Triunfo Sanitation District narrowly voted to become an allelected, at-large body, ending more than a year of debate about the makeup of the local water agency and how it should represent its customers.

The April 27 vote was 3-2, with Linda Parks, Janna Orkney and Mike Paule voting for the move, and Dennis Gillette and Tom Glancy against it.

The Triunfo district—which provides water and sewer services to Oak Park, Thousand Oaks, Bell Canyon and Lake Sherwood— had a unique makeup in which only two of the board's five members were elected by voters.

The other three members were appointed by various governing agencies and weren't required to live within the water district's boundaries.

The appointees were Parks, Gillette and Glancy. Orkney and Paule were elected.

All five representatives will now be determined by a vote of the people. The change will start taking effect when voters go to the polls in the November 2010 election.

Parks had championed the move to make Triunfo a representative board but was unable to gain majority support. Gillette, Glancy and several former board members, including Ron Stark, opposed the idea. But the tide shifted when Parks won the backing of Orkney, who was elected in November 2006, and the support of Paule, who was elected last year.

"Linda Parks and I worked for years to have Triunfo make this change, but it took Mike Paule's third crucial vote to make an allelected board a reality," Orkney said. "It also took a lot of support from the community to make this step toward democracy happen."

Not all five seats will be up for election in 2010. Paule retains his seat until 2012. Of the remaining four seats, at least two will be part of the 2010 elections; the other two may be elected the following year, Paule said. Details of the changeover are still being worked out.

"We need to stagger the seats. We can't have them all ending at the same time," Paule said. "We want to do an outreach to make sure people who live in this district are aware of what we do and hopefully get them interested in this process."

Rates up and down

The Triunfo board also voted last week to decrease sewer rates 5 percent, from $44 to $41.80 per month due to healthy reserves and the payoff within a year of an old bond, Paule said.

"This is good news because it seems like everything always goes up, not down," Paule said. "Everything helps."

While sewer rates dropped, the cost of drinking water will see a steep rise. The board intends to increase business and residential water bills by 42 percent, but before a decision is made the ratepayers will be notified and a public hearing scheduled. The vote for higher rates was 31, with Paule dissenting.

"I felt that a 38 percent increase would have been sufficient," Paule said. "It's a tough time in the economy for everybody. We should keep rates down to whatever is absolutely necessary."

A rate study by the board determined that an increase was needed in order for Triunfo to keep pace with wholesale water costs. Supply agencies raised their rates 17 percent this year and will increase prices by as much as 20 percent next year. The Triunfo board recommended a 42 percent increase to protect reserves and to cover any higher-than-expected wholesale prices.

"The board is just trying to cover expenses so Oak Park Water Service stays financially healthy," Orkney said. "It is a hard thing to raise rates this much and I am not happy about it. . . . I have to pay a water bill, too."

Mandatory conservation

The water board also passed a 15 percent mandatory water use reduction in the hopes of matching the cutbacks imposed by Calleguas and Metropolitan Water districts, Triunfo's two suppliers. Customers will be asked to not hose down driveways, to limit landscape watering between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m., to avoid irrigating when it rains, to limit water use when washing vehicles and to fix faucet and hose leaks quickly.

"If we are unable to reach that 15 percent through all these measures then I think we'll be looking at something more substantial," Orkney said.

Triunfo is offering a free, handson water irrigation workshop from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., Sat., June 27 at the Oak Park Community Center. The session will teach about proper sprinkler system design and "smart" irrigation system controllers. Part of the class will be taught outside with a demonstration of the components.

For more information, call (805) 658-4642.