WATER AGENCY POWER SHIFT? : PROPOSAL LETS PRESIDENT ALONE CONTROL AGENDA.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

All issues to be discussed at monthly board meetings of the Castaic Lake Water Agency will first have to pass muster with the board president, under a proposal up for a vote Wednesday.

The change in policy could make it impossible for members of the 11-person board to bring their constituents' concerns to the table for review, one critic said.

It also threatens to silence board members pushing issues that the board president doesn't want discussed by the full panel.

``I think it's to stifle debate,'' said Michael Kotch, a member of the board appointed by the Newhall County Water District. ``According to the Brown Act, if it's not on the agenda, we can't take action,'' he said, referring to state law regarding open government meetings.

Agency General Manager Robert Sagehorn did not return calls seeking comment.

But board President Bill Cooper said the proposal was merely a safeguard included in a rewrite of the agency's procedural manual for the board of directors, a guidebook that hasn't been updated in a decade.

``I think we're actually making it easier to get an item on the agenda. A director who wishes to have an item put on the agenda will submit it to the president,'' Cooper said.

``There's nothing sinister or controlling in this,'' he added. ``If (a board member) wished to place an item on the agenda that they wanted to discuss, then there would be no reason why any one of us would refuse that.''

The public Castaic agency treats water from the state aqueduct and distributes it to four Santa Clarita Valley retailers.

At present, all board members can place matters of concern on the meeting agenda for information, discussion or action. The proposed change will be discussed at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at agency headquarters, 27234 Bouquet Canyon Road.

Kotch said he opposes the change, which was proposed after he requested several subjects be discussed at the upcoming meeting. He submitted the items to agency staff members the required eight days in advance for inclusion on the agenda.

``I tried to get five different items on the agenda and was denied,'' said Kotch, appointed to the board in 1995.

If issues aren't included on a meeting agenda, they can never be discussed by those in power and therefore never acted upon, he said.

``That prohibits me from carrying out my oath of office,'' Kotch added. ``There could be a number of instances where the interests of the voters aren't represented'' at the board of directors meetings, he said.

Kotch wanted several topics discussed at Wednesday's meeting:

The agency has been making payments on a $132 million bond since the early '90s. Kotch said he wants any future bond debt to be subject to local voter approval. There have been suggestions, he said, to take on more debt to pay for securing additional water rights and to cover the cost of transporting, treating and distributing that additional water. Estimates of a bond's total range from $41 million to $200 million, he said.

The agency has been negotiating to buy the Santa Clarita Water Co., one of the local retailers. Kotch had asked that the proposed acquisition be put to a vote of the company's customers, and that the Castaic agency discuss this at Wednesday's meeting.

Several years ago, the Castaic Lake Water Agency bought rights to the state water allocated to Devil's Den, a Kern County agricultural property; Kotch wanted the board to discuss what it would cost to deliver the water to the Santa Clarita Valley.

But Cooper maintained that the proposed policy change is simply a matter of updating the board manual. Other agency policies pertaining to the board of directors also were rewritten, he noted.

``We've never had a director who abused the travel policy, but we rewrote the restrictions of how they get reimbursed for their expenses,'' Cooper said. ``They (also) can't use agency facilities for personal business,'' he added, noting that CLWA hasn't had a problem with that, either.

The agency covers its operating and water acquisition costs by charging connection fees on to new developments or through property taxes from existing water users in the Santa Clarita Valley.