Singh in second, hoping for November runoff to take seat from
longtime incumbent
Gilroy – Ram Singh was hitting the “Refresh” button on his Web browser late into the night Tuesday, hoping Rosemary Kamei’s numbers would dip.
County officials had tallied more than half the votes for District 1 representative to the Santa Clara Valley Water District’s governing board, and three-term incumbent Kamei was hovering at 51 percent.
Anything short of 50 percent would trigger a fall run-off election between the top two finishers. As of 11:30pm, Singh stood in second place with 20.6 percent of the vote.
“I’m hoping for the runoff,” said Singh, a professor of water resources management at San Jose State University who only began campaigning a month ago. “Then I’ll get some pros to help me because I am a novice in this department. Based upon my knowledge and qualifications .… I’m very sure that I can beat her.”
Kamei, who did not return a call for comment, was expected to sweep to a fourth term on the water board, despite growing criticism about the agency’s mushrooming budget and staff. Area water rates have doubled in the last six years to support a $260 million budget.
Singh, who has spent 45 years teaching and consulting on water resources management, has criticized the agency as top-heavy with managers with no technical expertise. He hoped to refocus the agency on its core mission of water distribution and flood control.
That mission has the support of fellow candidate Terry Mahurin, another harsh critic of district spending who said he would back Singh in a runoff election.
“The overall problem is that they’ve gone on a spending spree where they have exercised no control, not the least of which was the labor cost more than doubling in the last six years,” Mahurin said. ” I would support Ram in hopes that he would bring something other than more of the same from what we’ve seen for the last 12 years.”
As of press time, Mahurin had garnered 15.4 percent of the vote, followed by Morgan Hill rancher Johne Baird with 12.5 percent.
Kamei, who has never before been challenged for her seat on the water district board, has defended the agency’s programs and its budget.
Despite the growing role of the water district in working with cities on water resources planning, she said the agency still remains largely invisible to the public. In a fourth term on the board, she hopes to hopes to encourage greater public awareness of and participation in the agency’s efforts.
That may be a tall order. On Tuesday, few voters in Gilroy said they bothered to cast a ballot for any of the four water district candidates.
Glenda Ortega said she hasn’t followed the race, and that she’s barely noticed the increases in water costs. Since 2000, the average water bill has doubled.
Ortega dismissed the increases.
“Its a few cents” more each month, she said. “Just send the bill out.”
