Mayor Eric Garcetti responded to claims Friday that the mayoral Getty House is using more than five times the amount of water of the average Los Angeles home, even as he urges Angelenos to cut back on water use.
The mayor's home serves a public function as well as a private one, meaning it shouldn't be judged in the same way, Garcetti said at a press conference at the Department of Water and Power Friday.
"I think it’s probably unfair to talk about it as if our family is consuming that amount of water," Garcetti said. "It isn’t anywhere close to that."
The Getty House averages 2,100 gallons of water a day, about 3 percent less than when Antonio Villaraigosa was mayor but five times the amount of an average LA home, according to DWP records requested and published by the LA Weekly.
The average single-family home in the city used 387 gallons per day between 2000 and 2010, according to a UCLA study.
Garcetti defended the water use by saying that the house is a public building and “living museum” used for public events and offices.
"The water meter doesn’t discriminate between residential use and the office, public event space," he said.
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He said he is "confident" that his family’s personal water use is significantly below that of the average resident, and that they are heavily water-conscious. The Garcettis have changed landscaping and replaced the grass with more drought-tolerant plants, he added.
The Getty House mansion is located in historic Windsor Square in Hancock Park.
