Supervisors waiting for state approval to finalize the deal
Morgan Hill – Santa Clara County’s decades-long relationship with the Santa Clara Valley Water District is about to end, pending approval by the state legislature.
The district and the county have finalized an agreement to make the water district completely independent for the first time since 1969, when the county assumed budget approval authority over the district in exchange for allowing the district to merge with the county flood protection agency.
Under the agreement, the district will no longer have to submit its budget to the county and the county will lose the right to appoint two members to the district board of directors.
“I think it’s a good idea,” said district director Sig Sanchez, who was appointed to the board by the county and was a county supervisor at the time of the 1968 merger. “It was a political compromise to get the supervisors to approve the merger.”
The county and district first discussed dissolving their relationship in August, after an audit ordered by the county was sharply critical of the district’s financial management practices. County auditors said the district overpays its employees, charges too much for water and mismanages its capitol projects budget.
District officials said that the audit was illegitimate because the auditors and supervisors were not familiar with district operations.
Supervisor Don Gage has said that the decision to give up budget control would have looked better had the audit been more positive, but elected district directors should answer to voters and not to county supervisors, who have little time to deal with the district’s budget.
“They’re elected officials. Either hold them accountable or give it all to us,” Gage said Tuesday. “If they give me extra staff we can do it. Once a year the water district comes to us and flops their budget on our desk, when we’re in the middle of doing our budget. There’s no way I can do a fair analysis of their budget.”
The agreement needs to be approved by the state legislature. Rick Callender, the district’s government affairs manager, said he hopes to find a local representative to sponsor legislation in the next few weeks. Last year, SB 393, a bill sponsored by Deborah Ortiz, D-Sacramento, that would have required counties to keep close watch over special districts within their jurisdictions, in part through annual audits, died in committee.
“We’re the only district in the state that has this arrangement,” Callender said. “This makes us like all the other independent districts in the state.”
