Two Newhall County Water District board members are now facing a recall effort, apparently a retaliatory move due to the district’s recent merger discussion with the Castaic Lake Water Agency.
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NCWD board members Maria Gutzeit and Dan Mortensen were listed on the top of the recall petition that was served to them at Thursday’s board meeting.
Gutzeit said 14 of 15 board members are in sync in favor of merging the Newhall County Water District with the Castaic Lake Water Agency.
In response to the recall petition that Ed and Joan Dunn handed to Gutzeit at Thursday’s meeting, she said:
“We were handed a petition with 10 signatures on it, which is full of lies, let’s be clear — I think maybe (Dan and I) were easy targets because (as representatives of the at-large district) it was easier to go after us, and no good deed goes unpunished.”
A call to the Dunn residence was not immediately returned Friday morning. Lynn Plambeck, who has been an outspoken opponent of the merger, was not able to be immediately reached by phone Friday.
Ten residents affixed their names and addresses to the petition.
The initial step for proponents interested in recalling an elected officer is the drafting of a Notice of Intention (E.C.§11020). The petition must circulate for 120 days before it’s filed with the Los Angeles County Registrar-Recorder’s Office, per county election officials.
“I think this issue and so many issues in politics lately, have become not about the facts,” Gutzeit said. “The way I look at it, we have tremendous gains (to be made), we increase transparency by adding a ratepayer advocate, we increase access with voter compliance by adding voter districts, we’ll save Newhall County Water District and its users millions of dollars.”
Opponents of the merger accuse the two board members of trying to circumvent the petitioners’ right to vote on the merger by conducting “meetings in secret.”
“Our area has the best water providers in the entire state,” Gutzeit said. “We’ve never had shortages and it’s unfortunate that one director and a handful of people don’t care about that, and that a majority of people are in favor of this.”
Retaliatory? What other option does anyone have in the Newhall District? The Board members tokk it upon themselves to do this, with no one asking or complaining, then proceeded behind closed doors and now want to finish the process without even letting the people vote. This would seem to be the only way to get a vote on this issue.
Glad I am in Valencia Water or am I? With paying 800,000 a year from our water rates in dividends to Castaic Lake Water Agency, maybe not. How is this legal? What is going on with water in our valley. Big special interest developers trying to get a hold of it?