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The mission of the Santa Clara Valley Water District should be a simple one: Provide a reliable water supply to about 2 million people at affordable prices through environmentally responsible sources.
Yet, the agency’s leaders have embarked on costly and foolish projects while the board has been plagued by members willing to deceive voters to hang on to their political power.
Thus, it’s a shame that this year, when there was an opportunity to bring a new generation of leaders to the seven-member board, no one stepped forward to challenge two long-term board members.
The only competitive race on the Nov. 5 ballot is for the seat of retiring board member Barbara Keegan, who had the integrity to step down after three terms as she had advocated all board members should. Keegan, who is younger than all but one of her fellow board members, turns 70 this month.
To replace her in District 2, which includes parts of San Jose and Santa Clara, voters should elect Shiloh Ballard, a non-profit executive with a long resume of public service and environmental advocacy.
The only contested race
The District 2 race provides an opportunity to discuss and debate some of the key issues confronting the district, including:
• A questionable plan to build a massive dam and reservoir near Pacheco Pass, east of Gilroy. The price tag has tripled since 2018 and the district “has been unable to find any other major Bay Area water agencies to share the costs.”
• The rebuilding of Anderson Dam, which holds back Santa Clara County’s largest reservoir, between San Jose and Morgan Hill, to bring it up to modern earthquake standards. The project, which tripled in cost in just two years to $2.3 billion, is scheduled for completion in 2032.
• The district’s financial participation in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s now-$20 billion Delta tunnel project, which wouldn’t add a drop to California’s water supply and has never penciled out.
In securing new water supplies and encouraging conservation, the district must be smart about the fiscal and environmental impacts.
Ballard is running against Bill Roth, a digital marketing consultant with a computer science background. Roth and Ballard both serve on the water district’s advisory Environmental and Water Resources Committee, so they both have familiarity with district policy issues.
But Ballard is clearly the superior choice, in part because she brings a stronger environmental perspective, which shows up in her tougher questioning of the merits of the Pacheco Dam project and her insistence that the district leverage its participation in the Delta tunnel project to ensure maximum ecological protections.
Moreover, Ballard brings a standout resume of community work, including six years on the San Jose Planning Commission, 22 years on the board of the Santa Clara County League of Conservation Voters, 13 years on the Association of Bay Area Government’s Regional Planning Committee, 14 years as senior vice president of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group and eight years as executive director of the Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition.
It helps explain why she has lined up endorsements from a broad group of South Bay leaders that bridges political divides. It’s that sort of coalition-building that could strengthen her political clout on the water board, which is in desperate need of new leaders.
Term limits deceit
We had hoped for more turnover on the board this year, but that was not to be. Blame the power of incumbency that discourages election challengers and a deceptive measure that a majority of board members placed on the June 2022 ballot.
Measure A was worded to suggest that it was reducing the number of four-year terms a member could serve when it was actually increasing the limit from three to four terms, or a total of 16 years on the board.
Worse, since board term limits were first instituted in 2010, service before then does not count toward the limit. As a result, Dick Santos, a backer of the extending term limits and first elected to the board in 2000 — 24 years ago! — was uncontested for his seventh term on the board. He will continue representing District 3, which includes Milpitas and parts of San Jose, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale.
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More surprising was the decision of Nai Hsueh to seek a fourth term after campaigning against increasing the three-term limit. First elected in 2012, Hsueh, like Keegan, opposed placing Measure A on the ballot. Hsueh even signed the ballot arguments against it, in which opponents lambasted the “power grab” by “politicians who have been in office too long (and) want extra terms for themselves,” and who are “deceiving the voters to get them.”
But, after voters passed Measure A, Hseuh this year was no longer concerned about politicians staying in office too long. She filed for a fourth term and drew no opposition. So, she will continue representing District 5, which includes Saratoga, Cupertino and Sunnyvale.
We’ve never been big fans of term limits. But we have no stomach for voter deception — and we’re disappointed by Hseuh’s self-serving hypocrisy, which leaves us with only one district election this year.
The choice for that seat is clear: Voters in District 2 should elect Ballard.