My Values & Priorities
Climate Change and the Environment
Climate change is upon us. It is imperative that our leaders understand the gravity of the situation.
I’m an environmentalist. My degree is in environmental policy with an emphasis in environmental economics, a combination that underscores my pragmatic approach to balancing competing needs between the economy, community and environment. And I have a track record in just that - bringing disparate interests, labor, environmentalists, and business, together.
For 20 plus years I’ve been working in executive roles at the intersection of land use, transportation, housing and environmental policy resulting in things like uniform green building standards and cleaner trails along our waterways.
When push comes to shove, nature always wins. Climate change will cause more extreme weather events where, for example, rainfall will happen in more compressed time periods, increasing the risk of flooding. Our water infrastructure and plans for the future, exemplified in projects like the Anderson Dam retrofit project and the Shoreline flood control work, must reflect this reality.
We need people who understand this in their bones, someone like me with a successful career in environmental policy. We need people at the District governance level who will continue to build on the Agency’s commitment to ensuring reliable, safe, clean water while we all navigate living on an increasingly stressed and changing planet.
Your Money
I come from a working-class upbringing in a single parent household and know the strain basic utilities can have on a household. I earned money all through high school babysitting, ironing clothes and working at a gas station and after saving enough money, put myself through college. At the age of 25, my mother and I scraped together enough money to buy a townhome in South San Jose.
I say this because I want to convey that I know what it is like to work hard for every dollar. This is part of why we as taxpayers become frustrated when we feel our money is not being spent well or that taxes and utility rates are not fair and equitable.
That is why we need people who have worked with public agencies and can set policy and direction so that taxpayer funds are spent well.
I’m also deeply passionate about pushing the District and state policy-makers to expand the ways in which rates, rebates, and programs can offset costs for lower income families while curbing water use by unnecessary and wasteful water users. During Covid, the Water District created WRAP, the Water Rate Assistance Program for low-income families and that program continues to today. This is a great program that should, through the District's budget, approved by the Board, continue to grow.
I want a seat at the table so that today’s decisions about how to provide safe, clean, and reliable drinking water meet our economy’s needs and keep rates affordable.
Agency Efficiency
With the Water District, as is the case with most government agencies, well-intended systems that safeguard the public’s interests can become barriers to efficiency. This is particularly disturbing when the effects of climate change are fast approaching. We must deliver projects more quickly and efficiently. There is no time to lose.
My entire career has been spent working with public agencies, Valley Transportation Authority, City of San Jose, County of Santa Clara, California Housing and Community Development, Santa Clara County, the Open Space Authority and many more. At the nonprofit I led, we were a contracting organization of Valley Water to implement water education programs. This gave me a front row seat to how the District operates and I can tell you from firsthand experience, the amount of time it took to sign relatively simple contracts was mindnumbing for me and my staff. Way too much time was spent on administrative details when we could have been out doing the work - creek cleanups.
There are understandable reasons for this. Rooted in a public accountability ethic, these well-intended rules and regulations lead to inefficient processes.
The Water District is packed to the gills with committed, smart people. It is also, like all organizations whether they be public, private or nonprofit, run by us human beings, subject to our foibles. Therefore, it is important for the Board to provide clear direction to staff, increase staff capacity to do good work, encourage a culture that welcomes reflection of systems, make sure those systems include timelines and accountability metrics, and as a result, build an even better, high-functioning agency.
If you’ve been paying attention to the Board you know there is an unhealthy amount of discord. It is embarrassing and is one of the reasons I’m running. As previously noted, I’ve spent my life working with public agencies. I’ve learned how to navigate their processes, operate in a union context, negotiate the dynamics between staff and board to change things like trails access policy on riparian corridors. I’ve watched as healthy, well-run agencies have succumbed to the politics of polarization at the board and governance level leading to low employee morale and high staff turnover. And, I’ve run my own organization and know what it takes to do so.
I care deeply about the work of the Water District and view my role as a boardmember as one that ensures good governance from the top by people who can work well together. That is what I am known for - as a bridge builder who can bring disparate interests together. That is why I have the support of just about everyone under the sun, people spanning business, labor, community and, the environment. Former Mayor Sam Liccardo supports me along with Assemblymember Evan Low, two people running against each other. Santa Clara Mayor Lisa Gillmor and Councilmember Suds Jain both support even though they are on different sides of the ledger. And former republican Dev Davis along with labor leader, Supervisor Cindy Chavez enthusiastically support me.
The District needs people who have experience governing, know how to work with their colleagues, and won’t be learning on the job. That is the deep experience I would bring to the District.