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Supervisors enjoy lots of car washes
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LOS ANGELES (AP) — Most Los Angeles County supervisors have their take-home cars washed two or three times a week, even as officials are urging residents to sharply cut back on water use during California’s drought.

The Daily News cited service records Tuesday that show some of the supervisors actually had their county cars washed more frequently after Gov. Jerry Brown ordered a 25 percent reduction in urban water use earlier this year.

Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas had his cars washed more frequently than any of the others, documents revealed. In 2014, Ridley-Thomas had one of his Chrysler 300 Limited sedans washed an average of 2.7 times per week. After the governor’s mandate in April, workers washed it 3.1 times per week.

None of the supervisors’ representatives responded to questions about their use of carwashes.

At Los Angeles City Hall, the Bureau of Sanitation and the Police Department have both reduced their washing, a spokeswoman for Mayor Eric Garcetti told the Daily News. Garcetti called for city agencies to consider converting washes to recirculated water. About a third of the city’s carwashes reuse water.

None of the county facilities use recirculated water. The typical conveyor carwash consumes 80 to 100 gallons of water, according to Eric Wulf, CEO of the International Carwash Association. That’s equal to the typical American’s daily personal water use, according to the newspaper.

Two other supervisors — Michael Antonovich and Don Knabe — both wash their take-home SUVs about two times a week, and both increased the frequency of washes after Brown’s April decree, the newspaper said.

The two newest supervisors, Sheila Kuehl and Hilda Solis, wash about once a week, and both cut back slightly after the mandate, the documents show.