subject of a joint investigation by the FBI and the Orange County district attorney’s office into possible violations of conflict-of-interest laws.

Now, years after the grand juries told us so, it’s time at last to get a better handle on these important agencies. Bills before the Legislature sponsored by Assemblyman Tom Umberg (D-Garden Grove) and Assemblyman Mickey Conroy (R-Orange) are a help in some of these matters.

First, LAFCO should expand efforts to consolidate. Second, insist through state legislation on more responsive and enlightened management, both on small district boards and in their executive branches. That means better education about what it means to have public accountability and ethical conduct in office. It also means putting in place tighter expense reporting. Finally, reform voting procedures to give each landowner only one vote for selecting directors.