Antonovich, Glendora Aim to Defeat County Water Fee

As supervisors placed the county’s stormwater cleanup fee on the slow track, Supervisor Michael Antonovich spoke to the Glendora City Council Wednesday on his aim to push county waterway cleanup onto the state level and prevent the measure from appearing on the 2014 election ballot.

Antonovich argued during a special meeting at the Crowther Teen and Family Center that local municipalities were stretched thin already and lacked the resources to adhere to the requirements the cleanup fee would fund.

“This is not a city or county mandate, this is a state mandate,” said Antonovich. “It’s a bad proposal and should be defeated.”

The Board of Supervisors voted earlier this month to rework the fee, which would require 85 cities and the county to be responsible for getting rid of urban runoff of harmful pollutants in rivers, lakes and beaches and other county waterways.

While the fee may have been put to a halt, the 4-1 vote also allowed for the possibility it could resurface on a general election ballot in 2014.

Antonovich and Glendora City Council members, have voiced their opposition to the fee. Antonovich argued that the fee created discrepancies of how residential and commercial property owners would be charged.

Council member Judy Nelson echoed views that funding and implementation of the fee should be taken care of at the federal level.

“We should be appealing to the state representatives to fund this,” said Nelson. “People are not thinking in that direction and we have to start working toward that.”

Antonovich urged the state legislature to either create legislation or a resolution acknowledging that the funding requirements for the Clean Water, Clean Beaches plan is a state issue, not a local municipality or county responsibility.

“The law is okay, it’s the regulations to implement the law that are out of control,” said Antonovich.