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Home My WebLink About03-18-26 CPRL&L Committee PacketOTAY WATER DISTRICT CONSERVATION, PUBLIC RELATIONS, LEGAL & LEGISLATIVE COMMITTEE MEETING and SPECIAL MEETING OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS 2554 SWEETWATER SPRINGS BOULEVARD SPRING VALLEY, CALIFORNIA WEDNESDAY March 18, 2026 2:00 P.M. This is a District Committee meeting. This meeting is being posted as a special meeting in order to comply with the Brown Act (Government Code Section §54954.2) in the event that a quorum of the Board is present. Items will be deliberated, however, no formal board actions will be taken at this meeting. The committee makes recommendations to the full board for its consideration and formal action. UAGENDA 1.ROLL CALL 2.PUBLIC PARTICIPATION – OPPORTUNITY FOR MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC TO SPEAK TO THE COMMITTEE ON ANY SUBJECT MATTER WITHIN THE COMMIT- TEE’S JURISDICTION INCLUDING AN ITEM ON TODAY'S AGENDA DISCUSSION ITEMS 3.ADOPT THE LEGISLATIVE PROGRAM POLICY GUIDELINES AND THE ANTIC- IPATED 2026 TOP 10 LEGISLATIVE AND REGULATORY PRIORITIES (TE- NILLE OTERO) [10 MINUTES] 4.ADOPT RESOLUTION NO. 4472 AMENDING POLICY 29, CLAIMS HANDLING PROCEDURE, TO DELEGATE AUTHORITY TO THE GENERAL MANAGER TO TAKE ACTION ON GOVERNMENT CLAIMS (JOSE MARTINEZ) [5 MINUTES] 5.ADJOURNMENT BOARD MEMBERS ATTENDING: Jose Lopez, Chair Mark Robak 2 All items appearing on this agenda, whether or not expressly listed for action, may be deliberated and may be subject to action by the Board. The Agenda, and any attachments containing written information, are available at the District’s website at www.otaywater.gov. Written changes to any items to be considered at the open meeting, or to any attachments, will be posted on the District’s website. Cop- ies of the Agenda and all attachments are also available by contacting the District Secre- tary at (619) 670-2253. If you have any disability that would require accommodation in order to enable you to participate in this meeting, please call the District Secretary at (619) 670-2253 at least 24 hours prior to the meeting. Certification of Posting I certify that I posted a copy of the foregoing agenda near the regular meeting place of the Board of Directors of Otay Water District, Spring Valley, California, said time being at least 24 hours in advance of the meeting of the Board of Directors (Government Code Section §54954.2). /s/ Jenny Diaz, District Secretary 1 STAFF REPORT TYPE MEETING: Regular Board Meeting MEETING DATE: April 1, 2026 SUBMITTED BY: Tenille M. Otero PROJECT: Various DIV. NO. All APPROVED BY: Jose Martinez, General Manager SUBJECT: Legislative Program Policy Guidelines and Top 10 2026 Legislative and Regulatory Priorities GENERAL MANAGER’S RECOMMENDATION: That the Board of Directors adopt the Otay Water District Legislative Program Policy Guidelines and the Anticipated 2026 Top 10 Legislative and Regulatory Priorities. COMMITTEE ACTION: See Attachment A. PURPOSE: To provide direction to District staff and its legislative advocates in the formulation of the District’s response to legislative initiatives on prominent issues that could impact the District and/or other local water agencies. To present to the Board of Directors the anticipated 2026 Legislative Program Priorities, which staff and legislative advocates will proactively monitor and/or act on during the 2026 legislative session and throughout the year. ANALYSIS: The Otay Water District maintains legislative policy guidelines to direct staff and its legislative advocates on issues important to the District. Staff updates the legislative guidelines annually and/or as needed, with the proposed updates presented to the District’s Board of Directors for review, comment, and adoption. The Legislative Program provides policy guidelines on legislation for the Board’s consideration. Staff and legislative advocates consult the guidelines to determine recommended positions on legislation and amendments. Typically, representatives of the California Legislature introduce 2,000 or more bills or significant resolutions. While many bills fail to make it out of their house of origin, many others move on to be AGENDA ITEM 3 2 signed by the governor and become law. These new laws can fundamentally affect special districts. The same is true with each session of the House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate. The 2026 Legislative Program establishes guidelines and policy direction that staff and the District’s legislative advocates can use when monitoring legislative activity to facilitate actions quickly in response to proposed bills or issues. The guidelines provide a useful framework for staff and legislative advocates when evaluating the potential impact of state or federal legislation on the District. This is particularly helpful when a timely response is necessary to address last-minute amendments to legislation, District participation in coalitions on issues, and when calls or letters of support or opposition are needed. Legislation that does not meet the guidelines set forth or that has potentially complicated or varied implications will not be acted upon by staff or the District’s legislative advocates and will instead be presented to the Board directly for guidance in advance of any position being taken. The San Diego County Water Authority has its own set of legislative policy guidelines that have served as a comprehensive program at the wholesale and regional levels. Historically, the Water Authority’s Legislative Policy Guidelines have been extremely detailed and all-inclusive. In 2026, the Water Authority shortened and streamlined its guidelines. District staff is evaluating the Water Authority’s and other agencies' legislative policies and guidelines to determine which will be most effective for the District. Until then, District staff recommend maintaining the guidelines in the same format as in 2025. Although the District is a retail agency and is focused on its local service area, if there are issues or policies incorporated in the Water Authority’s legislative policy guidelines that could benefit or impact the District, the general manager, District staff, and the District’s legislative advocates may act on those issues, respectively. The Legislative Program Policy Guidelines present staff’s recommendations for the Board’s review. Staff will then incorporate the Board’s recommendations in the final document. The guidelines aim to protect the District’s interest in a reliable, diverse, safe, and affordable water supply. Moreover, they seek to maintain local control over special district actions to protect the Board’s discretion and ratepayers’ interests, and maintain the ability to manage District operations effectively and efficiently. In addition, they express the District’s ongoing support for financial assistance to water agencies and customers regarding nonpayment due to financial hardships, water-use efficiency, recycled water, 3 seawater desalination, capital improvement project development, organization-wide safety and security, binational cooperation, climate change, and funding. These guidelines also demonstrate the District’s strong, collaborative support and efforts to advocate against a “one-size-fits-all” approach and any unfunded mandates imposed by legislation or regulation. The proposed redlined Legislative Program Policy Guidelines are included in Attachment B. A clean copy of the proposed changes is included in Attachment C. When the Board adopts the updated guidelines, staff will incorporate the Board’s recommended changes into the final document. In addition, staff is presenting the District’s anticipated Top 10 Legislative and Regulatory Priorities for the year (Attachment D). This list highlights, in no specific order, legislation or issues that District staff and/or the Water Authority are currently monitoring and/or may take or have already taken a position on. The deadline for bill introduction was February 20, 2026. Lobbyists and legislative staff typically wait until the last couple of days before the deadline, when hundreds of bills are introduced. Based on the bills/issues that legislators introduced by this year’s deadline, staff worked with the District’s legislative consultant to develop a list of priority issues for 2026. The anticipated top 10 priorities include: 1. Water Affordability 2. State Budget Funding3. Wildfire Prevention, Emergency Management, and Liability 4. Governance5. Local Control6. Drinking Water & State Mandates 7. Advanced Clean Fleets8. Water Supply & Management 9. Water Conservation and Water-Use Efficiency10. Water Rights Staff and the District’s consultant will continue to monitor bills and issues that may affect the District. Staff will update the Board as necessary throughout the year on legislative issues impacting the District. District staff continue to proactively work with the Water Authority’s government relations staff, the District’s legislative consultant, the Association of California Water Agencies, California Special Districts Association, California Water Efficiency Partnership, California Municipal Utilities Association, and other related coalitions, associations, and organizations to monitor legislative issues that affect the District and its ratepayers. It is 4 critical that the District and its staff remain engaged in these issues as they could impact how the District conducts day-to-day operations, and operates and maintains its facilities, thereby affecting its ratepayers. FISCAL IMPACT: Joe Beachem, Chief Financial Officer None. STRATEGIC GOAL: Enhance customer and community engagement to increase public awareness of the water industry and the District while continuing to provide superior customer service. LEGAL IMPACT: None. Attachments: A) Committee Action B) Proposed Otay Water District Legislative Program Policy Guidelines (Redlined) C) Proposed Otay Water District Legislative Program Policy Guidelines (Clean Copy) D) Anticipated Top 10 Legislative and Regulatory Priorities for 2026 E) Presentation “Anticipated Top 10 Legislative for 2026” – Brownstein, Hyatt, Farber, and Schreck 5 ATTACHMENT A SUBJECT/PROJECT: Legislative Program Policy Guidelines and Top 10 2026 Legislative and Regulatory Priorities COMMITTEE ACTION: The Conservation, Public Relations, Legal, and Legislative Committee will review these items at its March 18, 2026 meeting. The attachment will be updated with notes from the discussion. Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 1 | P a g e Effective Date: 04/0201/20256 Legislative Program Policy Guidelines Purpose The Otay Water District’s 2025 legislative policy guidelines provide direction to staff and the District’s legislative advocates when they evaluate proposed legislation that may affect the District, other local water agencies, or regional water management and use. Legislation that meets or fails to meet the principles set forth in the guidelines may be supported or opposed accordingly. The guidelines permit the General Manager, District staff, and the District’s legislative advocates to act in a timely fashion between Board meetings on issues that are manner between Board meetings on issues clearly within the guidelines. While the title of this document suggests these policy guidelines are applicable solely to state and federal legislative issues reviewed by the District and its wholesale supplier the San Diego County Water Authority (Water Authority), increasingly state and federal regulatory and administrative bodies are developing rules, guidelines, white papers, and regulations that can significantly affect the District, its wholesale supplier, and other local water agencies. District staff, including the District’s legislative consultantconsultants, often utilize these Legislative Policy Guidelines to provide guidance on emerging and active regulatory and administrative issues. Legislation that does not meet the principles set forth in the guidelines or that has potentially complicated or varied implications will not be acted upon by staff or the legislative advocates in between Board meetings and will instead be presented to the Board directly for guidance in advance of any position being taken. The Water Authority has its own set of legislative policy guidelines that is a comprehensive program at a wholesale and regional level. District staff has continues to evaluated and selected policies and issues from the Water Authority’s policy guidelines that may have a direct impact on the District, and . These policies and issues have been has incorporated into the District’s guidelines. Although the District is a retail agency and is focused on its local service area, ifarea, there may be are issues or policies contained in the Water Authority’s Legislative Policy Guidelines that could benefit or impact the District, the General Manager, District staff, and the District’s legislative advocates may act on those issues, respectively. Attachment B Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 2 | P a g e Table of Contents The Otay Water Legislative Policy Program Guidelines for 2025 includes the following categories: I.Binational Issues…………………………………………....……………... Page 3 II.Biological and Habitat Preservation…………………………………….. Page 3 III.Desalination……………………………………………………………….. Page 4 IV.Drought and Extreme Weather Response………………………………. Page 4 V.Energy……………………………………………………………………… Page 5 VI.Financial Issues…………………………………………………………… Page 7 A.Fees, Taxes, and Charges………………………….......................... Page 7 B.Funding…………………………………………………………….. Page 8 C.Rates………………………………………………………………... Page 11 D.Water Bonds……………………………………………………….. Page 11 E.Affordability……………………………………………………. Page 12 VII.Governance and Local Autonomy……………………………………….. Page 13 VIII.Imported Water Issues……………………………………………………. Page 15 A.Bay-Delta……………………………………………………………… Page 15 i.Co-equal Goals……………………………………………………. Page 15 ii.Bay-Delta Conveyance Project…………………………………… Page 16 B.Metropolitan Water District…………………………………………… Page 16 C.Colorado River………………………………………………………… Page 17 D.State Water Project…………………………………………………….. Page 18 IX.Optimize District Effectiveness……………………...…………....………. Page 18 X.Safety, Security, and Information Technology……………....................... Page 19 XI.Water Quality Issues………………………………………………………. Page 20 XII.Water Recycling and Potable Reuse……………………………………… Page 21 XIII.Water Rights Modernization……………………………………………… Page 22 XIV.Water Service and Facilities……………………………………………….. Page 23 XV.Water Use and Efficiency………………………………………………….. Page 27 Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 3 | P a g e XVI.Workforce Development………………………………………………….. Page 29 I.Binational Issues Support initiatives that: 1.Foster binational cooperation to address drought and climate change on the Colorado River in a way that protects the San Diego/Baja California region’s interests and river supplies. 2.Promote and provide funding for cross-border water supply and infrastructure development projects to serve the San Diego/Baja California border region while protecting local interests. 3.Encourage enhanced cooperation between entities in San Diego and Baja California in the development of supply and infrastructure projects that will benefit the entire border region. 4.Encourage state and federal funding to support collaborative binational projects to improve water quality and protect human health and the environment within the broader San Diego region. 5.Develop and enhance communications and understanding of the interdependence of communities on both sides of the border with the goal of improved cross-border cooperation. Oppose initiatives that: 1.Would usurp local control over the financing and construction of water supply and infrastructure projects in the San Diego/Baja California region. II.Biological and Habitat Preservation Support initiatives that: 1.Support development of comprehensive multispecies habitat conservation plants that anticipate and mitigate project development impacts while preserving representative ecosystems, rather than individual species. 2.Exempt operation, maintenance, and repair of water system facilities from endangered species and other habitat conservation regulations because they provide beneficial cyclical habitat values to declining species and foster biological diversity in California. 3.Provide environmental regulatory certainty for the implementation of existing and proposed long-term water supply programs. 4.Streamline filing of CEQA notices of determination for multicounty water projects by making those notices available on the CEQAnet website through the Governor’s office of Planning and Research. 5.Incorporate an emergency exemption for “take” of a listed species listed under the state or federal Endangered Species Acts when necessary to mitigate or prevent loss of or damage to life, health, property, or essential public services. 6.Encourage species listings, critical habitat designation, and recovery plans developed pursuant to the state or federal Endangered Species Acts to be consistent with existing interstate compacts, tribal treaties, and other state and federal agreements. 7.Support the eradication of invasive species or the prevention of them from becoming established in watersheds providing water supplies. Oppose initiatives that: Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 4 | P a g e 1. Reduce or limit the use of existing water rights or supplies, 2. Restrict the development of future water supplies. 3. Interfere with operating, maintaining, or repairing existing water conveyance and storage facilities. 4. Impose endangered species or habitat conservation requirements that restrict the operation, maintenance, or repair of public water supply, conveyance, treatment, or storage facilities. 5. Provide for after-the-fact reduction in quantity or quality of a public water supply due to new restrictions on the operation or use of water supply facilities unless funding for alternate sources of water is provided. 6. Impose a “utility user fee,” or “surcharge,” on water for the purposes of financing open space/habitat preservation, restoration, or creation. III. Desalination Support initiatives that: 1. Provide funding for seawater desalination studies and facilities. 2. Recognize and support the development of seawater desalination as a critical new water supply for the state, including San Diego County. 3. Streamline permitting of desalination facilities. 4. Preserve and protect potential seawater desalination sites and existing coastal facilities, including intake and discharge infrastructure that could be used or reused by a seawater desalination facility. 5. Ensure that desalination intake and discharge regulations are science-based, considering site- specific conditions and recognizing that not all technologies or mitigation strategies are feasible or cost-effective at every site. 6. Incorporate seawater desalination as part of a slate of long-term infrastructure projects to support the Colorado River. IV. Drought and Extreme Weather Response Support initiatives that: 1. Ensure the District and other local agencies, including the Water Authority and San Diego County water agencies, including ratepayers, receive the water supply benefits of investments in water supply. 2. Allow local agencies to achieve compliance with emergency or nonemergency drought regulations or objectives through a combination of water conservation measures and development and implementation of water supply sources that are not derived from the Bay- Delta, and credit these investments to the agencies and ratepayers making them. 3. Allow local agencies to account for all water supplies available during droughts and other events when calculating the water supply shortage level. Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 5 | P a g e 4. Create a process for the development and implementation of emergency drought declarations and regulations that recognizes variations among communities, regions, and counties with respect to their abilities to withstand the impacts and effects of drought. 5. Recognize variations among communities, regions, and counties with respect to their abilities to withstand the impacts and effects of droughts and ensure that any temporary or permanent statutory or regulatory direction for improving water-use efficiency to meet statutory or regulatory goals or standards is focused on regional achievement of objectives rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. 6. Unlock federal and state funding to supplement state and local recovery efforts in areas affected by extreme weather. 7. Support and encourage the transfer and storage of water during both emergency and non- emergency conditions to reduce the impact of drought. Oppose initiatives that: 1. Disincentivize or impede water agencies from making investments to maximize the potential for recycled water, potable reuse, desalination, and other drought-resilient water supplies. 2. Create a “one-size-fits-all” approach to emergency drought declarations and regulations that ignores variations among communities, regions, and counties and the investments their ratepayers made to improve their ability to withstand the impacts and effects of drought and climate change. 3. Hinder federal and state funding to supplement state and local recovery efforts in areas affected by extreme weather. V. Energy Support initiatives that: 1. Provide opportunities for reduced energy rates for the District and other local water agencies. 2. Provide protection to the District and other local water agencies from energy rate increases and rate relief for the District and water agencies. 3. Provide funding, including state and federal grants, for in-line hydro-electric, solar, wind, battery storage, biogas, cogeneration, nanogrids, microgrids, closed-loop pumped storage facilities, and other renewable energy generation or storage technology as means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and energy cost. 4. Promote funding for the use of renewable energy in the operation of District facilities. 5. Prohibit investor-owned utilities from implementing rate changes that undercut the financial viability of renewable energy facilities obligated under long-term Power Purchase Agreements. 6. Provide greater flexibility in the utilization of the District’s facilities for electrical generation and distribution, and acquisition of electricity and natural gas. 7. Provide the District with greater flexibility in the licensing, permitting, interconnection, construction, and operation of its existing and potential in-line hydroelectric, solar, wind, Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 6 | P a g e battery, nanogrid, microgrid, closed-loop pumped-energy storage projects, and other renewable generation or storage technology. 8.Make SWP power available for all water projects that reflect proportional payments made by member agencies. 9.Promote the classification of electricity generated by in-line hydroelectric and closed-loop pumped-energy storage facilities as environmentally sound. 10.Promote the expansion of closed-loop pumped-energy storage facilities to provide clean and environmentally sound energy resources that provides electric and provide electric reliability and resiliency, especially during times of potential blackouts. 11.Promote the expansion of in-line hydroelectric energy recovery systems at treatment facility discharge systems. 12.Promote the production, purchase, delivery, and use of alternative sources of energy on a wholesale basis. 13.Provide clear statutory, regulatory, or administrative authority for the Water Authority to wheel acquired or produced power to itself, the District, or entities with which the Water Authority is under contract for the purchase, treatment, transport, or production of water. 14.Recognize and monetize all grid ancillary services that pumped hydro-energy storage provides and support fair compensation in the wholesale energy market for such services. 15.Provide timely, efficient, and cost-effective interconnection of energy loads and resources such as solar, inline in-line hydroelectric, pumped-energy storage, and other renewable energy generation or storage technologies to the electric distribution and transmission grid. 16.Recognize the value of large-scale hydropower and pumped-energy storage facilities in assisting the state to meet its renewable and zero-carbon emission goals of 100% by 2045. Oppose initiatives that: 1.Adversely affect the cost or reliability of energy needed to operate MWD’s facilities, SWP facilities, or the facilities of the Water Authority and the District. 2.Impose greenhouse gas reduction obligations on a public water agency for electricity purchased or produced for the sole purpose of operating its system. 3.Adversely affect the ability of the District or other water agencies in the county to own, operate, and/or construct work for supplying its own facilities with natural gas and electricity. 4.Impede the District or other water agencies in the county, the ability to contract for, deliver, and use natural gas or electricity purchased from the United States, the State of California, and any other public agency or private entity, and provide, sell, exchange, or deliver the gas or electricity to itself, any public agency or private entity. 5.Reduce the District’s ability to always maintain high operational efficiency. 6.Restrict the District’s ability to expand or improve infrastructure or facilities. 7.Restrict or cap future energy demands needed for possible expansion of recycled water, potable reuse, and/or desalination projects. Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 7 | P a g e 8.Adversely affect the District’s ability to expand cogeneration or polygeneration at planned or existing facilities. 9.Inhibit the scientific advancement of energy and water- efficient/conserving technologies that may be implemented at the District or other agency facilities. 10.Prevent the District from enhancing energy reliability and independence for its facilities. 11.Do not count or credit qualified renewable energy projects toward the accomplishment and satisfaction of the California Renewables Portfolio Standard objectives. 12.Prohibit the Water Authority from wheeling - or securing statutory, regulatory, or administrative authority necessary to wheel - acquired or produced power to itself, the District, or other entities with which the Water Authority is under contract of for the purchase, treatment, transport, or production of water. 13.Result in a lengthy, more complicated, or more costly interconnection of energy loads and resources, such as solar, in-line-hydroelectric, pumped-energy storage, and other renewable energy generation or storage technologies to the electric distribution and transmission grid. VI.Financial Issues A.Fees, Taxes, and Charges Support initiatives that: 1.Require the federal government and the State of California to reimburse special districts for all mandated costs or regulatory actions. 2.Give special districts the discretion to cease performance of unfunded mandates. 3.Provide fiscal reform to enhance the equity, reliability, and certainty of special district funding. 4.Provide incentives for local agencies to work cooperatively, share costs, or resources. 5.Provide for the stable, equitable, and reliable allocation of property taxes. 6.Continue to reform workers’ compensation. 7.Promote competition in insurance underwriting for public agencies. 8.Produce tangible results, such as water supply reliability or quality improvement. 9.Require the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) to refund or credit to its member agencies revenues collected from them that result in reserve balancesreserves greater than the maximum reserve levels established pursuant to state legislation. Oppose initiatives that: 1.Impose mandated costs or regulatory constraints on local agencies and their customers without providing subventions to reimburse local agencies for such costs. 2.Pre-empt the District or local water agencies’ ability to impose or change rates, charges, fees, or assessments. 3.Weaken the protections afforded by the District, the Water Authority, or other local water agencies and its their ratepayers under California’s Proposition 1A (November 2, 2004) or Proposition 26 (November 2010). 4.Reallocate special districts’ reserves to balance the state budget. Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 8 | P a g e 5.Reallocate special district revenues or reserves to fund infrastructure improvements or other activities in cities or counties. 6.Establish funding mechanisms that put undue burdens on local agencies or make local agencies de facto tax collectors for the state. 7.Adversely affect the cost of gas and electricity or reduce an organization’s flexibility to take advantage of low peak cost periods. 8.Add new reporting criteria, burdensome, unnecessary, or costly reporting mandates to Urban Water Management Plans. 9.Add new mandates to the Department of Water Resources (DWR) to review and approve Urban Water Management Plans beyond those already addressed in DWR guidelines. 10.Mandate that water agencies include an embedded energy calculation for their water supply sources in Urban Water Management Plans or any other water resources planning or master-planning document. 11.Weaken existing project retention and withholding provisions that limit the ability of public agencies to drive contractor performance. 12.Establish change order requirements that place an unreasonable burden on local agencies, or raise financial risk associated with public works contracts. 13.Impair the Water Authority or its member agencies’ ability to provide reasonable service at reasonable costs to member agencies or to charge all member agencies the same rate for each class of service consistent with cost-of-service requirements of the law. 14.Impair the local water agencies’ ability to maintain reasonable reserve funds and obtain and retain reasonable rates of return on its their reserve accounts. 15.Mandate a specific rate structure for retail water agencies. 16.Impose a water user fee on water agencies or water users that does not provide a commensurate and directly linked benefit in the local area or region from which the water user fee is collected. 17.Impose a water user fee for statewide projects or programs, for which the projects or programs are not clearly defined, the beneficiaries identified, and reasonable costs identified. 18.Impose a water user fee to create a state fund that can be used to finance undefined future projects and programs. 19.Allow the state to retain more than 5% of water user fees for administrative costs. 20.Do not restrict the use of water user fees to only the specific purposes for which they are imposed, without any possibility of diversion to meet other fiscal needs of the state or water users outside of the Water Authority’s service area. 21.Impose a “public goods charge” or “water tax” on public water agencies or their ratepayers. 22.Impose a fee on water users to repay the principal and interest on a statewide general obligation bond. 23.Establish regulatory or permit fees that lack a nexus to the costs of oversight. 24.Establish a broad-based user fee that does not support a specific program activity; any fee must provide a clear nexus to the benefit the fee would provide. B.Funding Support initiatives that: Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 9 | P a g e 1.Require the federal and state governments to provide subvention to reimburse local governments for all mandated costs or regulatory actions. 2.Provide the District, the Water Authority, and other local water agencies with additional forms of cost-effective financing for public facilities. 3.Revitalize the Title XVI federal funding program by converting new authorizations to a competitive grant program with congressional oversight while protecting existing Title XVI authorizations for the San Diego region. 4.Provide the District, Water Authority, and local water agencies with grant funding for public facilities, including developing local water resources and rehabilitation and repair of aging infrastructure, such as dams and pipelines. 5.Provide the District, other local water agencies, and water ratepayers with post-COVID-19 financial relief through a variety of means, including but not limited to, direct financial assistance and flexibility in debt management to assist water ratepayers and water suppliers. 6.Authorize financing of water quality, water security, and water supply infrastructure improvement programs. 7.Establish spending caps on the State of California overhead when administering voter - approved grant and disbursement programs. 8.Require disbursement decisions in a manner appropriate to the service in question. 9.Encourage funding infrastructure programs that are currently in place and that have been proven effective. 10.Provide financial incentives for energy projects that increase reliability, diversity, and reduce greenhouse gases. 11.Continue energy rate incentives for the utilization of electricity during low-peak periods. 12.Provide loan or grant programs that encourage water conservation for water users who are least able to pay for capital projects. 13.Provide for population-based distribution of IRWM funds to ensure adequate distribution of grant funding to the San Diego region. 14.Provide for the use of state grant funds for binational projects where the projects benefit water supply or water quality in the San Diego region. 15.Improve and streamline the state’s reimbursement process of IRWM funds. 16.Promote the ability of the Regional Water Management Group to administer state grant funds specifically identified more directly for IRWM Programs. 17.Require the state to rely on the local process for selection and ranking of projects included in an approved IRWM plan. 18.Increase collaboration between stakeholders within the IRWM regions when funding and selecting projects. 19.Provide additional resources and assistance to address unique administrative and implementation challenges associated with underrepresented communities. 20.Advocate for state bonds that provide grant funding for the San Diego County IRWM Program. 21.Provide funding or other incentives for conservation, peak management programs, water recycling, potable reuse, groundwater recovery and recharge, dam repair and rehabilitation, surface water development and management projects, including reservoir Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 10 | P a g e management, source water protection, and watershed planning studies and facilities that sustain long-term, reliable water resources. 22.Provide financial incentives to assist in the disposal of concentrate, sludge, and other byproducts created in the water treatment process. 23.Authorize, promote, and provide incentives or credits for development of local drought- resilient water supply projects such as desalination, non-potable recycling, and potable reuse projects. 24.Provide funding for potable reuse demonstration projects and studies. 25.Provide funding for infrastructure improvements at desalination facilities with eligibility for public and private partnerships. 26.Authorize federal and state funding to develop and implement regional or subregional conservation programs, including but not limited to property acquisition, revegetation programs, and watershed plans. 27.Provide state and/or federal funding for the restoration of the Salton Sea. 28.Provide federal and/or state funding to implement actions that address the ecological and water supply management issues of the Lower Colorado River from Lee's Ferry to the southerly international border with Mexico. 29.Provide federal and/or state funding to implement actions that address the ecological and water supply management issues of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. 30.Permit the use of grant funding for projects implemented under public-private partnerships where the grant provides funding for a public benefit. 31.Require the state agencies responsible for preparing the IRWM grant program guidelines to conduct a comprehensive public outreach process that ensures stakeholders have an opportunity to provide adequate input on the preparation of the guidelines and require that state agencies consider and respond to comments received through the outreach process. 32.Provide incentive, funding, and assistance to water agencies so that they can comply with AB 32 (2006) requirements, and updated statutory requirements imposed pursuant to SB 32 (2016), SB 100 (2018), and SB 1020 (2022). 33.Remove funding caps from state and federal grant and loan funding sources. 34.Streamline federal and state grant reimbursement processes. Oppose initiatives that: 1.Impose additional administrative requirements and/or restrict the District’s, Water Authority’s, or other local water agencies’ ability to finance public facilities through the issuance of long-term debt. 2.Interfere with the responsibility of a region, operating under an Integrated Regional Water Management Plan, for setting priorities and generating projects to be paid from any IRWM accounts and grants. 3.Interfere with the control exercised by the San Diego funding subregion over the use and expenditure of any water-user fee revenues that may be dedicated to the region. 4.Establish IRWM funding criteria that limit local discretion in project selection. 5.Provide for after-the-fact reduction in quantity or quality of a public water supply due to new restrictions on the operation or use of water supply facilities unless funding for alternate sources of water is provided. Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 11 | P a g e 6.Impose a "utility user fee" or "surcharge" on water for the purposes of financing open space/habitat preservation, restoration, or creation. C.Rates Support initiatives that: 1.Maintain the authority and requirements of water agencies to establish water rates , consistent with the cost-of-service requirements of the law. 2.Maximize the ability of water agencies to design rate structures to meet local water supply goals and that conform to the cost-of-service requirements of the law. 3.Encourage and promote education to elected officials, community/business leaders, organizations, and the public about water sales and conservation, and the District and its wholesaler’s rates and what those rates support, including but not limited to infrastructure, asset management, operations, maintenance, water reliability, and more. Oppose initiatives that: 1.Impair the District’s, the Water Authority’s, or local water agencies’ ability to provide reliable service at reasonable costs to member agencies or to charge all member agencies the same or similar rate for each class of service consistent with cost-of-service requirements of the law. 2.Undermine or weaken cost-of-service rate-making requirements in existing law. 3.Impair the District’s ability to maintain reasonable reserve funds and obtain and retain reasonable rates of return on its reserve accounts. 4.Mandate a specific rate structure for retail water agencies. 5.Prescribe mandatory conservation-based rate structures that override the authority of the boards of directors of local water agencies to set rate structures according to the specific needs of the water agencies in accordance with cost-of-service requirements. 6.Usurp special district funds, reserves, or other state actions that force special districts to raise rates, fees, or charges. D.Water Bonds Support initiatives that: 1.Provide an equitable share of funding to San Diego County, with major funding categories being divided by county and funded on a per-capita basis to ensure bond proceeds are distributed throughout the state in proportion to taxpayers’ payments on the bonds. 2.Focus on statewide priorities, including restoration of fish and wildlife habitat, promotion of greater regional and local self-sufficiency, surface storage, and promotion of water-use efficiency. 3.Ensure funding from various propositions for local and regional water-related projects. 4.Include within IRWM funding money that a region may use over time to develop and refine its plan and to develop institutional structures necessary to establish and implement the plan. 5.Give primary consideration to funding priorities established by local and regional entities through their IRWM planning process. Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 12 | P a g e 6. Ensure the application process for funding is not unnecessarily burdensome and costly, with an emphasis on streamlining the process. 7. Limit state overhead to no more than 5% of bond funding amounts. 8. Place as much emphasis and provide at least as much funding for surface storage as for groundwater storage. 9. Define the “San Diego sub-region” and “San Diego county watersheds” as “those portions of the westward-flowing watershed of the South Coast hydrologic region situated within the boundaries of San Diego County.” 10. Fund emergency and carryover storage projects. 11. Consolidate administration of all voter-approved water-related bond funding in one place, preserves existing expertise within the state bureaucracy to manage bond-funding processes, and provide consistent application and evaluation of bond- funding applications. 12. Provide the state’s share of funding for projects that advance the achievement of the co- equal goals of water supply reliability and Bay-Delta ecosystem restoration. 13. Provide funding for water infrastructure that resolves conflicts in the state’s water system and provides long-term benefits to statewide issues, including water supply, reliability, water quality, and ecosystem restoration. Oppose initiatives that: 1. Do not provide an equitable share of funding to San Diego County based on the San Diego County taxpayers’ proportional contribution to repayment of the bonds. 2. Do not provide funding for infrastructure that resolves statewide or regional conflicts of water supplies. 3. Do not provide funding that results in net increases in real water supply and water supply reliability. 4. Commit a significant portion of bond funding to projects that do not result in net increases in real water supply or water supply reliability. E. Affordability Support initiatives that: 1. Abide by the Human Right to Water (AB 685, 2012) as set forth in Section 106.3 of the California Water Code, which reads that, “every human being has the right to safe, affordable, and accessible water adequate for human consumption, cooking, and sanitary purposes.” The State Water Resources Control Board also has a resolution supporting this program. 2. Meet the required standards under Proposition 218 and Proposition 26 in the California Constitution regarding proportionality of water rates and cost-of-service provisions. 3. Rely on data-driven analysis of water affordability, including considerations such as census data and economically disadvantaged communities. As such, the District supports the continued implementation of AB 2334 (2012), which that requires the Department of Water Resources to provide this analysis and place it in California’s Water Plan. 4. Support the creation of a permanent low-income water rate assistance program that targets providing financial assistance to low-income ratepayers using federal resources or existing resources within either the state General Fund, grants, or cap-and-trade dollars. Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 13 | P a g e 5.Does not burden water districts with excessive or overly prescriptive state mandates, including the collection of water taxes or water rate and boundary data, and qualification of customers for low-income assistance programs. 6.Support the expansion of the low-income assistance programs (LIHWAP) or other programs, using existing resources from the federal government, with the state General Fund, or cap-and-trade dollars, or other state financial resources. 7.Provide the Water Authority, its member agencies, and water ratepayers with a permanent low-income customer assistance program. 8.Encourage and promote education to elected officials, community/business leaders, organizations, and the public about affordability. Oppose initiatives that: 1.Is Does not targeted appropriately: Any low-income water rate assistance program must be limited in scope to those individuals. By seeking to do too much, effectiveness could be limited. Examples of this could include extending program resources to domestic wells or water-use efficiency programs. 2.Does not have a funding source: Any low-income water rate assistance program needs to identify specific sources of sustainable funding and does not include a water tax or water surcharge. 3.Does not reinvent the wheel: Any low-income water rate assistance program should be built upon and use the resources of an existing benefit distribution organization or system, such as CalFresh, rather than requiring water agencies to add the operating expense of creating and administering a new method. VII.Governance and Local Autonomy Support initiatives that: 1.Expand local autonomy in governing special district affairs. 2.Promote comprehensive long-range planning. 3.Assist local agencies in the logical and efficient extension of services and facilities to promote efficiency and avoid duplication of services. 4.Streamline the Municipal Service Review Process or set limits on how long services reviews can take or cost. 5.Reaffirm the existing “all-in” financial structure or protect the Water Authority voting structure based on population. 6.Promote measures that increase broader community and water industry representation/appointments on State decision makingdecision-making bodies. 7.Ensure an open and transparent process for the adoption of regulations, policies, and guidelines. 8.Preserve the District and other local water agencies’ ability to establish local priorities for water resources planning decisions. 9.Promote cost- effective and reasonably feasible requirements. Oppose initiatives that: 1.Assume the state legislature is better able to make local decisions that affect special district governance. Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 14 | P a g e 2.Create one-size-fits-all approaches to special district reform. 3.Unfairly target one group of local elected officials. 4.Usurp local control from special districts regarding decisions involving local special district finance, operations, or governance. 5.Diminish the power or rights of the District’s governing body to govern the District’s affairs. 6.Diminish the power or rights of the District to govern relations with its employees. 7.Modify the committee or board voting structure or District and member agency board representation on the Water Authority Board of Directors unless the District’s Board has expressly authorized such changes. 8.Create unfunded local government mandates. 9.Create costly, unnecessary, or duplicative oversight roles for the state government of special district affairs. 10.Create new oversight roles or responsibility responsibilities for monitoring special district affairs. 11.Change the San Diego County Water Authority Act regarding voting structure unless it is based on population. 12.Shift the liability to the public entity and relieve private entities of reasonable due diligence in their review of plans and specifications for errors, omissions, and other issues. 13.Place a significant and unreasonable burden on public agencies, resulting in increased cost for public works construction or their operation. 14.Impair the ability of water districts to acquire property or property interests required for essential capital improvement projects. 15.Increase the cost of property and right-of-way acquisition or restrict the use of right-of- waysrights-of-way. 16.Work to silence the voices of special districts and other local government associations on statewide ballot measures impacting local government policies and practices, including actions that could prohibit special districts and associations from advocating for positions on ballot measures by severely restricting the private resources used to fund those activities. 17.Prescribe mandatory conservation-based or other rate structures that override the authority of the board of directors to set its rate structure. 18.Circumvent the legislative committee process, such as the use of budget trailer bills, to advance policy issues, including impacting special districts without full disclosure, transparency, or public involvement. 19.Restrict the District’s ability to utilize a demand forecasting methodology that is best suited locally and for the region. 20.Impose mandates requiring specific water resources to be developed by water agencies that fail to consider local factors such as water reliability, hydrologic and geographic characteristics, and the economic, political, public acceptance, and social environment, which can influence the selection of resources and/or fails to consider or conflicts conflict with existing local and regional planning policies and implementation priorities. 21.Limit the District’s ability to establish local priorities for water resources planning decisions. 22.Impede the District’s ability to conduct its critical mission efficiently and effectively, of always providing and sustaining critical services, and under all conditions. Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 15 | P a g e 23. Impose regulations that place unreasonable, inequitable, and costly requirements on local agencies without adequate support and resources. VIII. Imported Water Issues A. Bay-Delta i. Co-Equal Goals Support initiatives that: 1. Require the Delta Stewardship Council or DWR to provide periodic analyses of the cost of the proposed Bay-Delta improvements to the Legislature and the public. 2. Provide conveyance and storage facilities that are cost-effective for the San Diego region’s ratepayers and are proportionate to the benefits they receive, improve the reliability and quality of the San Diego region’s water supplies, and protect the Bay-Delta’s ecosystem. 3. Continue to support the co-equalcoequal goals of water supply reliability and environmental restoration embodied in the 2009 Delta bill package. 4. Improve the ability of water-users to divert water from the Bay-Delta during wet periods, when impacts on fish and the ecosystem are lower, and water quality is higher. 5. Encourage the development of a statewide water transfer market to improve water management and allow more efficient use of available resources. 6. Support improved coordination of Central Valley Project and State Water Project (SWP) operations and implementation of water quality requirements that are fair to the users of both projects and do not unfairly shift costs to SWP contractors, or MWD, or its member agencies. 7. Support administrative/legislative actions and funding to advance the Delta Freshwater Pathway, levee improvements, including levee modernization for the existing Delta levee system, levee maintenance programs, including real-time monitoring for the existing Delta levee system, and secure Delta flood-fighting materials and stockpiles. 8. Support state and federal administrative/legislative actions and funding to address the impacts of subsidence on the SWP and prevent future damage caused by unsustainable groundwater pumping. 9. Support continued state ownership and operation of the SWP, including project facilities, as a public resource. 10. Ensure that any reorganization of the State Water Project, including operations and management, preserves the ability for non-State Water Project contractors to access the facility for transportation of water to a non-State Water Project contractor. 11. Authorize and appropriate the federal share of funding for the long-term Bay-Delta solution, including for California EcoRestore. 12. Provide the ongoing state share of funding for California EcoRestore. 13. Provide state funding for water quality monitoring in the Bay-Delta. Such legislation should not place a surcharge on water supply exports, nor should it substantively reduce funding for other measures that protect the environment and public health. Oppose efforts that: 1. Impose water user fees to fund ecosystem restoration and other public purposepurposes, non- water-supply improvements in the Bay-Delta that benefit the public at large. 2. Transfer operational control of the State Water Project or any of its facilities to the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD), the State Water Contractors, the Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 16 | P a g e Central Valley Project Contractors, the State and Federal Contractors Water Agency, or any entity comprised of MWD or other water project contractors, or any other special interest group. ii.Bay-Delta Conveyance Project Support initiatives that: 1.Are consistent with the Water Authority’s Board of Directors’ July 25, 2019, adopted Bay- Delta project policy principles, including the following: a.On April 29, 2019, Governor Newsom signed Executive Order N-10-19, directing the preparation of a water resilience portfolio approach that meets the needs of California’s communities, economy, and environment through the 21st century, including consideration of multi-benefit approaches that meet multiple needs at once, and a single-user tunnel Bay-Delta project. b.The Water Authority’s Board supports Governor Newsome’s Executive Order N-10- 19 and directs staff to inform the Newsome Administration that its support for a single-tunnel Bay-Delta project is expressly conditioned upon the project costs being characterized by the Department of Water Resources (DWR) as conservation, or supply charges, as similar facilities historically have been defined in the Metropolitan Water District’s (MWD) SWP contract with DWR. c.As reflected in Table 2 of DWR’s Appendix B to Bulletin 132-17, Data and Computation Used to Determine Water Charges, and for which costs are recovered in Article 22(a) of Delta Water Charge of MWD’s SWP Contract; allow for the exemption of north-of-Delta SWP contractors. 2.Support the establishment of an independent and transparent oversight function to monitor and provide regular updates on project implementation progress, including expenditure tracking, construction progress, project participants’ contributions, and all other relevant activities and developments. 3.Allow access to all SWP facilities, including project facilities, to facilitate water transfers. B.Metropolitan Water District Support initiatives that: 1.Provide an appropriate level of transparency in rate setting, and accountability, and cost control over MWD spending. 2.Protect and acknowledge the investments the Water Authority has made in the form of its preferential rights under the Metropolitan Water District Act and allow member agencies to realize the value of their respective and varyingvaried investments. 3.Require MWD to refund or credit to its member agencies revenues collected from them that result in reserves balances greater than the maximum reserve levels in the manner established pursuant to state legislation. 4.Require MWD to implement actions that advance and support its long-term financial stability, fiscal sustainability, and that moderate fluctuations in rates and charges for its member agencies from year to year, in a publicly transparent manner. 5.Amend the Metropolitan Water District Act to change voting allocation on its Board of Directors based on a member agency’s total financial contribution to MWD, in a manner that Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 17 | P a g e is fair and equal to ratepayers, and similar to the voting allocation method of the County Water Authority Act. 6. Ensure fair and equitable cost allocation of projects and programs based on the varying needs and demands of its member agencies. C. Colorado River Support initiatives that: 1. Support federal funding through the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to fund near-term and long-term conservation projects that protect California’s water rights and the San Diego region’s river supplies while bolstering the river. 2. Support the sustainability of the Colorado River and provide operational flexibility through the development of storage, including in Lake Mead, and through the renegotiation of the new interim shortage guidelines for the river’s continued operation. 3. Advance strategic long-term water management that includes the ability to transfer, share, and exchange supplies both within the state of California and across state lines. 4. Incorporate seawater desalination as part of a slate of long-term infrastructure projects to support the Colorado River. 5. Recognize the 2003 Quantification Settlement Agreement (QSA) as a model for other Basin states to follow as a means to implement conservation while protecting agriculture and the environment. 6. Support implementation and funding of the California Colorado River Water Use Plan, including the Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Program 7. Provide funding for Colorado River salinity control projects and other water quality management efforts. 8. Provide for state and federal authorizations and appropriations of non-fee-based funds to implement Salton Sea mitigation and the State’s phased approach to restoration in the form of the Salton Sea Management Program consistent with its obligations under Chapters 611, 612, and 613 of the Statutes of 2003. 9. Limit the QSA mitigation costs imposed on funding parties to the amount committed in accordance with the original QSA legislation. 10. Allow for the option to create an alternate conveyance route, when technically and financially feasible, for reliable delivery of the Water Authority’s Independent Colorado River water supplies and integration of compatible partnership projects along the proposed conveyance routes as a model of the Governor’s Water Resilience Portfolio approach to water management. 11. Support the state’s Salton Sea Management Program under the guidelines of the revised Water Order (Stipulated Order) adopted by the State Water Resources Control Board in November 2017. 12. Preserve the California Colorado River Board 13. Ensure the interests of the members of the California Colorado River Board continue to be addressed in any state government reorganization. 14. Allow for storage of the Water Authority’s Colorado River water supplies to provide enhanced flexibility with annual transfer volumes, support drought contingency planning, and align with the Governor’s Water Resilience Portfolio approach to water management. Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 18 | P a g e Oppose initiatives that: 1.Impose additional mitigation costs or obligations for the Salton Sea on the non-state parties to the QSA. 2.Eliminate the California Colorado River Board without providing a comparable structure or forum that ensures the Water Authority and member agencies’ interests in the Colorado River are preserved. 3.Implement additional long-term conservation projects to address drought and climate change that do not address potential impacts toon the environment, specifically the Salton Sea. 4.As part of the development of the next set of river management guidelines, impose potential future reductions on just the Lower Basin rather than balancing potential reductions between both the Upper and Lower Basins. D.State Water Project Support initiatives that: 1.Provide for development of a comprehensive state water plan that balances California's competing water needs, incorporates the water resources and infrastructure concepts included in the Governor’s “Water Resilience Portfolio” and “California’s Water Supply Strategy Adapting to a Hotter, Drier, Future,” and results in a reliable and affordable supply of high- quality water for the State of California and the San Diego region. Oppose initiatives that: 1.Make urban water supplies less reliable or substantially increases the cost of imported water without also improving the reliability and/or quality of the water. 2.Revise the Central Valley Project Improvement Act to Jeopardize the Act's environmental integrity, compromise State Water Project supply reliability, a n d/or limit the ability of urban agencies to transfer and/or bank CVP water for use both within and outside the CVP service area. 3.Transfer operational control of the State Water Project or any of its facilities to MWD, the State Water Project contractors, Central Valley Project contractors, the State and Federal Contractors Water Agency, any entity comprised of MWD or other water project contractors, or any other special interest group. IX.Optimize District Effectiveness Support initiatives that: 1.Manage District resources in a transparent and fiscally responsible manner. 2.Allow utilities to avoid critical peak energy pricing or negotiate energy contracts that save ratepayers money. 3.Develop reasonable Air Pollution Control District engine permitting requirements. 4.Reimburse or reduce local government mandates. 5.Allow public agencies to continue offering defined benefit plans. 6.Result in predictable costs and benefits for employees and taxpayers. 7.Eliminate abuses. Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 19 | P a g e 8.Retain local control of pension systems. 9.Are constitutional, federally legal, and technically possible. 10.Promote cost- effective and reasonably feasible requirements. Oppose initiatives that: 1.Restrict the use of, or reallocate, district property tax revenues to the detriment of special districts. 2.Create an unrealistic ergonomic protocol. 3.Micromanage special district operations. 4.Balance the state budget by allowing regulatory agencies to increase permitting fees. 5.Tax-dependent benefits. 6.Require new reporting criteria on the energy intensity involved in water supply. X.Safety, Security, and Information Technology Support initiatives that: 1.Provide funding for information security upgrades to include integrated alarms, access/egress, and surveillance technology. 2.Provide incentives for utilities and other local agencies to work cooperatively, share costs or resources. 3.Provide funding for communication enhancements, wireless communications, GIS, or other technological enhancements. 4.Encourage or promote compatible software systems. 5.Fund infrastructure and facility security improvements that include facility roadway access, remote gate access, and physical security upgrades. 6.Protect state, local, and regional drinking water systems from terrorist attack or deliberate acts of destruction, contamination, or degradation. 7.Provide funds to support training or joint training exercises to include contingency funding for emergencies and emergency preparedness. 8.Equitably allocate security funding based on need, threats, and/or population. 9.Encourage or promote compatible communication systems. 10.Encourage and promote funding of the Department of Homeland Security Risk Mitigation programs. 11.Recognizes water agencies as emergency responders in the event of a sudden, unexpected occurrence that poses a clear and imminent danger, requiring immediate action to prevent and mitigate loss or impairment of life, health, property, or essential public services due to natural disasters (e.g., wildfires, earthquakes), power outages, as well as terrorist and other criminal activities. 12.Provide state grants or other funding opportunities to support seismic risk assessment and mitigation plans, or to mitigate vulnerabilities. 13.Provide funding for projects that enhance security against terrorist acts or other criminal threats to water operation, services, facilities, or supplies. 14.Provide funding for projects that improve the security of the District facilities and operations. 15.Provide funding to support technologies that support remote working, when necessary to prevent loss of or damage to life, health, property, or essential public services. Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 20 | P a g e Oppose initiatives that: 1. Create unnecessary, costly, or duplicative security or safety mandates. 2. Require expanded water system descriptions or additional public disclosure of public water systems details for large water suppliers in Urban Water Management Planning documents, potentially compromising public water systems, and creating a conflict with the Department of Homeland Security’s recommendation to avoid reference to water system details in plans available to the public. XI. Water Quality Issues Support initiatives that: 1. Assure cost-effective remediation and cleanup of contaminates contaminants of concern that have impacted groundwater and surface water. 2. Incorporate sound scientific principles in adopting drinking water standards for drinking water concerns. 3. Exempt the conveyance, storage, or release of water supplies from regulation as a discharge under the Clean Water Act and other water quality control laws. 4. Revise NPDES standards and procedures to facilitate inland discharge and the use of recycled water. 5. Establish appropriate quality standards, testing procedures, and treatment processes for emerging contaminants. 6. Alter the definition of “lead free” to reduce the permissible amount of lead in fixtures, plumbing, and pipe fittings to be installed for the delivery of drinking water. 7. Exempt purified wastewater from regulation as a discharge under the Clean Water Act. 8. Implement source control for management the management and prevention of contamination by constituents of emerging concern. 9. Provide the necessary funding for research on the occurrence, treatment, health effects, and environmental cleanup related to contamination of drinking water sources. 10. Implement and fund the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board’s triennial review of water quality standards. 11. Provide funding and support for Colorado River salinity control projects and other water quality management efforts. 12. Direct the state’s participation or assistance in water quality issues related to or threatening the Colorado River water source. 13. Streamline permitting of facilities constructed to improve water quality. 14. Ensure consistent application of the law by the State Water Resources Control Board and the nine regional water quality control boards. Oppose initiatives that: 1. Eliminate the State Water Resources Control Board and/or the nine regional water quality control boards without ensuring the functions and expertise of the boards are maintained in any reorganized entity. 2. Regulate the conveyance, storage, or release of water supplies as discharge under the Clean Water Act and other water quality control laws. 3. Make water suppliers financially and legally responsible for the mitigation of pollution contamination by third parties. Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 21 | P a g e 4.Make water suppliers financially and legally responsible for testing or correction ofcorrecting any water quality-related issues associated with private property or on-site plumbing systems. XII.Water Recycling and Potable Reuse Support initiatives that: 1.Reduce restrictions on recycled water usage or promote consistent regulation of recycled water projects to reduce impediments to the increased use of recycled water. 2.Reduce restrictions on injecting recycled water into basins where there is no direct potable use. 3.Advocate for direct potable reuse. 4.Advocate for recycled water use upstream of lakes and reservoirs if protected by urban water runoff protection systems. 5.Provide financial incentives for recharge of groundwater aquifers using recycled water. 6.Make recycled water regulations clear, consolidated, and understandable to expedite related project permitting. 7.Promote recycled water as a sustainable supplemental source of water. 8.Allow the safe use of recycled water. 9.Facilitate the development of technology aimed at improving water recycling. 10.Increase funding for water recycling projects. 11.Support continued funding of the Title XVI Water Reclamation and Reuse Program, including Water Reclamation and Reuse Projects, the WaterSMART Program, and the Desalination and Water Purification Research Program. 12.Increase awareness of the ways recycled water can help address the region’s water supply challenges. 13.Create federal and state incentives to promote recycled water use and production. 14.Establish federal tax incentives to support U.S. companies in the development of new water technologies that can lower productions costs, address by products such as concentrates, and enhance public acceptance of recycled water. 15.Establish a comprehensive national research and development, and technology demonstration, program to advance the public and scientific understanding of water recycling technologies to encourage reuse as an alternative source of water supply. 16.Provide incentives for local agencies to work cooperatively, share costs or resources to promote or expand the use of recycled water. 17.Further refine emergency regulations to reward local suppliers that have invested in using recycled water for landscape irrigation to maintain an incentive to continue expanding areas served by recycled water. 18.Encourage the use of recycled water in commercial, industrial, institutional, and residential settings. 19.Recognize and support the development of potable reuse as a critical new water supply. 20.Define purified recycled water as a source of water supply and not as waste. 21.Mandate the reduction of wastewater discharges to the ocean, absent inclusion of funding to offset the significantly high costs of implementation. 22.Authorize local governmental agencies to regulate the discharge of contaminants to the sewer collection system that may adversely affect water recycling and reuse. Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 22 | P a g e 23. Authorize and facilitate expanded use of local water resources, including water recycling, potable reuse, graywater, and rainwater harvesting (e.g., cisterns and rain barrels), and brackish groundwater. 24. Streamline regulatory processes and requirements to encourage and support the development of potable reuse and non-potable reuse as a municipal water supply. 25. Recognize that the entire interconnected urban water cycle, as well as public health and safety, must be taken into consideration in long-term water use efficiency policies, particularly including the unintended consequences of declining flows on water, wastewater, potable reuse, and recycled water systems. 26. Encourage dual plumbing in new development where non-potable recycled water is likely to be available to enable utilization of recycled water. 27. Promote uniform regulatory interpretation of state recycled water system standards. 28. Support beneficial revisions to the California Plumbing Code that facilitate recycled water systems. Oppose initiatives that: 1. Restrict use of recycled water for groundwater recharge. 2. Establish new water or recycled water fees solely to recover State costs without also providing some benefit. 3. Limit the ability of local governmental agencies to regulate the discharge of contaminants to the sewer collection system that may adversely affect water recycling and reuse. 4. Establish unreasonable regulatory requirements or fees for the safe use of recycled water, which may unreasonably impede or create a disincentive tofor its further development. 5. Mandate the reduction of wastewater discharges to the ocean, absent inclusion of funding to offset the significantly high costs of implementation. 6. Establish water use efficiency standards, which do not reflect the impact that higher TDS recycled water has on the usage rates to reduce salt loading in areas of use. XIII. Water Rights Modernization Support initiatives that: 1. Protect existing water rights, water-rights priority, and local agencies’ ability to use water resources for their present and future water supply reliability and environmental well-being. 2. Support funding for data modernization tools needed to monitor and enforce water rights priorities and protect State Water Project supplies, including funding and technical assistance to fully implement existing laws requiring metering of diversions and potential legislation or regulation aimed at providing real-time water diversion data. 3. Support voluntary water transfers and exchanges as the means to reallocate water supplies, including for the environment, to meet water supply reliability goals and achieve co-equal goals of the Bay-Delta and interstate solutions to limited Colorado River supplies. 4. Support more flexible regulations to enhance the ability to divert water in times of high storm runoff and snow melt while protecting existing water rights and the environment. 5. Support increases in civil penalties to deter violations of State Board orders, including curtailment orders. Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 23 | P a g e XIV.Water Services and Facilities Support initiatives that: 1.Provide funding to implement actions identified in the California Water Action Plan to lay a solid fiscal foundation for implementing near-term actions, including funding for water efficiency projects, wetland and watershed restoration, groundwater programs, conservation, flood control, and integrated water management, and result in a reliable supply of high-quality water for the San Diego region. 2.Promote the coordination and integration of local, state, and federal climate change policies and practices to the greatest extent feasible. 3.Fund or otherwise facilitate ongoing implementation of the Quantification Settlement Agreement. 4.Provide reliable water supplies to meet California’s short and long-term needs. 5.Promote desalination pilot studies and projects. 6.Encourage feasibility studies of water resource initiatives. 7.Increase funding for infrastructure and grant programs for construction, modernization, or expansion of water, wastewater treatment, reclamation facilities, and sewer systems, including water recycling, groundwater recovery and recharge, surface water development projects, and seawater desalination. 8.Fund enhancements to water treatment, recycling, and other facilities to meet increased regulations. 9.Mandate uniform or similar regulations and procedures by state agencies in the processing and administering of grants and programs. 10.Streamline grant application procedures. 11.Reduce regulations and other impediments for willing sellers and buyers to engage in water transfer agreements. 12.Promote or assist voluntary water transfers between willing buyers and willing sellers and move those transactions through without delay. 13.Streamline the permitting and approval process for desalination and other water-related facilities and implement water transfers that will improve water management. 14.Establish reasonable statewide approaches to sewer reporting standards. 15.Generate greater efficienciesefficiency, better coordinate program delivery, and eliminate duplication in programs for source water protection without lessening the focus on public health of the state’s Drinking Water Program. 16.Target efforts to fix specific issues with water supplies within the state’s Drinking Water Program. 17.Establish federal tax incentives to support U.S. companies in the development of new desalination technologies that can lower productions costs, eliminate, or reduce impingement or entrainment, reduce energy use, and enhance public acceptance of desalinated water. 18.Establish a comprehensive national research and development, and technology demonstration program to advance the scientific understanding of desalination to expand its use as an alternative source of water supply. 19.Require the State Water Resources Control Board to exercise its authority, ensure robust funding, and implement the Salton Sea mitigation and restoration plan, meet state obligations, and work with QSA stakeholders to find workable solutions to ensure the continuation of IID water transfers. Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 24 | P a g e 20.Support solutions to water supply issues that address common challenges, provide a comprehensive approach that is fair to all users, balance the needs of urban and rural communities, and take into consideration the interests of all stakeholders as well as the impact to the environment. 21.Further refine emergency drought regulations to eliminate a cap on credits and adjustments so as not to impose undue burden, financial or otherwise, on communities that have already invested in water conservation, development of new water sources, storage, or loss prevention. 22.Provide funding for water infrastructure development, infrastructure security, and rehabilitation and replacement projects that benefit ratepayers. 23.Provide funding for habitat preservation programs that address impacts resulting from the construction or operation of water system facilities. 24.Provide funding for projects that enhance security against terrorist acts or other criminal threats to water operation, services, facilities, or supplies. 25.Provide incentives that encourage contractors to recycle or reduce waste associated with the construction of water facilities. 26.Improve the local agencies’ efforts to maintain and protect its their property, rights of way, easements, pipelines, and related facilities and minimizes liability to local agencies and the District. 27.Protect the local agencies’ properties from restrictions when surrounding properties are incorporated into preservation areas. 28.Encourage the use of current and emerging technologies for monitoring and assessing the condition of large diameterlarge-diameter pipelines. 29.Encourage water suppliers to develop and execute asset management programs that include visual inspections, internal/external inspections, asset condition assessments, corrosion mitigation, and reis risk analysis in a manner that recognizes the individuality and uniqueness of each water supplier and its systems. 30.Improve the District’s efforts to maintain and protect its property, rights of way, easements, pipelines, and related facilities and minimizes minimize liability to the District. 31.Protect the District, other agencies, and the Water Authority properties from restrictions when surrounding properties are incorporated into preservation areas. 32.Provide funding to water agencies for the voluntary retrofit of facilities for on-site generation of chlorine. 33.Provide funding for water supplier asset management programs that involve the active monitoring, repair, or replacement of physical assets and infrastructure, which includes pipes, valves, facilities, equipment, and other infrastructure. 34.Provide for restrictions on price gouging during public safety power shutoff events and for at least 72 hours following restoration of power. 35.Provide that de-energization or public safety power shutoff events may be included as a condition constituting a state of emergency or local emergency. 36.Provide a tax exemption for the sale of, or storage, use, or consumption of, a backup electrical resources, which is are purchased for exclusive use by a city, county, special district, or other entity of local government during a de-energization or public safety power shutoff event. 37.State that the use of alternative power sources (such as generators) by essential public services during de-energization or public safety power shutoff events shall not be limited by any state or local regulations or rules. Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 25 | P a g e 38. Recognize the critical role the District, local agencies, and the Water Authority play as Public Safety Partners in Public Safety Power Shutoff events and other natural or man-made disasters. Further recognizes the importance of the agency’s ability to provide immediate and sustained response for extended periods of time. 39. Provide financial support to local projects designed to mitigate or adapt to potential negative impacts of climate change on water supply reliability. 40. Investigate and provide financial support to projects designed to mitigate potential negative impacts of climate change on water supply reliability. Oppose initiatives that: 1. Restrict local control and discretions over water facilities, asset management, and facility operations. 2. Make urban water supplies less reliable or substantially increases the cost of imported water without also improving the reliability and/or quality of the water. 3. Create unrealistic or costly water testing or reporting protocols. 4. Disproportionately apportion the cost of water. 5. Create undo hurtles hurdles for seawater desalination projects. 6. Create unreasonable or confusing sewer reporting standards. 7. Create administrative or other barriers to sales between willing buyers and willing sellers that delay water transfers. 8. Create a broad-based user fee that does not support a specific local program activity or benefit; any fee must provide a clear nexus to the benefit local ratepayers or local water supplies from the establishment that charges or fees would provide. 9. Create unrealistic or is costly to obtain water quality standards for potable water, recycled water, or storm water runoff. 10. Change the focus of the state’s Drinking Water Program or weaken the parts of the program that work well. 11. Lessen the focus on public health of the state’s Drinking Water Program. 12. Impose undue burden, financial or otherwise, on communities that have already invested in water conservation, development of new water sources, storage, or loss prevention. 13. Impose additional mitigation costs or obligations for the Salton Sea on the non-state parties to the Quantification Settlement Agreement. 14. Impair the District and other local water agencies’ ability to provide and operate the necessary facilities for a safe, reliable, and operational flexible water system. 15. Limit local agencies’ sole jurisdiction over planning, design, routing, approval, construction, operation, or maintenance of water facilities. 16. Restrict local agencies’ ability to respond swiftly and decisively to an emergency that threatens to disrupt water deliveries or restricts the draining of pipelines or other facilities in emergencies for repairs or preventive maintenance. 17. Authorize state and federal wildlife agencies to control, prevent, or eradicate invasive species in a way that excessively interferes with the operations of water supplies. 18. Prohibit or in any way limit the ability of local agencies from making full beneficial use of any water, wastewater, or recycling facility and resource investments. 19. Prohibit the use of alternative contract procurement methods that can be utilized in the construction of water facilities. Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 26 | P a g e 20.Shift the risks of indemnity for damages and defense of claims from contractors to the District. 21.Impair local agencies’ efforts to acquire property or property interests required for essential capital improvement projects or acquisition of property to meet pipeline water drain-down needs for existing facilities. 22.Increase the cost of property and right of wayright-of-way acquisition. 23.Restrict the District’s use of public rights of way or increase the cost of using public rights of way. 24.Restrict the transfer of property acquired for purposes of environmental mitigation or environmental mitigation credits to other public or private entities for long-term management. 25.Establish prescriptive leak loss control requirements for the operation, maintenance, and asset management of water conveyance and distribution systems, which fail to consider full life- cycle costing. 26.Establish meter testing requirements for source water meters that fail to consider industry standards and cost-effectiveness. 27.Limit the discretion of the District from protecting the security and privacy of comprehensive inventories of all assets, which includes include infrastructure location, condition, performance, and useful life. 28.Impair local agencies’ ability to execute the planning, design, and construction of projects using their own employees. 29.Limit the autonomy of discretion of water suppliers to develop and execute asset management inspection programs that include visual inspections, internal/external inspections, asset condition assessments, and corrosion mitigation in a manner that recognizes the individuality and uniqueness of each water supplier and its systems. 30.Authorize air quality management districts or other regulatory bodies to adopt or maintain rules that would limit or prohibit a local government entity’s use of a state and/or federally complaint compliant natural gas-powered generator during a de-energization or public safety power shutoff event. 31.Would inhibit the District from fulfilling its critical role as a Public Safety Partner and making immediate and sustained response in a Public Safety Power Shutoff event or and other natural or man-made disasters, such as the CARB Advanced Clean Fleet regulation. 32.Would inhibit the District from fulfilling its critical role as an essential service provider from procuring and operating fleets, which meet the needs to perform routine and emergency maintenance of water and wastewater systems, such as the CARB Advanced Clean Fleet regulation. 33.Require the incorporation of climate change considerations into regional and local water management planning that does not provide flexibility to the local and regional water agencies in determining the climate change impact and identification of adaptation and mitigation measures. 34.Impose top-down “one-size-fits-all” climate change mandates that fail to account for hydrological, meteorological, economic, and social variation across the state and/or that fail to incorporate local and regional planning and implementation priorities and protocols. Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 27 | P a g e XV. Water Use and Efficiency Support initiatives that: 1. Provide funding for incentives for water-use efficiency and water conservation programs, including water-efficient devices, practices, and demonstration projects and studies. 2. Encourage the installation of water-efficient fixtures in new and existing buildings. 3. Promote the environmental benefits of water-use efficiency and water conservation. 4. Enhance efforts to promote water-use efficiency awareness. 5. Offer incentives for landscape water-efficient devices, including, but not limited to ET controllers and soil moisture sensors. 6. Develop landscape retrofit incentive programs and/or irrigation retrofit incentive programs. 7. Permit or require local agencies to adopt ordinances that require or promote water-efficient landscapes for commercial and residential developments. 8. Create tax incentives for citizens or developers who install water-efficient landscapes. 9. Create tax incentives for citizens who purchase high-efficiency clothes washers, dual-flush and high-efficiency toilets, and irrigation controllers above the state standards. 10. Expand community-based water-use efficiency and education programs. 11. Facilitate and encourage the use of rainwater-capture systems, i.e., rain barrels, cisterns, etc., and alternative water sources, i.e., air conditioner condensate for use in irrigation. 12. Develop incentives for developers and existing customers to install water-efficient landscapes in existing developments or new construction. 13. Encourage large state users to save water by implementing water-efficient technologies in all facilities, both new and retrofit. 14. Encourage large state water users to save water outdoors. 15. Educate all Californians on the importance of water, and the need to conserve, manage, and plan for the future needs. 16. Encourage technological research targeted to more efficient water use. 17. Give local agencies maximum discretion in selecting water-use efficiency and conservation programs that work for their customers and the communities they serve. 18. Require the Department of Water Resources to implement a uniform statewide turf rebate subsidy or incentive program. 19. Restrict Property Owner Associations from forbidding the use of California native plants, other low water use plants, mulch, artificial turf, or semi-permeable materials in well- maintained landscapes. 20. Restrict Property Owner Associations from forbidding retrofits of multiple- unit facilities for the purpose of submetering, if feasible. 21. Ensure plumbing codes and standards that facilitate the installation and/or retrofit of water- efficient devices. 22. Establish standards for the utilization of high-efficiency commercial and residential clothes washers. 23. Provide federal tax-exempt status for water-use efficiency rebates, consistent with income tax treatment at the state level. 24. Encourage the use of graywater where it complies with local guidelines and regulations and is cost-effective. 25. Provide incentives, funding, and assistance to water agencies so that they can meet the water demand management measure requirements in the Urban Water Management Planning Act. Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 28 | P a g e 26.Provide incentives, funding, and other assistance to facilitate water-use efficiency partnerships with the energy efficiency sector. 27.Provide incentives, funding, and other assistance where needed to facilitate market transformation and gain wider implementation of water- efficient indoor and outdoor technologies and practices. 28.Recognize local control in determining water use efficiency criteria, such as the impact of recycled water salinity on irrigation use and efficiency for the application of non-potable recycled water. 29.Encourage reasonable tracking of water use and improved efficiency in the Commercial, Industrial, and Institutional (CII) sector. 30.Recognize local control in determining how to meet an overall efficient water use goal, based on the combined efficient indoor use, outdoor use, and leak loss, as established under the criteria provided for in statute. 31.Ensure accurate and streamlined reporting of implementation of water-use efficiency and conservation measures. 32.Promote statewide implementation of water-use efficiency best management practices and demand management measures as defined in the Urban Water Management Planning Act. Oppose efforts that: 1.Weaken federal or state water-efficiency standards. 2.Introduce additional analytical and reporting requirements that are time-consuming for local agencies to perform and result in additional costs to consumers, yet yield no water savings. 3.Permit Property Owners Associations to restrict low water use plants, mulch, artificial turf, or semi-permeable materials in landscaping. 4.Repeal cost-effective efficiency standards for water-using devices. 5.Repeal cost-effective efficiency standards for water-using devices. 6.Create stranded assets by establishing long-term demand management, water-use efficiency, and water supply requirements that are inconsistent with the Urban Water Management Planning Act. 7.Prescribe statewide mandatory urban and agricultural water-use efficiency practices, including, but not limited to, methods, measures, programs, budget allocation, and designation of staff dedicated to water conservation programs, that override the authority of the boards of directors of local water agencies to adopt management practices that are most appropriate for the specific needs of their water agencies. 8.Mandate regulation of the CII Sector in a manner that is discriminatory, or sets unachievable Best Management Practices or compliance targets, or would otherwise impair economic activity or the viability of the CII sector. 9.Mandate that water agencies include an embedded energy calculation for their water supply sources in the Urban Water Management Plan or any other water resource planning or master planning document. 10.Require redundant reporting of water conservation-related information. Otay Water District Legislative Program 2025 29 | P a g e XVI.Workforce Development Support initiatives that: 1.Advocate for local, regional, and state programs that support a high-performing workforce and increase the talent pool for water agencies. 2.Advocate for military veterans in the water industry workforce to ensure that veterans receive appropriate and satisfactory credit towards water and wastewater treatment system certifications in California for work experience, education, and knowledge gained in military service. 3.Lower employment barriers for military veterans and transitioning military and that sustain vital water and wastewater services for the next generation. 4.Recruit and support veterans and transitioning military through internships, cooperative work experiences, and other resources. 5.Recruit and support underserved communities in the water industry through internships, cooperative work experiences, and other resources. 6.Advocate and encourage candidate outreach and recruitment in relation to mission-critical job categories in water and wastewater. 7.Ensure advanced water treatment operators and distribution system operators of potable reuse and recycled water facilities have a career advancement path as certified water and/or wastewater treatment plant operators. 8.Increase the number of educational institutions that provide water-industry related training and related program criteria, including but not limited to trades, certifications, and degrees. 9.Increase the talent pool of future water industry workers through educational programs, internships, and other resources. 10.Provide funding to educational institutions, water agencies, and workforce students regarding careers in the water industry. 11.Develop qualified candidates for positions in the water industry. 12.Build awareness of water industry-related jobs through student outreach, including but not limited to K-12, community colleges, universities, and other educational institutions, as well as outreach to the public. 13.Promote regional water and wastewater workforce development programs. Oppose initiatives that: 1.Hinder military veterans from using their previous experience, education, and knowledge toward a career in water. 2.Regulate agencies from hiring an experienced, educated, and talented water-industry workforce. Otay Water District Legislative Program 1 | Page Effective Date: 04/01/2026 Legislative Program Policy Guidelines Purpose The Otay Water District’s legislative policy guidelines provide direction to staff and the District’s legislative advocates when they evaluate proposed legislation that may affect the District, other local water agencies, or regional water management and use. Legislation that meets or fails to meet the principles set forth in the guidelines may be supported or opposed accordingly. The guidelines permit the General Manager, District staff, and the District’s legislative advocates to act in a timely manner between Board meetings on issues clearly within the guidelines. While the title of this document suggests these policy guidelines are applicable solely to state and federal legislative issues reviewed by the District and its wholesale supplier the San Diego County Water Authority (Water Authority), increasingly state and federal regulatory and administrative bodies are developing rules, guidelines, white papers, and regulations that can significantly affect the District, its wholesale supplier, and other local water agencies. District staff, including the District’s legislative consultants, often utilize these Legislative Policy Guidelines to provide guidance on emerging and active regulatory and administrative issues. Legislation that does not meet the principles set forth in the guidelines or that has potentially complicated or varied implications will not be acted upon by staff or the legislative advocates in between Board meetings and will instead be presented to the Board directly for guidance in advance of any position being taken. The Water Authority has its own legislative policy guidelines at a wholesale and regional level. District staff continues to evaluate the Water Authority’s policy guidelines that may have a direct impact on the District, and has incorporated into the District’s guidelines. Although the District is a retail agency and is focused on its local service area, there may be issues or policies contained in the Water Authority’s Legislative Policy Guidelines that could benefit or impact the District, the General Manager, District staff, and the District’s legislative advocates may act on those issues, respectively. Attachment C Otay Water District Legislative Program 2 | Page Table of Contents The Otay Water Legislative Policy Program Guidelines include the following categories: I.Binational Issues…………………………………………....……………... Page 3 II.Biological and Habitat Preservation…………………………………….. Page 3 III.Desalination……………………………………………………………….. Page 4 IV.Drought and Extreme Weather Response………………………………. Page 4 V.Energy……………………………………………………………………… Page 5 VI.Financial Issues…………………………………………………………… Page 7 A.Fees, Taxes, and Charges………………………….......................... Page 7 B.Funding…………………………………………………………….. Page 8 C.Rates………………………………………………………………... Page 11D.Water Bonds……………………………………………………….. Page 11 E.Affordability……………………………………………………. Page 12 VII.Governance and Local Autonomy……………………………………….. Page 13 VIII.Imported Water…………………………………………………………... Page 15 A.Bay-Delta……………………………………………………………… Page 15 i.Co-equal Goals……………………………………………………. Page 15 ii.Bay-Delta Conveyance Project…………………………………… Page 16 B.Metropolitan Water District…………………………………………… Page 16 C.Colorado River………………………………………………………… Page 17 D.State Water Project…………………………………………………….. Page 18 IX.Optimize District Effectiveness……………………...…………....………. Page 18 X.Safety, Security, and Information Technology……………....................... Page 19 XI.Water Quality…………………………………………………………….. Page 20 XII.Water Recycling and Potable Reuse……………………………………… Page 21 XIII.Water Rights Modernization……………………………………………… Page 22 XIV.Water Service and Facilities……………………………………………….. Page 23 XV.Water Use and Efficiency………………………………………………….. Page 27 XVI.Workforce Development………………………………………………….. Page 29 Otay Water District Legislative Program 3 | Page I. Binational Issues Support initiatives that: 1. Foster binational cooperation to address drought and climate change on the Colorado River in a way that protects the San Diego/Baja California region’s interests and river supplies. 2. Promote and provide funding for cross-border water supply and infrastructure development projects to serve the San Diego/Baja California border region while protecting local interests. 3. Encourage enhanced cooperation between entities in San Diego and Baja California in the development of supply and infrastructure projects that will benefit the entire border region. 4. Encourage state and federal funding to support collaborative binational projects to improve water quality and protect human health and the environment within the broader San Diego region. 5. Develop and enhance communications and understanding of the interdependence of communities on both sides of the border with the goal of improved cross-border cooperation. Oppose initiatives that: 1. Would usurp local control over the financing and construction of water supply and infrastructure projects in the San Diego/Baja California region. II. Biological and Habitat Preservation Support initiatives that: 1. Support development of comprehensive multispecies habitat conservation plants that anticipate and mitigate project development impacts while preserving representative ecosystems, rather than individual species. 2. Exempt operation, maintenance, and repair of water system facilities from endangered species and other habitat conservation regulations because they provide beneficial cyclical habitat values to declining species and foster biological diversity in California. 3. Provide environmental regulatory certainty for the implementation of existing and proposed long-term water supply programs. 4. Streamline filing of CEQA notices of determination for multicounty water projects by making those notices available on the CEQAnet website through the Governor’s office of Planning and Research. 5. Incorporate an emergency exemption for “take” of a listed species under the state or federal Endangered Species Acts when necessary to mitigate or prevent loss of or damage to life, health, property, or essential public services. 6. Encourage species listings, critical habitat designation, and recovery plans developed pursuant to the state or federal Endangered Species Acts to be consistent with existing interstate compacts, tribal treaties, and other state and federal agreements. 7. Support the eradication of invasive species or the prevention of them from becoming established in watersheds providing water supplies. Oppose initiatives that: 1. Reduce or limit the use of existing water rights or supplies, 2. Restrict the development of future water supplies. Otay Water District Legislative Program 4 | Page 3. Interfere with operating, maintaining, or repairing existing water conveyance and storage facilities. 4. Impose endangered species or habitat conservation requirements that restrict the operation, maintenance, or repair of public water supply, conveyance, treatment, or storage facilities. 5.Provide for after-the-fact reduction in quantity or quality of a public water supply due to new restrictions on the operation or use of water supply facilities unless funding for alternate sources of water is provided. 6. Impose a “utility user fee,” or “surcharge,” on water for the purposes of financing open space/habitat preservation, restoration, or creation. III.Desalination Support initiatives that:1. Provide funding for seawater desalination studies and facilities.2. Recognize and support the development of seawater desalination as a critical new water supply for the state, including San Diego County.3.Streamline permitting of desalination facilities.4.Preserve and protect potential seawater desalination sites and existing coastal facilities,including intake and discharge infrastructure that could be used or reused by a seawaterdesalination facility. 5.Ensure that desalination intake and discharge regulations are science-based, considering site-specific conditions and recognizing that not all technologies or mitigation strategies arefeasible or cost-effective at every site.6.Incorporate seawater desalination as part of a slate of long-term infrastructure projects to support the Colorado River. IV.Drought and Extreme Weather Response Support initiatives that:1.Ensure the District and other local agencies, including the Water Authority and San Diego County water agencies, including ratepayers, receive the water supply benefits of investments in water supply. 2. Allow local agencies to achieve compliance with emergency or nonemergency drought regulations or objectives through a combination of water conservation measures and development and implementation of water supply sources that are not derived from the Bay- Delta, and credit these investments to the agencies and ratepayers making them. 3.Allow local agencies to account for all water supplies available during droughts and other events when calculating the water supply shortage level. Otay Water District Legislative Program 5 | Page 4.Create a process for the development and implementation of emergency drought declarations and regulations that recognize variations among communities, regions, and counties with respect to their abilities to withstand the impacts and effects of drought. 5. Recognize variations among communities, regions, and counties with respect to their abilities to withstand the impacts and effects of droughts and ensure that any temporary or permanent statutory or regulatory direction for improving water-use efficiency to meet statutory or regulatory goals or standards is focused on regional achievement of objectives rather than a one-size-fits-all approach. 6. Unlock federal and state funding to supplement state and local recovery efforts in areas affected by extreme weather. 7. Support and encourage the transfer and storage of water during both emergency and non- emergency conditions to reduce the impact of drought. Oppose initiatives that: 1.Disincentivize or impede water agencies from making investments to maximize the potential for recycled water, potable reuse, desalination, and other drought-resilient water supplies. 2.Create a “one-size-fits-all” approach to emergency drought declarations and regulations that ignores variations among communities, regions, and counties and the investments their ratepayers made to improve their ability to withstand the impacts and effects of drought and climate change. 3. Hinder federal and state funding to supplement state and local recovery efforts in areas affected by extreme weather. V.Energy Support initiatives that: 1.Provide opportunities for reduced energy rates for the District and other local water agencies. 2. Provide protection to the District and other local water agencies from energy rate increases and rate relief for the District and water agencies. 3. Provide funding, including state and federal grants, for in-line hydro-electric, solar, wind, battery storage, biogas, cogeneration, nanogrids, microgrids, closed-loop pumped storage facilities, and other renewable energy generation or storage technology as means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and energy cost. 4. Promote funding for the use of renewable energy in the operation of District facilities. 5. Prohibit investor-owned utilities from implementing rate changes that undercut the financial viability of renewable energy facilities obligated under long-term Power Purchase Agreements. 6.Provide greater flexibility in the utilization of the District’s facilities for electrical generation and distribution and acquisition of electricity and natural gas. 7.Provide the District with greater flexibility in the licensing, permitting, interconnection, construction, and operation of its existing and potential in-line hydroelectric, solar, wind, Otay Water District Legislative Program 6 | Page battery, nanogrid, microgrid, closed-loop pumped-energy storage projects, and other renewable generation or storage technology. 8.Make SWP power available for all water projects that reflect proportional payments made by member agencies. 9.Promote the classification of electricity generated by in-line hydroelectric and closed-loop pumped-energy storage facilities as environmentally sound. 10. Promote the expansion of closed-loop pumped-energy storage facilities to provide clean and environmentally sound energy resources that provide electric reliability and resiliency, especially during times of potential blackouts. 11. Promote the expansion of in-line hydroelectric energy recovery systems at treatment facility discharge systems. 12. Promote the production, purchase, delivery, and use of alternative sources of energy on a wholesale basis. 13. Provide clear statutory, regulatory, or administrative authority for the Water Authority to wheel acquired or produced power to itself, the District, or entities with which the Water Authority is under contract for the purchase, treatment, transport, or production of water. 14.Recognize and monetize all grid ancillary services that pumped hydro-energy storage provides and support fair compensation in the wholesale energy market for such services. 15. Provide timely, efficient, and cost-effective interconnection of energy loads and resources such as solar, in-line hydroelectric, pumped-energy storage, and other renewable energy generation or storage technologies to the electric distribution and transmission grid. 16.Recognize the value of large-scale hydropower and pumped-energy storage facilities in assisting the state to meet its renewable and zero-carbon emission goals of 100% by 2045. Oppose initiatives that: 1.Adversely affect the cost or reliability of energy needed to operate MWD’s facilities, SWP facilities, or the facilities of the Water Authority and the District. 2. Impose greenhouse gas reduction obligations on a public water agency for electricity purchased or produced for the sole purpose of operating its system. 3. Adversely affect the ability of the District or other water agencies in the county to own, operate, and/or construct work for supplying its own facilities with natural gas and electricity. 4.Impede the District or other water agencies in the county, the ability to contract for, deliver, and use natural gas or electricity purchased from the United States, the State of California, and any other public agency or private entity, and provide, sell, exchange, or deliver the gas or electricity to itself, any public agency or private entity. 5.Reduce the District’s ability to always maintain high operational efficiency. 6.Restrict the District’s ability to expand or improve infrastructure or facilities. 7. Restrict or cap future energy demands needed for possible expansion of recycled water, potable reuse, and/or desalination projects. 8.Adversely affect the District’s ability to expand cogeneration or polygeneration at planned or existing facilities. Otay Water District Legislative Program 7 | Page 9. Inhibit the scientific advancement of energy and water-efficient/conserving technologies that may be implemented at the District or other agency facilities. 10. Prevent the District from enhancing energy reliability and independence for its facilities. 11. Do not count or credit qualified renewable energy projects toward the accomplishment and satisfaction of the California Renewables Portfolio Standard objectives. 12. Prohibit the Water Authority from wheeling - or securing statutory, regulatory, or administrative authority necessary to wheel - acquired or produced power to itself, the District, or other entities with which the Water Authority is under contract for the purchase, treatment, transport, or production of water. 13. Result in a lengthy, more complicated, or more costly interconnection of energy loads and resources, such as solar, in-line-hydroelectric, pumped-energy storage, and other renewable energy generation or storage technologies to the electric distribution and transmission grid. VI.Financial Issues A.Fees, Taxes, and Charges Support initiatives that: 1.Require the federal government and the State of California to reimburse special districtsfor all mandated costs or regulatory actions. 2.Give special districts the discretion to cease performance of unfunded mandates. 3. Provide fiscal reform to enhance the equity, reliability, and certainty of special districtfunding.4. Provide incentives for local agencies to work cooperatively, share costs, or resources.5. Provide for the stable, equitable, and reliable allocation of property taxes. 6. Continue to reform workers’ compensation. 7. Promote competition in insurance underwriting for public agencies.8. Produce tangible results, such as water supply reliability or quality improvement.9. Require the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD) to refund or creditto its member agencies revenues collected from them that result in reserves greater than the maximum reserve levels established pursuant to state legislation. Oppose initiatives that: 1. Impose mandated costs or regulatory constraints on local agencies and their customerswithout providing subventions to reimburse local agencies for such costs. 2.Pre-empt the District or local water agencies’ ability to impose or change rates, charges, fees, or assessments.3. Weaken the protections afforded by the District, the Water Authority, or other local wateragencies and their ratepayers under California’s Proposition 1A (November 2, 2004) orProposition 26 (November 2010). 4.Reallocate special districts’ reserves to balance the state budget. 5. Reallocate special district revenues or reserves to fund infrastructure improvements orother activities in cities or counties.6. Establish funding mechanisms that put undue burdens on local agencies or make localagencies de facto tax collectors for the state. Otay Water District Legislative Program 8 | Page 7. Adversely affect the cost of gas and electricity or reduce an organization’s flexibility totake advantage of low peak cost periods.8. Add new reporting criteria, burdensome, unnecessary, or costly reporting mandates toUrban Water Management Plans. 9. Add new mandates to the Department of Water Resources (DWR) to review and approveUrban Water Management Plans beyond those already addressed in DWR guidelines.10.Mandate that water agencies include an embedded energy calculation for their watersupply sources in Urban Water Management Plans or any other water resources planningor master-planning document. 11. Weaken existing project retention and withholding provisions that limit the ability ofpublic agencies to drive contractor performance.12. Establish change order requirements that place an unreasonable burden on local agenciesor raise financial risk associated with public works contracts.13.Impair the Water Authority or its member agencies’ ability to provide reasonable service at reasonable costs to member agencies or to charge all member agencies the same rate foreach class of service consistent with cost-of-service requirements of the law.14.Impair the local water agencies’ ability to maintain reasonable reserve funds and obtainand retain reasonable rates of return on their reserve accounts.15.Mandate a specific rate structure for retail water agencies. 16.Impose a water user fee on water agencies or water users that does not provide acommensurate and directly linked benefit in the local area or region from which the wateruser fee is collected.17.Impose a water user fee for statewide projects or programs, for which the projects orprograms are not clearly defined, the beneficiaries identified, and reasonable costs identified.18.Impose a water user fee to create a state fund that can be used to finance undefined futureprojects and programs.19.Allow the state to retain more than 5% of water user fees for administrative costs.20. Do not restrict the use of water user fees to only the specific purposes for which they are imposed, without any possibility of diversion to meet other fiscal needs of the state orwater users outside of the Water Authority’s service area.21.Impose a “public goods charge” or “water tax” on public water agencies or theirratepayers.22.Impose a fee on water users to repay the principal and interest on a statewide general obligation bond.23. Establish regulatory or permit fees that lack a nexus to the costs of oversight.24. Establish a broad-based user fee that does not support a specific program activity; any feemust provide a clear nexus to the benefit the fee would provide. B.Funding Support initiatives that: 1. Require the federal and state governments to provide subvention to reimburse localgovernments for all mandated costs or regulatory actions. 2. Provide the District, the Water Authority, and other local water agencies with additional forms of cost-effective financing for public facilities. Otay Water District Legislative Program 9 | Page 3. Revitalize the Title XVI federal funding program by converting new authorizations to a competitive grant program with congressional oversight while protecting existing Title XVI authorizations for the San Diego region. 4. Provide the District, Water Authority, and local water agencies with grant funding for public facilities, including developing local water resources and rehabilitation and repair of aging infrastructure, such as dams and pipelines. 5. Provide the District, other local water agencies, and water ratepayers with post-COVID-19 financial relief through a variety of means, including but not limited to direct financial assistance and flexibility in debt management to assist water ratepayers and water suppliers. 6. Authorize financing of water quality, water security, and water supply infrastructure improvement programs. 7. Establish spending caps on the State of California overhead when administering voter- approved grant and disbursement programs. 8. Require disbursement decisions in a manner appropriate to the service in question. 9. Encourage funding infrastructure programs that are currently in place and that have been proven effective. 10. Provide financial incentives for energy projects that increase reliability, diversity, and reduce greenhouse gases. 11. Continue energy rate incentives for the utilization of electricity during low-peak periods. 12. Provide loan or grant programs that encourage water conservation for water users who are least able to pay for capital projects. 13. Provide for population-based distribution of IRWM funds to ensure adequate distribution of grant funding to the San Diego region. 14. Provide for the use of state grant funds for binational projects where the projects benefit water supply or water quality in the San Diego region. 15. Improve and streamline the state’s reimbursement process of IRWM funds. 16. Promote the ability of the Regional Water Management Group to administer state grant funds specifically identified more directly for IRWM Programs. 17. Require the state to rely on the local process for selection and ranking of projects included in an approved IRWM plan. 18. Increase collaboration between stakeholders within the IRWM regions when funding and selecting projects. 19. Provide additional resources and assistance to address unique administrative and implementation challenges associated with underrepresented communities. 20. Advocate for state bonds that provide grant funding for the San Diego County IRWM Program. 21. Provide funding or other incentives for conservation, peak management programs, water recycling, potable reuse, groundwater recovery and recharge, dam repair and rehabilitation, surface water development and management projects, including reservoir management, source water protection, and watershed planning studies and facilities that sustain long-term, reliable water resources. 22. Provide financial incentives to assist in the disposal of concentrate, sludge, and other byproducts created in the water treatment process. Otay Water District Legislative Program 10 | Page 23. Authorize, promote, and provide incentives or credits for development of local drought-resilient water supply projects such as desalination, non-potable recycling, and potable reuse projects. 24. Provide funding for potable reuse demonstration projects and studies. 25. Provide funding for infrastructure improvements at desalination facilities with eligibility for public and private partnerships. 26. Authorize federal and state funding to develop and implement regional or subregional conservation programs, including but not limited to property acquisition, revegetation programs, and watershed plans. 27. Provide state and/or federal funding for the restoration of the Salton Sea. 28. Provide federal and/or state funding to implement actions that address the ecological and water supply management issues of the Lower Colorado River from Lee's Ferry to the southerly international border with Mexico. 29. Provide federal and/or state funding to implement actions that address the ecological and water supply management issues of the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. 30. Permit the use of grant funding for projects implemented under public-private partnerships where the grant provides funding for a public benefit. 31. Require the state agencies responsible for preparing the IRWM grant program guidelines to conduct a comprehensive public outreach process that ensures stakeholders have an opportunity to provide adequate input on the preparation of the guidelines and require that state agencies consider and respond to comments received through the outreach process. 32. Provide incentive, funding, and assistance to water agencies so that they can comply with AB 32 (2006) requirements, and updated statutory requirements imposed pursuant to SB 32 (2016), SB 100 (2018), and SB 1020 (2022). 33. Remove funding caps from state and federal grant and loan funding sources. 34. Streamline federal and state grant reimbursement processes. Oppose initiatives that: 1. Impose additional administrative requirements and/or restrict the District’s, Water Authority’s, or other local water agencies’ ability to finance public facilities through the issuance of long-term debt. 2. Interfere with the responsibility of a region, operating under an Integrated Regional Water Management Plan, for setting priorities and generating projects to be paid from any IRWM accounts and grants. 3. Interfere with the control exercised by the San Diego funding subregion over the use and expenditure of any water-user fee revenues that may be dedicated to the region. 4. Establish IRWM funding criteria that limit local discretion in project selection. 5. Provide for after-the-fact reduction in quantity or quality of a public water supply due to new restrictions on the operation or use of water supply facilities unless funding for alternate sources of water is provided. 6. Impose a "utility user fee" or "surcharge" on water for the purposes of financing open space/habitat preservation, restoration, or creation. Otay Water District Legislative Program 11 | Page C.Rates Support initiatives that: 1.Maintain the authority and requirements of water agencies to establish water rates,consistent with the cost-of-service requirements of the law. 2.Maximize the ability of water agencies to design rate structures to meet local water supply goals and that conform to the cost-of-service requirements of the law.3. Encourage and promote education to elected officials, community/business leaders,organizations, and the public about water sales and conservation, and the District and itswholesaler’s rates and what those rates support, including but not limited to infrastructure, asset management, operations, maintenance, water reliability, and more. Oppose initiatives that: 1.Impair the District’s, the Water Authority’s, or local water agencies’ ability to providereliable service at reasonable costs to member agencies or to charge all member agencies the same or similar rate for each class of service consistent with cost-of-service requirements of the law.2.Undermine or weaken cost-of-service rate-making requirements in existing law.3.Impair the District’s ability to maintain reasonable reserve funds and obtain and retainreasonable rates of return on its reserve accounts. 4.Mandate a specific rate structure for retail water agencies. 5.Prescribe mandatory conservation-based rate structures that override the authority of theboards of directors of local water agencies to set rate structures according to the specificneeds of the water agencies in accordance with cost-of-service requirements. 6.Usurp special district funds, reserves, or other state actions that force special districts to raise rates, fees, or charges. D.Water Bonds Support initiatives that: 1. Provide an equitable share of funding to San Diego County, with major funding categoriesbeing divided by county and funded on a per-capita basis to ensure bond proceeds aredistributed throughout the state in proportion to taxpayers’ payments on the bonds.2. Focus on statewide priorities, including restoration of fish and wildlife habitat, promotion of greater regional and local self-sufficiency, surface storage, and promotion of water-use efficiency.3. Ensure funding from various propositions for local and regional water-related projects.4. Include within IRWM funding money that a region may use over time to develop andrefine its plan and to develop institutional structures necessary to establish and implement the plan. 5.Give primary consideration to funding priorities established by local and regional entitiesthrough their IRWM planning process.6. Ensure the application process for funding is not unnecessarily burdensome and costly,with an emphasis on streamlining the process. 7.Limit state overhead to no more than 5% of bond funding amounts. Otay Water District Legislative Program 12 | Page 8.Place as much emphasis and provide at least as much funding for surface storage as forgroundwater storage.9.Define the “San Diego sub-region” and “San Diego county watersheds” as “those portionsof the westward-flowing watershed of the South Coast hydrologic region situated within the boundaries of San Diego County.”10. Fund emergency and carryover storage projects.11. Consolidate administration of all voter-approved water-related bond funding in one place,preserve existing expertise within the state bureaucracy to manage bond-fundingprocesses, and provide consistent application and evaluation of bond-funding applications. 12. Provide the state’s share of funding for projects that advance the achievement of the co-equal goals of water supply reliability and Bay-Delta ecosystem restoration.13. Provide funding for water infrastructure that resolves conflicts in the state’s water systemand provides long-term benefits to statewide issues, including water supply, reliability,water quality, and ecosystem restoration. Oppose initiatives that: 1. Do not provide an equitable share of funding to San Diego County based on the SanDiego County taxpayers’ proportional contribution to repayment of the bonds.2. Do not provide funding for infrastructure that resolves statewide or regional conflicts of water supplies.3. Do not provide funding that results in net increases in real water supply and water supplyreliability.4. Commit a significant portion of bond funding to projects that do not result in net increasesin real water supply or water supply reliability. E.AffordabilitySupport initiatives that:1. Abide by the Human Right to Water (AB 685, 2012) as set forth in Section 106.3 of theCalifornia Water Code, which reads that, “every human being has the right to safe, affordable, and accessible water adequate for human consumption, cooking, and sanitarypurposes.” The State Water Resources Control Board also has a resolution supporting thisprogram.2. Meet the required standards under Proposition 218 and Proposition 26 in the CaliforniaConstitution regarding proportionality of water rates and cost-of-service provisions. 3.Rely on data-driven analysis of water affordability, including considerations such ascensus data and economically disadvantaged communities. As such, the District supportsthe continued implementation of AB 2334 (2012), which requires the Department ofWater Resources to provide this analysis and place it in California’s Water Plan.4. Support the creation of a low-income water rate assistance program that targets providing financial assistance to low-income ratepayers using federal or existing resources withineither the state General Fund, grants, or cap-and-trade dollars.5.Does not burden water districts with overly prescriptive mandates, including the collectionof water taxes or water rate and boundary data, and qualification of customers for low-income assistance programs. 6. Support the expansion of the low-income assistance programs (LIHWAP) or otherprograms, using existing resources from the federal government, with the state GeneralFund, cap-and-trade dollars, or other state financial resources. Otay Water District Legislative Program 13 | Page 7.Provide the Water Authority, its member agencies, and water ratepayers with a permanentlow-income customer assistance program.8. Encourage and promote education to elected officials, community/business leaders,organizations, and the public about affordability. Oppose initiatives that: 1.Does not target appropriately: Any low-income water rate assistance program must belimited in scope to those individuals. By seeking to do too much, effectiveness could belimited. Examples of this could include extending program resources to domestic wells or water-use efficiency programs.2. Does not have a funding source: Any low-income water rate assistance program needs toidentify specific sources of sustainable funding and does not include a water tax or watersurcharge.3. Does not reinvent the wheel: Any low-income water rate assistance program should be built upon and use the resources of an existing benefit distribution organization orsystem, such as CalFresh, rather than requiring water agencies to add the operatingexpense of creating and administering a new method. VII.Governance and Local Autonomy Support initiatives that:1. Expand local autonomy in governing special district affairs.2. Promote comprehensive long-range planning.3.Assist local agencies in the logical and efficient extension of services and facilities to promote efficiency and avoid duplication of services.4.Streamline the Municipal Service Review Process or set limits on how long servicereviews can take or cost.5.Reaffirm the existing “all-in” financial structure or protect the Water Authority votingstructure based on population. 6.Promote measures that increase broader community and water industryrepresentation/appointments on State decision-making bodies.7. Ensure an open and transparent process for the adoption of regulations, policies, andguidelines.8.Preserve the District and other local water agencies’ ability to establish local priorities for water resources planning decisions.9. Promote cost-effective and reasonably feasible requirements. Oppose initiatives that: 1.Assume the state legislature is better able to make local decisions that affect special district governance.2.Create one-size-fits-all approaches to special district reform.3.Unfairly target one group of local elected officials.4. Usurp local control from special districts regarding decisions involving local specialdistrict finance, operations, or governance. 5. Diminish the power or rights of the District’s governing body to govern the District’saffairs.6.Diminish the power or rights of the District to govern relations with its employees. Otay Water District Legislative Program 14 | Page 7. Modify the committee or board voting structure or District and member agency boardrepresentation on the Water Authority Board of Directors unless the District’s Board hasexpressly authorized such changes.8. Create unfunded local government mandates. 9.Create costly, unnecessary, or duplicative oversight roles for the state government ofspecial district affairs.10. Create new oversight roles or responsibilities for monitoring special district affairs.11. Change the San Diego County Water Authority Act regarding voting structure unless it isbased on population. 12.Shift the liability to the public entity and relieve private entities of reasonable duediligence in their review of plans and specifications for errors, omissions, and other issues.13. Place a significant and unreasonable burden on public agencies, resulting in increased costfor public works construction or their operation.14. Impair the ability of water districts to acquire property or property interests required for essential capital improvement projects.15. Increase the cost of property and right-of-way acquisition or restrict the use of rights-of-way.16. Work to silence the voices of special districts and other local government associations onstatewide ballot measures impacting local government policies and practices, including actions that could prohibit special districts and associations from advocating for positionson ballot measures by severely restricting the private resources used to fund thoseactivities.17.Prescribe mandatory conservation-based or other rate structures that override the authorityof the board of directors to set its rate structure. 18.Circumvent the legislative committee process, such as the use of budget trailer bills, toadvance policy issues, including impacting special districts without full disclosure,transparency, or public involvement.19.Restrict the District’s ability to utilize a demand forecasting methodology that is bestsuited locally and for the region. 20.Impose mandates requiring specific water resources to be developed by water agenciesthat fail to consider local factors such as water reliability, hydrologic and geographiccharacteristics, and the economic, political, public acceptance, and social environment,which can influence the selection of resources and/or fails to consider or conflict withexisting local and regional planning policies and implementation priorities. 21.Limit the District’s ability to establish local priorities for water resources planningdecisions.22. Impede the District’s ability to conduct its critical mission efficiently and effectively, ofalways providing and sustaining critical services, and under all conditions.23. Impose regulations that place unreasonable, inequitable, and costly requirements on local agencies without adequate support and resources. Otay Water District Legislative Program 15 | Page VIII.Imported WaterA.Bay-Deltai.Co-Equal Goals Support initiatives that: 1. Require the Delta Stewardship Council or DWR to provide periodic analyses of the cost of theproposed Bay-Delta improvements to the Legislature and the public.2.Provide conveyance and storage facilities that are cost-effective for the San Diego region’sratepayers and are proportionate to the benefits they receive, improve the reliability and quality of the San Diego region’s water supplies, and protect the Bay-Delta’s ecosystem.3. Continue to support the coequal goals of water supply reliability and environmentalrestoration embodied in the 2009 Delta bill package.4.Improve the ability of water-users to divert water from the Bay-Delta during wet periods,when impacts on fish and the ecosystem are lower, and water quality is higher. 5.Encourage the development of a statewide water transfer market to improve watermanagement and allow more efficient use of available resources.6. Support improved coordination of Central Valley Project and State Water Project (SWP)operations and implementation of water quality requirements that are fair to the users of bothprojects and do not unfairly shift costs to SWP contractors, MWD, or its member agencies. 7. Support administrative/legislative actions and funding to advance the Delta FreshwaterPathway, levee improvements, including levee modernization for the existing Delta leveesystem, levee maintenance programs, including real-time monitoring for the existing Deltalevee system, and secure Delta flood-fighting materials and stockpiles.8. Support state and federal administrative/legislative actions and funding to address the impacts of subsidence on the SWP and prevent future damage caused by unsustainable groundwaterpumping.9. Support continued state ownership and operation of the SWP, including project facilities, as apublic resource.10. Ensure that any reorganization of the State Water Project, including operations and management, preserves the ability for non-State Water Project contractors to access thefacility for transportation of water to a non-State Water Project contractor.11. Authorize and appropriate the federal share of funding for the long-term Bay-Delta solution,including for California EcoRestore.12. Provide the ongoing state share of funding for California EcoRestore. 13. Provide state funding for water quality monitoring in the Bay-Delta. Such legislation shouldnot place a surcharge on water supply exports, nor should it substantively reduce funding forother measures that protect the environment and public health. Oppose efforts that: 1. Impose water user fees to fund ecosystem restoration and other public purposes, non-water-supply improvements in the Bay-Delta that benefit the public at large.2.Transfer operational control of the State Water Project or any of its facilities to theMetropolitan Water District of Southern California (MWD), the State Water Contractors, theCentral Valley Project Contractors, the State and Federal Contractors Water Agency, or any entity comprised of MWD or other water project contractors, or any other special interestgroup. Otay Water District Legislative Program 16 | Page ii.Bay-Delta Conveyance Project Support initiatives that: 1.Are consistent with the Water Authority’s Board of Directors’ July 25, 2019, adopted Bay- Delta project policy principles, including the following:a.On April 29, 2019, Governor Newsom signed Executive Order N-10-19, directing thepreparation of a water resilience portfolio approach that meets the needs ofCalifornia’s communities, economy, and environment through the 21st century,including consideration of multi-benefit approaches that meet multiple needs at once, and a single-user tunnel Bay-Delta project.b. The Water Authority’s Board supports Governor Newsome’s Executive Order N-10-19 and directs staff to inform the Newsome Administration that its support for asingle-tunnel Bay-Delta project is expressly conditioned upon the project costs beingcharacterized by the Department of Water Resources (DWR) as conservation, or supply charges, as similar facilities historically have been defined in the MetropolitanWater District’s (MWD) SWP contract with DWR.c.As reflected in Table 2 of DWR’s Appendix B to Bulletin 132-17, Data andComputation Used to Determine Water Charges, and for which costs are recovered inArticle 22(a) of Delta Water Charge of MWD’s SWP Contract; allow for the exemption of north-of-Delta SWP contractors.2. Support the establishment of an independent and transparent oversight function to monitorand provide regular updates on project implementation progress, including expendituretracking, construction progress, project participants’ contributions, and all other relevantactivities and developments. 3.Allow access to all SWP facilities, including project facilities, to facilitate water transfers. B.Metropolitan Water District Support initiatives that: 1. Provide an appropriate level of transparency in rate setting, accountability, and cost controlover MWD spending.2.Protect and acknowledge the investments the Water Authority has made in the form of itspreferential rights under the Metropolitan Water District Act and allow member agencies torealize the value of their respective and varied investments. 3. Require MWD to refund or credit to its member agencies revenues collected from them thatresult in reserves greater than the maximum reserve levels in the manner established pursuantto state legislation.4.Require MWD to implement actions that advance and support its long-term financial stability,fiscal sustainability, and moderate fluctuations in rates and charges for its member agencies from year to year, in a publicly transparent manner.5. Amend the Metropolitan Water District Act to change voting allocation on its Board ofDirectors based on a member agency’s total financial contribution to MWD, in a manner thatis fair and equal to ratepayers, and similar to the voting allocation method of the CountyWater Authority Act. 6. Ensure fair and equitable cost allocation of projects and programs based on the varying needs and demands of its member agencies. Otay Water District Legislative Program 17 | Page C.Colorado River Support initiatives that: 1. Support federal funding through the Inflation Reduction Act and Bipartisan InfrastructureLaw to fund near-term and long-term conservation projects that protect California’s waterrights and the San Diego region’s river supplies while bolstering the river.2. Support the sustainability of the Colorado River and provide operational flexibility through the development of storage, including in Lake Mead, and through the renegotiation of the newinterim shortage guidelines for the river’s continued operation.3.Advance strategic long-term water management that includes the ability to transfer, share, andexchange supplies both within the state of California and across state lines.4.Incorporate seawater desalination as part of a slate of long-term infrastructure projects to support the Colorado River.5. Recognize the 2003 Quantification Settlement Agreement (QSA) as a model for other Basinstates to follow as a means to implement conservation while protecting agriculture and theenvironment.6. Support implementation and funding of the California Colorado River Water Use Plan, including the Lower Colorado River Multi-Species Conservation Program7. Provide funding for Colorado River salinity control projects and other water qualitymanagement efforts.8. Provide for state and federal authorizations and appropriations of non-fee-based funds toimplement Salton Sea mitigation and the State’s phased approach to restoration in the form of the Salton Sea Management Program consistent with its obligations under Chapters 611, 612,and 613 of the Statutes of 2003.9.Limit the QSA mitigation costs imposed on funding parties to the amount committed inaccordance with the original QSA legislation.10. Allow for the option to create an alternate conveyance route, when technically and financially feasible, for reliable delivery of the Water Authority’s Independent Colorado River watersupplies and integration of compatible partnership projects along the proposed conveyanceroutes as a model of the Governor’s Water Resilience Portfolio approach to watermanagement.11. Support the state’s Salton Sea Management Program under the guidelines of the revised Water Order (Stipulated Order) adopted by the State Water Resources Control Board inNovember 2017.12. Preserve the California Colorado River Board13. Ensure the interests of the members of the California Colorado River Board continue to beaddressed in any state government reorganization. 14. Allow for storage of the Water Authority’s Colorado River water supplies to provideenhanced flexibility with annual transfer volumes, support drought contingency planning, andalign with the Governor’s Water Resilience Portfolio approach to water management. Oppose initiatives that: 1. Impose additional mitigation costs or obligations for the Salton Sea on the non-state parties tothe QSA. Otay Water District Legislative Program 18 | Page 2. Eliminate the California Colorado River Board without providing a comparable structure orforum that ensures the Water Authority and member agencies’ interests in the Colorado Riverare preserved.3.Implement additional long-term conservation projects to address drought and climate change that do not address potential impacts on the environment, specifically the Salton Sea.4. As part of the development of the next set of river management guidelines, impose potentialfuture reductions on just the Lower Basin rather than balancing potential reductions betweenboth the Upper and Lower Basins. D.State Water Project Support initiatives that: 1. Provide for development of a comprehensive state water plan that balances California's competing water needs, incorporates the water resources and infrastructure concepts includedin the Governor’s “Water Resilience Portfolio” and “California’s Water Supply StrategyAdapting to a Hotter, Drier, Future,” and results in a reliable and affordable supply of high-quality water for the State of California and the San Diego region. Oppose initiatives that: 1. Make urban water supplies less reliable or substantially increase the cost of imported waterwithout also improving the reliability and/or quality of the water.2. Revise the Central Valley Project Improvement Act to Jeopardize the Act's environmentalintegrity, compromise State Water Project supply reliability, and/or limit the ability of urban agencies to transfer and/or bank CVP water for use both within and outside the CVP servicearea. 3.Transfer operational control of the State Water Project or any of its facilities to MWD, the State Water Project contractors, Central Valley Project contractors, the State and Federal Contractors Water Agency, any entity comprised of MWD or other water project contractors, or any other special interest group. IX.Optimize District Effectiveness Support initiatives that: 1. Manage District resources in a transparent and fiscally responsible manner.2.Allow utilities to avoid critical peak energy pricing or negotiate energy contracts that save ratepayers money. 3. Develop reasonable Air Pollution Control District engine permitting requirements.4. Reimburse or reduce local government mandates.5. Allow public agencies to continue offering defined benefit plans.6. Result in predictable costs and benefits for employees and taxpayers. 7.Eliminate abuses. 8. Retain local control of pension systems.9.Are constitutional, federally legal, and technically possible.10. Promote cost-effective and reasonably feasible requirements. Otay Water District Legislative Program 19 | Page Oppose initiatives that: 1. Restrict the use of, or reallocate, district property tax revenues to the detriment of specialdistricts.2.Create an unrealistic ergonomic protocol. 3.Micromanage special district operations.4.Balance the state budget by allowing regulatory agencies to increase permitting fees.5.Tax-dependent benefits.6. Require new reporting criteria on the energy intensity involved in water supply. X.Safety, Security, and Information Technology Support initiatives that: 1. Provide funding for information security upgrades to include integrated alarms, access/egress,and surveillance technology. 2. Provide incentives for utilities and other local agencies to work cooperatively, share costs orresources.3. Provide funding for communication enhancements, wireless communications, GIS, or othertechnological enhancements.4. Encourage or promote compatible software systems. 5. Fund infrastructure and facility security improvements that include facility roadway access,remote gate access, and physical security upgrades.6.Protect state, local, and regional drinking water systems from terrorist attack or deliberate actsof destruction, contamination, or degradation.7. Provide funds to support training or joint training exercises to include contingency funding for emergencies and emergency preparedness.8. Equitably allocate security funding based on need, threats, and/or population.9. Encourage or promote compatible communication systems.10. Encourage and promote funding of the Department of Homeland Security Risk Mitigationprograms. 11.Recognizes water agencies as emergency responders in the event of a sudden, unexpectedoccurrence that poses a clear and imminent danger, requiring immediate action to prevent andmitigate loss or impairment of life, health, property, or essential public services due to naturaldisasters (e.g., wildfires, earthquakes), power outages, as well as terrorist and other criminalactivities. 12.Provide state grants or other funding opportunities to support seismic risk assessment andmitigation plans, or to mitigate vulnerabilities.13. Provide funding for projects that enhance security against terrorist acts or other criminalthreats to water operation, services, facilities, or supplies.14. Provide funding for projects that improve the security of the District facilities and operations. 15. Provide funding to support technologies that support remote working, when necessary toprevent loss of or damage to life, health, property, or essential public services. Oppose initiatives that: 1. Create unnecessary, costly, or duplicative security or safety mandates. 2. Require expanded water system descriptions or additional public disclosure of public watersystems details for large water suppliers in Urban Water Management Planning documents,potentially compromising public water systems, and creating a conflict with the Department Otay Water District Legislative Program 20 | Page of Homeland Security’s recommendation to avoid reference to water system details in plans available to the public. XI.Water Quality Support initiatives that: 1.Assure cost-effective remediation and cleanup of contaminants of concern that have impactedgroundwater and surface water.2. Incorporate sound scientific principles in adopting drinking water standards for drinking water concerns.3. Exempt the conveyance, storage, or release of water supplies from regulation as a dischargeunder the Clean Water Act and other water quality control laws.4.Revise NPDES standards and procedures to facilitate inland discharge and the use of recycledwater. 5. Establish appropriate quality standards, testing procedures, and treatment processes foremerging contaminants.6.Alter the definition of “lead free” to reduce the permissible amount of lead in fixtures,plumbing, and pipe fittings to be installed for the delivery of drinking water.7.Exempt purified wastewater from regulation as a discharge under the Clean Water Act. 8. Implement source control for the management and prevention of contamination byconstituents of emerging concern.9. Provide the necessary funding for research on the occurrence, treatment, health effects, andenvironmental cleanup related to contamination of drinking water sources.10. Implement and fund the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board’s triennial review of water quality standards.11. Provide funding and support for Colorado River salinity control projects and other waterquality management efforts.12.Direct the state’s participation or assistance in water quality issues related to or threateningthe Colorado River water source. 13.Streamline permitting of facilities constructed to improve water quality.14. Ensure consistent application of the law by the State Water Resources Control Board and thenine regional water quality control boards. Oppose initiatives that: 1. Eliminate the State Water Resources Control Board and/or the nine regional water qualitycontrol boards without ensuring the functions and expertise of the boards are maintained inany reorganized entity.2. Regulate the conveyance, storage, or release of water supplies as discharge under the CleanWater Act and other water quality control laws. 3. Make water suppliers financially and legally responsible for the mitigation of pollutioncontamination by third parties.4. Make water suppliers financially and legally responsible for testing or correcting any waterquality-related issues associated with private property or on-site plumbing systems. Otay Water District Legislative Program 21 | Page XII.Water Recycling and Potable Reuse Support initiatives that: 1. Reduce restrictions on recycled water usage or promote consistent regulation of recycled water projects to reduce impediments to the increased use of recycled water.2.Reduce restrictions on injecting recycled water into basins where there is no direct potableuse.3. Advocate for direct potable reuse.4. Advocate for recycled water use upstream of lakes and reservoirs if protected by urban water runoff protection systems.5. Provide financial incentives for recharge of groundwater aquifers using recycled water.6.Make recycled water regulations clear, consolidated, and understandable to expedite relatedproject permitting.7.Promote recycled water as a sustainable supplemental source of water. 8.Allow the safe use of recycled water.9.Facilitate the development of technology aimed at improving water recycling.10.Increase funding for water recycling projects.11. Support continued funding of the Title XVI Water Reclamation and Reuse Program, includingWater Reclamation and Reuse Projects, the WaterSMART Program, and the Desalination and Water Purification Research Program.12.Increase awareness of the ways recycled water can help address the region’s water supplychallenges.13.Create federal and state incentives to promote recycled water use and production.14. Establish federal tax incentives to support U.S. companies in the development of new water technologies that can lower production costs, address byproducts such as concentrates, andenhance public acceptance of recycled water.15. Establish a comprehensive national research and development, and technology demonstration,program to advance the public and scientific understanding of water recycling technologies toencourage reuse as an alternative source of water supply. 16. Provide incentives for local agencies to work cooperatively, share costs or resources topromote or expand the use of recycled water.17. Further refine emergency regulations to reward local suppliers that have invested in usingrecycled water for landscape irrigation to maintain an incentive to continue expanding areasserved by recycled water. 18. Encourage the use of recycled water in commercial, industrial, institutional, and residentialsettings.19. Recognize and support the development of potable reuse as a critical new water supply.20. Define purified recycled water as a source of water supply and not as waste.21.Mandate the reduction of wastewater discharges to the ocean, absent inclusion of funding to offset the significantly high costs of implementation.22.Authorize local governmental agencies to regulate the discharge of contaminants to the sewercollection system that may adversely affect water recycling and reuse.23.Authorize and facilitate expanded use of local water resources, including water recycling,potable reuse, graywater, and rainwater harvesting (e.g., cisterns and rain barrels), and brackish groundwater.24. Streamline regulatory processes and requirements to encourage and support the developmentof potable reuse and non-potable reuse as a municipal water supply. Otay Water District Legislative Program 22 | Page 25.Recognize that the entire interconnected urban water cycle, as well as public health andsafety, must be taken into consideration in long-term water use efficiency policies,particularly including the unintended consequences of declining flows on water, wastewater,potable reuse, and recycled water systems. 26. Encourage dual plumbing in new development where non-potable recycled water is likely tobe available to enable utilization of recycled water.27. Promote uniform regulatory interpretation of state recycled water system standards.28.Support beneficial revisions to the California Plumbing Code that facilitate recycled watersystems. Oppose initiatives that: 1.Restrict use of recycled water for groundwater recharge.2.Establish new water or recycled water fees solely to recover State costs without alsoproviding some benefit. 3.Limit the ability of local governmental agencies to regulate the discharge of contaminants tothe sewer collection system that may adversely affect water recycling and reuse.4. Establish unreasonable regulatory requirements or fees for the safe use of recycled water,which may unreasonably impede or create a disincentive for its further development.5.Mandate the reduction of wastewater discharges to the ocean, absent inclusion of funding to offset the significantly high costs of implementation.6.Establish water use efficiency standards, which do not reflect the impact that higher TDSrecycled water has on the usage rates to reduce salt loading in areas of use. XIII. Water Rights Modernization Support initiatives that: 1.Protect existing water rights, water-rights priority, and local agencies’ ability to use waterresources for their present and future water supply reliability and environmental well-being.2. Support funding for data modernization tools needed to monitor and enforce water rights priorities and protect State Water Project supplies, including funding and technical assistanceto fully implement existing laws requiring metering of diversions and potential legislation orregulation aimed at providing real-time water diversion data.3. Support voluntary water transfers and exchanges as the means to reallocate water supplies,including for the environment, to meet water supply reliability goals and achieve co-equal goals of the Bay-Delta and interstate solutions to limited Colorado River supplies.4. Support more flexible regulations to enhance the ability to divert water in times of high stormrunoff and snow melt while protecting existing water rights and the environment.5. Support increases in civil penalties to deter violations of State Board orders, includingcurtailment orders. Otay Water District Legislative Program 23 | Page XIV.Water Services and Facilities Support initiatives that: 1. Provide funding to implement actions identified in the California Water Action Plan to lay a solid fiscal foundation for implementing near-term actions, including funding for waterefficiency projects, wetland and watershed restoration, groundwater programs, conservation,flood control, and integrated water management, and result in a reliable supply of high-qualitywater for the San Diego region.2. Promote the coordination and integration of local, state, and federal climate change policies and practices to the greatest extent feasible.3.Fund or otherwise facilitate ongoing implementation of the Quantification SettlementAgreement.4. Provide reliable water supplies to meet California’s short and long-term needs.5. Promote desalination pilot studies and projects. 6.Encourage feasibility studies of water resource initiatives.7. Increase funding for infrastructure and grant programs for construction, modernization, orexpansion of water, wastewater treatment, reclamation facilities, and sewer systems, includingwater recycling, groundwater recovery and recharge, surface water development projects, andseawater desalination. 8.Fund enhancements to water treatment, recycling, and other facilities to meet increasedregulations.9. Mandate uniform or similar regulations and procedures by state agencies in the processingand administering of grants and programs.10. Streamline grant application procedures. 11. Reduce regulations and other impediments for willing sellers and buyers to engage in watertransfer agreements.12. Promote or assist voluntary water transfers between willing buyers and willing sellers andmove those transactions through without delay.13. Streamline the permitting and approval process for desalination and other water-related facilities and implement water transfers that will improve water management.14.Establish reasonable statewide approaches to sewer reporting standards.15.Generate greater efficiency, better coordinate program delivery, and eliminate duplication inprograms for source water protection without lessening the focus on public health of thestate’s Drinking Water Program. 16.Target efforts to fix specific issues with water supplies within the state’s Drinking WaterProgram.17. Establish federal tax incentives to support U.S. companies in the development of newdesalination technologies that can lower production costs, eliminate or reduce impingement orentrainment, reduce energy use, and enhance public acceptance of desalinated water. 18. Establish a comprehensive national research and development, and technology demonstrationprogram to advance the scientific understanding of desalination to expand its use as analternative source of water supply.19. Require the State Water Resources Control Board to exercise its authority, ensure robustfunding, and implement the Salton Sea mitigation and restoration plan, meet state obligations, and work with QSA stakeholders to find workable solutions to ensure the continuation of IIDwater transfers. Otay Water District Legislative Program 24 | Page 20. Support solutions to water supply issues that address common challenges, provide a comprehensive approach that is fair to all users, balance the needs of urban and rural communities, and take into consideration the interests of all stakeholders as well as the impact to the environment. 21. Further refine emergency drought regulations to eliminate a cap on credits and adjustments so as not to impose undue burden, financial or otherwise, on communities that have already invested in water conservation, development of new water sources, storage, or loss prevention. 22. Provide funding for water infrastructure development, infrastructure security, and rehabilitation and replacement projects that benefit ratepayers. 23. Provide funding for habitat preservation programs that address impacts resulting from the construction or operation of water system facilities. 24. Provide funding for projects that enhance security against terrorist acts or other criminal threats to water operation, services, facilities, or supplies. 25. Provide incentives that encourage contractors to recycle or reduce waste associated with the construction of water facilities. 26. Improve the local agencies’ efforts to maintain and protect their property, rights of way, easements, pipelines, and related facilities and minimize liability to local agencies and the District. 27. Protect the local agencies’ properties from restrictions when surrounding properties are incorporated into preservation areas. 28. Encourage the use of current and emerging technologies for monitoring and assessing the condition of large-diameter pipelines. 29. Encourage water suppliers to develop and execute asset management programs that include visual inspections, internal/external inspections, asset condition assessments, corrosion mitigation, and risk analysis in a manner that recognizes the individuality and uniqueness of each water supplier and its systems. 30. Improve the District’s efforts to maintain and protect its property, rights of way, easements, pipelines, and related facilities and minimize liability to the District. 31. Protect the District, other agencies, and the Water Authority properties from restrictions when surrounding properties are incorporated into preservation areas. 32. Provide funding to water agencies for the voluntary retrofit of facilities for on-site generation of chlorine. 33. Provide funding for water supplier asset management programs that involve active monitoring, repair, or replacement of physical assets and infrastructure, which includes pipes, valves, facilities, equipment, and other infrastructure. 34. Provide for restrictions on price gouging during public safety power shutoff events and for at least 72 hours following restoration of power. 35. Provide that de-energization or public safety power shutoff events may be included as a condition constituting a state of emergency or local emergency. 36. Provide a tax exemption for the sale of, or storage, use, or consumption of, backup electrical resources, which are purchased for exclusive use by a city, county, special district, or other entity of local government during a de-energization or public safety power shutoff event. 37. State that the use of alternative power sources (such as generators) by essential public services during de-energization or public safety power shutoff events shall not be limited by any state or local regulations or rules. Otay Water District Legislative Program 25 | Page 38. Recognize the critical role the District, local agencies, and the Water Authority play as PublicSafety Partners in Public Safety Power Shutoff events and other natural or man-madedisasters. Further recognizes the importance of the agency’s ability to provide immediate andsustained response for extended periods of time. 39. Provide financial support to local projects designed to mitigate or adapt to potential negativeimpacts of climate change on water supply reliability.40. Investigate and provide financial support to projects designed to mitigate potential negativeimpacts of climate change on water supply reliability. Oppose initiatives that: 1.Restrict local control and discretion over water facilities, asset management, and facilityoperations.2.Make urban water supplies less reliable or substantially increase the cost of imported waterwithout also improving the reliability and/or quality of the water. 3. Create unrealistic or costly water testing or reporting protocols.4. Disproportionately apportion the cost of water.5. Create undo hurdles for seawater desalination projects.6. Create unreasonable or confusing sewer reporting standards.7.Create administrative or other barriers to sales between willing buyers and willing sellers that delay water transfers.8.Create a broad-based user fee that does not support a specific local program activity orbenefit; any fee must provide a clear nexus to the benefit local ratepayers or local watersupplies from the establishment that charges or fees would provide.9. Create unrealistic or costly to obtain water quality standards for potable water, recycled water, or storm water runoff.10. Change the focus of the state’s Drinking Water Program or weaken the parts of the programthat work well.11. Lessen the focus on public health of the state’s Drinking Water Program.12. Impose undue burden, financial or otherwise, on communities that have already invested in water conservation, development of new water sources, storage, or loss prevention.13. Impose additional mitigation costs or obligations for the Salton Sea on the non-state parties tothe Quantification Settlement Agreement.14.Impair the District and other local water agencies’ ability to provide and operate the necessaryfacilities for a safe, reliable, and operational flexible water system. 15. Limit local agencies’ sole jurisdiction over planning, design, routing, approval, construction,operation, or maintenance of water facilities.16. Restrict local agencies’ ability to respond swiftly and decisively to an emergency thatthreatens to disrupt water deliveries or restricts the draining of pipelines or other facilities inemergencies for repairs or preventive maintenance. 17.Authorize state and federal wildlife agencies to control, prevent, or eradicate invasive speciesin a way that excessively interferes with the operations of water supplies.18.Prohibit or in any way limit the ability of local agencies from making full beneficial use ofany water, wastewater, or recycling facility and resource investments.19. Prohibit the use of alternative contract procurement methods that can be utilized in the construction of water facilities.20. Shift the risks of indemnity for damages and defense of claims from contractors to theDistrict. Otay Water District Legislative Program 26 | Page 21.Impair local agencies’ efforts to acquire property or property interests required for essentialcapital improvement projects or acquisition of property to meet pipeline water drain-downneeds for existing facilities.22. Increase the cost of property and right-of-way acquisition. 23.Restrict the District’s use of public rights of way or increase the cost of using public rights ofway.24. Restrict the transfer of property acquired for purposes of environmental mitigation orenvironmental mitigation credits to other public or private entities for long-term management.25. Establish prescriptive leak loss control requirements for the operation, maintenance, and asset management of water conveyance and distribution systems, which fail to consider full life-cycle costing.26.Establish meter testing requirements for source water meters that fail to consider industrystandards and cost-effectiveness.27.Limit the discretion of the District from protecting the security and privacy of comprehensive inventories of all assets, which include infrastructure location, condition, performance, anduseful life.28. Impair local agencies’ ability to execute the planning, design, and construction of projectsusing their own employees.29. Limit the autonomy of discretion of water suppliers to develop and execute asset management inspection programs that include visual inspections, internal/external inspections, assetcondition assessments, and corrosion mitigation in a manner that recognizes the individualityand uniqueness of each water supplier and its systems.30. Authorize air quality management districts or other regulatory bodies to adopt or maintainrules that would limit or prohibit a local government entity’s use of a state and/or federally compliant natural gas-powered generator during a de-energization or public safety powershutoff event.31. Would inhibit the District from fulfilling its critical role as a Public Safety Partner and makingimmediate and sustained response in a Public Safety Power Shutoff event or other natural orman-made disasters, such as the CARB Advanced Clean Fleet regulation. 32. Would inhibit the District from fulfilling its critical role as an essential service provider fromprocuring and operating fleets, which meet the needs to perform routine and emergencymaintenance of water and wastewater systems, such as the CARB Advanced Clean Fleetregulation.33.Require the incorporation of climate change considerations into regional and local water management planning that does not provide flexibility to the local and regional water agencies in determining the climate change impact and identification of adaptation and mitigation measures. 34. Impose top-down “one-size-fits-all” climate change mandates that fail to account for hydrological, meteorological, economic, and social variation across the state and/or that fail to incorporate local and regional planning and implementation priorities and protocols. Otay Water District Legislative Program 27 | Page XV.Water Use and Efficiency Support initiatives that: 1. Provide funding for incentives for water-use efficiency and water conservation programs,including water-efficient devices, practices, and demonstration projects and studies.2.Encourage the installation of water-efficient fixtures in new and existing buildings.3. Promote the environmental benefits of water-use efficiency and water conservation.4.Enhance efforts to promote water-use efficiency awareness. 5.Offer incentives for landscape water-efficient devices, including, but not limited to ETcontrollers and soil moisture sensors.6. Develop landscape retrofit incentive programs and/or irrigation retrofit incentive programs.7. Permit or require local agencies to adopt ordinances that require or promote water-efficientlandscapes for commercial and residential developments. 8.Create tax incentives for citizens or developers who install water-efficient landscapes.9.Create tax incentives for citizens who purchase high-efficiency clothes washers, dual-flushand high-efficiency toilets, and irrigation controllers above the state standards.10. Expand community-based water-use efficiency and education programs.11.Facilitate and encourage the use of rainwater-capture systems, i.e., rain barrels, cisterns, etc., and alternative water sources, i.e., air conditioner condensate for use in irrigation.12. Develop incentives for developers and existing customers to install water-efficient landscapesin existing developments or new construction.13.Encourage large state users to save water by implementing water-efficient technologies in allfacilities, both new and retrofit. 14.Encourage large state water users to save water outdoors.15. Educate all Californians on the importance of water and the need to conserve, manage, andplan for future needs.16.Encourage technological research targeted to more efficient water use.17.Give local agencies maximum discretion in selecting water-use efficiency and conservation programs that work for their customers and the communities they serve.18.Require the Department of Water Resources to implement a uniform statewide turf rebatesubsidy or incentive program.19.Restrict Property Owner Associations from forbidding the use of California native plants,other low water use plants, mulch, artificial turf, or semi-permeable materials in well- maintained landscapes.20.Restrict Property Owner Associations from forbidding retrofits of multiple-unit facilities forthe purpose of submetering, if feasible.21. Ensure plumbing codes and standards that facilitate the installation and/or retrofit of water-efficient devices. 22. Establish standards for the utilization of high-efficiency commercial and residential clotheswashers.23.Provide federal tax-exempt status for water-use efficiency rebates, consistent with income taxtreatment at the state level.24. Encourage the use of graywater where it complies with local guidelines and regulations and is cost-effective.25. Provide incentives, funding, and assistance to water agencies so that they can meet the waterdemand management measure requirements in the Urban Water Management Planning Act. Otay Water District Legislative Program 28 | Page 26. Provide incentives, funding, and other assistance to facilitate water-use efficiencypartnerships with the energy efficiency sector.27. Provide incentives, funding, and other assistance where needed to facilitate markettransformation and gain wider implementation of water-efficient indoor and outdoor technologies and practices.28.Recognize local control in determining water use efficiency criteria, such as the impact ofrecycled water salinity on irrigation use and efficiency for the application of non-potablerecycled water.29. Encourage reasonable tracking of water use and improved efficiency in the Commercial, Industrial, and Institutional (CII) sector.30. Recognize local control in determining how to meet an overall efficient water use goal, basedon the combined efficient indoor use, outdoor use, and leak loss, as established under thecriteria provided for in statute.31.Ensure accurate and streamlined reporting of implementation of water-use efficiency and conservation measures.32.Promote statewide implementation of water-use efficiency best management practices anddemand management measures as defined in the Urban Water Management Planning Act. Oppose efforts that: 1.Weaken federal or state water-efficiency standards.2. Introduce additional analytical and reporting requirements that are time-consuming for localagencies to perform and result in additional costs to consumers, yet yield no water savings.3.Permit Property Owners Associations to restrict low water use plants, mulch, artificial turf, orsemi-permeable materials in landscaping. 4.Repeal cost-effective efficiency standards for water-using devices.5.Repeal cost-effective efficiency standards for water-using devices.6.Create stranded assets by establishing long-term demand management, water-use efficiency,and water supply requirements that are inconsistent with the Urban Water ManagementPlanning Act. 7.Prescribe statewide mandatory urban and agricultural water-use efficiency practices,including, but not limited to, methods, measures, programs, budget allocation, and designationof staff dedicated to water conservation programs, that override the authority of the boards ofdirectors of local water agencies to adopt management practices that are most appropriate forthe specific needs of their water agencies. 8. Mandate regulation of the CII Sector in a manner that is discriminatory, or sets unachievableBest Management Practices or compliance targets, or would otherwise impair economicactivity or the viability of the CII sector.9. Mandate that water agencies include an embedded energy calculation for their water supplysources in the Urban Water Management Plan or any other water resource planning or master planning document.10. Require redundant reporting of water conservation-related information. Otay Water District Legislative Program 29 | Page XVI. Workforce Development Support initiatives that: 1. Advocate for local, regional, and state programs that support a high-performing workforce and increase the talent pool for water agencies. 2. Advocate for military veterans in the water industry workforce to ensure that veterans receive appropriate and satisfactory credit towards water and wastewater treatment system certifications in California for work experience, education, and knowledge gained in military service. 3. Lower employment barriers for military veterans and transitioning military and that sustain vital water and wastewater services for the next generation. 4. Recruit and support veterans and transitioning military through internships, cooperative work experiences, and other resources. 5. Recruit and support underserved communities in the water industry through internships, cooperative work experiences, and other resources. 6. Advocate and encourage candidate outreach and recruitment in relation to mission-critical job categories in water and wastewater. 7. Ensure advanced water treatment operators and distribution system operators of potable reuse and recycled water facilities have a career advancement path as certified water and/or wastewater treatment plant operators. 8. Increase the number of educational institutions that provide water-industry related training and related program criteria, including but not limited to trades, certifications, and degrees. 9. Increase the talent pool of future water industry workers through educational programs, internships, and other resources. 10. Provide funding to educational institutions, water agencies, and workforce students regarding careers in the water industry. 11. Develop qualified candidates for positions in the water industry. 12. Build awareness of water industry-related jobs through student outreach, including but not limited to K-12, community colleges, universities, and other educational institutions, as well as outreach to the public. 13. Promote regional water and wastewater workforce development programs. Oppose initiatives that: 1. Hinder military veterans from using their previous experience, education, and knowledge toward a career in water. 2. Regulate agencies from hiring an experienced, educated, and talented water-industry workforce. Brownstein's Anticipated 2026 Legislative and Regulatory Priorities for Otay WD_FINAL DRAFT.docx www.bhfs.com Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP 916.594.9700 main 1415 L Street, Suite 800 Sacramento, California 95814 Memorandum Summary The California legislature reconvened for the 2026 calendar year of the 2025-2026 legislative session on January 5, 2026. Senator Monique Limon (D, Santa Barbara) was elected as the new Senate President pro-tempore in November of 2025, succeeding Senator Mike McGuire (D, Healdsburg). With a new pro-tempore, came new Senate Chairpersons. Senator Josh Becker was appointed Chair of the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee, replacing Senator Limon. Senator Maria Elena Durazo (D, Los Angeles) retained her position as chair of the Senate Local Government Committee. Assemblymembers Diane Papan (D, San Mateo) and Juan Carrillo (D, Palmdale) retained their chair positions of the Assembly Water, Parks, and Wildlife Committee and Assembly Local Government Committee, respectively. This second year of the 2025-26 session, legislators in both houses remain subject to the two-year limit of 35 bills each. Between both houses of the legislature, close to 1800 bills were introduced by the February 20 bill introduction deadline. This is 550 fewer bills than last year, and the lowest number introduced in the last twenty years. With the bill-introduction deadline behind us and intent and spot bills being amended, we can now anticipate this year's legislative and regulatory priorities for Otay Water District. 1. Water Affordability For the previous few sessions, Otay’s identified top priority has been affordability. Otay has sponsored and supported various proposals to protect water rates and service-related fees and charges from costly Proposition 218 litigation, and to implement low-income household rate assistance (LIRA) programs. While affordability remains a concern for legislators, few proposals have been introduced. However, one key proposal to further protect agencies from Proposition 218 litigation is moving forward. •AB 2180 (Ward) - Proposition 218. Proportional Cost of Service o This bill would clarify what proportionality means in the context of rates, providing clarity and predictability for water agencies in developing and adopting DATE: March 12, 2026 TO: Board of Directors and General Manager Jose Martinez, Otay Water District FROM: Baltazar Cornejo, Policy Advisor, Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLC RE: 2026 Anticipated Legislative and Regulatory Priorities Attachment D 2 Brownstein's Anticipated 2026 Legislative and Regulatory Priorities for Otay WD_FINAL DRAFT.docx Constitutionally-sound rates. Would codify the Court of Appeal’s framework in Dreher v. LADWP. o This bill is sponsored by the Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) and was developed by Otay Water District staff and a working group of attorneys representing water agencies. 2.State Budget Funding Governor Gavin Newsom’s 2026–27 and his final January budget proposal acknowledges that California faces a state deficit in the current fiscal year. However, the proposal is characteristically optimistic regarding the size of the deficit and remains equally ambitious in outlining how the state will deploy resources across key priorities, including agency consolidation, long-term debt repayment, and legacy projects during the governor’s final year in office. The budget reports a $2.9 billion deficit, described as a “modest shortfall” by Department of Finance (DOF) staff. This estimate differs markedly from the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) projection of a $17.6 billion deficit—a gap of $14.7 billion. According to department staff, the governor’s proposal incorporates $31.5 billion in additional revenues not included in the LAO forecast and excludes the risk of a stock market downturn that the LAO elected to factor into its analysis. Overall, the state budget totals $348.9 billion, including $248.3 billion in general fund expenditures and $23 billion in total reserves. According to the governor, the budget is balanced for the 2026–27 fiscal year. Still, the state faces a projected $22 billion deficit in the following fiscal year, with additional shortfalls anticipated in subsequent years. The governor’s proposed budget continues to build on investments for a clean and resilient future, supporting the deployment of zero-emission vehicles and addressing climate concerns related to extreme heat, droughts, flooding, and wildfires. Below is a breakdown of investments from recent bond issuances and spending adjustments for various agencies, departments, and boards. Advance Clean Fleets (ACF) and Zero Emission Vehicles (ZEV) The proposed budget provides targeted funding to incentivize ZEV adoption and to support additional actions to accelerate the deployment of the required infrastructure. The incentive includes $200 million in one-time special funds and statutory language to establish a new light-duty ZEV incentive program. It also includes $1.7 million in ongoing funding to fund 10 positions to implement the state and local government elements of ACF. Proposition 4 Climate Bond Spending Plan In the second year of climate-bond spending, the governor proposes to allocate $2.1 billion in the following categories: ●$792 million for Safe Drinking Water, Drought, Flood, and Water Resilience. Of that amount, the items below are highlighted for relevance: 3 Brownstein's Anticipated 2026 Legislative and Regulatory Priorities for Otay WD_FINAL DRAFT.docx ○$232 million for flood control projects to evaluate, repair, rehabilitate, reconstruct, expand, or replace levees, weirs, bypasses, and facilities of the State Plan of Flood Control, projects in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and projects funded through the Flood Control Subventions Program. ○$173 million for drinking water projects serving small or disadvantaged communities or tribes. ○$68.8 million to support repairs to existing or new water conveyance projects. ●$314 million for Wildfire and Forest Resilience. Of that amount, the items below are highlighted for relevance: ○$58 million in local fire prevention grants to fund wildfire prevention and hazardous fuels reduction projects and activities in and near wildfire-threatened communities. ○$19.6 million fire resilience funding for technical and financial assistance to help homeowners in wildfire-vulnerable areas to implement defensible space mitigations, including the creation of an ember-resistant (Zone 0) within five feet of a physical property. ○$15.2 million for wildfire risk reduction grants related to electrical transmission, in coordination with the Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety, to support cooperation in advancing fuel reduction around wildfire-vulnerable communities to reduce wildfire ignitions. ●$107 million for Coastal Resilience ●$241 million for Extreme Heat Mitigation ●$199 million for Biodiversity and Nature-Based Solutions ●$89 million for Climate Smart Agriculture ●$35 million for Outdoor Access ●$326 million for Clean Air Energy Cap and Investment The budget proposes the following Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) expenditure plan, reflecting last year’s changes to the Cap-and-Invest (formerly known as Cap-and-Change) Program, which created three tiers of expenditures, with Tier 1 fully funded first, followed by Tiers 2 and 3: ●Tier 1—Manufacturing Tax Credit, State Operations, State Responsibility Area Backfill, and the Legislative Counsel Climate Bureau. ●Tier 2—$1 billion for high-speed rail and $1 billion for discretionary funding. ●Tier 3—Previously, percentage-based continuous appropriations are now capped dollar amounts, with proportionally related allocations that adjust downwards as necessary to ensure Tiers 1 and 2 are fully funded. 4 Brownstein's Anticipated 2026 Legislative and Regulatory Priorities for Otay WD_FINAL DRAFT.docx •AB 35 (Alvarez): Proposition 4 Climate Bond Act APA Exemption o Exempts the Safe Drinking Water, Wildfire Prevention, Drought Preparedness, and Clean Air Bond Act of 2024, approved by the voters as Proposition 4, from the Administrative Procedures Act (APA). o ACWA has adopted a “support” position. 3. Wildfire Prevention, Emergency Management, and Liability Last year, legislators introduced and debated multiple bills to address concerns raised by the wildfires that devastated Southern California. In response, ACWA developed a dedicated webpage with resources to assist members impacted by the wildfires, along with a fact sheet for advocacy purposes, which can be viewed here. ACWA and allied local government associations were heavily engaged in addressing concerns from their memberships regarding various wildfire-related bills that would have imposed costly mandates. In response, ACWA has introduced its own sponsored legislation to pre- empt a similar fight this year. •SB 1153 (Caballero): Public Water Agency Roles in Wildfire Response. o Starting January 1, 2028, this bill would require urban retail water suppliers in high fire risk zones to incorporate specific wildfire response procedures into their preparedness plans. These plans must include actions to reduce the impact of wildfires on water systems and drinking water supply. Failing to meet these requirements would be a misdemeanor. o The bill states that failure to maintain water supply during a wildfire is not a substantial cause of fire damages, nor is wildfire spread considered a risk inherent to the water system's design. o This bill is sponsored by ACWA. •AB 2013 (Bennett): Fire risk areas: water suppliers: emergency preparedness plan. o This bill proposes that water suppliers serving more than 100 customers in these fire hazard zones develop an emergency preparedness plan. This plan must address responses to red flag warnings, extreme weather events, and significant power outages, ensuring adequate water supply for both customer service and firefighting activities. The plan should also include an assessment identifying necessary water pumps to maintain water services. o ACWA has adopted an “oppose unless amended” position. •SB 1417 (Perez): Disaster preparedness: public water systems. o This bill requires disaster-impacted water systems to conduct assessments within six months of a disaster, involving local county coordination before receiving state funding. This assessment should determine if consolidating water systems benefit affected residents and include specified components. It also mandates transparency, public input, and bilingual translation services during the assessment process, with non- compliance being a misdemeanor. 5 Brownstein's Anticipated 2026 Legislative and Regulatory Priorities for Otay WD_FINAL DRAFT.docx o ACWA has adopted an “oppose unless amended” position. •SB 1001 (Archuleta): Water utility workers: identification card program. o This bill would require the Office of Emergency Services to create an identification program for water utility workers, giving them access to restricted areas during disasters for critical tasks like ensuring public health and restoring water services. The application for these ID cards must be signed by a water utility representative and certified under penalty of perjury. The office may charge a fee for ID cards to cover program costs. While specific officers can close off areas, they cannot prevent ID holders from entering, unless entry is deemed unsafe or disruptive. o ACWA has adopted a “favor if amended” position and is internally working through membership concerns for amendments to offer. 4.Governance This section includes bills introduced to provide local agencies with assistance in their governance. •AB 259 (Rubio): Open meetings o Current law authorizes, until January 1, 2026, members of a legislative body of a local agency to use teleconferencing without identifying each teleconference location in the notice and agenda of the meeting, and without making each teleconference location accessible to the public, under specified conditions and with limits on the number of times individual governing body members utilize teleconferencing each year. o This is a California Special District Association (CSDA)-sponsored bill that ACWA supports as it would remove the sunset clause and make these teleconferencing provisions permanent. o This bill was placed on hold last year when part of its provisions were amended into SB 707 (Durazo, 2025). The bill passed out of the Assembly in January and is now pending in the Senate. •SB 239 (Arreguin): Open meetings: teleconferencing: subsidiary body o This is an ACWA-favored bill sponsored by California State Association of Counties (CSAC) to allow subsidiary bodies to use alternative teleconferencing provisions, requiring public notice, agenda posting, and camera visibility during meetings accessible online. It would also mandate listing remote participants in meeting minutes and require initial and annual authorization by a majority vote. A 2/3 approval is needed for subsidiary bodies to use these provisions, which do not apply to bodies overseeing police, elections, or budgets. Elected officials on such bodies must meet specific agenda and quorum standards, and any recommendations must be presented to the parent legislative body. Subsidiary bodies would be defined as serving exclusively 6 Brownstein's Anticipated 2026 Legislative and Regulatory Priorities for Otay WD_FINAL DRAFT.docx in an advisory capacity and not authorized to take final action on legislation, regulations, contracts, licenses, grants, permits, or other entitlements. o This is an ACWA-favored bill that was placed on hold last year when part of its provisions were amended into SB 707 (Durazo, 2025). The bill passed out of the Senate in January and is now pending in the Assembly. 5. Local Control This section includes bills that place further constraints on agencies' ability to collect necessary fees, thereby reducing local control. •SB 1005 (Caballero): Local agency: payment: rounding amount. o This bill would allow local agencies to round cash payments, refunds, or amounts up to the nearest $0.05. Local agency's governing body must approve this with a majority vote through a resolution. •AB 1710 (Carrillo): Housing developments: ordinances, policies, and standards o This bill would apply the “reasonable person” standard to reviews of housing development projects for the Permit Streamlining Act and would add post entitlement permit standards, among others, to the list of “ordinances, policies, and standards” that can be vested under the Housing Accountability Act. o ACWA has adopted a “not favor unless amended” position to join a coalition with CSDA, CASA, and California Municipal Utilities Association. The amendments would: 1) exempt from the vesting provisions any rule, regulation, determination or other requirement adopted or implemented by a local agency to mitigate fire risk, enhance water efficiency, address water quality, or to ensure an adequate water supply for a community; and 2) exempt local agency “programs, policies, ordinances, standards, or requirements” related to the provision of utility service from the reasonable person standard. 6. Drinking Water Quality & State Mandates On February 19, 2025, the State Water Resources Control Board adopted the Prioritization of Drinking Water Regulations Development for calendar year 2025. The resolution, among other things, directed the Division of Drinking Water to prioritize developing MCLs for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), disinfection byproducts, arsenic, n-nitroso-dimethylamine (NDMA), styrene, and cadmium and mercury. Lead and copper rule revisions will also be considered. Similarly, on March 3, 2026, the State Board discussed the Prioritization of Drinking Water Regulations Development for this calendar year. The staff recommendation was to adopt the proposed resolution. This includes the same MCLs from last year, lead and copper rule revisions, cross-connection control policy handbook revisions, and others. 7 Brownstein's Anticipated 2026 Legislative and Regulatory Priorities for Otay WD_FINAL DRAFT.docx • SB 1313 (McNerney): Public water systems: grants and loans: perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances. o This bill would expand the authority of the State Board to provide grants or loans for addressing perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances in drinking or source water. It outlines possible funding sources and activities for these projects and allows the board to execute the bill using a policy handbook or workplan, bypassing the usual rulemaking procedures of the Administrative Procedure Act. o ACWA has yet to take a position. 7. Advanced Clean Fleets In response to its failure to receive a USEPA Clean Air Act waiver to implement the Advanced Clean Fleets (ACF) regulation before the transition of the Biden Presidential administration to the new Trump administration, early last year CARB withdrew its waiver request, not enforcing portions of the ACF regulation that would have required federal authorization. However, this was true only for portions that apply to high-priority and drayage fleets, and CARB continues to enforce the state and local fleet requirements that became effective on January 1, 2024. Furthermore, CARB delayed bringing AB 1594 (Garcia, Chapter 585 Statuses of 2023) Amendments to the Advanced Clean Fleets Regulation for CARB Board approval following stakeholder input. The informal comment docket was reopened to submit written comments to CARB staff. ACWA staff have continued to comment, highlighting changes to exemption pathways that need to be addressed in supplemental comment periods. These include: • Supporting the addition of the Traditional Utility Specialty Vehicle (TUSV) definition and incorporation into ACF in 45-Day Changes, • Supporting broadening the definition of Near-Zero Emission Vehicles (NZEVs) in the 45-Day Change, • Encouraging supplemental comment periods to o reframe mutual aid exemption to enable upfront use, o reframe the ZEV purchase exemption to reflect criteria used by fleets to purchase vehicles that meet their needs, and o reframe the daily usage exemption to use available data to reflect needs. Otay also submitted a letter to CARB staff. ACWA staff is aware that the upcoming 15-Day Changes for ACF do not reduce the fleet percentage requirement from 10% to 5% (or lower) to access the Mutual Aid and Daily Usage exemption pathways. 8 Brownstein's Anticipated 2026 Legislative and Regulatory Priorities for Otay WD_FINAL DRAFT.docx 8. Water Supply & Management While the last few years saw much-needed progress on the Delta Conveyance Project (DCP), a major legal setback occurred in January of this year. The State’s Third District Court of Appeal rejected the State’s plan to issue billions of dollars in bonds to fund its construction. Water rights hearings continue, along with planning and engineering work. Following the passage of SB 72 (Caballero, 2025), on January 25, Governor Gavin Newsom announced the formal launch of the California Water Plan 2028, the start of a multiyear effort to modernize statewide water planning “in response to climate-driven extremes and long-term water reliability challenges.” SB 72 establishes an interim statewide planning target of 9 million acre-feet by 2040 and serves as a benchmark that includes supply, conservation, recharge, and storage to strengthen long- term water reliability. The Department of Water Resources (DWR) is convening an Advisory Committee to work on shaping the workplan for both the 2028 and 2033 Water Plan updates. Legislation that impacts water supply management includes: • SB 1085 (Durazo): Water supply planning: California Environmental Quality Act determination. o Current law, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) mandates a leading agency to determine if a project is exempt from CEQA and to decide if an environmental impact report, a negative declaration, or a mitigated negative declaration is necessary. o Current law requires cities or counties to identify any public water systems that could supply water to certain projects subject to CEQA and to ask these systems to prepare a water supply assessment. o The bill changes this by requiring cities or counties to identify public water systems for certain projects they approve, regardless of whether these projects fall under CEQA. o ACWA has adopted a “favor” position. 9. Water Conservation and Water-Use Efficiency The State Board received approval from the Office of Administrative Law for the Making Conservation a California Way of Life regulation on Oct. 22 of 2024. The board released the Water Use Objective Reporting form and guidance documents on the Resources for Urban Water Suppliers webpage. Urban retail water suppliers were required to submit their reporting form to the State Board by January 1, 2025, and to do so annually thereafter. A few bills listed below have been introduced regarding water- use efficiency. • SB 1139 (Laird): Nonfunctional turf: noncompliance and enforcement. o Current law bans using potable water for irrigating non-functional turf at certain commercial, industrial, and institutional properties, with exceptions like cemeteries and homeowners’ associations. Violations are subject to penalties from the State Board or local urban water suppliers. Local entities can enforce this prohibition. 9 Brownstein's Anticipated 2026 Legislative and Regulatory Priorities for Otay WD_FINAL DRAFT.docx o The bill adds that special districts with water conservation enforcement authority can also impose penalties and enforce the prohibition based on local ordinances or policies. o ACWA has yet to take a position on this bill. •AB 2630 (Bennett): Water diversion and use: adoption of regulations. o The bill proposes that all future regulations by the State Board regarding water diversions and use also be adopted as emergency regulations, remain effective until updated, and continue to be exempt from CEQA. o ACWA has adopted a “oppose” position. 10. Water Rights A thing that is of near certainty to be introduced by a legislator in regard to water every year is legislation attempting to fundamentally change water rights or impact existing prioritization of water uses. One such bill is: •AB 2218 (Kalra) – Water policy: California Native American tribes. o This bill acknowledges historical injustices faced by California Native American tribes due to state-sanctioned actions like termination, removal, and assimilation. It aims to rectify these inequities through compensation, legal recognition, or the restoration of lost benefits. The bill mandates that state agencies, such as the Department of Water Resources and the State Board, integrate this policy when developing or revising water rights, regulations, permits, or grant criteria. o ACWA has adopted a “oppose unless amended” position. Otay Water District Anticipated Priorities for 2026 Early Session Overview Presented by: Baltazar Cornejo Policy Advisor March 18, 2026 Attachment E © 2021 Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP www.bhfs.com | Legislative Update •Legislature reconvened on January 5, 2026. •Between both houses of the legislature, close to 1800 bills were introduced by the February 20 bill introduction deadline. This is 550 fewer bills than last year, and the lowest number introduced in the last twenty years •Key Legislative Deadlines: —January 10 –Governor’s Budget Proposal —February 20 –Bill Introduction deadline —May 29 –Last day for each house pass bills introduced in that house. (“House of Origin Deadline”). —June 15 –Budget must be passed by midnight —August 31 –Deadline to pass bills out of Legislature. (“Final Recess upon Adjournment of Session”) —September 30 –Last day for Governor to sign or veto bills passed on or before September 1 2 © 2021 Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP www.bhfs.com |3 Affordability While affordability remains a concern for legislators, few proposals have been introduced. However, one key proposal to further protect agencies from Proposition 218 litigation is moving forward. •AB 2180 (Ward) - Proposition 218. Proportional Cost of Service —This bill would clarify what proportionality means in the context of rates, providing clarity and predictability for water agencies in developing and adopting Constitutionally-sound rates. Would codify the Court of Appeal’s framework in Dreher v. LADWP. —This bill is sponsored by the Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA) and was developed by Otay Water District staff and a working group of attorneys representing water agencies. © 2021 Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP www.bhfs.com | State Budget Funding •January 10 - Governor proposed $348.9 billion state budget for the 2026-27 fiscal year (FY), projecting a deficit of $2.9 billion after three years of state budget deficits. •This estimate differs from the Legislative Analyst’s Office (LAO) projection of a $17.6 billion deficit—a gap of $14.7 billion. According to department staff, the governor’s proposal incorporates $31.5 billion in additional revenues not included in the LAO forecast and excludes the risk of a stock market downturn that the LAO elected to factor into its analysis. •The governor’s proposed budget continues to build on investments for a clean and resilient future, supporting the deployment of zero-emission vehicles and addressing climate concerns related to extreme heat, droughts, flooding, and wildfires. 4 © 2021 Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP www.bhfs.com | State Budget Funding Cont. 5 Proposition 4 Climate Bond Spending Plan In the second year of climate-bond spending, the governor proposes to allocate $2.1 billion in the following categories: •$792 million for Safe Drinking Water, Drought, Flood, and Water Resilience. Of that amount, the items below are highlighted for relevance: o $232 million for flood control projects to evaluate, repair, rehabilitate, reconstruct, expand, or replace levees, weirs, bypasses, and facilities of the State Plan of Flood Control, projects in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, and projects funded through the Flood Control Subventions Program. o $173 million for drinking water projects serving small or disadvantaged communities or tribes. o $68.8 million to support repairs to existing or new water conveyance projects. •$314 million for Wildfire and Forest Resilience. Of that amount, the items below are highlighted for relevance: o $58 million in local fire prevention grants to fund wildfire prevention and hazardous fuels reduction projects and activities in and near wildfire-threatened communities. o $19.6 million fire resilience funding for technical and financial assistance to help homeowners in wildfire-vulnerable areas to implement defensible space mitigations, including the creation of an ember-resistant (Zone 0) within five feet of a physical property. o $15.2 million for wildfire risk reduction grants related to electrical transmission, in coordination with the Office of Energy Infrastructure Safety, to support cooperation in advancing fuel reduction around wildfire-vulnerable communities to reduce wildfire ignitions. © 2021 Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP www.bhfs.com | State Budget Funding Cont. 6 Proposition 4 Climate Bond Spending Plan •$107 million for Coastal Resilience •$241 million for Extreme Heat Mitigation •$199 million for Biodiversity and Nature-Based Solutions •$89 million for Climate Smart Agriculture •$35 million for Outdoor Access •$326 million for Clean Air Energy © 2021 Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP www.bhfs.com | State Budget Funding Cont. •Budget change proposals are continuing to be released. •Different organizations are submitting letters to the Governor and Budget Committee Leadership expressing their position on the Governor’s proposed budget and on budget change proposals. •Budget trailer bill language will also begin to be released leading up the May Revision. •One bill introduced includes: •AB 35 (Alvarez): Proposition 4 Climate Bond Act APA Exemption —Exempts the Safe Drinking Water, Wildfire Prevention, Drought Preparedness, and Clean Air Bond Act of 2024, approved by the voters as Proposition 4, from the Administrative Procedures Act (APA). —ACWA has adopted a “support” position. 7 © 2021 Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP www.bhfs.com | Wildfire Prevention, Emergency Management, and Liability Legislators last year introduced and debated multiple bills to address concerns raised by the wildfires that devastated Southern California. ACWA has introduced its own sponsored legislation to pre-empt a similar fight this year. •SB 1153 (Caballero): Public Water Agency Roles in Wildfire Response. —Starting January 1, 2028, this bill would require urban retail water suppliers in high fire risk zones to incorporate specific wildfire response procedures into their preparedness plans. These plans must include actions to reduce the impact of wildfires on water systems and drinking water supply. Failing to meet these requirements would be a misdemeanor. —The bill states that failure to maintain water supply during a wildfire is not a substantial cause of fire damages, nor is wildfire spread considered a risk inherent to the water system's design. —This bill is sponsored by ACWA. •AB 2013 (Bennett): Fire risk areas: water suppliers: emergency preparedness plan. —This bill proposes that water suppliers serving more than 100 customers in these fire hazard zones develop an emergency preparedness plan. This plan must address responses to red flag warnings, extreme weather events, and significant power outages, ensuring adequate water supply for both customer service and firefighting activities. The plan should also include an assessment identifying necessary water pumps to maintain water services. —ACWA has adopted an “oppose unless amended” position. 8 © 2021 Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP www.bhfs.com | Wildfire Legislation Cont. •SB 1417 (Perez): Disaster preparedness: public water systems. —This bill requires disaster-impacted water systems to conduct assessments within six months of a disaster, involving local county coordination before receiving state funding. This assessment should determine if consolidating water systems benefit affected residents and include specified components. It also mandates transparency, public input, and bilingual translation services during the assessment process, with non-compliance being a misdemeanor. —ACWA has adopted an “oppose unless amended” position. •SB 1001 (Archuleta): Water utility workers: identification card program. —This bill would require the Office of Emergency Services to create an identification program for water utility workers, giving them access to restricted areas during disasters for critical tasks like ensuring public health and restoring water services. The application for these ID cards must be signed by a water utility representative and certified under penalty of perjury. The office may charge a fee for ID cards to cover program costs. While specific officers can close off areas, they cannot prevent ID holders from entering, unless entry is deemed unsafe or disruptive. —ACWA has adopted a “favor if amended” position and is internally working through membership concerns for amendments to offer. 9 © 2021 Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP www.bhfs.com | Governance •AB 259 (Rubio): Open meetings —Current law authorizes, until January 1, 2026, members of a legislative body of a local agency to use teleconferencing without identifying each teleconference location in the notice and agenda of the meeting, and without making each teleconference location accessible to the public. This bill would remove the sunset clause and make these provisions permanent. —This bill was placed on hold last year when part of its provisions were amended into SB 707 (Durazo, 2025). The bill passed out of the Assembly in January and is now pending in the Senate. •SB 239 (Arreguin): Open meetings: teleconferencing: subsidiary body —This bill would allow subsidiary bodies to use alternative teleconferencing provisions, requiring public notice, agenda posting, and camera visibility during meetings accessible online. This is an ACWA-favored bill that was placed on hold last year when part of its provisions were amended into SB 707 (Durazo, 2025). The bill passed out of the Senate in January and is now pending in the Assembly. 10 © 2021 Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP www.bhfs.com | Local Control This section includes bills that place further constraints on agencies' ability to collect necessary fees, thereby reducing local control. •SB 1005 (Caballero): Local agency: payment: rounding amount. —This bill would allow local agencies to round cash payments, refunds, or amounts up to the nearest $0.05. Local agency's governing body must approve this with a majority vote through a resolution. •AB 1710 (Carrillo): Housing developments: ordinances, policies, and standards —This bill would apply the “reasonable person” standard to reviews of housing development projects for the Permit Streamlining Act and would add post entitlement permit standards, among others, to the list of “ordinances, policies, and standards” that can be vested under the Housing Accountability Act. —ACWA has adopted a “not favor unless amended” position to join a coalition with CSDA, CASA, and California Municipal Utilities Association. The amendments would: 1) exempt from the vesting provisions any rule, regulation, determination or other requirement adopted or implemented by a local agency to mitigate fire risk, enhance water efficiency, address water quality, or to ensure an adequate water supply for a community; and 2) exempt local agency “programs, policies, ordinances, standards, or requirements” related to the provision of utility service from the reasonable person standard. 11 © 2021 Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP www.bhfs.com | Drinking Water Quality Mandates California Regulatory and Legislative Developments: On March 3, 2026, the State Board discussed the Prioritization of Drinking Water Regulations Development for this calendar year. The staff recommendation was to adopt the proposed resolution. This includes the same MCLs from last year, lead and copper rule revisions, cross-connection control policy handbook revisions, and others. •SB 1313 (McNerney): Public water systems: grants and loans: perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances. —This bill would expand the authority of the State Board to provide grants or loans for addressing perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances in drinking or source water. It outlines possible funding sources and activities for these projects and allows the board to execute the bill using a policy handbook or workplan, bypassing the usual rulemaking procedures of the Administrative Procedure Act. —ACWA has yet to take a position. 12 © 2021 Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP www.bhfs.com | Advanced Clean Fleets Failure of CARB to receive Clean Air Act waiver by USEPA to fully implement ACF Regulation before transition from Biden administration to Trump administration. CARB argues that it retains authority to implement ACF for state and local fleets. Furthermore, CARB delayed bringing AB 1594 (Garcia, Chapter 585 Statuses of 2023) Amendments to the Advanced Clean Fleets Regulation for CARB Board approval following stakeholder input. The informal comment docket has been reopened to submit written comments to CARB staff. ACWA staff have continued to comment, highlighting changes to exemption pathways that need to be addressed in supplemental comment periods. These include: •Supporting addition of Traditional Utility Specialty Vehicle (TUSV) definition and incorporation into ACF in 45-Day Changes, •Supporting broadening definition of Near-Zero Emission Vehicles (NZEVs) in 45-Day Change, encouraging supplemental comment periods to —reframe mutual Aid Exemption to enable upfront use, —reframe the ZEV Purchase Exemption to reflect criteria used by fleets to purchase vehicles that meet their needs, and —reframe the Daily Usage Exemption to use available data to reflect needs. 13 © 2021 Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP www.bhfs.com | Advanced Clean Fleets Cont. CARB’s continuous push to enforce these requirements and its slow progress in implementing 2023 legislation, which was intended to provide flexibility to local agencies, has resulted in the introduction of additional legislation in this space. ACWA staff is aware that the upcoming 15-Day Changes for ACF do not reduce the fleet percentage requirement from 10% to 5% (or lower) to access the Mutual Aid and Daily Usage exemption pathways. 14 © 2021 Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP www.bhfs.com | Water Supply Management While the last few years saw much-needed progress on the Delta Conveyance Project (DCP), a major legal setback occurred in January of this year. The State’s Third District Court of Appeal rejected the State’s plan to issue billions of dollars in bonds to fund its construction. Water rights hearings continue, along with planning and engineering work. On January 25, Governor Newsom announced the formal launch of the California Water Plan 2028, the start of a multiyear effort to modernize statewide water planning “in response to climate-driven extremes and long-term water reliability challenges.” SB 72 establishes an interim statewide planning target of 9 million acre-feet by 2040 and serves as a benchmark that includes supply, conservation, recharge, and storage to strengthen long-term water reliability. The Department of Water Resources (DWR) is convening an Advisory Committee to work on shaping the workplan for both the 2028 and 2033 Water Plan updates. •SB 1085 (Durazo): Water supply planning: California Environmental Quality Act determination. —Current law requires cities or counties to identify any public water systems that could supply water to certain projects subject to California Environmental Quality Act and to ask these systems to prepare a water supply assessment. —The bill changes this by requiring cities or counties to identify public water systems for certain projects they approve, regardless of whether these projects fall under CEQA. —ACWA has adopted a “favor” position. 15 © 2021 Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP www.bhfs.com | Water Conservation & Water Use Efficiency State Water Board received approval from the OAL for the Making Conservation a California Way of Life regulation on October 22 of last year. The board has released Water Use Objective Reporting form and guidance documents on the Resources for Urban Water Suppliers webpage. Urban retail water suppliers were required to submit their reporting form to the State Water Board by January 1, 2025, and annually thereafter. Below are bills introduced regarding water efficiency. •SB 1139 (Laird): Nonfunctional turf: noncompliance and enforcement. —Current law bans using potable water for irrigating non-functional turf at certain commercial, industrial, and institutional properties, with exceptions like cemeteries and homeowners’ associations. Violations are subject to penalties from the State Board or local urban water suppliers. Local entities can enforce this prohibition. —The bill adds that special districts with water conservation enforcement authority can also impose penalties and enforce the prohibition based on local ordinances or policies. —ACWA has yet to take a position on this bill. •AB 2630 (Bennett): Water diversion and use: adoption of regulations. —The bill proposes that all future regulations by the State Board regarding water diversions and use also be adopted as emergency regulations, remain effective until updated, and continue to be exempt from CEQA. —ACWA has adopted a “oppose” position. 16 © 2021 Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck, LLP www.bhfs.com | Water Rights This year has already seen the introduction of water rights legislation problematic to ACWA member agencies, which includes: •AB 2218 (Kalra) – Water policy: California Native American tribes. —This bill acknowledges historical injustices faced by California Native American tribes due to state-sanctioned actions like termination, removal, and assimilation. It aims to rectify these inequities through compensation, legal recognition, or the restoration of lost benefits. The bill mandates that state agencies, such as the Department of Water Resources and the State Board, integrate this policy when developing or revising water rights, regulations, permits, or grant criteria. —ACWA has adopted a “oppose unless amended” position. 17 Questions? Baltazar Cornejo bcornejo@bhfs.com (916)594-9705 STAFF REPORT TYPE MEETING: Regular Board MEETING DATE: April 1, 2026 PROJECT: Various DIV. NO. ALL SUBMITTED BY: Jose Martinez General Manager APPROVED BY: Jose Martinez, General Manager SUBJECT: ADOPT RESOLUTION #4472 TO REVISE AND UPDATE BOARD POLICY #29, “CLAIMS HANDLING PROCEDURE” GENERAL MANAGER’S RECOMMENDATION: That the Otay Water District (District) Board of Directors (Board) adopt Resolution #4472 to approve revisions to update Board Policy #29, “Claims Handling Procedure”, to address inflation and the increasing costs associated with property damage, materials, labor, and related services, and to promote efficient, timely, and consistent claims handling. COMMITTEE ACTION: See “Attachment A”. PURPOSE: To request that the Board adopt Resolution #4472 to approve revisions to update Board Policy #29, “Claims Handling Procedure”, due to inflation and the increasing costs associated with property damage, materials, labor, and related services. ANALYSIS: The District periodically reviews and updates its Board policies as needed or required. Following a review of Board Policy #29, “Claims Handling Procedure”, and consultation with General Counsel, staff recommends revising the policy to reflect current conditions. Due to inflation and the increasing costs associated with property damage, materials, labor, and related services, the District’s current AGENDA ITEM 4 claims authority threshold may no longer reflect the typical value of minor claims. As a result, claims that were historically considered routine now require Board action, which can delay resolution and increase administrative workload. Increasing the claims authority will allow staff to resolve lower-value claims more efficiently and in a timely manner while maintaining appropriate oversight and accountability. This adjustment will help streamline the claims process and reduce administrative delays. Additionally, pursuant to Government Code Section 935.4, the District may delegate by resolution its claim-handling duties under the Government Claims Act and other applicable law to a designated employee. Revisions proposed at this time are detailed in the attached strike- through version of the policy (Attachment C). Based on the above, staff recommends that the Board adopt Resolution #4472 (Attachment B) in support of the proposed revisions. FISCAL IMPACT: Joe Beachem, Chief Financial Officer There is no direct fiscal impact associated with this action. The proposed change would only modify the level of authority for approving claims and would not increase the District’s overall liability or claims expenditures. STRATEGIC GOAL: Improve organization effectiveness. LEGAL IMPACT: None. ATTACHMENTS: Attachment A – Committee Action Report Attachment B – Resolution #4472 Exhibit 1 – Board Policy #29, “Claims Handling Procedure” Attachment C - Recommended Revisions to Board Policy #29, “Claims Handling Procedure” Attachment D – Proposed Copy of Board Policy #29, “Claims Handling Procedure” ATTACHMENT A SUBJECT/PROJECT: ADOPT RESOLUTION #4472 TO REVISE AND UPDATE BOARD POLICY #29, “CLAIMS HANDLING PROCEDURE” COMMITTEE ACTION: The Conservation, Public Relations, Legal & Legislative Committee reviewed this item at a meeting held on March 18, 2026. The Committee supports presentation to the full Board. NOTE: The “Committee Action” is written in anticipation of the Committee moving the item forward for Board approval. This report will be sent to the Board as a committee approved item or modified to reflect any discussion or changes as directed by the committee prior to presentation to the full Board. RESOLUTION NO. 4472 RESOLUTION OF THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS OF THE OTAY WATER DISTRICT AMENDING POLICY NO. 29, CLAIMS HANDLING PROCEDURE, OF THE DISTRICT’S CODE OF ORDINANCES WHEREAS, it is the policy of the District to establish procedures to review policies, procedures, ordinances, and resolutions periodically to ensure they are current and relevant; and WHEREAS, District staff has identified Board Policy No. 29, Claims Handling Procedure, as requiring revisions as per the attached strikethrough copy (Exhibit 1); and WHEREAS, the Otay Water District Board of Directors has been presented with the proposed amendments to Policy No. 29, Claims Handling Procedure, of the District’s Code of Ordinances; and WHEREAS, the amendments have been reviewed and considered by the Board, and it is in the interest of the District to adopt the amended Policy No. 29, Claims Handling Procedure; WHEREAS, pursuant to Government Code Section 935.4, the Otay Water District may delegate by resolution its claim-handling duties to an employee presented under the Government Claims Act and other applicable law; WHEREAS, Government Code section 945.4 provides that no suit for money or damages may be brought against a public entity until a written claim has been presented and acted upon by the board, or has been deemed to have been rejected by the board; WHEREAS, the Board of the Otay Water District delegates this authority to the General Manager to promote efficient, timely, and consistent claim handling; ATTACHMENT B WHEREAS, the authority of the General Manager or their designee, would entail sending notices of insufficiency, notices of rejection, and rejecting claims on the merit; NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, DETERMINED, AND ORDERED by the Board of Directors of the Otay Water District that the amended Policy No. 29, incorporated herein as Exhibit 1, is hereby adopted. BE IT RESOLVED that this resolution shall be in full force and effect immediately after its passage and approval. PASSED, APPROVED AND ADOPTED by the Board of Directors of the Otay Water District at a regular board meeting held on this 1st day of April 2026, by the following vote: Ayes: Noes: Abstain: Absent: President ATTEST: District Secretary OTAY WATER DISTRICT BOARD OF DIRECTORS POLICY Subject Policy Number Date Adopted Date Revised CLAIMS HANDLING PROCEDURE 29 09/ 06/95 03/02/11 Page 1 of 1 PURPOSE To establish a policy for handling claims filed against the District. BACKGROUND California Government Code Sections 935 et seq. authorize the District to establish procedures for handling claims and to delegate to the General Manager the authority to settle or deny claims up to certain amounts. POLICY The Board of Directors authorizes the General Manager, after consultation with the General Counsel, to allow or reject claims up to the amount of $10,000. The General Manager shall report to the Board, as an information item, all actions taken on claims within his authority at the Board's next regular meeting. EXHIBIT 1 OTAY WATER DISTRICT BOARD OF DIRECTORS POLICY Subject Policy Number Date Adopted Date Revised CLAIMS HANDLING PROCEDURE 29 9/6/95 3/2/11 4/1/26 Page 1 of 1 PURPOSE To establish a policy for handling claims filed against the Otay Water District (District). BACKGROUND California Government Code Sections 935 et seq. authorizes the District to establish procedures for handling claims and to delegate to the General Manager the authority to settle or deny claims up to certain amounts. POLICY The Board of Directors (Board) authorizes the General Manager, after consultation with the General Counsel, to acceptallow or reject claims up to the amount of $25,000;10,000. or, reject claims and/or return claims that are insufficient, without action. The Board delegates said authority to the General Manager to reject claims for the purpose of limiting the statute of limitations. The Board delegates the same authority to the General Manager for any claims that are required by the claims management company to be rejected by the District. Such claims are managed and ultimately paid out by the claims management company. The General Manager or General Counsel shall report to the Board, within 60 daysas an information item, all actions taken on claims within his their authority at the Board's next regular meeting. ATTACHMENT C OTAY WATER DISTRICT BOARD OF DIRECTORS POLICY Subject Policy Number Date Adopted Date Revised CLAIMS HANDLING PROCEDURE 29 9/6/95 4/1/26 PURPOSE To establish a policy for handling claims filed against the Otay Water District (District). BACKGROUND California Government Code Sections 935 et seq. authorizes the District to establish procedures for handling claims and to delegate to the General Manager the authority to settle or deny claims up to certain amounts. POLICY The Board of Directors (Board) authorizes the General Manager, after consultation with General Counsel, to accept claims up to the amount of $25,000; or, reject claims and/or return claims that are insufficient, without action. The Board delegates said authority to the General Manager to reject claims for the purpose of limiting the statute of limitations. The Board delegates the same authority to the General Manager for any claims that are required by the claims management company to be rejected by the District. Such claims are managed and ultimately paid out by the claims management company. The General Manager or General Counsel shall report to the Board, within 60 days, all actions taken on claims within their authority. ATTACHMENT D