It’s time for Santa Clara Valley Water District board of
directors and ratepayers to have more oversight of out-of-control
agency
We’re glad to see that the Santa Clara Valley Water District took steps to prevent a debacle like the stealth hiring of former board member Greg Zlotnick from happening again.
We hope trustees know that it’s not nearly enough.
Water District CEO Stan Williams was able to create a lucrative position, hire then-board member Zlotnick without considering any other candidates, ignore the advice of his own attorney in the matter, and keep the rest of the board members in the dark until it was a fait accompli because of the lack of real oversight exercised by the board.
A culture of cronyism permeates the water district. Board members rely too heavily on staff. The district has a top-heavy org chart. Questions swirl about the district’s financing decisions. Labor costs continually spiral upwards.
These deep-seated problems can all be traced to a hands-off board of directors that doesn’t place its role of critical oversight on behalf of the taxpayer as its first priority.
Williams has suffered the indignity of having board members publicly question his judgment. Worse, they’ve stripped him of much of his power, deciding that three of Williams’ direct reports – the clerk of the board, the water district’s attorney, and the chief financial officer – will no longer report to Williams but to the board.
That’s a strong indication of just how much confidence board members have lost in their CEO.
But that’s not enough.
The board has instituted a policy requiring that all of the district’s unclassified employees be hired through a competitive hiring process. They’ve instituted a ban on board members taking jobs with the water district for a year after leaving office.
Given new revelations that Williams did not follow standard water district procedures in hiring Zlotnick, we wouldn’t be surprised if Williams soon resigns or is fired.
But even that’s not enough.
Board members must start asking tough questions of district staff and demanding thorough answers that evaluate all sides of an issue. They must rein in spending, especially on salary and benefits, trim bloated staffs, and initiate a top-down culture change so that the needs of ratepayers, not the water district bureaucracy, are the top priority.
But even that’s not enough.
That’s because the blame for this situation doesn’t lie just with the water district’s board of directors.
It also lies with us, district ratepayers. Unless we’re educated about the issues, communicating with our board representatives, and holding them accountable in between elections and at the ballot box, board members have no real incentive to do the hard work that responsible service in an elected office requires.
If that happens, it would be enough.
The Zlotnick/Williams scandal could be the start of a real change at the Santa Clara Valley Water District, or it could be a quickly forgotten dust-up.
It’s up to the agency’s board of directors, and it’s ultimately up to us.
