Res 17-043RESOLUTION NO. 17-043
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
POWAY, CALIFORNIA, SUPPORTING THE SAN DIEGO
COUNTY WATER AUTHORITY'S LONG-TERM WATER
SUPPLY PLAN AND LITIGATION AGAINST THE
METROPOLITAN WATER DISTRICT OF SOUTHERN
CALIFORNIA
WHEREAS, San Diego County's $222 billion economy and 3.3 million people
depend on the San Diego County Water Authority ("Water Authority") and its member
agencies to provide a reliable water supply at a reasonable cost;
WHEREAS, the Water Authority is a member agency of the Los Angeles -based
Metropolitan Water District of Southern California ("MWD"), which has historically supplied
the Water Authority with water imported from the Colorado River and through the State
Water Project;
WHEREAS, following a severe drought in which San Diego County experienced
31 % cutbacks in 1991, and was threatened with 50% water supply cutbacks by MWD, a
Declaration of Water Independence and Reliability was declared on July 3, 1996, by San
Diego civic and business leaders;
WHEREAS, over the past 20 years, the Water Authority and its member agencies
have successfully transformed the San Diego region from being 95% dependent on MWD
in 1990, to approximately 20% by 2020;
WHEREAS, MWD has fought against the actions the Water Authority has taken to
reduce its MWD water purchases including, among other things, establishing rates and
charges intended to penalize San Diego and its diversification efforts;
WHEREAS, these overcharges could cumulatively total more than $7 billion by
2040;
WHEREAS, the Water Authority has filed four separate lawsuits against MWD,
challenging these rates;
WHEREAS, a San Francisco Superior Courtjudge has already ruled in the first two
cases that MWD's rates are illegal, awarded the Water Authority more than $243 million in
damages, costs, pre -judgment interest and attorneys' fees, and directed MWD by writ of
mandate to set lawful rates;
WHEREAS, MWD has appealed the Court's ruling, denies that it is required to limit
its rates to no more than the cost of the services it provides, and has not changed its rates
in response to the Court's ruling;
Resolution No. 17-043
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WHEREAS, MWD has engaged and is continuing to engage in a number of highly
questionable financial practices, including overcharging ratepayers $847 million from 2012-
2015 (of which, $189 million was collected from ratepayers in San Diego County, with
$5,074,000 being overcharged to residents and business in Poway); spending more than
$1.2 billion outside of its adopted budgets from 2013-2016; and making plans to spend
billions more without having any plan for how it will allocate these costs;
WHEREAS, MWD's current financial practices present a grave risk to the people
and economy of Southern California; and
WHEREAS, a reliable, cost -certain and diverse water supply is vital to the sustained
prosperity of all San Diego County citizens and business enterprises.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the City Council of the City of Poway,
that the City of Poway supports fully the Water Authority's rate litigation against MWD that
is necessary to recover illegal rates and charges that may be assessed by MWD, now and
in the future: and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the City of Poway, supports fully the programs of
the San Diego County Water Authority and its member agencies, on behalf of San Diego
County, as a free and independent community, to continue to diversify San Diego County's
water supply, free of any program or influence by, or subordination to MWD.
PASSED, ADOPTED AND APPROVED by the City Council of the City of Poway,
California, at a regular meeting this 18th day of July 2017.
Steve Vaus, Mayor
ATTEST:
N chi &jfeld, CMC, City Clerk
Resolution No. 17-043
Page 2
STATE OF CALIFORNIA )
)SS
COUNTY OF SAN DIEGO )
I, Nancy Neufeld, City Clerk of the City of Poway, California, do hereby certify under
penalty of perjury that the foregoing Resolution No. 17-043 was duly adopted by the City
Council at a meeting of said City Council held on the 18th day of July 2017, and that it was
so adopted by the following vote:
AYES: CUNNINGHAM, GROSCH, MULLIN, LEONARD, VAUS
NOES: NONE
ABSENT: NONE
DISQUALIFIED: NONE
;6 ufe d, C IC, City Clerk
City of Poway