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It’s a crucial time on the Contra Costa Water District.
The company, which offers water for about 500,000 clients in Central and East County, is planning for the enlargement of Los Vaqueros Reservoir, which might serve water districts all through the Bay Space. And it’s getting ready to switch its growing old 22-mile fundamental canal with a piped system.
It’s all sophisticated by the challenges of the statewide drought, growing old infrastructure and water remedy prices tied to rising costs for vitality and chemical substances. In the meantime, clients have confronted water charge will increase of 57% over the previous decade.
The district wants elected administrators keenly targeted on the duties at hand with the technical and monetary acumen to assist lead via difficult occasions. Sadly, neither of the 2 candidates operating within the Nov. 8 election for the one contested seat on the five-member board meets these standards.
We reluctantly advocate Patt Younger for the Division 1 seat representing a lot of Harmony, Bay Level and Pittsburg. Simply appointed a couple of months in the past to fill a emptiness on the board, Younger is now operating for a full time period.
A group well being educator by occupation, Younger needs to make sure that underserved and marginalized group members perceive the companies the district offers. It’s an necessary and laudable aim.
Sadly, as a member of the Los Medanos Group Well being Care District board in Pittsburg, Younger participated within the expensive, misguided and finally unsuccessful battle for the preservation of that district. With out a hospital to function, the district was spending extra on administration than on the health-related grants and packages that had been the one profit it offered the group.
Nonetheless, Younger brings extra dedication and keenness to her water board marketing campaign than her opponent, Mariah Lauritzen, who's operating after serving simply half of her first four-year time period on the Central Contra Costa Sanitary District board.
Lauritzen, a chemical engineer, appeared ill-prepared when she ran for her present publish in 2020. And she or he appears ill-prepared now. She says, if elected, she would push for extra use of recycled water — an necessary aim.
However, she mentioned, the principle motive she needs to leap elected positions is as a result of the water district board assembly occasions within the night higher match her work schedule than the twice-monthly sanitary board conferences that usually begin at 2:30 p.m.
To be clear, with out Lauritzen within the race, there would have been no contested water board election, and the district might have saved someplace between $100,000 and $215,000 in estimated election prices. That’s some huge cash to accommodate Lauritzen’s work schedule, particularly when she knew the sanitary board’s assembly occasions when she ran in 2020.
Lauritzen ought to end the job she requested voters to offer her two years in the past. And she or he ought to higher research the ethics of the job. Lauritzen offered us a resume that lists the overall supervisor of the sanitary district, an individual she’s elected to assist oversee, as a reference.
It’s unlucky that Division 1 voters don’t have higher choices. However, between the 2 folks operating, Younger is the less-weak candidate.