The Santa Clara Valley Water District board of directors is currently interviewing five of 21 applicants who applied to temporarily fill the District 1 director’s seat vacated last month by former director Dennis Kennedy.
From the field of 21 names who submitted applications for the appointment last week, the current six directors chose five candidates to interview at the Dec. 8 board meeting, according to SCVWD Board Chair Gary Kremen.
At the meeting currently underway at water district headquarters, 5700 Almaden Expressway, the board is interviewing applicants Richard Constantine, Morgan Hill City Councilmember; Campbell Councilman Jeffrey Cristina; Santa Clara County employee and San Jose Mineta International Airport Commissioner Tom Cruz; second generation farmer and Grass Farm owner Erin Gil; and former mayor of Morgan Hill John Varela.
The applicants submitted their letters of interest and their answers to a board questionnaire before the Dec. 4 deadline to do so last week. The questionnaire included inquiries about the applicants’ relevant experience for the director’s seat, their positions on current water district practices and what they feel are the district’s highest priorities in the coming years.
At the Dec. 8 board meeting, directors, having reviewed the applications, submitted a written “rating sheet” to the clerk of the board, Kremen explained. The top five applicants after the ratings were tallied received three or more votes from these rating sheets.
The agenda for the Dec. 10 meeting, currently underway, calls for the board to interview the five candidates during the public meeting and appoint one to replace Kennedy, who resigned Nov. 4 due to health complications related to a brain tumor. The appointee will serve until November 2016. At that time, the board plans to call an election to ask the voters to fill the seat through the remainder of Kennedy’s term, which would have expired in November 2018.
The District 1 director represents the area within SCVWD boundaries that includes all of South Santa Clara County, plus most of the eastern portion of the county.
The SCVWD provides wholesale water to cities and other retailers throughout the county, ultimately providing drinking water for about 1.8 million residents. The district is also in charge of flood control for the county’s residents.
Applicants and other authorities have noted that District 1 includes most of the agricultural property remaining in the water district’s sphere of influence. These properties are among SCVWD’s biggest consumers, and the agricultural community has long argued they should have a representative of their industry on the board of directors.
The current statewide drought, now in its fourth year, is just one challenge the District 1 director will face in the coming months. The Anderson Dam retrofit project in Morgan Hill and the Upper Llagas Creek Flood Control project are among the district’s biggest ventures that will remain underway through the November 2016 election.
