Six residents of South County submitted their qualifications and letters of interest to qualify for an appointment to an open seat on the Santa Clara Valley Water District’s board of directors.
The seat was left vacant by Don Gage, who served on the board for two years out of a four-year term following his election to the board in 2010. Gage resigned from the seat in Dec. 2012, after winning the Gilroy Mayoral election Nov. 6.
Dennis Kennedy, former mayor of Morgan Hill, and Ralph Santos, owner of El Camino Packing and longtime Gilroy farmer, are among those who formally applied for the seat, as they said they planned to at the end of last year.
Also applying for the seat are Nicholas Ajluni, an intern at South Bay Water Recycling and a Morgan Hill resident; Beth Wyman of Morgan Hill, a former member of the City Council and a historian; Patrick Waite, a retired financial executive from San Jose and current member of the monitoring committee for the district’s Clean, Safe Creeks and Natural Flood Protection Plan; and Tom Kruse, a Gilroy vintner and former Gilroy planning commissioner who ran for Santa Clara County Supervisor in 2010.
The six current board members are scheduled to interview the candidates Jan. 28 and, if necessary, Jan. 29, and then select a new director among the six by Feb. 5, according to a SCVWD staff report.
The new board member will serve “District 1” on the board, which includes all of South County plus areas east of San Jose.
Directors currently seated on the board are Barbara Keegan, Linda J. LeZotte, Nai Hsueh, Richard P. Santos, Tony Estremera and Brian A. Schmidt.
The SCVWD provides drinking and agricultural water, as well as flood protection for 1.8 million residents in Santa Clara County, and has a budget of about $285 million.
