[Water_news] 5. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS: AGENCIES, PROGRAMS, PEOPLE - 6/13/08

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

June 13, 2008

 

5. Agencies, Programs, People –

 

 

 

Despite budget shortfall, state government is still hiring

Sacramento Bee

 

L.A. floats water conservation plan

The Inyo Register

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Despite budget shortfall, state government is still hiring

Sacramento Bee – 6/13/08

By John Hill, staff writer

 

Even a sour economy and a budget shortfall can't put a serious crimp on California state government hiring, according to a Sacramento Bee analysis of payroll databases.

 

The reasons are as varied as the government's many missions.

 

The Department of Water Resources is hiring for bond programs approved by voters two years ago.

 

Health Care Services is employing information technology workers instead of letting contracts to private companies.

 

The state's pension system, meanwhile, hired customer service workers to handle the growing workload from other state workers ready to retire.

 

The end result: the number of permanent, full-time state workers grew from 195,000 in January 2007 to 206,000 last month, according to an analysis of payroll databases provided by the state controller's office. The numbers do not include higher education.

 

It's good news for Sacramento's economy, dependent as it is on public sector jobs. About 37 percent of state workers are based in Sacramento County.

 

And even though the state is mired in another fiscal mess, officials say they don't have to freeze hiring to comply with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's order to save $100 million by the June 30 end of the fiscal year. They say they're cutting costs in other ways, such as putting the brakes on travel and nonessential contracts.

But not everyone applauds the seemingly inexorable growth of the state payroll.

 

"At a time when the state is considering cutting back on existing programs, it would be wise to hold off on making any more long-term commitments on salaries, fringe benefits and pensions," said David Kline, spokesman for the California Taxpayers' Association. "Companies are learning to do with fewer people and resources. That is the model government should also follow."

 

California's robust hiring fits into the national picture. While the number of people employed in the private sector increased 0.4 percent since the beginning of 2007, government jobs went up 1.8 percent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

 

The number of permanent, full-time state workers grew by 5.7 percent during that time, The Bee's analysis shows.

 

The hiring continued even as the state experienced a deepening budget crisis. Schwarzenegger and state legislators are trying to close a $15.2 billion gap in the $101.8 billion general fund.

 

The overall hiring rate masks variability between departments. Some have curtailed hiring, while others brought on workers at a greater clip than the state average.

Many of the expanding operations explain that their budgets come from sources other than the state's main pot of tax money. New hires that don't tap into the general fund do not contribute to the budget crisis, the reasoning goes.

 

The Department of Water Resources, for instance, has more than doubled its rate of hiring so far this year, compared with 2007. Its overall payroll has expanded from 2,368 permanent full-time positions to 2,642.

 

In 2006, voters approved two bonds that provide $5 billion for water management and levee protection.

 

"That is where the impetus for a lot of these hires has come from," spokesman Ted Thomas said. Many are engineers, who will plan and design the new projects. But general office workers from typists to analysts also must be brought on board, because "you can't increase a program and not increase the support," Thomas said.

The department considers itself a stand-alone enterprise, selling water to users. And the demand for water isn't going anywhere but up.

 

Other departments explain that they are supported by fees that pay for a certain government function. So the Department of Public Health continues to hire inspectors of nursing homes and hospitals with the fees it collects from those institutions. And the Department of Consumer Affairs brings on staff to keep tabs on automotive repair shops.

 

"They are our ground troops, so to speak," said Luis Farias, Consumer Affairs spokesman. "They are the ones helping us carry out our mission.”

The California Public Employees' Retirement System points out that much of its budget comes from return on investments, not general tax revenues. CalPERS has been beefing up its customer service staff, along with workers to deal with a new program for local governments to invest now to offset future health care costs, spokeswoman Pat Macht said.

 

The California National Guard says its 63 hires this year, like the rest of its budget, is paid for largely by the federal government, not the beleaguered state treasury. The National Guard hired for a youth academy, protecting public works and other homeland security missions.

Even those state operations that tap into general tax revenues say spending money on personnel can sometimes save money.

 

The Department of Health Care Services, for instance, figures that every dollar spent on a tax auditor brings in $4 to $5.

 

"If we leave them vacant, it costs the state more money," said Stan Rosenstein, director of Medi-Cal.

 

Kline, the taxpayers association spokesman, cautions that such savings estimates can be overstated if they don't take into account the cost of training or the price of pensions down the road.

 

In other cases, the state is under court orders or federal mandates to provide a certain level of service and risks fines if it fails to do so. One example is the Department of Mental Health, which under a federal agreement must meet standards for 24-hour care at its hospitals.

 

That department also had to hire 120 people to staff the newly opened Coalinga State Hospital for violent sexual predators.

Despite the continued hiring, the state says it is making progress in trimming costs.

 

In February, Schwarzenegger called for $100 million in savings in the fiscal year that ends June 30. As of the end of April, the state had cut about $37 million in its day-to-day costs.

 

Departments cut everything from copier paper to conference travel. But only $5.3 million – roughly 14 percent of the total savings – came from leaving positions open or other payroll savings.#

http://www.sacbee.com/111/story/1010438.html

 

L.A. floats water conservation plan

The Inyo Register – 6/10/08

By Ken Koerner, staff writer

 

The City of Los Angeles is heading toward a “greener” approach to water usage, which may help keep the Eastern Sierra a bit greener in the future, too.
Facing continual population increases and the very real possibility that climate change, coupled with a growing thirst, could create significantly less access to traditional water supplies, City of Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has announced a “20-year water strategy for L.A.”

“L.A.’s future depends on our willingness to adopt an ethic of sustainability,” Villaraigosa said recently. “If we don’t commit ourselves to conserving and recycling water, we will tap ourselves out.”

Los Angeles depends on four sources for its water needs. The Los Angeles Aqueduct has been among that list of four since its opening nearly a century ago. In addition, L.A. also imports water from the Sacramento Delta water delivery system and the Colorado River. Both of those sources are managed under the aegis of the Metropolitan Water District. The remaining water is collected from the San Fernando Groundwater Basin aquifer that exists beneath a portion of L.A. and contributes 11 percent of the city’s total water supply.

 

While there may be good reason to take a measure of comfort in this statement from the highly-regarded top executive at LADWP, the Inyo County Water Department, Board of Supervisors and judicial rulings – past and future – will no doubt remain this area’s primary lines of defense to protect water exports in an era of increasing demand and decreasing supplies.

On the other side of the Sierra,  another current circumstance that has played a role in motivating L.A. to seek a “greener” approach to water management is resulting from new restrictions on exports from Sacramento Delta water.

“The Sacramento Delta water supply for L.A. is under new pressures,” Nahai said. “Due to the delta facing environmental impacts on fish populations, a court has recently said L.A. will have to curtail delta water exports by 30 percent.”

Down south, water routed to L.A. from the Colorado River has also grown more constrictive over past years.

“The Colorado River water that has traditionally been supplied to the L.A. area via the Metropolitan Water District is certainly under pressure, too,” said Nahai. “The growing needs of its multiple users is not a trend that will be reversed in future years.”

That fourth source of water for L.A.’s millions of inhabitants comes from a local aquifer, one which Nahai describes as needing to be “recharged and that can only contribute so much to our available water totals.

“With L.A.’s population growing exponentially in the decades ahead, the issue the Mayor (Villaraigosa) and the LADWP must face now, Nahai said, “is how will the city provide for that essential need for increasing water supplies. That is the genesis that resulted in the ‘Securing L.A.’s Water Supply’ plan.

“L.A. is ‘turning inward’ in order to address growing needs,” said Nahai, “which is evident in this new plan’s proposal to meet 100 percent of new water demand by 2030 through employing a six-fold increase in our water recycling and through ramped up enforcement of water restrictions.”

Previous “aggressive conservation efforts,” according to Nahai, have allowed L.A. to experience huge population growth without per capita usage keeping pace. Nahai explained that the new water plan would do even more.

“A few hours ago (afternoon of June 4), the LADWP Water Commissioners adopted a measure to put more effective conservation requirements into place,” said Nahai. “This measure will also come with some escalating fines being possible if end-users fail to comply.”

The L.A. City Council must also now approve this measure, and Villaraigosa must add his approval signature, for the requirements to be formally put in place.
These conservation measures, explained Nahai, “mostly target outdoor uses of water, like watering lawns, hosing down driveways and the like, where L.A. families use 30-40 percent of their water.”

Beyond increased compliance efforts by LADWP, there are also financial incentives, in the form of $250 rebates being provided to customers that upgrade to water-efficient washing machines purchased in LA.

Another strategy included in the “Securing L.A.’s Water Supply” plan is targeted at recycling, which Nahai expects will also communicate to Eastern Sierra residents that “inward options” are being vigorously pursued by L.A.’s water managers.
“The adoption of this water plan and the fact that L.A. intends to treat and subsequently be drinking our own wastewater,” Nahai said, “should reinforce the serious resolve we now have in place, away from increasing water exports from other areas as a key method for meeting our growing demand.”
Using a recycling approach identified as an expansion of the “purple pipes” system, L.A. will be recycling wastewater that previously would have been lost to reuse.
“Using what’s known as ‘tertiary treatment,’ L.A. will employ state-of-the-art cleansing methodologies, such as reverse osmosis, UV radiation and ground-spreading (allowing treated water to percolate back through nature’s cleansing process before being pumped back into the system),” said Nahai, “to enable us to capture what was once wastewater and bring it back into the system as drinking water that is every bit as pure as L.A.’s potable water supply has always been. This will, however, certainly require an educational outreach to the L.A. community to ensure their awareness of the fact that not a drop of water that comes from their home faucet in the future is anything less than pure and healthy.”
Though hardly the recipient of substantial rainfall totals in any given year, L.A.’s new water plan also recognizes the significance of tapping whatever rain water comes its way in order to meet the projected 15 percent increase in municipal water demand by the year 2030.
“There is very little rainfall that is currently captured (in L.A.),” Nahai said, “but we are going to see that change for the better thanks to the directives of the new water plan – taking new approaches to building and development designs, as well as creating the infrastructure to capture as much rainwater as possible, which could then be directed into ground-spreading areas for subsequent use.”
Expanded groundwater storage opportunities are an additional area to be examined along the L.A. Aqueduct and the Central Coast Basin. Groundwater storage can be a cost-effective, environmentally friendly option, according to L.A.’s new water plan, to supply water for use during dry conditions and emergencies.
In a world increasingly attentive to climate-change considerations, the new L.A. water plan was also drafted with an eye to how water issues could be impacted from that potential shift.

Should weather patterns evolve in the direction of less snowfall in mountainous areas and, instead, more rainfall resulting from storms, the resulting diminishment of snowpack would alter the dynamic of watershed data across the entire range of the Sierra. This, too, Nahai explained, factors into L.A.’s increased attention to strict water conservation and recycling.

All of the factors impacting water resources are credited with motivating Villaraigosa, Nahai and other L.A. officials to these forward-looking ideas.
“From L.A.’s point of view, we’ve seen increasing pressure on water availability in all areas. We have to take steps to ensure our community’s viability for a long, long time,” said Nahai. “We’re beginning to see the resources and the resolve coming into a more proactive structure to address these great needs.”
In keeping with L.A.’s enhanced assessment of dwindling water resources and increasing needs, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on June 4 proclaimed a statewide drought exists, warning that California’s water supply is falling dangerously low because of below-average rainfall and court-ordered water restrictions aimed at protecting fish.

“We must recognize the severity of this crisis we face,” Schwarzenegger said during his news conference in Sacramento, “Our drought is an urgent reminder of the immediate need to upgrade California’s water infrastructure. I hope the legislators get the point … let’s fix all of these things that need to be fixed rather than waiting and waiting and waiting.”#

http://www.inyoregister.com/content/view/103165/1/

 

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