LA supervisors drink from custom bottles

LOS ANGELES, March 31 (UPI) -- Los Angeles County supervisors drink from customized water bottles to avoid having a brand visible during their meeting broadcasts, records show.

The county prints and affixes its own label on water bottles to avoid giving a bottled water company free advertising, the Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday.

A county audit this month found that the city's spending on bottled water had doubled, from $89,000 to $189,000, in the three years since Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa told employees to buy their water.

The newspaper said county supervisors did not wish to discuss the issue of customized water bottles.

"Don did not want to comment," an aide to Supervisor Don Knabe wrote in an e-mail.

"Zev doesn't want to talk about it," said Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky's aide.

Supervisors Gloria Molina or Mark Ridley-Thomas did not respond to requests for comment, the newspaper said.

An aide to Supervisor Mike Antonovich said his boss "prefers green tea" over water.