Dennis Kennedy

Dennis Kennedy, the newest director of the Santa Clara Valley Water District, is a retired engineer and former longtime mayor of the City, and some in South County say he has his work cut out for him in order to get up to speed on the region’s agricultural issues that the district routinely faces.

Since Kennedy is not a farmer and agriculture is a critical sector of the district’s business in South County, he will have to spend a lot of time educating himself on water-related agricultural issues in order to “understand the whole picture,” according to former Director Don Gage, who was elected mayor of Gilroy halfway through the four-year term to which he was elected in 2010. Gage won Gilroy’s mayoral race in the Nov. 6, 2012 election, and subsequently resigned his seat on the SCVWD board.

“The ag community uses 50 percent of the water we receive from the district in South County,” Gage noted. “There’s nobody down here representing the ag community that understands the issues (on the board).”

Gage had publicly endorsed Gilroy cherry farmer Ralph Santos for the seat when he resigned from the board in December, because he is a longtime South County farmer who already understands the many complex issues related to the use of agricultural water supplied by the district. Gage said it was important to have at least one board member who represents those interests, and to bring diversity to the board that now consists of attorneys, engineers and politicians.

Kennedy will sit on the District 1 seat, which serves Morgan Hill, Gilroy, San Martin, the Evergreen and Silver Creek neighborhoods of San Jose, parts of south San Jose and areas east of San Jose and Milpitas.

After a first interview Jan. 28, the six directors of the Santa Clara Valley Water District had to re-interview two of the candidates who signed up to fill an empty seat on the board. But after a series of votes last Thursday, they unanimously chose Kennedy, 74, to fill the unexpired term.

Kennedy, who served as mayor of Morgan Hill from 1991 to 1992 and from 1996 to 2006, will sit on the SCVWD board for the remainder of the term that ends Dec. 5, 2014, according to District staff. During interviews for the seat, which took place in open board meetings last Monday and Thursday, Kennedy indicated he would not seek election to the seat at the end of the current term.

Six candidates applied for the open director’s seat, and all six were interviewed at Monday’s meeting. In addition to Kennedy, the applicants included Gilroy farmer Ralph Santos, former Morgan Hill Council member Beth Wyman, South Bay Water Recycling intern Nicholas Ajluni, retired financial executive Patrick Waite and Gilroy vintner Tom Kruse.

Kennedy, a mechanical engineer, is currently a land use and planning consultant. He serves on five nonprofit and community boards and is a member of the SCVWD Environmental Advisory Committee. He has served on the Santa Clara Valley Habitat Conservation Plan committee.

Over the years, he has been instrumental in advancing the long-awaited Upper Llagas Creek Flood Protection Project, which is still in the planning stages.

Shortly after his appointment, Kennedy said he offered the directors a promise not to seek election at the end of his term as a possible tie-breaker to sway the board that was initially deadlocked between him and Santos in their choice for a new director. Even though some of the most important issues for South County – the retrofitting of Anderson Dam, the flood control project and perchlorate groundwater cleanup – will be ongoing far longer than the two years after which his term expires, Kennedy thought the concession might swing the vote in one direction.

“I think the next couple years will be critical” for these issues which will affect South County, Kennedy said. He added that he already has experience dealing with and responding to these issues.

“The water district has an enormous amount of capital projects. I think my background as a project manager, and an engineering manager, was a consideration that helped them ultimately to support me,” Kennedy said.

The six sitting directors took a series of votes following the Jan. 28 board meeting to arrive at Kennedy’s appointment, and were initially split down the middle between Kennedy and Santos.

Santos had also been backed by the South County farming community and the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce prior to the appointment.

Growers represented by the Santa Clara County Farm Bureau, for example, were hoping to have an agricultural perspective on the SCVWD board which has been lacking, according to Farm Bureau Executive Director Jennifer Scheer.

“Having Ralph Santos (on the board) would have provided more diversity and a more rounded decision-making body,” said Scheer.

She noted that at the same time, Kennedy has “shown himself to be open to discussion and an interest in agriculture,” and the bureau is “looking forward” to working with Kennedy.

Kennedy agrees he will have to spend some time getting fully acquainted with the agricultural issues he will face as an SCVWD director. He said he will stay in contact with Santos, who serves on the SCVWD’s agricultural advisory committee. While he can’t promise to reverse current SCVWD plans to gradually increase agricultural groundwater charges over the next few years, Kennedy added that he will work with farmers and the district’s agricultural advisory commission.

“I want to discuss that with members of the agricultural community, to see if that’s something they can live with, and if not, what we can do (instead),” Kennedy said. “I will try to make sure their interests are represented, and do the best I can to balance the needs of the entire district with the agricultural needs.”

Agricultural water users in South County currently pay $17.70 per acre foot of water. All other users in South County pay the District $295 per acre foot. An acre foot is enough water to supply a family of five for two years.

The Water District has been under pressure to make those rates more equal since the Great Oaks Water Co. in San Jose filed a lawsuit and won a $5 million judgment against the SCVWD in 2010, in which a judge ruled that the higher-paying water users are illegally subsidizing lower-paying users such agricultural customers.

Kennedy is the vice president of the Morgan Hill Downtown Association, and serves on the boards of the Morgan Hill Sister Cities Association, the Silicon Valley Land Conservancy, the Morgan Hill Aquatics Foundation, and the Times editorial advisory board.

In recent years he has worked as a land use and development consultant, representing private developers seeking entitlements for local construction projects.

Two of those projects – both proposed residential developments in Morgan Hill – will be affected by the SCVWD’s Upper Llagas Creek Flood Protection project. Kennedy said as a result he already plans to meet with the district’s attorney to determine any potential conflicts between his service on the board and his involvement in promoting those housing developments, and how he will be required to respond to those conflicts.

Kennedy added that another issue he hopes to work with the other six directors on is the “bad press” brought to the District by the Great Oaks case and other sources, such as grand jury reports and media investigations criticizing the agency’s spending habits.

“We need to focus on getting our monetary policies clarified and transparent to avoid those kinds of potential problems,” Kennedy said.

The SCVWD provides drinking water and flood protection for 1.8 million residents in Santa Clara County. The District has a budget of about $285 million.

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Michael Moore is an award-winning journalist who has worked as a reporter and editor for the Morgan Hill Times, Hollister Free Lance and Gilroy Dispatch since 2008. During that time, he has covered crime, breaking news, local government, education, entertainment and more.

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