Letter to the Editor: Are the West Basin water board members self-promoting on the ratepayers dime

2UrbanGirls has received a Letter to the Editor on local water wholesaler West Basin Municipal Water District.  The letter details a laundry list of community events the Water Board directors are supporting which so far totals over $75,000. 

In comparison, the board authorized $68,000 to support community events.  The water district has also increased the Directors’ travel allowances.  Inglewood area representative Gloria Gray could not be reached for comment related to her travel or on details of Board Agenda Item #5, on the agencies June 13, 2108, Finance Committee and Special Meeting of the Board of Directors consent calendar which seeks to write off $69,000 in uncollectable retrofit loans made payable to the Los Angeles County Department of Parks and Recreation. 

Subject: West Basin Money Wasters
Date: Mon, June 11, 2018 2:41 pm

Is this legal? The West Basin Water District is just able to give away money?  How are there Directors ever going to lose, if they are allowed to just hand out cash?  They are literally just giving out money?  in 2017, they gave away $68,000 but just authorized $75000 next year!  And who do they give the money to?  Here’s a list:

$1500 Carson Jazz Fest
$500  El Segundo Car Show
$500. El Segundo Movie in the Park
$570. Culver City’s Fiesta La Ballona
$500  One for all back to school event
$5,000. Beach Cities Cycling Club, Inc.  
$2,500. South Bay Workforce Investment Board
$1,500 South Bay Workforce Investment Board
$1,000 South Bay Workforce Investment Board
$1,500 South Bay Workforce Investment Board 
$3,000  Taste of Soul 2017
$500. Positive Results Corporation Purple Purse Tea Party
$1,000 City of Inglewood MLK  Celebration
$2,500. South Bay Cities Council of Governments 

How could this possibly be legal?!  I can barely afford my water bill, and they are spending thousands of dollars on personal publicity???  And if that’s not bad enough, Gloria Gray and Carol Kwan are flying all around the country attending conferences.  Kwan just had her travel budget increased to $25,000 this year!l

http://wbmwdca.iqm2.com/Citizens/FileOpen.aspx?Type=14&ID=1744&Inline=True

 If the entire board did that it would be $125,000 in airfares, hotels and food!  This is an embarassment and nobody is doing anything about it.  Please help!

Respectfully submitted,

From a frustrated and overcharged ratepayer

2UrbanGirls asked the “frustrated and overcharged” ratepayer what they would like to see happen?  Here is their response:

Originally all I wanted was an audit of the agency.  But then I found out that they already conducted an audit and did nothing to fix the problems.  In fact, after finding several problems and things they could do better, they have completely gotten worse.  This agency is poorly mismanaged, with bad practices throughout.  This article was in response to their Director going to prison for theft from the District and the audit.  

You would think they would stop this, but no.  They now give away $75,000 each year.  When you consider that they have a property assessment that charges Inglewood home owners $26 each year, this “sponsorship” fund is the equivalent of 2,884 Inglewood homes (property/standby assessment).

Now, I just want people to know what’s going on.  In November there will be an election, and all three board members will run unopposed, and they will never be called out for this wasteful spending, and self promoting.  I want a newspaper to write about this so our state legislators know whats going on, and can possible step in to fix the problem. 

Anything you can do to help shine a light on this would be of help.  We need to do something…