Pool cleaning makes a splash; growing industry could end up dying of thirst because of Southern California drought.

Pool cleaning makes a splash

Growing industry could end up dying of thirst because of Southern California drought

When Dennis Lady was out of work things were so bad he made wooden stilts for his childrens' Christmas presents. Now his kids get whatever they want. Lady is that most peripatetic of aquatic engineers, the Southern California pool man.

"I regained faith in people by getting to know them in their backyards," says Lady. "Let me tell you something: after being in the movie business for years and getting laid off several times, I was kind of down. Now, after getting to know people in their backyards, my faith in people has been restored."

Lady, 50, has reason to be pithy. He says he'll be meeting his long-time goal of retiring comfortably at 55.

Such are the fortunes that can be made cleaning the pools of Beverly Hills actresses and Encino accountants -- at upwards of $45 a month and $35 an hour for repairs.

Lady's business, as symbolic of the California lifestyle as a blond bathing beauty, is a do-it-yourself, get-in-on-a-shoestring business heralded in books like "Hollywood Wives" and movies like "The Prince of Bel Air." With two weeks of training and a $115 investment, Lady took the entrepreneurial plunge in 1975.

But now the business is under seige. In the thirsty Southland, lawmakers are increasingly passing impromptu ordinances, designed to restrict their once-carefree industry. Even the mighty South Coast Air Quality Management District is getting into the act, considering rules that would require solar heaters in all new pools, a move that one industry insider said would be "death-knell to Southern California's pool industry."

Once a disenfranchised cottage industry dominated by California surf bums as interested in free-and-available women as they were in free-and-available-chlorine (a crucial factor in pool sanitation), the swimming pool service industry is older and wiser. Pool men in the Southland have organized to protect their industry.

The reason is money. With an estimated 100,000 residential pools and 17,500 registered commercial pools in Los Angeles County, pool service is big business. A 1986 Stanford University study found that Los Angeles County's swimming pool industry, including new pool construction and supplies, took in at least $75 million in revenues each year. With new swimming pool construction waning in the county in recent years, experts say it is safe to say that more than half of the revenues are grabbed by pool men alone -- adding up to a cool $30 million to $40 million a year.

A solid core of legitimate and vocal businessmen has emerged as the dominant force in the business. That core has become more politically attuned as legislators take aim on their industry in the midst of the Southland's worst drought since the 1941.

They even have their own magazine, Service Industry News, not to mention regular coverage in Los Angeles-based Pool & Spa News.

"Every time there is a drought, every time there is a water shortage, every time a lawmaking body begins to consider water conservation measures, one of the first places looked to are swimming pools," says David Dickman, editor of Chino-based Service Industry News, a biweekly newspaper devoted to pool men.

As their need for clout has grown, a pool man's trade association has formalized, incorporating with the Secretary of State as a for-profit corporation in April. Called the Independent Pool and Spa Service Association (IPSSA), it is the first of its kind in the United States.

IPSSA provides group liability and health insurance to its 2,500 members in 54 chapters located in California, Nevada, Arizona and Texas. The linchpins of the organization are its Los Angeles and Orange County members -- there are 13 chapters in Los Angeles County alone.

"IPSSA has matured the industry," Lady says. "The independent operators have benefited significantly from organizing and gaining representation in Sacramento. The legitimate operators have come to rely on participation on IPSSA."

Every year the IPSSA pays $35,000 to veteran Sacramento lobbyist Donald C. Burns to keep the organization and its members in smooth waters with city, county and state lawmakers and regulators.

When drought-stricken Northern California counties banned the use of local water to fill new and drained pools, it was lobbyist Burns who secured a compromise for the pool men, giving them the right to truck in water from water-wealthy regions. After Santa Barbara's City Council passed extensive water rationing measures in April, including a ban on adding water to swimming pools, the ordinance was quickly amended when Burns told the council that serious health risks would arise if pools were not refilled.

In the name of free enterprise, the swimming pool service business has made waves from city hall to Sacramento.

Next on the agenda is the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which will consider this month whether backyard pool heaters should be banned along with aerosol paints, hydroflouric acid and carcinogenic emissions from large refineries.

On June 26, Burns will propose an alternative to the AQMD proposal which would require solar heating on all new swimming pool systems in the regulatory agency's master plan -- an environmental move that he says could be the "death-knell to Southern California's pool industry."

AQMD spokesman Bill Kelly said that the proposed rules could be modified as the AQMD hashes out its master plan.

"The AQMD rules would not mean that they would pull heaters out of the ground, but it would hurt the industry very dearly," says Dickman.

The industry supports thousands of middle-class Los Angeles families and should not be regulated out of business by the AQMD, Burns says. According to a survey this month, which queried 300 Los Angeles service technicians, the average pool man is 41 years old. About 81 percent are married, 41 percent have one or two children, and 83 percent own homes. Just 7 percent of the pool men are women. It is very much a male business, according to the survey.

"These are the entrepreneurs who have combined a small investment in money and a large investment in labor to build an industry," says Dickman. "If you were to envision a portrait of the small businessman who built America, you could easily plug the pool service technician in and you'd have a pretty accurate picture. It is a sweat-equity business."

The average legitimate pool man in Los Angeles County, with 50 customers, should bill about $78,000 in a year in repairs and maintenance. With chemicals and automotive costs as the only major expenses, the average "swimming pool service technician" (as they are wont to call themselves), probably brings home $70,000 a year. Many more pool men, however, muster far larger returns, including Lady.

"The competition has become intense in recent years, we're always fighting against guys who undercut costs by cutting corners," Lady says. "But it is still a way for a guy to get a little bit for himself, without a lot of start-up costs."

Operating out of a space in a Granada Hills office building, his Lady Pool Service carries about 300 accounts and employs 12. His wife, Lee, manages the office and has been vital to the business' success, he says. He also started a business called The Tile Cleaners, which cleans tiles with glass beads, an improvement over the traditional pumice stone.

Lady, 50, who owns a home in Canyon Country, plans a comfortable retirement in Northern California, all on the strength of his swimming pool service business.

"Maybe I'll open a McDonald's, go fishing, be a wilderness guide or open a little store on the river, who knows," he says.

But even Lady fears that the best of plans will be undermined by legislators, who see swimming pools as a threat to precious water supplies.

"It always makes us nervous, because our business is based on water," Lady says.

More adept at flaring a pipe than firing off a letter to a legislator, Lady and his counterparts leave it to Burns to press their case in Sacramento.

The first thing Burns will tell you about swimming pools is that they are water savers. A City of Sacramento and the Arcade Water District study found that it requires only 20 inches of water a year to maintain a pool but 49 inches of water a year to maintain the lawn that would be in its place.

Also financed by swimming pool builders and chemical suppliers, Burns and his 10-person lobbying team "hasn't lost a fight yet."

And he doesn't expect to lose the AQMD solar-heating mandate, Burns says. The proposed AQMD ban, says Burns, is another overreaction to a misunderstood problem.

He points to a May 2 announcement by Mayor Tom Bradley as illustration of a typical political overstep in the face of drought. When announcing his water conservation program, which will attempt to cut consumption by 10 percent, Bradley said that municipal swimming pools should be closed during the waning days of summer.

"The reduced season is indicative of the legislative ignorance toward swimming pools and water conservation in general," says Burns, who enlisted Councilman Richard Alatorre in opposing the ban. "Mr. Bradley must think swimming pools are flushed like a toilet after each use. It makes you realize that politicians don't have much of an idea of what they are dealing with when they talk about pools."

PHOTO : Precious liquid: Scooping profits from pools