Ex-Official Pleads Guilty to Tax Evasion : Court: Carl Kymla, former director with the Metropolitan Water District, will be sentenced in January.

A former Orange County director for the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California faces sentencing Jan. 10 after pleading guilty to a single charge of tax evasion, his attorney said Tuesday.

Carl Kymla, 58, cited personal problems when he submitted his resignation letter Oct. 6 to the Municipal Water District of Orange County, the agency that appointed him to the Los Angeles-based water agency. Kymla was a 20-year member of the MWD board.

According to the federal court indictment handed down earlier this year, Kymla paid less that half of the $158,282 he owed in taxes in 1986 and 1987. Kymla, a former Newport Beach City councilman, entered his guilty plea in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles on Oct. 1, said defense attorney Paul Raymond.

Raymond declined to comment on the case Tuesday. Federal prosecutors could not be reached for comment. Kymla, who earlier denied the charges, also could not be reached.

In 1978, Kymla was general manager of the Moulton Niguel Water District when he was indicted on felony charges of misappropriating public property, including using district equipment and employees to handle chores around his home.

At the time, prosecutors admitted that their evidence against Kymla was weak. Kymla retired one day after the charges were dismissed against him in February, 1979.