Area’s Water Customers Facing Rate Jumps : Utilities: One day after the Metropolitan district raised its fees, the Calleguas board tonight will consider ways of raising money.

Water customers from Simi Valley to Oxnard are facing a potential double hit on water rates and other fees in the coming months.

On Tuesday, the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California voted to raise its water rates by 19% beginning July 1, with the increase passed through to its Ventura County customers. The rate hike will cost a typical five-member family an extra $5.25 a month.

Tonight, the board of the Calleguas Municipal Water District, which is facing a financial crunch of its own, will consider an additional increase in its water rates or adding a new fee that would appear on property tax bills across much of Ventura County.

Calleguas is the county’s largest water wholesaler. It buys water from the Metropolitan Water District and resells it to 18 public and private water companies that serve nearly a half-million customers in Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks, Moorpark, Camarillo and Oxnard. All rate increases levied either by Metropolitan or Calleguas are passed on to customers by local water companies in those areas.

For Calleguas, the financial problems pose a particularly sensitive problem.

Two years ago, the Calleguas board approved a controversial 28% increase in water rates but vowed not to raise them again until the turn of the century.

But Calleguas hadn’t planned on the state Legislature taking away one of the district’s main sources of income.

Now, anticipating the loss of up to $3.5 million in property tax revenues for the 1993-94 fiscal year, the board has been forced to reconsider its vow--or to find some other way of raising money.

“The easiest option is to raise water rates. I also think it is the most insensitive option because it ultimately costs the consumer a lot more money,” Calleguas General Manager Donald Kendall said.

Kendall said a majority of the Calleguas board favors another alternative: the imposition of a $10 parcel charge on Ventura County property that is within the Calleguas district.

The board also will consider doubling fees for new construction it tied into the Calleguas system. Those fees have not been increased since July, 1981.

To raise $2.5 million, Kendall said, the Calleguas agency would have to charge $28 more for every acre-foot of water. An acre-foot is about 326,000 gallons, which is what a family of five uses in one year.

That compares to the $63 per acre-foot increase imposed Tuesday by Metropolitan.

Metropolitan officials said their rate hike--the first in more than seven years--was needed to offset increased operating, bond-retirement, debt-reduction and capital-improvement costs, including the construction of the vast new Domenigoni Valley Reservoir near Hemet.

The increase approved by Metropolitan’s board of directors on Tuesday will raise the price of water to its 27 member agencies in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego and Ventura counties.

The other Calleguas option to raise money--a $10 parcel charge--would raise about $2.8 million annually, said Mary Jo Fischer, the Calleguas controller.

By doubling development fees, the district could raise an additional $1 million to $2.4 million, Fischer said.

Developers now pay $940 for a new single-family house and $595 for each unit of a townhouse, apartment dwelling, condominium or other multiple unit, Fischer said.

Kendall said the revenue increases still would allow Calleguas to proceed with an ambitious building project over the next decade, though the timing of some projects could be stretched out over current projections.

In its projections, the district anticipates spending $165 million through the year 2000 on the projects. Those include connecting to a second feeder line from Metropolitan to provide a backup water supply system, and constructing facilities to use waste water for landscaping.

Kendall said the projects are essential because they will “drought-proof” the district and make it less dependent on Metropolitan.

Board President Patrick Miller said he favors a parcel charge because it resembles a property tax, which was the income source diverted by the Legislature.

But board member Don Hauser argues that additional revenues should come from water rate increases.

“We’re in the business of selling water. We’re not in the business of taxing property,” Hauser said. “Property assessment is a kind of taxation.”

Advocates of a parcel charge said it could insulate local water companies from taking the blame for rate increases over which they have no control.

Richard Hajas, manager of the Camrosa Water District in Camarillo, said his customers typically have no idea that Camrosa’s rates are largely controlled by its water suppliers.

“They (customers) pay their bills to Camrosa. A lot of them don’t know who Metropolitan is. Some of them know who Calleguas is,” Hajas said. “They don’t bother to go beyond us when they’re outraged that their water rates go up.”

But Calleguas even faces competition with Metropolitan over the imposition of a parcel charge.

Metropolitan also is proposing an increase in the $5 parcel charge it now levies. Within the Calleguas district, the new charge would be $9.58 a year, a Metropolitan spokesman said.

The Calleguas district’s financial crunch started last year when the Legislature and Gov. Pete Wilson diverted $375 million in property taxes from special districts, including $1.3 million from Calleguas.

Kendall said he expects lawmakers to divert the district’s entire $3.5 million in property tax revenues from next year’s budget. The state transferred the money to schools and community colleges.

The district has filed a lawsuit with the California Supreme Court challenging the tax shift.

“If we win, the problem goes away,” Kendall said.