Don Gage, our former mayor and county supervisor, has been
elected unanimously by by his fellow board members as president of
the Santa Clara Valley Water District Board. That’s a good
start.
Don Gage, our former mayor and county supervisor, has been elected unanimously by by his fellow board members as president of the Santa Clara Valley Water District Board. That’s a good start.
Gage is not a miracle worker, but he does represent the best hope for changing the dysfunctional culture at the water district. But it’s going to be a huge challenge.
The water district is power-hungry, unresponsive to the public and has a budget with more cushion than a Victoria’s Secret push-up bra.
It has “broken new ground” with two scathing reports issued by the Santa Clara County Civil Grand Jury and budget claims which spin phantom employee force reductions that never occurred because the positions were budgeted for but never filled. Most recently, responding to a Dispatch Public Records Act request, the district revealed that its insurance companies paid Olin Corp., South County’s perchlorate groundwater polluters, $2.5 million in a settlement deal that should truly prompt another Grand Jury inquiry.
Can the SCVWD, bloated and rudderless, be saved? Stay tuned.
