Bottled watergate update

Los Angeles County supervisors gave up their bottled water this week -- trading individual plastic bottles emblazoned with the county seal for paper cups and old-fashioned carafes filled with iced tap water.

The move came a week after The Times reported that a student worker peeled the labels off individual water bottles, used a computer to print out custom labels and slapped them on. The relabeling of the bottles for the supervisors' weekly board meetings had been going on for years.

Supervisors' aides said the special water was needed to avoid giving free advertising to the original bottler on public-access television broadcasts.

But that struck many people as fiscally wasteful, environmentally unfriendly and politically tone deaf. After all, the supervisors have ordered cuts in recent months that has resulted in the removal of purified water in county hospitals. Workers in some county buildings complained that they did not even have a working drinking fountain.

-- Garrett Therolf

Comments

[George]

I love how idiots are always concerned about "free advertising". It always strikes me as odd that people have issues with doing something for someone or some company for free when it is something that typically is paid for. Big deal.

Also, seriously, do these morons on the council think anybody is going to go out and buy the brand of water they use? Council members are typically of average or below average intelligence, I wouldn't copy their behavior even if I was paid to do so.

[txutxi]

George, they aren't councilmembers, they are county supervisors

[Ken]

Is there some reason why the labels couldn't simply be removed, instead of replaced?

[cwarmy]

The L.A. supes are some of the most ineffective city board members in the country. They might as well be advertising bottled pee.

[lwps]

The obvious question -- why didn't they attempt to collect an advertizing fee from some water company? Do they know what city this is?

[Meredith]

I'm on jury duty downtown right now, and none of the water fountains work in the entire Foltz courthouse building. They've all been turned off. I guess people could use the water in the sinks in the restrooms, or buy bottled water -- there are vending machines available in the lobby, both the jury assembly rooms and in the snack rooms in the building. Why GIVE us water, when they can make some money from the vending machine companies?

[I'm Thirsty]

Paper cups? Can't they bring a mug and re-use it every day?

[Thomas]

"Council members are typically of average or below average intelligence"

Whomever you are, thank you for an out-loud laugh at the end of a long and tiring day.

[David]

What gets me is that this was ONLY done when it was reported by the Times.
If not it would be business as usual and they would just keep on wasting our tax dollars........
So what else do we not know about or what other waste the Times has not discovered.

[John]

Repeal, Recall, and Revolt!!!

[Dr.Cyber]

One thing we forget as we call them on the carpet for being ignorant or ineffective: they were voted in, not appointed.
We can help them experience current economic conditions if we choose to this fall and show them the exit.

[Ron]

Iced tap water, eh? I'd be happy to ship some water their way from Saugus in the Santa Clarita Valley. Tastes just like their policies.

[Crystal]

Hel-O! This is L.A. - get a product placement deal!!

[Patrick]

Politician's are going to have to learn how to live like the rest of society, not above the rest of society like royalty or some sort of capitalists leaders like N. Korea's leader, "do as I say and shut up and smile for the camera."

America needs to wake up and realize that their own politicians look down on the people that vote them in. You can not vote them out because they own the voting booths you use, and can buy more votes than the voters can submit legally.

American politics has become corrupt and it is time to remove all payment for service, as if it is not a job, but a responsibility. Why pay someone to perform public duty? That is the problem with politicians, they make more money than the people they represent from special interest groups that can buy them and let the voter suffer.

Politician;s owning California, is why California has become a conservative nightmare instead of the state it used to be one of respect and hard work. Now California is a collection of rich conservatives that own the state and let the rest of us use it.

left California a year ago, and have lived there three times and it is no longer worth the effort to stay any longer. The beach and Santa Monica and the traffic is no longer worth the suffering of poor politics and bad budgets.

Patrick

[Doug in Toronto]

Who says politicians can't make the tough decisions??

[M]

On one hand, this is so ridiculous! Why do things even need to get to this point where this needs to be pressured into people to DRINK FROM A REUSABLE CONTAINER! On the other hand, no wonder the rest of the population has such an issue figuring out that the current drink distribution system that has been created is so out of whack. Our own government doesn't seem to acknowledge this fact due to the fact that the only thing they do is tack on a 5 or 10 cent deposit on a container when you buy it.

I cannot say it enough times, please use reusable containers. That goes for any county employees and any person reading this post, every single person they know, everyone! Despite all of the recycling bins throughout this city, most of the plastic, metal and glass containers purchased are not recycled. Even a tinier percentage are reused. There is something to the idea of using glass bottles to distribute drinks. They can be washed out and sterilized before being used again. They DO NOT need the high energy input that recycling requires to break them down and reform them into a container. You can easily buy a safe-to-drink-from stainless steel bottle to carry water with yourself no matter where you go. These bottles travel well (even on airplanes!) and for $15 you can have something that will last you much longer than any plastic bottle from water or soda.