Mayor Al Pinheiro, City Administrator Tom Haglund and City
Councilman Perry Woodward will meet with Luke Brugnara this morning
to discuss the latter’s offer to sell water to the city at a
heavily discounted rate compared to the Santa Clara Valley Water
District.
Mayor Al Pinheiro, City Administrator Tom Haglund and City Councilman Perry Woodward will meet with Luke Brugnara this morning to discuss the latter’s offer to sell water to the city at a heavily discounted rate compared to the Santa Clara Valley Water District.
With a $6.2 million deficit to deal with, council members have indicated that they would like staff to research the possibility of buying at least half of Gilroy’s water from Brugnara, saving anywhere from $1.2 million to $2.1 million a year. Little Arthur Creek feeds his private reservoir on his Redwood Retreat Road property in northwest Gilroy.
Brugnara claims the reservoir can provide Gilroy with the nearly three billion gallons of water, or 9,020 acre-feet, it consumes annually. Flow data from the creek shows that more than half that amount leaves Brugnara’s property each year, but he claims even more sits behind his dam. Brugnara has agreed to show The Dispatch his reservoir after the meeting at City Hall this morning.
The San Francisco real estate mogul also faces federal charges for poaching endangered fish from the creek. He claims the charges amount to political retribution because the water district cannot beat his price of $300,000 for 10,000 acre-feet of water. The city will pay the water district $2.4 million for the same amount this year.
