Surprise! At its Feb. 20 meeting, the Corona City Council voted on a “covenant” that amounts to an agreement not to compete with Lee Lake Water District. In essence the city is saying, “If we successfully annex the Temescal Valley, we won’t try to do away with Lee Lake Water District.” The covenant is good until 2033, sort of assuring the city will keep it hands off Lee Lake water for a good, long time.

We just learned about the covenant. It was approved by the City Council at its Feb. 20 meeting as a consent calendar item, with no public discussion by council members or city staff. So if you tuned in to watch the council meeting on TV without the benefit of an agenda, you would have never known this was approved.

Here’s what’s bothersome. It’s on the Lee Lake Water District’s agenda for the Tuesday, Feb. 26 board of directors meeting (Yep — this coming Tuesday! — 8:30 a.m.)

We’re asking the Lee Lake board to postpone a decision on the no-compete agreement until we can research the “who,” “whys” and “wherefores” of this egregious piece of legislation. Who instigated it?  Was it Lee Lake to protect itself and does the covenant mean Lee Lake favors annexation? Was it the city, who’s dangling the covenant as a carrot to keep Lee Lake from opposing the annexation? And, where does Elsinore Valley Municipal Water District play into the scheme? Stay tuned.

IMMEDIATE ACTION NEEDED:
ATTEND THE LEE LAKE BOARD MEETING
8:30 a.m. Tuesday, Feb. 26
22646 Temescal Canyon Road
GET DIRECTIONS HERE

EMAIL JEFF PAPE, district general manager at jeffp@llwd.org
Ask him to postpone the No Compete Covenant item on Tuesday’s agenda