Ten minutes was all it took for the Santa Clara Valley Water
District board of directors to decide to revisit the issue that has
caused great consternation from Gilroy to Palo Alto: The new water
district map.
Ten minutes was all it took for the Santa Clara Valley Water District board of directors to decide to revisit the issue that has caused great consternation from Gilroy to Palo Alto: The new water district map.
About 9:40 a.m. today, Director Cy Mann – the board’s appointed South County representative – motioned 7-0 to call a special meeting and public hearing on the map that is “unlawful gerrymandering,” according to the city of Gilroy’s attorney Linda Callon. Gilroy’s city council voted unanimously to proceed with a lawsuit to challenge the map that joins Gilroy with Palo Alto as one water district. The Morgan Hill City Council will not follow suit, but agreed to support Gilroy’s litigious decision.
The division of Morgan Hill and San Martin from Gilroy fractures a community that shares common geographic, topographic, agriculture and water interests and does not adhere to the water board’s own resolution for redistricting.
In an 11th-hour decision by the water board, which the board vouches was done based on public input, the new map was approved 5-2 April 27 after all members of the public had gone home and it was then pushed through an adoption vote the morning of April 29. The map was available online at www.valleywater.org for 24 hours before it was adopted. for That vote was 5-1 with Palo Alto’s current director Patrick Kwok voting no and South County’s director Rosemary Kamei abstaining.
A redistricting committee met over a period of 15 weeks since January to rifle through 20 maps that were drawn with hours of input from the community and other invested parties. On April 27, the committee presented their recommended three maps to the board, which after discussion discarded and went instead with the map that joins Palo Alto to Gilroy in one district and joins South San Jose with Morgan Hill and San Martin in a separate district. The redistricting must be completed by June 30 to comply with Assembly Bill 466. The board must also comply with the registrar of voters that by law requires the electoral redistricting be done 180 days before the November election.
The last-minute convincing before April 27 by Santa Clara Supervisor Don Gage and Mann was enough for Gilroy Mayor Al Pinheiro and Morgan Hill Mayor Steve Tate – as well as retired water board director Sig Sanchez – to support the splitting of South County under the impression that they would have a better chance at electing two representatives to the board as they have historically had.
So, the mayors and their chambers of commerce sent letters asking that South County be divided.
“We confused possible with probable is what we did,” Tate said to the board Tuesday. He apologized for his direction that was misleading to the board.
Public and government uproar began the day after the map was drawn. The mayors of Palo Alto, Mountain View and Los Altos fired back on the board and asked that the decision be rescinded because their predominantly urban communities lack common interest with a groundwater – and agriculture-rich Gilroy.
Thirteen people spoke to the map issue Tuesday and all but one asked that the board throw out the new map and adopt a map that links Gilroy with areas of common interest.
“Folks, this was all we were asking. I called the chair (Santos) and Kamei the next day. It just doesn’t make sense for South County,” Pinheiro said.
Mann thanked Pinheiro for attending the meeting in person – he had mentioned he watched the April 27 meeting online – and said: “South County asked for two districts and I delivered,” Mann said. “I’m the bad guy now because I carried your message over here and we delivered.”
Pinheiro said he wanted to be clear on what transpired leading up to the drawing of the new map.
“Let’s be straight-forward, it wasn’t South County that asked for it originally. We weren’t even thinking of Map Q. It came from you, it came from Don Gage, so therefore let’s get things on the table straight,” Pinheiro said. “Do not try to run me over, because you’re not going to do it.”
The back and forth was stopped between Pinheiro and Mann when board chair Richard Santos asked the debate to conclude.
The board will hold two public hearings Thursday at 6 p.m. and Friday at 4 p.m. at the water district headquarters, 5750 Almaden Expressway in San Jose. The public is invited to attend and participate at both meeting times, with the Friday meeting tentatively scheduled in case a decision cannot be made Thursday evening.
