Residents take aim at water company

Utility owned by homeowners criticized for worsening service and providing less transparency

Homeowners in the unincorporated community of Devore are all co-owners of the company that pipes water to their homes. But many in the community feel like owning a private utility is leaving them without a voice and substandard service.

The more-than-100-year-old Devore Water Co. is run by a board of nine directors, each of whom is elected annually. For the most part, residents say, that’s worked OK. But in the past three years, they say the board has become less transparent and provided worse service, even as bills have risen.

“Zero transparency. They have meetings without the complete board,” said Lori McIntosh, who’s lived about a decade in Devore, which is near the bottom of the Cajon Pass. “They don’t allow shareholders in unless you fill out a form within 24 hours.”

Paying water bills has also gotten harder. According to the company website, the Devore Water Co. is open from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., Monday through Friday. But a sign on the door of its Kenwood Avenue office lists office hours of 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. to 3 p.m., from Monday through Thursday.

“You have to practically beg to get in to pay our bills, if that’s how you want to pay,” McIntosh said.

The quality of the water is also going down, said Julie Costa, a Devore native who moved back six months ago.

“We’ve had a lot of issues with nitrates in our water,” Costa said. “They’ve already gotten a lot of loans from the state of California and ended up not doing the project to take the nitrates out. So we’re in the process of paying back that loan and now they’re taking out another loan for another company to handle the nitrates.”

Board President and company CEO James Giglio said the company is working hard to address its issues, many of which result from long-standing problems the current board is confronting.

“Water served to the Devore customers meets all water quality and public notification standards,” he wrote in an email. “Samples are taken and the results are sent to the State Division of Drinking Water on a weekly basis.”

Both nitrate and chlorine levels are within legal limits, he wrote.

“Unfortunately people can smell chlorine in the water at very low levels,” Giglio wrote. “But simply being able to smell chlorine does not mean it is in violation of water quality standards.”

Frustrated residents have some recourse.

Today. the shareholders — all Devore property owners get one or more shares when they buy their property — will be voting for a new board. There are more than 700 shares in the Devore Water Co., with some people holding more than one share. According to the civic group Devore Rural Protection Association, the community had 843 residents in 2021.

Costa, who is running for the board, has been speaking to shareholders.

“When I talk to them, they say, ‘Oh, I didn’t know there were so many issues with the nitrates, I didn’t know there were so many issues with the board not following the bylaws,’”

she said. “Every bill has gone up. They’re not using any more water, so there’s no reason for the bills to be going up.”

Some residents worry that the company’s billing issues might also lead to shareholders being disenfranchised.

“I haven’t had a bill in a month and a half,” McIntosh said. “And they’re saying that if you’re 45 days behind on your bill, then you can’t vote.”

She’s not alone with having problems with her bill.

Donald Laws, a newcomer in Devore, bought his house from his niece in July.

“It was really strange dealing with the Devore Water Co.,” he said.

His niece, Tiffany Celluzi, recently moved to Texas after living in Devore for eight years. Before the property changed hands, Celluzi said she paid off her final bill of $498.

“I pay my bills in cash, because I bartend,” she said.

Three weeks later, without Laws receiving any notices of late payment, his water was shut off.

“They said, ‘Well, you have a $500 water charge you have to pay for,’ ” Laws said.

It was allegedly his niece’s excess fee, which she had paid in person at the company’s offices.

“I had to pay that $500 bill in order to get the water turned back on,” said Laws, who added that a manager called him to say “the notices

were sitting in the truck of a worker that they had fired.”

But, Celluzi said, her uncle shouldn’t have owed anything.

The water company “(hasn’t) been reading meters,” Celluzi said. “They’ve been guesstimating for about a year now.”

Billing issues result from outdated equipment and a shaky rollout of replacements, according to Giglio.

In 2022, testing of a random sample of company water meters found that many weren’t working well and were “grossly under-reporting water usage,” Giglio wrote. The meters were replaced in 2023, along with a “long overdue” replacement of office computers and software.

“We recognize that for some shareholders, accurate tracking has resulted in higher water bills,” Giglio wrote. “The law requires that water suppliers report accurate water usage data. State law also provides for measures to protect homeowners by offering payment plans for those who have encountered difficulties in paying their bills. Devore Water Company is now doing both.”

Similarly, the board discovered that the company’s new billing system wasn’t set up correctly, which led to delays in billing and customer complaints.

In theory, shareholders can speak about their concerns

at board meetings. But residents say that’s not working.

“When I went to the meeting, we were kept locked out of the place. And there were people banging on the window, saying they wanted in,” said Laws, who moved to Devore from Rancho Cucamonga.

Once the people outside were allowed in, the meeting was canceled because of crowding concerns. The board room can legally hold only 25 people, according to Giglio.

“The only meeting that was abruptly canceled was in November 2023 when a group of shareholders overwhelmed the capacity of the room with others outside yelling and pounding on the doors,” he wrote. “Law enforcement had to be called through the 911 system and the meeting was abruptly cancelled under the threatening circumstances.”

In future, Giglio wrote, when a large turnout is expected, the board will meet at nearby Kimbark Elementary School.

The company is “making every effort to ensure shareholders access to the meeting in accordance with legal requirements,” he wrote. He blamed Zoom issues on “occasional technical issues” and users failing to mute their microphones and drowning out the meeting for others.

The drama still baffles some Devore residents.

“I’ve never seen anything like this before,” Laws said.

“All I wanted was water. It’s usually not something you think about.”