Water Race Boils

SANTA CLARITA â€”  Like guilty shoppers holding well-worn credit cards, the candidates understand what they have done. But they don’t know how to stop.

The six people running for three seats on the board of directors of the Newhall County Water District have turned a race for control of an otherwise obscure water company into a costly, acrimonious dispute with repercussions far beyond the district’s 6,500 customers.

“There’s been a tremendous amount of heat generated for such an itty-bitty thing,� said Val Thomas, one of the three challengers in Tuesday’s election.

The Newhall County Water District provides the service to three areas of the Santa Clarita Valley: most of Newhall and slivers of Castaic and Pinetree. Meetings of its five-member board draw few spectators. Debates over pipe construction and water biochemistry barely elicit a yawn.

But in this election season, in an area known for its frontier past, the city has been abuzz with talk about water. Local newspapers carry almost daily accounts of the latest brouhahas. Rhetoric and accusations are flying in a scene reminiscent of the Wild West days when control of railroads and telegraph lines prompted high-noon duels.

Developers years ago discovered the boom potential of Santa Clarita, but they need adequate water to realize it. Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren has rated water “the most important infrastructure question California faces,� calling it “the oil of the next century.�

With that in mind, the three Newhall board incumbents seeking reelection contend that their challengers are mere puppets for the powerful Newhall Land & Farming Co., whose jewel project, the proposed 25,000-home Newhall Ranch, could begin construction by 2000.

The incumbents, who are all finishing their first four-year terms, also accuse their opponents of flouting campaign finance laws to secure victory at the polls.

“It’s easier for them to create hysteria and get people off a board than to work with people who are there doing a good job,� said incumbent Lynne Plambeck, an outspoken local environmentalist who opposes the Newhall Ranch project. “This is about them getting rid of an uppity little agency in favor of a larger agency that’s slanted toward developers.�

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The challengers, meanwhile, paint the incumbents as lying, lawsuit-happy bureaucrats who have taken the district into the red and preoccupied themselves with conspiracy theories as water quality has nose-dived.

“They’re paranoid,� said challenger Barbara Dore. “They see the Big Bad Wolf behind every tree.�

The seemingly inordinate energy that has been expended on the Newhall water race is part of a statewide phenomenon, according to Jennifer Persike-Becker, spokeswoman for the Assn. of California Water Agencies.

“There are more and more hotly contested races now, and water boards are seen as less obscure,� said Persike-Becker. “It’s viewed as more of a political steppingstone. People jump from water board to City Council and on up the ladder.�

Voters, she added, are also becoming increasingly aware of water as a valuable public resource and are more concerned about who controls its use.

Still, for button-down Santa Clarita, the water district campaign represents a new level of competition. For one thing, an unprecedented amount of money has been spent on the campaign--an illegal amount, according to the incumbents.

Four years ago, the candidates spent no more than $2,000 each during the campaign. This time, following the guidelines of Proposition 208, the campaign financing measure that took effect in January, the water district set suggested spending per candidate at $6,149.63. Although Proposition 208 was designed to limit fund-raising, candidates are not legally required to comply.

The challengers did not follow the spending limits, and in fact nearly doubled them, according to contribution reports on file with Los Angeles County. From Jan. 1 until Oct. 18, the latest date for which figures were available, Tom Campbell collected $11,542.07; Dore took in $11,350, and Thomas, $11,093.34.

The three are among only 11 out of 296 candidates statewide this election season who have chosen not to voluntarily comply with Proposition 208’s campaign finance limits, according to figures provided by the state Fair Political Practices Commission.

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The incumbents, meanwhile, all complied with the limit. Plambeck reported receiving $2,293.33 through Oct. 18, and Edwin Dunn collected $2,610.33. Incumbent David Rapoport collected less than $1,000.

Bob Stern, head of the California Commission on Campaign Finances and a co-author of Proposition 208, said it may be too early to determine if the Newhall challengers have violated the spirit of the measure, which is facing a federal court challenge.

But the big numbers can only add up to one thing, according to the incumbents: The challengers must have the backing of moneyed developers. And what local developer has the most at stake in the water race as it presses ahead with a new mega-tract? Newhall Land & Farming, as Plambeck and others see it.

Plambeck believes that Newhall Land & Farming Co. is sponsoring the slate of challengers in an attempt to take over the Newhall water district board, dissolve it and eventually take direct control of the ground water required to feed its 12,000-acre Newhall Ranch.

One flaw in that theory is that the Newhall Ranch site does not lie within the Newhall County Water District’s territory, nor has the tiny water district been identified by Newhall Ranch’s developer as a potential water supplier.

But Plambeck and others maintain that Newhall Land & Farming--despite its protests to the contrary--will eventually need at least some of the ground water controlled by the Newhall County Water District.

Moreover, they say, the Newhall County Water District represents an upstart water retailer in an area dominated by the wholesaler Castaic Lake Water Agency, whose board has been criticized for ties to Newhall Land & Farming.

The agency and the developer would like nothing more than to consolidate their control of all the area’s water, environmentalists say, noting that Campbell’s campaign treasurer is the water agency’s board president, Bob Cooper.

“It really is ‘Chinatown’ out here,� Plambeck said.

She and the other incumbents have used the campaign slogan “keep local control,� characterizing themselves as the last bastion of democracy in the city.

Unlike the area’s three other water retailers, the Newhall water district opens its meetings to the public and has a fully elected board instead of one composed of some elected and some appointed members.

“We’re the Alamo, is what it amounts to,� said Rapoport. “They don’t want competition. We’re trying to keep the market open. . . . They can’t afford to have maverick organizations like us that are pro-competition. They want a monopoly.�

Newhall Land & Farming Co. spokeswoman Marlee Lauffer dismisses the election’s charges and countercharges.

“We are the big guys in town and people are taking potshots,� she said. “The company has taken no official stance in the race, and we have not given any money to anyone in the race.�

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Indeed, the campaign contribution reports indicate no gifts from Newhall Land & Farming, although most of the individual contributions reported were under $100, so their donors were allowed to remain anonymous.

All three challengers also denied any connection to Newhall Land & Farming, or any developer, for that matter. Dore is a controller for a local manufacturing company. Thomas is a retired teacher and volunteer. And Campbell is an engineer for the Metropolitan Water District in Los Angeles.

But Dore also said she could understand why developers would be less than happy with the incumbents, who she said are widely perceived as irresponsible.

“I don’t think you’re going to find a lot of tears shed by them� if the incumbents lose, she said. “Let’s put it this way: I don’t think Newhall Land is seeking their reelection.�

The challengers took up the gauntlet in earnest soon after the race began, when they were sued by the incumbents for allegedly smearing their opponents by assailing the quality of Newhall water. A county judge found the case without merit and refused to hear it.

“They sued us immediately. That was the first tool they reached for,� Thomas said. “When I got sued, served in my own home by a woman I thought was a friend, I went full out.�

The challengers have blamed their choice not to comply with Proposition 208 limits on a typographical error in the district’s literature. But in interviews, all expressed the need for name recognition and the overwhelming support they have received from friends.

“It’s traditional for challengers to spend more than incumbents,� Campbell said. “I feel like I’m at a big disadvantage, so I had to overcome that.�

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The challengers have consistently depicted themselves as most concerned about the quality of water and the rates paid by customers. They say the district has been mismanaged financially and board members have grown complacent.

The board members used not their own money but district funding to pay for their dismissed lawsuit, challengers note.

Meanwhile, they continue, the district is operating $1.2 million in the red--although incumbents claim that the debt was accrued after the 1994 Northridge earthquake damaged infrastructure and prompted them to take out repair loans.

The district’s water quality also has come under fire, with challengers producing voluminous data suggesting it is substandard.

Incumbents maintain that the district’s water quality complies with state standards.

“Why did they run?� Dore asked. “It wasn’t to serve the customers. It was to give themselves a platform to speak on a whole lot of things. . . . They’re getting people in a frenzy, thinking they’re going to turn on the tap and nothing will come out, that all the water’s been stolen by Newhall Land.�

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Candidate profiles: Newhall County Water District Board of Directors candidates are shown with their occupations and contributions received through Oct. 18

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Background:

* The Newhall County Water District includes all of Newhall and parts of Castaic and Pinetree, and has an estimated population of 24, 598.

* The Newhall water district is the oldest of the area’s four retail water companies. It serves about 6,500 customers, or roughly 10% of the Santa Clarita Valley.