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Airplane whisks OC water official to ceremony in, er, Riverside
June 26th, 2009, 4:00 am · 40 Comments · posted by Teri Sforza, Register staff writer
It could have been a grueling 77-or-so mile car trip on twisty back roads. Sacre bleu!
Instead, an airplane owned by the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California - which recently hiked water rates nearly 20 percent - was dispatched to La Quinta (near Palm Springs) to ferry one Ergun Bakall lightly and brightly to the Temecula Valley.
Why? So Bakall could attend an auction of Met’s leftover tunnel-boring equipment, as well as Met’s ceremonial “flipping of the switch” on a 10-acre field of solar panels in the Temecula Valley.
Cost of the May 22 trip: about $600, including flight time, pilot and driver, Met spokesman Bob Muir told us.
Not so much money (though we can get a roundtrip to Hong Kong for $702). But Met has two twin-engine Baron aircraft, whose main mission is to patrol pipelines and right-of-way for security purposes.
Sometimes, the planes transport people as well.
“We’re a huge agency covering 5,200 square miles over six counties,” said Gilbert Ivey, Met’s chief administrative officer and assistant GM.
Said spokesman Muir: ”Planes many times are used to transport water quality samples, employees from one site to another, directors to meetings and events. It cuts down on time that would have been used otherwise.”
In this particular instance, Ivey said, “We were having a dedication of one of our major capital facilities, and Bakall is chair of the engineering and operations committee. The chairman needed Bakall. We had a patrol plane coming in anyway, so it stopped to pick him up. It was a normal flight, nothing unusual. We had to get Bakall out there.”
Why, exactly, couldn’t Bakall drive? Did he ask for the plane, or was it offered? Met didn’t have those details. We left several messages for Bakall, but haven’t heard back.
Perhaps what makes this all odd is that Bakall - who sits on the embattled Municipal Water District of Orange County board (Muni buys OC’s imported water from Met) and represents Muni on Met’s gargantua
n 37-member board of directors - doesn’t actually live in Orange County right now.
Bakall’s residency was an issue in the November election, when his challenger put Bakall’s picture on a milk carton.
See, Bakall’s home address is listed in some official-type places as La Quinta - where the Met plane picked him up - and La Quinta is, um, in Riverside County, not Orange County. Bakall rented a place in Irvine, he told us at the time, and the La Quinta house was his retirement home.
At Muni’s June 17 board meeting, the president relayed (the absent) Bakall’s request that meetings be scheduled for later in the day (it’s murder to get from La Quinta to Fountain Valley by 8:30 a.m.!). Seems Bakall’s lease on the Irvine place expired on June 1.
So, right now, OC’s rep on its water import board, who chairs an important committee at all-important lifeline Met, doesn’t live here.
Anyway, Bakall has six months to find a new place within the district he represents, said Darcy Burke, Muni spokeswoman. Shouldn’t be so hard, considering the real estate climate these days. May we suggest the Register classifieds?
(Meantime, we’ll be asking Met for more exhaustive detail on the planes. Will keep you posted.)
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Never mind the fact that in order to serve as an elected official you have to live in that district. With Director Bakall not even having a rental in Orange County, the residents here are essentially paying someone that lives Riverside County to be a Director of an Orange County water agency. How is that representing the people of Orange County? And now we have the Metropolitan Water District using its plane to pick up Director Bakall by his home near Palm Springs.
It’s outrageous. At a time when we’re asking people to pay more for water, to pick up an Orange County official in Riverside County and then fly him in for a meeting or ceremony is a complete disregard for people’s money and disgraceful.
As a ratepayer, I pay for water and the infrastructure that conveys it, not for elected officials to be flown around. As an elected official, I serve the interests of people that elected me, not to take advantage of them or squander their money.
Glenn Acosta
Director, Trabuco Canyon Water District
That same plane was returning back to the area and saved public funds by removing the expense related to the mileage. However, if he had to take a sedan back to where he left his car then we have an issue.
Why was he going to Temecula to watch a switch be flipped. Where is our Board having public appearances in other counties?
There is a few questions. However, as mentioned before his second residence is of minor concern to the community. They voted for him knowing that he held two addresses.
Now he has six months to secure another studio lease within the boundaries of his district. It appears he is using a loophole to remain in office while saving money. That is an ethical issue that the voted did not consider to be a concern when they recently re-elected him. Of course my vote was not in that majority; however, I will defend what my peers wanted in office.
Now the concern that should be addressed and needs to be changed is the way they handle replacements on the Boards. I read earlier that they are merely appointed without voter approval.
I wish you the best Glenn when you run again for the Board.
check out the connection between exxon mobil, aera energy, gov.’s office, major utilities, develepers, irvive co, koll, with monies from republican gop to “place” elected officials on city councils all over california. dont know if you are one glenn, but if you commented, i bet you are not!
the sanitation district, water district, sherriffs offices in inland empire, los angeles and ORANGE county—- all in BIG BIG trouble!
remember the mob people? now they call themselves,
govenor or city council member, or board supervisor, and some are also on “commissions” that oversee these entities and have hiring and firing ability while also sitting on a city council!
what is this?? mississippi in the 50’s?
we aint that stupid–
i hope they were whisked away permanently and that after “throwing the big switch” they all sat down on the solar panals and shared a bottle of 50k champaine!!
solor panals— like we just came up with THOSE or alternate fuel
they think we are idiots— im sick of it
I’d like to request a $600 refund for the money I paid for water. Where should I send it to - Muni, Met, or Bakall’s house?
Ergun, be nimble
Ergun, be quick
Ergun, don’t jump on your own candlestick
Humpty Dumpty sat on a board
Humpty Dumpty had a big fall
All of Muni’s horses and Met’s men
Couldn’t put Humpty Dumpty back together again
Someone had a little sham,
Little sham, Little sham,
Someone had a little sham, ratepayers fleeced as white as snow,
And everywhere someone went,
Someone went, Someone went,
And everywhere someone went, the sham was sure to go
pitchforks and torches, two for a dollar.
keep your eyes an the ball, boys. these guys have been screwing the public for a long time, and they will FIGHT to retain the privilege.
“Bakall rented a place in Irvine, he told us at the time, and the La Quinta house was his retirement home.’
Your house in La Quinta is your “retirement home?’ Wishful thinking given the fact that your far from retired! Talk about creative usage of the word “retirement” home. I suppose next, we are going to be told it depends on what the definition of “retirement “is.
Just curious, where was Bakall living prior to renting his pad in Irvine? Oh let me guess, in his “retirement” home in LA Quinta!
At least the Governor of South Carolina just screwed one person. Ergoon is screwing all of us.
When you crap in your pants eventually someone will smell the stink.
Well said SpongeBlob Roundpants. These people will someday soon be looking over their shoulders when there is an uprising by the people.
The true crisis is not a drought, its expansive government that is truly a crisis for taxpayers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Bakall has an impressive resume.The MWDOC meets twice a month, first and third wednesdays..Checking the meeting minutes it seems that everyone shows up for work (as much as the rest of us do, life happens). That being said, if you are working for a public agency its real important to use some common sense because the people who pay for all this garbage are looking for someone to make an example out of. Simple- pull your heads out of your rears or end up on the front page to the local paper.
I don’t have any problem with people using airplanes. What I am bothered about however is that water planners don’t seem to realize that population growth is out of control. That is the fundamental problem leading to water shortage.
Hey Bakall..Any chance I could borrow the plane to take me to work. I’m a bit burned out having to commute to my job and sit on the freeway with everyone else everyday. I figure with all the extra money I’m having to shell out for your contaminated water you could help the actual residents of the county.
… and my water district wants ME to follow the RULES about when to water, what to water and how much to water?!?!
It is ridiculous what the public response has been to the OCRegister’s articles on water district’s. I have not even seen as many comments posted on articles about overpaid CEO’s, banks, and mutual fund managers. Who is really taking more money out of your pocket? How much do you even pay for water a month? $20? $30, $40? How much do you pay for cable? Which one would you give up first?
Just because an agency is PUBLIC and must use public funds to operate does not mean that they should do everything bare bones. The OCRegister needs to focus on who are the real robber barrons of our time instead of attacking an industry that is actually PROVIDING A NECESSARY PUBLIC SERVICE. How much money do you think it costs for Obama to take a little trip to a local burger joint when he stops in a town? Security and transportation costs must be overwhelming for even a little event. Should we ask Obama to never go anywhere that isn’t directly related to him running his job? In fact, the White House seems quite excessive, I’m sure he could get by in a nice motel with a decent office.
The fact of the matter is that water is a CHEAPLY priced resource to begin with so stop complaining about how your rates are going up. The cost we pay for water in relation to the value that our public water supply system adds to our lives is minimal. Water is essentially free. What % of your income do you spend on water? What do you think a woman in Africa who must walk miles to get water (that is not even clean) would pay to get what you take for granted?
Water rates are going up because the supply of water is going down. To operate a water system, there are certain fixed costs that do not change much regardless of how much water is delivered (plant operations and maintenance, bond debt payback….). When a water co. delivers less water, their customers pay less in bills. Thus, water rates must go up to deliver the same revenue stream that allows the district to operate. ADDITIONALLY, in the past many water districts have relied on “connection fees” for revenue. Connection fees are the fees that home developers pay to water districts to connect a new house to the water supply system. Thus, these districts under-priced their rates and essentially funded a lot of their operations with the booming housing market. Now that development is dead, water rates must go up. We are now only starting to pay what we ALWAYS SHOULD have been paying for water.
Gotzitgoingon16:
Just like I mentioned in my response below, money is money, whether it’s $100K or $100. Yeah, multi-billion dollar schemes are great headline news, but what hits your pocket book every month is not Madoff, it’s essential public service bills.
So when you mail that check, are you paying for water or are you paying for that Director’s plane trip because he was too lazy and arrogant to drive 70 miles?
Storm Watcher
When a big ‘Gang’ of ‘Good Ol’ Boy’s’ have had free run of the town for decades, and finally somebody starts to ask a lot of questions; there is going to be a lot of door slamming, body burying/hiding…and a whole lot of, Ummmmmm-ahhhhhhh-errrrr-ahhhhh No Comment?!?
Keep after these crooks and thieves. They have lived the ‘High-life’ unrestricted, unregulated, unsupervised…and have done so extremely well compensated, well paid, and with every Perk available, usually, in the end at the expense of the Public. Those costs by the way are direct through Water Rates WE ALL pay or from Vendors and Contractors that are routinely HANDED ‘Platinum’ Contracts which the RATE PAYORS, ‘Us’, cover in our higher Rates and reduced services for more money.
Corruption, Graft, Nepotism, Crooneyism, Good Ol Boy’s…as long as your a member of this club and clique’ you are very well off for little to no effort on your part….except be sure to $$$$$$$ flowing..in the right direction, back to BOARD MEMBERS!
Good analogy Stallion! It amazes me (yes, it still does) how these people can preach to us about water use when the are flying around willy-nilly in a twin engine airplane. The average cost right now for LL100 aviation fuel at John Wayne Airport (no doubt where they have a hangar) is $5.70 a gallon, not to mention the price of the hangar per month I have no doubt WE are paying for. . I’m not sure what that exact twin engine model burns per hour, but my guess is a heck of alot! Wait a minute! Who’s paying for the pilot? Well folks, elections are a comin’ in 2010 and it’s time to trim the fat from “money wasting Moorlach” on down.
OUTRAGEOUS!!!
When are we going to put an end to allowing overpaid, under performing “gamers” who are taking the pennies from those who least can afford it to fund their kingly lifestyles????
I was just informed my rates are almost doubling while these “officials” live caviar lifestyles, and this just must STOP!
People, we need to look beyond the slick expensive lobbying that is being used to dupe us and get smart hardworking people to do these jobs that are not in place simply to fund their lifestyles and pensions….WAKE UP. This may be legal, but it is far from right both morally and fiscally !!!
Well, the Beech Baron 58 Twin has an average purchase price of about $1.2 million. They are designed to carry about 194 gallons of 100LL @$5.70 per gallon and burn about 32 gallons of fuel per hour at 75% power and 30 gallons at 65% power. You do the math and see how many dollars of our tax money is flying the friendly skies!!
I would like to know how many million are here illegally using our water?
The forecast: A record El Nino. The deluge and resulting curb-high water will hit us this winter. Will the drought “officially” end when half of Southern California is under water?
Will mindless and generally unenforceable restrictions on water use– along with 20% water rate hikes–be rolled back? Probably not, as long as water districts have to pay ridiculously high salaries for the top brass who do no actual work, and these junkets.
So was the flight back to Palm Springs (on the same day) from Temecula also a previously scheduled Met flight? Please.
I realize that Met was put in tough spot having to cover for their Director, but geez, it’s just not believable. Shame on Ergoon for putting Met in that position. I hope the other Directors on the Met Board take swift action on this publicly embarrassing behavior brought on by one of its Directors.
These guys are all in the same boat and they seem to get away with calling a round hole square. ITs big money development doing their job. Why do you think most water related environmental groups (NGO’s) in OC have been tamed? Everyone just grabs those checks and positions from these same guy’s like MWDOC. Did the airplane also just happen to be returning from its point of origin so Bakall could get a ride home?
This whole water game is just developers protecting their future. If we demand slow growth allot of these clowns will lose their standings.
This water conservation push is all about greed and greedy people, and count on just passing it along to us taxpayers. Kinda the same ploy as the toll roads and TCA.
Time for a Grand Jury investigation on Fraud, Waste, and Abuse by the unregulated Water Districts. The OCR should publish the salaries of the various district supervisors, directors or managers. Are the increase in water rates for the increase in district manager’s salaries?
Can we say “BFD?” This has to be one of the biggest “who cares” topics covered in this section of the paper to date!
There is absolutely no real-actual oversight of the water districts in the state of California.
For example … for 2009/2010 the Irvine Ranch Water District – Board of Directors gave themselves a 5% compensation increase … in order to appease the rank-n-file employees … they also gave all IRWD employees a 8.96% salary increase and cost of living increase for 2009/2010.
While thousands of Orange County residents/consumer/taxpayers, State Employees, County Employees, Private Sector employees, etc., are losing their jobs, having their salaries and wages reduced, thousands of people being furrowed, and thousands losing their homes … all in the worst economic downturn in 70 years …the Irvine Ranch Water District – Board of Directors and their employees are “fat, dumb, and happy” … picking the Orange County residents wallets.
To pay for the salary increases, last month the Irvine Ranch Water District – Board of Directors doubled and tripled “Component” water rates to citizens and taxpayers … then they doubled reconnection fees in the event of shutoff (in an economy with thousand s struggling to pay bills and losing their jobs).
Water Districts in the State of California are like Democratic Assembly … they are completely out of control with spending - they have absolutely no regard for resident-taxpayer money … because they know there is no reporting by the major newspapers in southern California ,,, they are not accountable to any authority.
Under their self-written District charters they are allowed to give themselves salary increases, “special bonuses”, cost of living increases, retirement pension increases, health benefit increases … all without any oversight or without any voter and taxpayer approval.
And the Metropolitan Water District has just entered into an enhanced retirement formula for it’s employees, anthough that hasn’t been passed by the MWD Board or the employees?
Does the OC delegation to the MWD Board plan to support this me
measure?
He was picked up from his WEEKEND retirement home on a Friday (May 22). Huh. Isn’t Friday is a WEEKDAY?
And isn’t May 22 before June 1, when his “lease” expired? So he should have been in Irvine that WEEKDAY.
Looks like he doesn’t like leaving La Quinta. Is it possible that he participates in Orange County meetings via telephone and gets paid for it? What do think, Teri?
What’s sort of ironic is that La Quinta as the nation’s leading golf destination including the world-famous PGA West. I wonder how water-wise those golf courses in the 110 degree heat are? Why work for a water agency when you live in a water wasting location? Hmmm
can the OCRegister do a story on the corruption of the hedge fund, mutual fund, and I-banking industry? a freshly minted college grad can go work for an investment firm and make an easy $100,000 a year, all paid for by the profits from the investment industry taking fees from our 401(k)’s, artificially jacking up the price of commodities, and fixing the stock market. why don’t you do a story about that OCRegister? I’d really like to know why
Gotzitgoinon16,
It’s just your money going out the window to pay some Director who doesn’t live here in Orange County to take airplanes and live a lavish lifestyle in Palm Springs. Meanwhile you’re going to work everyday, commuting, trying to pay for your home and kids’ expenses, and yes, investing what’s left in a some Madoff scheme that promised to make your rich but instead turned out to be a sham, just like this one.
Sure a loss from some Wall Street Madoff scheme is in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, but in this economy, paying out $100s for water and other utilities is also a loss. Since when is losing money on any level and because of corruption and self-serving politician greed simply okay and dismissible.
Storm Watcher
Ergun,
I hope you enjoyed my money all these years. Did you buy anything cool with my money? A new pool? Plasma TV? Trips to Europe? Golf membership? Did being a Director truly “enrich” your life?
I’m glad you benefited from my hard-earned money. Nobody deserves better. Maybe you could let this lowly ratepayer stop by your palace in La Quinta and for a moment let me enjoy what you enjoy with my money.
But most of all, I really want to see the bedroom. It must be something. Otherwise, how else can you sleep at night knowing how you make fools of us.
Storm Watcher
I hope they credit back that money wasted for the little plane trip into a fund which will rebate all the tax payers at the end of the year with interest!!
Teri - Has Ergun responded yet to your phone calls? If he ever calls you back, maybe you could ask him a few questions for me:
How much is Met’s mileage reimbursement for driving? At $0.50 per mile, that’s about $80 roundtrip. Seems much less than $600.
Does he like driving to Fountain Valley from La Quinta for meetings? Seems like a long trek. It’s much more convenient to just participate by phone. But then again you “live” in Irvine, so there is no need for that. Right? I’m sure there aren’t times when you called in for a meeting from La Quinta. After all, the meetings are during the week and you right there in Irvine.
Ripped - I haven’t heard from Mr. Bakall, but I’ll be talking to Met again tomorrow and will ask about the mileage reimbursement.
Hickory Dickory dock,
Ergun was on the (ratepayer’s) clock,
The Register struck one,
Ergun was brought down,
Hickory Dickory dock