Water district served with city lawsuit
A lawsuit filed by the city of Tehachapi against the Tehachapi-Cummings County Water District on Dec. 11 was served on Thursday, Jan. 11.
The city’s petition for a writ of mandate in Kern County Superior Court asks the court to command the water district to produce public records previously requested by the city.
Court records still showed the lawsuit as unserved as of Friday. However, water district General Manager Tom Neisler confirmed Friday morning that the district was served with the petition.
On Thursday afternoon, city spokesperson Key Budge said service was delayed because the general manager was on vacation.
“Mr. Neisler was not served in December due to … being on vacation. He was served this morning via substituted service. TCCWD received the service,” Budge said.
The city’s filing references a public records act request it made of the district on Oct. 9.
According to the complaint, the district has not provided the requested documents, and the city believes its response was insufficient and not in compliance with state law.
The city asked the court to require the water district to produce the requested records. No hearing date had been set as of Friday.
“The city’s (public records act request) was extremely broad and vague,” Neisler said Friday morning. “It includes requests for documents dating to the 1960s. TCCWD requested clarification on several items contained in their request. Rather than providing clarification, the city chose to prematurely file a lawsuit while our production was in process.”
In an earlier statement, City Manager Greg Garrett said the district and its legal counsel “refused to provide a date when any documents would be produced while only providing vague answers to the request, written delay tactics outside of Public Records Act regulations and a refusal to assist in producing or locating the documents.”
Neisler said Friday that the water district “has provided voluminous records pertaining to their request. We continue to search for relevant information. Given the overbroad scope of the request, this search requires review of very old records stored in multiple locations.”
The city requested an extensive list of documents from 2013 forward, including invoices, contracts and communication relating to the purchase of State Water Project water from the Kern County Water Agency.
It also asked for documents detailing the volume of water KCWA made available to the district and its disposition for each year from 2013 forward, including who was provided with that water.
Also requested were documents relating to the volume of M&I (municipal and industrial) water delivered to TCCWD customers over the same time frame and the volume of agricultural water delivered to customers, along with all requests for water and communications regarding those requests and deliveries.
The city also asked for copies of communication between KCWA and communication regarding requests by the city and Golden Hills Community Services District for SWP water. Other document requests were related to the drafting and subsequent enactment of the district’s water priority ordinance.
In addition to matters related to the city’s approval of the proposed Sage Ranch residential subdivision in September 2021, the city and the water district have been at odds for some time.
Following that approval, the water district sued the city, challenging the adequacy of the environmental review and water supply analysis for the project.
Along with Golden Hills Community Services District, the city has called upon the water district to make changes in how it prioritizes imported water in years that the State Water Project provides an allocation less than needed to meet all requests.
The Kern County grand jury highlighted the conflicts between the two local agencies in a June 2023 report.
Ongoing dissension between the district and the city has also stalled progress on an update of the Regional Urban Water Management Plan. The 2015 Greater Tehachapi Area RUWMP was published in June 2016 as a cooperative project of the water district, city of Tehachapi and three area CSDs — Bear Valley, Golden Hills and Stallion Springs.
The state requires that the plan be updated every five years and it is overdue.