Edward C. “Ed” Little, former Culver City council member and local water official, has returned as a member of the board of directors of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California.

Little represents West Basin Municipal Water District on Metropolitan’s board, on which he previously served two separate terms—from January 1999 to September 2001 and March 1994 to January 1998.  He replaces Carol Kwan, who served as a Metropolitan director for two separate terms, including her most recent since September 2001.

Little, who joins Willard H. Murray, Jr. as West Basin representatives on the 37-member Metropolitan board, will serve on the MWD board’s Water Quality and Operations Committee, and Communications and Legislation Committee.  He was seated on the board at its meeting Tuesday, April 10.

Appointed to West Basin’s board of directors in 1989, Little is currently serving his fifth term of office.  At West Basin, he represents the cities of Culver City, El Segundo, Malibu and West Hollywood, and unincorporated areas of Lennox, North Ladera Heights, Del Aire, Topanga, View Park and Windsor Hills.  West Basin, founded in 1947, provides supplemental water to nearly 1 million people in a 185-square-mile service area.

Active in water issues since the early 1950s when he worked to annex Culver City to West Basin’s service area, Little served on the County Resources and Reclamation Advisory Committee from 1965 to 1967.

A Culver City councilman from 1966 to 1970, Little was the city’s representative to the Southern California Association of Governments.  He opened Ed Little Auto Service in 1951, which his son, Bob Little, still operates as a family-owned business.

Little, a Los Angeles native, received a bachelor’s degree in industrial management from the University of Southern California.

He is a member of the Culver City Rotary Club, of which he is past president.  He was a 15-year member of the board of managers of the Culver Palms YMCA, and served as president of the Culver City Jaycees, of which he is a life member.

Little received the Culver City Chamber of Commerce’s 1992 Outstanding Business Award and was honored as the 1965 Citizen of the Year by the Culver City Chapter of Jewish War Veterans.

He and his wife, Helen, reside in Culver City.  He has three children and four grandchildren.

The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California is a cooperative of 26 cities and water agencies serving 18 million people in six counties. The district imports water from the Colorado River and Northern California to supplement local supplies, and helps its members to develop increased water conservation, recycling, storage, and other resource-management programs.