Candidate for
Director; El Toro Water District

• WATER SUPPLY RELIABILITY

• As an engineer and water planner, water supply reliability is one of my most important tasks and the most important service any district can offer to its customers. The last 75-year hydrology records for California indicate that there will be drought 3 out of 10 years. If the threat of earthquakes and major accidents in the imported water conveyance system is added, water supply reliability becomes the most important service El Toro Water District (District) needs to provide to its customers.

• The District buys its water from the Metropolitan Water District and depends on imported water. The District has storage capacity to provide some reliability and operation flexibility in El Toro Reservoir (About 720 acre-feet only). The surplus capacity is absolutely essential in any water system (the belt and suspenders theory) in Southern California.

• I would never jeopardize the reliability of the district and service to our customer by encouraging the sale of the District's "surplus" capacity in the El Toro Reservoir. Recently, El Toro Water District sold half of the El Toro Reservoir (R-6)capacity (360 acre-feet) to Santa Margarita Water District. Reducing in half the reserve available for Laguna Woods, Lake Forest and Mision Viejo in case of an emergency or major catastrophe. Later on, the District approved a joint project with Santa Margarita Water District to increase by about 40 acre-feet the capacity of the R-6 Reservoir. If we needed the capacity, why did they sell half of it? I am still looking for a logical answer to this question.

• DISTRICT'S REPRESENTATION

• I agree with the District's participation in forums that would ultimately provide some benefit to the customers. The General Manager would be the person representing the District in most instances. The board members would have a some participation in certain forums to address important issues related to the District. I do not believe in making a career of sitting in meetings without an agenda-item to be addressed or just to have a representation. The minutes of any meeting could be obtained easily. As a director, I will propose to re-evaluate the number of meetings attended by board members, the benefits of their participation, and stipends paid.

• BOARD MEETING HOURS

• Responding to request from several citizens, I will propose to change the schedule of the Board Meetings to better suit the availability of the citizens who work during the day, i.e., 7 PM. Input from the citizens will give the board a true sense of the service our community needs. Public hearings will be representative of the users' opinions. Citizens would have a better participation in the fate of the District.