Preliminary Report On Sonoma County Water Agency Legislation

By Thomas "Tom" Gangale

It recently came to the attention of the Issues and Legislation Committee that there is some interest among citizens and local state legislators regarding state legislation to change the membership of the governing board of the Sonoma County Water Agency (SCWA) from ex officio, (i.e., the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors) to an independent body elected directly by the people. The I&L Committee has undertaken a project to investigate the feasibility of such legislation.

State legislation established the SCWA in 1949, creating the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors as its ex officio governing board. It will require state legislation to convert the membership of the governing board to one that is elected. The central political issues are:

• The Board of Supervisors has favored development to the detriment of sound management of water as a finite resource. Advocates for an independently-elected board maintain that such a body would be more responsive to the people and less influenced by developers.

• Control of a public resource is a source of political power. The Board of Supervisors has refused to cede its power, lobbying successfully against a 2000-2001 state bill (AB 38, Strom-Martin, which was "gutted and amended," then passed as a law directing the Legislative Analyst to submit a study report), and rejecting the 2004 recommendation of the Sonoma County Grand Jury.

• Assemblyman Jared Huffman has expressed interest in carrying legislation, but he advises that to overcome the historical opposition, it should have the support of all state legislators representing Sonoma County.

• David Keller of Friends of the Eel River suggests that electing a majority on the Board of Supervisors that is favorable to converting the SCWA governing board to an elected body is a prerequisite. Absent this, the state legislature is unlikely to reverse its own legislation and to overturn a politically-supported majority of supervisors.

Sonoma County's water use has changed dramatically since 1949, evolving from a sparsely-populated rural area whose primary water needs were agricultural, to a region of increasing population density due to the influx of telecommunications and other technology companies, and through the accompanying process of suburbanization; thus, today, office and residential water needs compete with agriculture in an unsustainable race to the bottom of the aquifer. Ground water levels have dropped alarmingly in the past decade, causing some to question the wisdom of continuing to export water out of Sonoma County as a profit center while wells run dry and seawater intrudes inland to fill the void.

It is not just water use and population growth that make Sonoma County a far different place from what it was six decades ago. People are now better-educated than was the pastoral population of 1949, and in the Information Age that our county's Telecom Corridor helped to create, websites provide alternatives to newspapers, and email has replaced the mimeograph. Information networks are forcing human organizations to evolve in their structure; hierarchies are flattening in favor of distributed decision-making involving broad consensus.

When the state legislature created the Sonoma County Water Agency a lifetime ago, it was an arguable proposition that the Board of Supervisors was better equipped than the people to struggle with the complex issues of water management. That is a very difficult case to sustain in the 21st century, and it is a particularly difficult position to sustain as the unsustainability of the Board of Supervisors' water management policies becomes more manifest. The people are ready to assume a more direct role in managing this precious resource by electing the governing board of the SCWA by direct popular vote.

PRELIMINARY ACTION PLAN

The fact that the issue of the SCWA governing board membership sits at the confluence of county governance and state legislation suggests a two-pronged approach to effecting change:

• Influencing incumbent members of the Board of Supervisors, or electing new members, to reduce or neutralize opposition to an independently-elected SCWA governing board.

• Promoting a favorable political climate among local state legislators for legislation to convert the SCWA governing board to an independently-elected body.

Phase 1: Citizens' Organizations

1. The I&L Committee will collect information regarding support among citizens' groups for the direct election of an independent water board.

2. If popular support warrants, the I&L Committee will draft a resolution, coordinating with citizens' groups.

3. Once the Central Committee adopts the resolution, the I&L Committee will compile a report to present to our local state legislators and to the Board of Supervisors.

Phase 2: County and State Government

4a. (County) Members of the Central Committee will present the report to the Board of Supervisors.

4b. (State) Members of the Central Committee will present the report to our local state legislators.

5a. (County) The I&L Committee will coordinate with the Candidate Search and Development Committee regarding the feasibility of obtaining supervisorial candidates' position statements supporting an elected water board.

5b. (State) If a strong majority of the local state legislators express support, the I&L Committee will assist as needed in drafting legislation, coordinating with citizens' groups and legislative staff.