8,000 Costa Mesa Sanitary District ratepayers not in Mesa Water will get to vote on merger measure
Costa Mesa Sanitary District ratepayers who are not customers of the Mesa Water District will be able to vote in November on an advisory ballot measure posed by Mesa Water on the idea of merging the two agencies.
The Orange County Board of Supervisors made that decision by unanimous vote Tuesday.
It means people who are ratepayers in either district can vote on the ballot measure. Those who are ratepayers in Mesa Water already could vote on it.
Mesa Water External Affairs Manager Stacy Taylor said about 8,000 voters are affected by the supervisors’ decision. They are ratepayers in the sanitary district, which provides sewer and curbside trash collection services, but not in Mesa Water.
They live primarily in Costa Mesa’s Eastside in the area around the Santa Ana Country Club, and in some pockets of Newport Beach.
Including those voters, Taylor said Wednesday, will “allow for full consideration of the measure among all stakeholders that would potentially be affected.”
The two agencies have roughly the same boundaries, covering Costa Mesa, parts of Newport Beach and some sections of unincorporated Orange County. Mesa Water has about 110,000 customers, while the sanitary district has an estimated 116,700.
The nonbinding measure will ask voters Nov. 8 to indicate whether they support the idea of the two agencies pursuing a merger.
Mesa Water board members commissioned a preliminary study that said the financial benefits of combining with the sanitary district could be significant — about $15.6 million in one-time savings and an additional $2.7 million annually.
Those savings could result in a $650 rebate for each customer and up to a 28% reduction in wastewater rates, according to the study by consultant Arcadis U.S. Inc.
Officials in the sanitary district, which declined to participate in the study, have said the report’s numbers are inaccurate and misleading.
Sanitary district General Manager Scott Carroll has said his agency could pose a legal challenge to the language of the advisory measure, which cites the potential savings outlined in the study.
“It’s misinformation and it’s deceitful to the public,” Carroll said at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting.
Sanitary district board President Mike Scheafer said at a recent meeting that he thinks the “overwhelming response in the community” is that the advisory measure is a “political stunt.”
Mesa Water’s general manager, Paul Shoenberger, has said his agency believes the study results are “true and valid.”
Twitter: @LukeMMoney
