Water expert Ram Singh hopes to stir things up by challenging
status quo
Gilroy – Should a water district board member serve as a conduit between citizens and an agency with sprawling powers? Or should the board member focus on challenging the technical and budget decisions of a complex and growing agency?

A voter’s answers to those questions will help decide which candidate they choose Nov. 7 as the District 1 representative to the Santa Clara Valley Water District board of directors.

Elections for the water district typically draw little public attention despite the agency’s broad range of powers, which include the ability to set water rates, build levees and monitor clean-up of groundwater contamination.

But this year, political newcomer and water expert Ram Singh is seeking to shake things up by challenging the status quo at the water agency. On Tuesday, he will face off against Rosemary Kamei, a three-term incumbent to the water district’s governing board.

Singh, a professor of water resources management at San Jose State University, forced a runoff with Kamei despite a late start to serious campaigning before the June election.

He differentiated himself from two other candidates hoping to unseat Kamei by highlighting his 45 years of experience in water resources management, a career that spans everything from designing dams and levees to helping pubic officials budget for water resources.

Singh has criticized Kamei and other district board members and upper management for failing to rein in what he sees as runaway spending. The district, which now has a $314 million budget, has beefed up its staff from 500 to 800 people in the last 12 years and doubled water rates in half that time.

“I’m getting some solid support,” Singh said, “because people are now getting the message: The mismanaged, money-wasting water district must be brought under control.”

Kamei, first appointed as District 1 representative in 1993 and re-elected three times since, says it’s easy to criticize the district, but harder to come up with “innovative ways to serve the community and be cost-efficient as well.”

Kamei serves as a vice president of development for Planned Parenthood Mar Monte and has a master’s degree in urban planning. She said her opponent misunderstands the role of a water district director.

“I always pose the question when I’m campaigning: ‘What does a water board director do?’ ” Kamei said. “A water board director does not engineer projects. You are the representative of the community, and there are many issues in the community, and as a representative you bring these forward to the board and you try to be a problem solver. And in those areas I have done it: I have solved problems and I have worked with the community.”

Kamei is campaigning hard as she fights to retain her seat in District 1, a sprawling area that stretches from the Santa Cruz mountains around Los Gatos to the southern tip of Santa Clara County. Singh has sought to extend the reach of his fledgling campaign by piggy-backing on the canvassing efforts of other regional candidates such as Jane Howard, a Gilroy resident and incumbent for the Santa Clara County Board of Education.

Kamei’s failure to capture 50 percent of the vote in June – she finished with nearly 49.2 percent – triggered the Nov. 7 runoff. To learn more about both candidates, visit www.smartvoter.org.

Serdar Tumgoren, Senior Staff Writer, covers City Hall for The Dispatch. Reach him at 847-7109 or st*******@************ch.com.

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