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Small mutual water company asks Fox Canyon board to resolve missing meter calibration record, billing error
Summary
A volunteer board member from Strickland Mutual Water asked the Fox Canyon GMA board to direct staff to clear a six‑year records dispute that left the mutual appearing to owe $28,000, and to set a deadline for resolution.
Paul McDaniel, secretary of Strickland Mutual Water, spoke during public comment at the Jan. 22, 2025 Fox Canyon Groundwater Management Agency meeting and asked the board to direct staff to resolve a multi‑year records problem involving a repaired well meter.
McDaniel said the small mutual, which serves 128 connections in unincorporated Ventura County near Rio Mesa High School, repaired a center‑turbine meter on well No. 3 that was under warranty after a plastic part broke. The mutual turned in the paperwork it had, McDaniel said, but the meter’s calibration record was lost and the agency’s electronic reporting system has not counted the mutual’s extraction payments. “Your record system now reflects that we owe $28,000 because it's not counting our payments,” McDaniel said.
McDaniel said staff previously would not cash the mutual’s check and that the check sat uncashed for nearly six months before the mutual complained. He asked the board to “authorize and direct your staff to get this matter cleared up and give them a deadline because this has dragged on for six years now.”
Board members explained that public comment is not a forum for discussion; Arne and county staff later told McDaniel they had reached out and discussed possible resolutions but that no staff person had been formally assigned to complete the follow‑up. One board member said, “As your supervisor I'll follow up on that.”
The board did not take immediate formal action at the meeting; McDaniel requested that staff return with a resolution or assignment so the mutual’s records and billing can be reconciled.
