What began as a brash legal complaint that millions of ratepayers faced historic damage ended with a fizzle this week as the San Diego County Water Authority voted in closed session to settle a lawsuit filed earlier this year.
The water authority board approved an agreement to end its litigation challenging the plan by the Fallbrook Public Utilities District and Rainbow Municipal Water District to leave the broader agency and join the Eastern Municipal Water District of Riverside County.
“The CWA board today directed the general counsel and the general manager to finalize and execute a settlement agreement with Fallbrook and Rainbow in material conformity to documents reviewed in closed session,” authority lawyer David Edwards said in a statement Friday.
The decision effectively resolves a lawsuit the county water agency filed earlier this year against the San Diego County Local Agency Formation Commission.
The jurisdiction known as LAFCO voted this summer to allow the Rainbow and Fallbrook districts to move forward with separating from the county authority.
The two rural water districts issued a joint statement in response to the authority board vote.
“This has been a very lengthy process, but the time has come for everyone to move forward,” the districts said. “The people of Fallbrook and Rainbow have spoken, and we will carry out their will.”
The statement also said the departing districts appreciate the water authority’s leadership and recognize the need for all officials to work together to complete the separation in a collaborative way.
When the lawsuit was filed this past summer, county water officials said the detachment could not be permitted to stand, because doing so would shift some $140 million in costs to other members of the regional agency.
“This is a fundamental and unprecedented action by LAFCO, second-guessing the water authority board of directors’ authority to make regional water-supply decisions in place for decades,” the legal complaint said.
But the divorce proposal was allowed to go forward, and earlier this month voters within the two rural North County districts overwhelmingly approved ballot measures calling to secede from the county water agency.
The county water authority also sought state legislation to stop Rainbow and Fallbrook ratepayers from leaving the regional body.
The legislation passed, but with an effective date too late to preempt the Nov. 7 special elections.
Going forward, any member agencies that want to separate from a county water authority will need the approval of voters within the entire regional district, rather than only those who live within the boundaries of seceding districts.
