Chino Basin Watermaster - FY 2025/26 Budget Questions

Chino Basin Watermaster

How Do I...

How Do I...

Access, complete, and submit standard Watermaster forms?

How do I access, complete, and submit standard Watermaster forms?

Watermaster forms may be accessed from the Forms page of this site by simply clicking on the Forms button under the "Resources" tile on the home page, or from the top navigation menu anywhere else in the website. You may also click on the button below and it will take you to the Forms page.

Once you find the form you're looking for, you may download it to your local machine, complete the form digitally, and then email it to the appropriate email address. To find the appropriate recipient for the completed form, please refer to the Contacts page.

Alternatively, you may print out the form and complete it by hand. You may scan the completed form and email it to the Appropriate recipient, fax it to (909) 484-3890, or mail/drop it to the Watermaster office located at 9641 San Bernardino Rd, Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730.

If you need assistance, you may call Watermaster at (909) 484-3888, email the planned recipients, or use the Contact Us form.

Click Here For Watermaster Forms Page

Access and review legal documents such as Court filings and hearing transcripts?

How do I access and review legal documents such as Court filings and hearing transcripts?

Court filings and Court hearing transcripts can be accessed from the Legal main page. From there, you can also access all other legal related documents, including but not limited to the 1978 Judgment and the 2012 Restated Judgment, Peace and Peace II Agreements, and Rules and Regulations.

From the Legal page, you have a variety of links you can navigate to. Among those links are Court Filings and Court Hearing Transcripts. Click on the appropriate link and it'll lead you to that page which will have a list of all documents and their links. This list will be in reverse chronological order, putting the most recent at top.

For convenience, the list of documents may be filtered by year. Simply navigate to the top of the list and you'll find a dropdown field. From that dropdown field, select the year of your choice and then click Apply.

If you need assitance or cannot find the document you're seeking, you may contact us by phone, email, Contact Us form, or submitting a Request for Information.

Click Here For Watermaster Legal Page

Access and review future or past meeting minutes, staff reports, and agendas?

How do I access and review future or past meeting minutes, staff reports, and agendas?

Meeting minutes, staff reports, and agendas for Watermaster's standard monthly meetings can be found in the meeting packages. In addition, meeting minutes and agendas can be found as standalone documents from the Meetings home page which also acts as the agenda management platform, conforming to California's Brown Act.

In the Meetings page, you'll first come to direct access of agendas for upcoming or recently held standard meetings. Directly below the agendas, you'll have direct access to the corresponding meeting packages unless they are special meetings.

Links that will lead you to a specific committee may be found at the bottom of the Meetings page.

Watermaster Board, Advisory Committee, and Pool Committees will default to the current meeting but you may also look up past meeting documents from their respective pages. On the Pool Committee Meetings page, you'll first see the upcoming or recently held meetings by all three pools. And at the bottom of this page is a link to each of the three Pool Committee's archived meeting documents.

Click Here For Meetings Page

Find current party representatives and their voting power, including pooling plans and rules & regs?

How do I find current party representatives and their voting power, including pooling plans and rules & regs?

Click on Organization dropdown button and a dropdown menu will appear. From there, select either Advisory Committee or Pool Committees to go to the page where the information can be found.

Within the Advisory Committee page, you'll find who the current Chair person is, links to the Advisory Committee roster, volume vote basis of the Advisory Committee, and its Rules & Regulations.

The Pool Committees page will show the current Pool committee chair, link to the representative roster, Rules & Regulations, and pooling plans of each of the three Pools as well as the volume vote basis of the Overlying (Non-Agricultural) and Appropriative Pools. The Overlying (Agricultural) Pool does not use volume vote.

Click on the link below to go to the Organization page.

Click Here For Organization Page

Access latest and past technical reports from various sub-committees?

How do I access latest and past technical reports from various sub-committees?

Technical reports may be found on the Engineering Reports page. To arrive at this page, simply click on Reports from the navigation bar at the top of the page to actuate the dropdown menu. From the dropdown, select Engineering and that will take to the Engineering Reports page.

The first set of reports you'll see on the Engineering Reports page are:

The Chino Optimum Basin Management Program State of the Basin Report
OBMP Semi-Annual Staff Status Report
Ground-Level Monitoring Committee Annual Report
Prado Basin Habitat Sustainability Committee Annual Report

These first four reports are linked to the most recent report within their respective category.

The next section is the archive of routinely produced reports, separated by category/committee. In addition to the four described above, there are:

Maximum Benefit Reports
Streamflow Monitoring Reports

Each of these links will provide you with a popup, listing all the documents from that particular reporting.

Finally the bottom section of the Engineering Reports page displays other reports and/or documents that are not produced on a regular basis.

The link below will take you to the Engineering Reports page. If you're looking for a particular report that is not shown on this page, you may contact us for assitance via the Contact Us form.

Click Here For Engineering Reports Page

View current budget and assessments, and review stored water account balances?

How do I view current budget and assessments, and review stored water account balances?

Watermaster routinely approves a budget in May every year and is posted once it's approved. The budget sometime gets amended and if it does, it will be reposted immediately following its approval. This budget is accessible in two locations throughout this website. First location is on the homepage under "Quick Links" tile, and the second is on the Finance Reports page.

The Assessment Package is published annually and is based on the approved budget and the total assessable production from the Basin in the preceding fiscal year. Similar to the budget, the latest Assessment Pakcage may be found on the homepage as well as the Finance Reports page. However, you may also access past Assessment Packages from the bottom of the Finance Reports page. The stored water account balances may be found in the Assessment Packages.

The use of the terms "fiscal year", "production year", and "assessment year" have led to some confusion over time. "Production year" refers to the time period from July 1 through June 30 in a given year where activites have occurred. "Assessment year" refers to the next 12 months following the "production year" when the budget (based on the "production year") is utilized. Both terms describe the same period as a "fiscal year" however it is more descriptive to use either "production" or "assessment" year depending on the context.

You may also access the Finance Reports page by clicking on the button below. You'll also find the Financial Audit Report in the Finance Reports page.

Click Here For Finance Reports Page

Import Watermaster Calendar into my Microsoft Outlook?

How do I import Watermaster Calendar into my Microsoft Outlook?

You may find directions on how to import the Watermaster Calendar into your Outlook on the Watermaster Calendar page. You may access this page in two ways; from the home page, simply click on Watermaster Calendar located at the bottom of the Meetings tile; or if your on another page other than the home page, simply click on the Calendar button located at the navigation bar at the top of the page.

Once you're in the Watermaster Calendar page, you'll see two buttons just above the calendar called "ICS File" and "RSS Feed". Next to those two buttons is a "?" to the right. Clicking on the "?" will display a dialog window, giving you two options to choose from; instruction to subscribe to an RSS feed and instruction to import an ICS file. Click on the "ICS File" and the instruction to import the calendar will display.

The two instructions available from these links will also have the option to print, making the directions easier to follow rather than resizing/minimizing windows on you device's screen.

For convenience, the link to the Watermaster Calendar is provided below.

Click Here For Watermaster Calendar Page

FY 2025/26 Budget Questions

Ask Your Question(s)

WOULD YOU LIKE TO ASK QUESTIONS(S) REGARDING THE PROPOSED FY 2025/26 BUDGET?

Date Submitted

Name

Party

Question

Status

ID
2

Date Submitted
2025-04-09

Name
Justin Scott-Coe

Party
Monte Vista Water District

Question
General: MVWD appreciates the inclusion of projected ending expenses for FY 2024/25 in the proposed FY 2025/26 budget detail (budget document #1). MVWD also appreciates WM's projection that it will underspend its FY 2024/25 budget by more than $2.3M. In agreement with the Non-Ag Pool representative's comments at the Advisory Committee budget release, MVWD believes that the proposed FY 2025/26 budget should more closely align with the prior year's projected year-end actual expenses rather than the prior year's budgeted expenses, with a goal of achieving an overall budget reduction of ~$2M.

Status

Responded

View

QUESTION

QUESTION ASKED

DATE:

April 09, 2025

NAME:

Justin Scott-Coe

PARTY:

Monte Vista Water District

QUESTION ASKED REGARDING THE BUDGET:

Regarding Account No: General

General: MVWD appreciates the inclusion of projected ending expenses for FY 2024/25 in the proposed FY 2025/26 budget detail (budget document #1). MVWD also appreciates WM's projection that it will underspend its FY 2024/25 budget by more than $2.3M. In agreement with the Non-Ag Pool representative's comments at the Advisory Committee budget release, MVWD believes that the proposed FY 2025/26 budget should more closely align with the prior year's projected year-end actual expenses rather than the prior year's budgeted expenses, with a goal of achieving an overall budget reduction of ~$2M.

WATERMASTER'S RESPONSE:

The projected year-end amounts will continue to be refined through finalizing the budget report to the Pool/Advisory and Board in May. The prior year expense will be taken into consideration for the final budget request.

ID
1

Date Submitted
2025-04-09

Name
Justin Scott-Coe

Party
Monte Vista Water District

Question
General: MVWD and other paying producers are anticipating economic uncertainties over the coming year that may directly impact the affordability of water service to our customers. The following are areas where WM's proposed expenditures can be reduced without harming the Basin or negatively impacting WM's ability to administer the Judgment: 1) Reduce meeting expenses by limiting legal/staff attendance at Pool/Advisory Committee meetings, providing informational presentations only at Advisory and Board meetings, and canceling meetings when there is no business items requiring action. 2) Significantly reduce or eliminate miscellaneous, general and unanticipated expenses, relying instead on reserves or budget amendments for unanticipated expenses. 3) Eliminate items where activity is unlikely to occur during the budget year. Wherever possible, limit or forgo activities that are not explicitly required by the Judgment/CAMA or requested by a consensus of the parties. Adopt a "less is more approach.

Status

Responded

View

QUESTION

QUESTION ASKED

DATE:

April 09, 2025

NAME:

Justin Scott-Coe

PARTY:

Monte Vista Water District

QUESTION ASKED REGARDING THE BUDGET:

Regarding Account No: General

General: MVWD and other paying producers are anticipating economic uncertainties over the coming year that may directly impact the affordability of water service to our customers. The following are areas where WM's proposed expenditures can be reduced without harming the Basin or negatively impacting WM's ability to administer the Judgment: 1) Reduce meeting expenses by limiting legal/staff attendance at Pool/Advisory Committee meetings, providing informational presentations only at Advisory and Board meetings, and canceling meetings when there is no business items requiring action. 2) Significantly reduce or eliminate miscellaneous, general and unanticipated expenses, relying instead on reserves or budget amendments for unanticipated expenses. 3) Eliminate items where activity is unlikely to occur during the budget year. Wherever possible, limit or forgo activities that are not explicitly required by the Judgment/CAMA or requested by a consensus of the parties. Adopt a "less is more approach.

WATERMASTER'S RESPONSE:

Reduce meeting expenses by limiting legal/staff attendance at Pool/Advisory Committee meetings, providing informational presentations only at Advisory and Board meetings, and canceling meetings when there is no business items requiring action. • Attendance of WM Board’s legal counsel is within the Board’s purview. • Legal attendance serves two functions – to provide information to the Committees, but also to keep current with discussions at the Pool Committee to provide WM Board and staff support without having to incur additional costs to research background on issues. • Staff attendance at committee meetings does not entail additional costs. • Providing informational presentations to only Advisory Committee and Board might result in some Pool Committee members missing those presentations. • Historically, meetings have been cancelled, in consultation with Committee chairs, when prudent to do so. • In order to be efficient with budgeted expenses, both legal and engineering consultants ask the General Manager before each meeting whether attendance in person is required. Significantly reduce or eliminate miscellaneous, general and unanticipated expenses, relying instead on reserves or budget amendments for unanticipated expenses. • Pertaining to Watermaster budget – we have reviewed and reduced/eliminated these expenses to help maintain the affordability of the budget. • Pertaining to the legal budget – while parties are assessed to allow for potential services within these categories, if the services are not provided, the remaining funds are returned to the parties. *Eliminate items where activity is unlikely to occur during the budget year. Wherever possible, limit or forgo activities that are not explicitly required by the Judgment/CAMA or requested by a consensus of the parties. Adopt a "less is more” approach. • Since the development of the budget for FY 2024/25, Watermaster has not budgeted for or contemplated any efforts beyond the existing commitments. This practice continues for FY 2025/26. Watermaster budgets only for efforts it intends to work on over the course of the FY.

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