Imagine an arranged marriage where one eager partner offers flowers while the other smiles stiffly and backs away.
A match made in heaven!
When it comes to merging the (redundant overlapping patchwork quilt) of water districts in these parts — which could save ratepayers millions but slice jobs and precious political posts — that’s how it always goes. Yet despite their very different and passionate feelings about a potential union, Orange County’s two water overlords — the ardent Orange County Water District, which manages the enormous groundwater basin, and the reluctant Municipal Water District of Orange County, which imports water from afar — have ad hoc committees meeting regularly, as per the grand jury’s request, which might be akin to dowry negotiations.
And OCWD has officially asked the agency that oversees governmental consolidations to take a look.
“Orange County Water District has filed an application with LAFCO to prepare a Municipal Service Review that will in part (include) an analysis involving the feasibility of potential consolidation of OCWD and the Municipal Water District of Orange County,” said Carolyn Emery, executive officer of the Orange County Local Agency Formation Commission.
See, the Orange County grand jury prodded these two to finally hook up and become one — several times. They already share an office building. And an address. And an overarching mission. A county of 3 million people, plagued by drought, needs to finally speak with — and this is the latest grand jury’s flourish — “One Voice” on this critical resource.
It’s hard to convince agencies to favor their own demise. As a droll government-merger exec recently observed, “It’s something called ‘parochialism.’ Sometimes they pay their board of directors’ members a stipend. Sometimes the directors don’t want to give up that stipend, or the status that goes with it. Sometimes they’re opposed even if it would be logical….
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