The SCV Water Board of Directors approved a proposal Tuesday that would move forward with plans to help reduce the size of the board.

During the meeting, board members agreed to pursue legislation to help further reduce the size of the board after already reducing down to 13 members from the original size of 15.

“The board approved the proposal to move forward with legislation to reduce to three directors in each group based on a group decision,” said Bill Cooper, president of the SCV Water Board of Directors.

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The proposal would help give the board flexibility to reduce its size by allowing the Board of Directors to dissolve seats from directors who resign, retire or move away, according to Cooper.

“If that position becomes vacant, the board can decide to let that seat dissolve,” Cooper said.

SCV Water’s Board of Directors was originally comprised of the five former directors of the Newhall County Water District, as well as the nine former directors from the Castaic Lake Water Agency, according to SB 634, the bill that created SCV Water.

Additionally, there is one more member on the board known as the “purveyor,” who represents District 36 in Val Verde for Los Angeles County Waterworks.

This district is a retail water supplier that has facilities connected to SCV Water’s transmission system and is under contract with SCV Water, according to the text of the legislation. This seat is currently held by former Assemblyman Dante Acosta.

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SB 634 originally required the Board of Directors to reduce its size from 15 down to nine by the year 2024. Cooper said that they were already in the process of doing this and were looking to reach this requirement well before the deadline.

“It’s to help save the public money,” Cooper said. “When we merged the water districts, our goal was to provide efficiency of service. It goes back to helping maintain rates and not raising them.”

The reduction requirements outlined in SB 634, as well as any proposals from SCV Water, would not apply to Acosta’s seat, as he represents Los Angeles County Waterworks and is not part of the three voting districts for SCV Water.

“The directors will represent three electoral divisions, developed with input from a professional demographer,” said Kathie Martin, public information officer for SCV Water. “The electoral divisions do not align with the former service divisions of Newhall, Santa Clarita and Valencia.”

Photo Courtesy of SCV Water.

Cooper said that their proposal was presented to State Senator Scott Wilk, R-Santa Clarita, who authored SB 634.

“Obviously the goal is to get down to nine board members, which is a manageable number,” Wilk said. “All this would do is give them greater flexibility. It saves taxpayer money.”

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