We are a group of your neighbors who first met because of a shared concern about the high water rates charged by San Bernardino County Special Districts. As we began looking into the Special Districts Department, what we found was increasingly disturbing.
 
From the Department's sloppy approach to operations, to a complete disregard for ratepayer concerns, to an institutionalized atmosphere of secrecy, nothing about this Department made us feel that we were in good hands. The more inquiries we made, the less willing the Department was to share. Information it did share was, as often as not, misrepresented.
 
At the June 2013 County Board of Supervisors meeting, a 20% rate hike was approved for the Special Districts Department. It was at this same meeting that we learned another 20% increase was planned for 2014 and a 10% increase would follow in 2015.
 
The writing was on the wall ... this arm of the County based in Victorville has no interest in working with us. We could act, or we could stand by and watch the County Special Districts Department slowly consume the area of east Landers known as Improvement Zone 70W-1. Unless we act, they will not stop until all we love dries up and blows away.

Sincerely,   The LandersWaterRescue.com ratepayers group

 
The LandersWaterRescue.com ratepayers group is composed entirely of community activists who have lived in Landers, and been CSA70W-1 ratepayers, for 10 years or longer. Several have been attending regular board meetings of multiple water districts in the Morongo Basin. This experience has given the LandersWaterRescue.com ratepayers group a strong working knowledge of our water districts.