Tapping Eminent Domain

“Officials in the city of Claremont believe they have a foolproof solution to stem rising water rates: eminent domain. City leaders are considering plans to seize water facilities from the Golden State Water Company, a private firm that since 1929 has provided water to the college town on the eastern edge of Los Angeles County. Spurred by an activist group upset at residents’ relatively high water rates, and with more rate increases in the offing, the Claremont City Council has made taking over the company a top priority.

“It’s troubling that Golden State is continuing to hire consultants to make misleading claims, release baseless information, and establish so-called community groups and websites, in an effort to avoid the facts related to the city’s offer to purchase the water system in Claremont,” said city manager Tony Ramos in an official statement that sounded almost as overheated as the communiqués issued by the anti–Golden State activists. Typical for Claremont, Ramos’s words had a distinctly left-wing edge: “But given the excessive profits, executive salaries, and Board Member compensation that Golden State is attempting to protect, one might understand why the company would go to such lengths.””

read the entire article

Greenhut, Steven. City Journal 7 February 2013.