Mountain Views News          Saturday, May 2, 2015

6

AROUND SAN GABRIEL VALLEY

Mountain Views-News Saturday, May 2, 2015 

DROUGHT WORKSHOP HELD BY 

FOOTHILL MUNICIPAL WATER DISTRICT

ASSEMBLYMAN GATTO’S BILL TO 
CREATE STATEWIDE 

HIT-AND-RUN ALERT SYSTEM 
SAFELY PASSES COMMITTEE

SACRAMENTO, CA – Assemblyman Mike Gatto’s (D-Glendale) 
fight to reduce hit-and-run crimes continued today when the 
Assembly Public Safety Committee voted to approve his AB 8. The 
measure would establish the “Yellow Alert” system, which would 
allow law enforcement to engage other drivers to help identify and 
apprehend hit-and-run perpetrators.

 AB 8 would enable the use of the state’s existing network of 
freeway signs to broadcast information about vehicles suspected in 
hit-and-run incidents. Use of the system would be limited to hit-and-
runs that result in death or serious bodily injury. Alerts would be 
issued by local law enforcement when there is a sufficient description 
of the offending vehicle or the identity of the suspect is known. A 
“Yellow Alert” would be limited to the area where the hit-and-run 
crime occurred. When Denver created a similar alert system in 2012, 
they saw a 76% arrest rate in cases where the alert was activated, 
compared to a previous arrest rate of around 20%. The success of the 
program prompted Colorado’s legislature to implement the program 
statewide.

 “It’s gotten to the point to where not a single weekend goes by 
without another hit-and-run tragedy,” said Gatto. “People flee 
because there’s little chance they will be caught.” 

 Matters are so bad that local officials and community members 
are taking matters into their own hands. Los Angeles City officials 
are now offering a $50,000 standing reward for information in hit-
and-run cases. Traffic app Waze is sharing hit-and-run data with 
Waze users, and the mother of a hit-and-run victim in Orange 
County has petitioned every city in that county to create a hit-and-
run alert system.

 “California has the existing alert infrastructure in place and it 
costs us next to nothing to use it,” said Gatto. 

 In 2013, Gatto authored AB 184, which doubled the statute of 
limitations to prosecute hit-and-run drivers. In 2014, he authored 
AB 47 and AB 1532, the latter of which would require mandatory 
license suspension for anyone convicted of a hit-and-run involving 
a person. Both bills passed the legislature with overwhelming 
majorities. Despite the bipartisan support and narrowly tailored 
language of AB 47, Governor Brown vetoed the bill in September. 

Mike Gatto is the Chairman of the Consumer Protection and Privacy 
Committee, and currently the longest-serving member in the State 
Assembly. He represents California’s 43rd Assembly District, which 
includes Burbank, Glendale, La Cañada Flintridge, La Crescenta, 
Montrose, and the Los Angeles neighborhoods of Atwater Village, 
East Hollywood, Franklin Hills, Hollywood Hills, Los Feliz, and 
Silver Lake. www.asm.ca.gov/gatto

A drought workshop was held by Foothill Municipal Water District 
and its retail agencies on Tuesday, April 28, 2015. The workshop was 
held in response to the State’s emergency regulations to conserve 
water and allocation of imported water to the region as hydrologic 
conditions continue to decline this fourth year of drought. This 
year follows on the heels of California’s hottest year on record in 
2014 and the driest year ever recorded in 2013. It is already seeing 
some of the warmest and driest months on record, including a 
record low snowpack in the Sierra Nevada. 

 Governor Brown issued an Executive Order on April 1 that calls 
for the first-ever statewide mandatory water reductions, prohibits 
watering of medians with potable water, requires water efficient 
landscape irrigation in all new residential construction, launches 
a statewide rebate program for turf removal, other water-saving 
landscape changes and appliance replacement, and calls for new 
actions to increase water efficiency from business and agriculture. 

Board President Richard Atwater began the meeting stating: “We 
are in a historic drought with impacts reaching throughout the 
State and beyond. We must change the ethics in which we view 
water and our lawns. We do not have the water to spare for the lush 
lawns we are used to having. Converting to California Friendly 
landscaping is the right thing to do.” 

 Deliveries from Northern California through the State Water 
Project are currently at just 20 percent of the contracted amount. 
The SWP typically provides about a third of the Southland’s water. 
Storage in the other imported supply source—the Colorado River—
stands at less than 50 percent of capacity after 15 drought years 
in the Southwest. In 2014, the groundwater basins in Southern 
California were drawn down about 1 million acre-feet. 

 Metropolitan Water District of Southern California, after three 
years of drawing down storage reserves, adopted a 15% reduction in 
imported water at its Board meeting on April 14, 2015. For Foothill, 
any water taken above its allocation means a penalty surcharge of 
up to about three times as much as its water rate in addition to 
the cost of the water purchased. These penalties would be passed 
through to the retail agencies which exceed their allocation of 
water.

 Metropolitan Water District of Southern California General 
Manager Jeff Kightlinger provided a presentation on hydrologic 
conditions, water supplies and the Bay-Delta Conservation Plan 
to the audience. Mr. Kightlinger stated: “Since 1995, Southern 
California has invested over $12 billion in conservation and local 
supply projects which have allowed us to stay out of allocating water. 
When the drought started, we had almost 3 million acre-feet of 
water in storage to help stave off shortages. We now have less than 
1 million acre-feet left. We don’t know when this drought is going 
to end. We need to stretch the remaining supplies so the impacts of 
shortages in future years are softened on the end customer.”

 Foothill Municipal Water District General Manager Nina 
Jazmadarian then followed up with what consumers can do to 
conserve water. “The greatest water savings occurs with reducing 
outdoor water use. We are asking the public to limit irrigation to 
two days a week with no runoff onto hard surfaces as required by 
the State,” said Jazmadarian. “Better yet, remove your lawn this 
summer by not watering at all but keep your trees alive by deep-
root watering. Metropolitan offers rebates for turf replacement and 
this is a great time to start the project.” 

 Other steps that customers can take to conserve include:

Turning off the tap when not needed

Taking shorter showers

Running only full loads of dishes and laundry

Sweeping paved surfaces instead of hosing them down

Limiting watering time to before 9 a.m. and after 5 p.m. 

Fixing leaks within 48 hours.

 To help customers reduce water usage, rebates are offered on turf 
removal and various other devices including hot water recirculation 
systems, moisture sensors and rain barrels. Rebate information can 
be found at http://www.fmwd.com/Conservation.aspx. Residents 
and businesses must register and prequalify for some rebates prior 
to starting any work.

 Foothill Municipal Water District provides imported water to 
Crescenta Valley Water District, La Cañada Irrigation District, 
Mesa Crest Water Company, Valley Water Company, Lincoln 
Avenue Water Company, Las Flores Water Company and Rubio 
Cañon Land & Water Association. Kinneloa Irrigation District, 
another retail agency, takes no water from Foothill.

ALTADENA TOWN COUNCIL REP APPLICATIONS AVAILABLE

Deadline to file is May 15

The Altadena Town Council Election Committee has made available Candidate Applications for this years’ Census Tract Representative 
Election slated for Saturday, June 6th.

 The unincorporated town of Altadena has eight census tracts, each with two Town Council representatives taking an alternating two-year 
term. The Council meets on the third Tuesday of each month at the Altadena Community Center, and is the voice of the community to the 
county supervisor, law enforcement and various utilities

 Applications can be downloaded from www.AltadenaElection.org. Hard copies are available at the Altadena Library, 600 East Mariposa 
Street, Altadena, CA 91001

 The deadline for filing candidate applications is May 15th, 4:30 pm

 Continuous candidate and election information throughout the election cycle can be found at AltadenaElection.org