I have believed that arguing for the existence of our Water District solely on the basis of managing a rebate program was going to catch someone’s attention and cause them to question the existence of the District rather quickly.  This happened in the draft LAFCo review.  Stan’s initial submission to LAFCo argued for the ongoing existence of the District to solely manage the rebate after disposing of the lands.  Ms. Poyatos appeared to prefer dissolution to supporting that mission.

2)      What I felt might make sense, and that I could be supportive of, was the existence of a moderate rebate complemented by the use of property tax revenues for other purposes that would more broadly benefit the community, per my letter to Ms. Poyatos.  This is an argument that Charlie made in his campaign collateral last fall and appears to be consistent with the most recent response to LAFCo submitted by the Water Board from Stan and David.   

3)      I have issues with the current rebate structure which promotes consumption over conservation.  In the current scenario, a user who uses very little water might get an annual rebate of $150 while a big user might get $800 or even $1000 – that just doesn’t seem right and I believe should be revisited.

With regard to doing something nice to the District lands, I absolutely would love to see that happen.  Even improved maintenance to increase the visual attractiveness of the lands would, I believe, be a big contribution to the neighborhood.  I have never advocated for a “fancy park”.  I love the rural feel in this area and appreciate our open space, but I also believe we might be able to find ways to offer passive park and rec type amenities that would be of benefit to our community and work for those living near the lands.  We need to have an open and constructive dialog about this. 

Lastly, it looks to me as if we have an opening to really explore the type of services we might like to see offered in our community whether they are emergency preparedness, water conservation, land stewardship and maintenance, and/or potential new land uses.  I would hate to see our District dissolve and the property tax revenue revert to the County.  That would be a huge loss in my mind.