Expert urges coordination of Clear Lake’s three water systems; debate breaks into accusations and a petition opposing takeover

The city hosted a lengthy expert briefing and public discussion on June 6 about Clear Lake's three water providers and whether greater coordination or consolidation could improve affordability, resiliency and capital planning.

Rob Roscoe, a consultant with GEI, told the council the city is served by three differently structured water systems — a public district (Conocti County Water District), Highlands Mutual Water Company (a private mutual company) and Golden State Water Company (an investor‑owned utility). Roscoe listed four key state dashboard categories — water quality, accessibility, affordability and technical/managerial/financial (TMF) capacity — and said small, separate systems lose economies of scale and coordination for capital projects. He told the council "there's significant duplication of assets and resources" and recommended city staff continue coordinated planning, pursue grant funding, develop a unified hydraulic model and explore potential acquisitions or consolidations as options.

Roscoe cautioned that all three purveyors were meeting drinking water standards at the time of the presentation but that Clear Lake source water is difficult to treat and that aging infrastructure and fire‑flow shortfalls pose real financial and safety risks.

Public comment was robust and, at times, contentious. Highlands Water Company attorney Brian Hughes said a city manager statement at an earlier meeting misrepresented Highlands’ position and said Highlands was willing to discuss coordination but objected to any narrative of a hostile takeover. Resident Michael Graves and others alleged irregularities related to a shareholder proxy vote earlier in the year; Graves used the term "ballot box stuffing" to describe 92 contested proxies (a claim not substantiated in the council record during the meeting). A petition of 753 signatures urging the council to cease actions perceived as hostile to local water providers was read into the record.

Council members and staff emphasized they are collecting information and have not taken action to acquire any private system. City attorney and staff described the city’s role as a shareholder in places where it holds votes and said staff have sought documents and coordination. Several speakers from Highlands and engineering consultants described technical work underway — model updates, grant-seeking, plans for a supplemental well and clarifier upgrades — and Highlands operators explained a past haloacetic acid exceedance and the operational tradeoffs that led to temporary changes in pretreatment during an algae event.

No formal decisions or takeover actions were taken at the meeting. Council indicated water topics will return to future agendas and asked staff to continue coordination and to pursue information needed to evaluate options for rates, resiliency and capital planning.