Water Code, 1943

The board must hold all of its legislative sessions in public.

The board must establish rules for its proceedings.

The board must appoint a general manager and a secretary, and must also choose either to appoint an auditor or treasurer, or to retain an auditor for an annual audit.

A director may not also serve as the general manager, secretary, treasurer, or auditor.

The board sets the compensation for the general manager, secretary, treasurer, and auditor, and those officers serve at the board’s pleasure.

The same person may hold certain pairs of county water district offices.

The board may appoint or employ other officers, employees, attorneys, and engineers, and set their authorities and duties, when needed or convenient for district business.

Certain district officers and employees must each give a bond to the district.

Certain district employees may be authorized by board resolution to issue citations for specified violations involving district property or water-related facilities.

A district may create a security force, but its security officers must meet peace-officer standards and designated security officers get specified peace-officer powers.

The board is the district’s governing body.

The board must exercise the powers of districts listed in this division, unless the division says otherwise.

Board members and the secretary may administer oaths and affirmations for testimony-related matters before the board.

The district president must sign all contracts for the district and carry out any other duties assigned by the board.

The secretary must countersign all district contracts and perform other duties assigned by the board.

The board may let other district officers execute contracts for the district, if it sets the limits and conditions.

The general manager controls water system operations and staffing, and may set employee compensation only with board approval.

The general manager must do other duties assigned by the board and report to the board under the board’s adopted rules and regulations.

If the board appoints an auditor or treasurer under Section 30540, that person must install and keep up a system of auditing and accounting.

A district board in existence on the section’s effective date must file a certificate with the Secretary of State by January 1, 1964, unless a qualifying order or prior voter-approval certificate already contains the required information.

A landowner, tenant, or occupant can commit a misdemeanor if they cause, allow, or let continue a public nuisance involving a well on the land.

A person who owns, possesses, or occupies land with an artesian well must not let water unnecessarily flow from the well or go to waste.

For water district elections, the Elections Code rules on qualifications of electors apply if they are applicable, with specified exceptions and override rules.

In the Pleasant Valley County Water District, landowners may vote in district elections even if they do not live there, and voting rights are based on assessed land value.

This section sets who may vote in Sierra Lakes County Water District elections and limits each voter to one vote.

The board may submit a division-election question to voters by resolution, and certain boards must decide by ordinance how directors will be elected.

Election notices and ballots must include the question being submitted to voters, with the exact form depending on the type of district election.

If voters approve electing directors by division, the board must divide the district into five roughly equal-population divisions, designate which divisions elect directors at the next election, and adjust division boundaries by resolution.

If voters approve electing directors from divisions, the board must divide the district into five roughly equal divisions and assign each a number.

Directors elected by a division must be voters of the division that elects them.

This article applies only to the Pleasant Valley County Water District and the Kings County Water District.

Ballots printed must all be made the same size, quality, paper tint, type, and ink color.

Candidate names printed on the ballot must be in the same type size and style.

A column may be provided on the right-hand side for questions that this division allows to be voted on at water district elections.

The order of candidates’ names on the ballot must follow the Elections Code.

The county elections official must make the ballots printed, bound, and numbered as required by the Elections Code, unless this division requires something different.

Ballots must list the candidate names and offices from the proclamation, and voters are instructed to mark one choice with a cross; other marks are forbidden.

The ballot must include the instruction: “For director vote for (giving number).”

A half-inch square must be provided to the right of each candidate’s name for marking a cross.

Ballots must leave half-inch spaces under candidate names for write-in votes.

Each day that waste continues is treated as a new offense.

Voters may pass ordinances under the Elections Code procedure cited here.

County water district ordinances may be subject to referendum under the specified Elections Code procedure.

Anyone who violates this article is punishable by a fine, jail time, or both.

Violations of this article must be prosecuted in the superior court of the county where the well is located.

County water districts must be managed under this division and may exercise powers expressly granted or necessarily implied by it.

Each district has the power to do whatever acts are necessary to carry out this division.

A district continues to exist indefinitely as a legal entity.

A district may adopt a seal and change it whenever it wants.

A district may make contracts and hire labor to carry out its purposes.

A district may hire a contractor for construction or other work, or do the work itself under its own superintendence.

A district formed under this division may change its name by board resolution, and must record and send certified copies of that resolution to the county recorder of each affected county and to the department.