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The mission of the Santa Clara Valley Water District needs to be a easy one: Present a dependable water provide to about 2 million folks at inexpensive costs by way of environmentally accountable sources.
But, the company’s leaders have launched into expensive and silly initiatives whereas the board has been tormented by members prepared to deceive voters to hold on to their political energy.
Thus, it’s a disgrace that this yr, when there was a chance to carry a brand new era of leaders to the seven-member board, nobody stepped ahead to problem two long-term board members.
The one aggressive race on the Nov. 5 poll is for the seat of retiring board member Barbara Keegan, who had the integrity to step down after three phrases as she had advocated all board members ought to. Keegan, who’s youthful than all however certainly one of her fellow board members, turns 70 this month.
To switch her in District 2, which incorporates components of San Jose and Santa Clara, voters ought to elect Shiloh Ballard, a non-profit govt with an extended resume of public service and environmental advocacy.
The one contested race
The District 2 race supplies a chance to debate and debate a few of the key points confronting the district, together with:
• A questionable plan to construct a large dam and reservoir close to Pacheco Move, east of Gilroy. The value tag has tripled since 2018 and the district “has been unable to find any other major Bay Area water agencies to share the costs.”
• The rebuilding of Anderson Dam, which holds again Santa Clara County’s largest reservoir, between San Jose and Morgan Hill, to carry it as much as fashionable earthquake requirements. The venture, which tripled in value in simply two years to $2.3 billion, is scheduled for completion in 2032.
In securing new water provides and inspiring conservation, the district have to be good concerning the fiscal and environmental impacts.
Ballard is operating towards Invoice Roth, a digital advertising and marketing guide with a pc science background. Roth and Ballard each serve on the water district’s advisory Environmental and Water Assets Committee, in order that they each have familiarity with district coverage points.
However Ballard is clearly the superior selection, partly as a result of she brings a stronger environmental perspective, which exhibits up in her harder questioning of the deserves of the Pacheco Dam venture and her insistence that the district leverage its participation within the Delta tunnel venture to make sure most ecological protections.
Furthermore, Ballard brings a standout resume of group work, together with six years on the San Jose Planning Fee, 22 years on the board of the Santa Clara County League of Conservation Voters, 13 years on the Affiliation of Bay Space Authorities’s Regional Planning Committee, 14 years as senior vp of the Silicon Valley Management Group and eight years as govt director of the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition.
It helps clarify why she has lined up endorsements from a broad group of South Bay leaders that bridges political divides. It’s that form of coalition-building that would strengthen her political clout on the water board, which is in determined want of recent leaders.
Time period limits deceit
We had hoped for extra turnover on the board this yr, however that was to not be. Blame the ability of incumbency that daunts election challengers and a misleading measure {that a} majority of board members positioned on the June 2022 poll.
Measure A was worded to counsel that it was decreasing the variety of four-year phrases a member may serve when it was really growing the restrict from three to 4 phrases, or a complete of 16 years on the board.
Worse, since board time period limits have been first instituted in 2010, service earlier than then doesn’t rely towards the restrict. Consequently, Dick Santos, a backer of the extending time period limits and first elected to the board in 2000 — 24 years in the past! — was uncontested for his seventh time period on the board. He’ll proceed representing District 3, which incorporates Milpitas and components of San Jose, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale.
Extra shocking was the choice of Nai Hsueh to hunt a fourth time period after campaigning towards growing the three-term restrict. First elected in 2012, Hsueh, like Keegan, opposed putting Measure A on the poll. Hsueh even signed the poll arguments towards it, through which opponents lambasted the “power grab” by “politicians who have been in office too long (and) want extra terms for themselves,” and who’re “deceiving the voters to get them.”
However, after voters handed Measure A, Hseuh this yr was not involved about politicians staying in workplace too lengthy. She filed for a fourth time period and drew no opposition. So, she is going to proceed representing District 5, which incorporates Saratoga, Cupertino and Sunnyvale.
We’ve by no means been huge followers of time period limits. However we now have no abdomen for voter deception — and we’re disillusioned by Hseuh’s self-serving hypocrisy, which leaves us with just one district election this yr.
The selection for that seat is obvious: Voters in District 2 ought to elect Ballard.
