HELIX WATER BOARD VOTES DOWN PROPOSED CIVIL PENALTIES FOR HIGH WATER USE

East County Magazine

July 16, 2015 (La Mesa) – Helix Water District’s Board on Wednesday voted down a staff/legal recommendation for a tough new emergency drought action plan resolution that would have imposed a “civil volumetric penalty” for every unit of water over 30 used by residential customers.

Director DeAna Verbeke first proposed tabling the item to have staff/legal reword it, but Director Joel Scalzitti motioned to instead reject the civil penalties proposal outright. His motion was seconded by Director Kathleen Coates-Hedberg and the board voted unanimously to reject the civil penalties for water users.

Scalzitti’s motioned also called for bringing back an earlier resolution to discuss a penalty of 10% for Tier 3 customers who use excessive water.