Mutual water companies.

Under existing law, a mutual water company is defined as a corporation organized for or engaged in the business of selling, distributing, supplying, or delivering water for irrigation or domestic purposes that provides in its articles or bylaws that the water shall be sold, distributed, supplied, or delivered only to owners of its shares, as specified. (1) Existing law requires each board member of a mutual water company that operates a public water system to complete a training course regarding the duties of board members of mutual water companies, as specified. This bill would require a board member to repeat this training course every 6 years. (2) Existing law permits a mutual water company that is not a public utility to levy assessments upon its shares, unless otherwise provided in its articles or bylaws. This bill would also permit the board of directors of a mutual water company, if authorized by its articles or bylaws, to record a notice of lien against a shareholder's property if the shareholder has not timely paid any rate, charge, or assessment arising from, or related to, water services provided by the mutual water company to the shareholder's property and if the shareholder was given at least 20 days' notice of the lien. (3) Existing law, the California Public Records Act, provides that public records are open to inspection at all times during the office hours of the state or local agency that retains those records, and that every person has a right to inspect any public record, except as provided. The Ralph M. Brown Act requires, with specified exceptions, that all meetings of a legislative body of a local agency, as those terms are defined, be open and public and that all persons be permitted to attend and participate. This bill would enact the Mutual Water Company Open Meeting Act, which would apply to mutual water companies, and would permit an eligible person to attend a meeting of a mutual water company, as those terms are defined, and to speak during the meeting, except as provided. The bill would also require the board of the mutual water company that operates a public water system to adopt, in an open meeting, an annual budget on or before the start of each fiscal year. The bill would require the board of a mutual water company that operates a public water system to contract with a certified public accountant or public accountant to conduct an annual review of the financial records and reports of the mutual water company, as specified. The bill would also require the board of directors of a mutual water company that operates a public water system to make specified documents available to an eligible person, as defined, upon payment of fees covering the direct costs of duplication, as specified. (4) Existing law declares that water is a valuable natural resource in California and should be managed to ensure the availability of sufficient supplies to meet the state's agricultural, domestic, industrial, and environmental needs. Existing law declares that local agencies can realize efficiencies by coordinating and integrating their assets and seeking mutual solutions to water management issues. This bill would declare the intent of the Legislature to encourage collaboration among mutual water companies that operate public water systems in the City of Maywood to create a public agency that can consolidate drinking water services for the people and business of that city. The Budget Act of 2011 appropriated $7,500,000 from the Safe Drinking Water, Water Quality and Supply, Flood Control, River and Coastal Protection Fund of 2006 to the Department of Public Health for the provision of grants to public agencies, as specified, to improve drinking water infrastructure in communities served by mutual water companies in the Cities of Maywood and Santa Ana. This bill would limit the use of this appropriation to providing grants to the Water Replenishment District of Southern California for water quality improvement projects for the benefit of the City of Maywood, subject to specified conditions.