Editorial from Oct. 5, 2007

“Pay back?”

   On Thursday, Sept. 27 a special closed session was held by the City of Big Bear Lake Department of Water and Power (DWP). By Friday morning it was announced that general manager Jerry Gruber was placed on paid administrational leave and Bill La Haye was made the interim general manager. The DWP and the City of Big Bear Lake will not speak about the reason regarding Gruber’s removal as general manager, citing the issue is a personnel issue. Nor was Gruber available for comment.

   The DWP system is in terrible mess. The system has pipes from decommissioned World War II ships as pipelines through out the valley and some of the wells are over 50 years old. Many of the pipelines are only 2-inches in diameter, with that flow being cut back by mineral buildup so that only 1-inch of water can be pushed though the lines. This makes it difficult for the fire departments to fight structure fires and many people who are building homes in Erwin Lake must install sprinkler systems.

   One oddity to the DWP is that the bulk of their customers are located outside the city limits of the City of Big Bear Lake. The charter of the DWP states that the City Council has the exclusive rights to appoint DWP board members and the City requires that those appointments be made from Big Bear Lake residents only. This has long been a contention of those county dwellers that they have no representation on the DWP board and everything that is done to upgrade the water system is slanted to Big Bear Lake.

   The other oddity of the DWP is that any changes to their ordinances must be approved by the City Council. It was definitely evident when the DWP approved a water rate increase to the commercial business. Both the DWP board and Grubber were publicly chastised by the City Council, including the recently elected Rick Herrick, who had served as the DWP chair just prior to his election to the City Council. In the end, the City Council forced the DWP to increase the rates to businesses over two years. This only reinforced that belief of residents that the City Council is slanted to businesses only.

   For about the last two years, Gruber and the DWP board have been working with a consultant company to define the water system and its future needs. It was this consultant company that advised the board that the system needs over $30 million improvements to the system, to sustain the current needs. While at the same time, the consultants tried to project the future growth needs on the water system. The general idea was for a 5-year plan to be created and how they would be able to pay for the improvements. As part of the improvement plan, the DWP has tried for the past two years to get Federal assistance and both Congressman Jerry Lewis and Senator Dianne Feinstein have been working on it. However to date, no Federal money has been appropriated for the DWP system. This would leave only the customer base to pay more, which the DWP tried to do last summer.

   Gruber has only had glowing praises from both the DWP and the City Council for years. Well, right up to the rate increase for businesses. Two board members resigned and the new board members attended their first DWP meeting on Sept. 25th. This makes me and many others suspicious, especially since Gruber was so unceremoniously dismissed.

   Many may disagree on how things were handled with the rate increases. Many can disagree with the findings of the consultants or their recommendations. This is normal, especially in Big Bear. The problem we see is the timing of this action. Could this be that Gruber and his reputation will be the fatality for him having fought so hard to improve the DWP system for all its customers, on behalf of the DWP board? He certainly took the frontal assault from angry business owners. Remembering the City Council meeting, where Gruber was attached and told that he should be thrown out of the Rotary Club; I can’t get this gnawing feeling out of my stomach that this is just pay back. If this is a case of “pay back”, there will most certainly be a lawsuit. Let’s face it, Gruber’s reputation and future employment is in jeopardy.

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