Meeting stipend could go from $225 to $236; district one board
candidates question need for an increase
Meeting stipend could go from $225 to $236; district one board candidates question need for an increase
n By Tony Burchyns
Staff Writer
Morgan Hill – Just like last year, directors of the Santa Clara Valley Water District are thinking about giving themselves a 5-percent pay raise.
But the two candidates competing for the water board of directors race in district one, which includes Morgan Hill and Gilroy, question the need for raising the meeting stipend from $225.13 to $236.39. The water district’s annual budget is $266 million.
“I don’t see any reason for raising the stipend,” said Ram Singh, a San Jose State water specialist running for the first time. “They should cut the budget … Water bills have doubled in the last eight years. It’s outrageous.”
Incumbent Rosemary Kamei, of Morgan Hill, said she would vote against the increase, just as she has done every year since she was first elected in 1993.
“I personally don’t do this for the money. I have a full-time job that pays the bills,” said Kamei, who is vice president of Planned Parenthood Mar Monte in Morgan Hill.
The board will make a decision Tuesday. State law governing water boards limits pay increases to 5 percent. Last year, the seven-member board voted 4-3 for an increase. Board members typically attend two regularly scheduled meetings per month, in addition to various committee meetings. They can receive compensation for up to 10 meetings in a single month.
Though Kamei and Singh agree directors should not get a raise, they differ on that limit of 10 meetings. Singh said he wants the number lowered to five, to cut back on what he sees as frivolous spending of tax dollars.
“The district is extravagant. They want to build an empire, build a Taj Mahal for their offices,” said Singh. “This attitude of increasing and increasing the manpower cost of the district has got to change.”
Former water board member Joe Pandit, who served three four-year terms during the 1980s and 1990s when he lived in Almaden, also wants the number lowered to five paid meetings per month. Pandit, who now lives in Saratoga and lost a bid in June for the district four director’s seat to Larry Wilson, said the number was once justified because directors had four or five regularly scheduled meetings every month as opposed to two.
“That’s why I suggest five might be an appropriate number rather than 10,” Pandit said, adding he remembers typically going to about six meetings per month.
Kamei, on the other hand, said she thinks the 10-meeting limit for compensation is fair. She said the number of meetings she attends varies from month-to-month, but sometimes she goes to as many as 15, knowing she won’t get paid for one third of them.
“I think that number is fine. The work that we do many times goes beyond the regularly scheduled meetings,” said Kamei, who sits on the Uvas Llagas Watershed Advisory Committee and the Environmental Advisory Committee, in addition to ad hoc committees.
