Water woes

Two local water officials have incurred more than $170,000 in district expenses over two years for meetings and travel expenses, records show.

Upper San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District board President Leon Garcia was paid $82,769 from July 2005 to July 2007 in meetings and travel. Expenses include a six-day trip to Hawaii and $1,155 for a stay at the Disneyland Hotel, 26 miles from Garcia's home.

 

Willard Murray, director at the Water Replenishment District of Southern California was paid close to $90,000 in two years for attending meetings and for travel expenses that included a trip to Mexico City.

Both board members' expenses are within their districts' policies.

Garcia's and Murray's expenses stand out in a records review of 12 local water districts and 60 board members, but their expenses represent only a portion of the nearly $1.6million paid to directors for board meetings and travel among the 12 districts, which provide water throughout the San Gabriel Valley and Los Angeles County.

I've already received a couple of calls this morning, asking whether I looked into other water districts. The truth is that when I started this story nearly three months ago, I thought that I was getting most if not all of the water districts, suppliers, and retailers in the San Gabriel Valley. But I soon realized there are many more than the 12 district that I came up with.

Hopefully, the story will bring on many more follow up stories. I welcome your comments and any direction you think that stories in the future could take.

FOLLOW-UP: And the previous post about the "Elected official does not want to be bothered" was about Leon Garcia. But if you notice, Garcia already said that was him in the comments section of that post.