Rainbow, FPUD, Pendleton weighted CWA votes fall slightly

The weighted votes at San Diego County Water Authority board meetings by the Rainbow Municipal Water District, the Fallbrook Public Utility District, and Camp Pendleton all fell by one-hundredth of one percent.

Rainbow, which had 4.21 percent of the weighted vote in 2006, will have 4.20 percent of the weighted vote in 2007. FPUD’s weighted vote, which was 2.52 percent in 2006, will drop to 2.51 percent for 2007. Camp Pendleton’s weighted vote will decrease from 0.17 percent to 0.16 percent.

The vote entitlement resolution was adopted November 30 by the County Water Authority board. Prior to 1997 the member agency vote entitlement was based on assessed valuation of all property within the service area, but a change that year to the County Water Authority Act provided for a vote allocation based on each member agency’s total financial contribution. The total financial contribution includes all taxes, fees, assessments, and charges paid to the CWA and to the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California for property within a member agency’s boundary. The amounts include standby charges, capacity charges, infrastructure access charges, the readiness to serve charge, connection and maintenance fees, annexation fees, and charges for water delivered and sold to member agencies by the CWA. The cost of water treatment is not included in the total financial contribution.

Each year the CWA board re-establishes the vote entitlement based on data from the recently completed fiscal year. For Fiscal Year 2005-06 Rainbow had total contributions of $303,859,916, FPUD’s total contribution was $182,051,874, and Camp Pendleton’s total contribution was $11,532,494.