Candidates for the Lompico County Water District board of directors gathered for a forum Thursday, Oct. 7, at the Zayante Fire House. The following is a summary of their positions on challenges facing the district.
Rob Hansel
Incumbent Rob Hansel was elected to the board in 2006. During his time on the board, the district has gone through a management overhaul. In 2009, the board fired its district manager and has since taken control of its finances, bringing it back from near bankruptcy with the hiring of a part-time water consultant. Hansel was part of the process. He seeks re-election to help finish what he started.
He said he feels the Santa Cruz grand jury report painted an accurate picture of the districts’ struggles and agrees with its conclusion that the Lompico water board should merge with the larger San Lorenzo Valley Water District. He said SLV has more affordable rates, a higher standard of professionalism, a larger on-call staff, a working website and a well-functioning organizational structure. However, he said he will vote as his constituents prefer.
Hansel also supports a bond to pay for repairs to ailing tanks and water mains and does not want to raise water rates.
Sherwin Gott
Sherwin Gott is a construction manager who says the district’s leaky water tanks and water mains could be repaired for much less than an estimate from the SLV Water District suggests.
He researched the system himself, he said, and put together a comprehensive report detailing the costs of repairing the system based on estimates. His findings? The cost to repair the system would be about $1.1 million, rather than the $2.3 million estimated by SLVWD. His projections ask Lompico residents to pay for the repairs as part of their water bills until 2036, rather than taking on a bond with interest over the same period of time.
“I really feel we should pay exactly what it costs, no more, no less,” Gott said.
Gott does not support a merger with SLV Water and said the district does not need a full-time general manager. He proposes that the district send a monthly newsletter to constituents with the water bill to improve transparency. His top priority is to maintain financial stability and create a long-term plan for the district.
Shannar Abraham
Lompico board veteran Shannar Abraham hopes to win a seat on the board again, specifically to restore financial stability to the district and do long-term planning. He rests on his record. He was elected in 1979 and served as board president for three years, during which time the district built its water treatment facility. In 1985, the board was recalled over a septic problem, but he was re-elected in 1987 and again in 1991. At that point, the district had a capital improvement fund and owed no money for overtime or vacation.
Abraham, who is familiar with the long history between SLV and Lompico, said he is not totally against merging with SLV, but he would like to see a much better deal for Lompico, instead of having the residents pay more than $2 million for an interconnect and system repairs.
He said he favors hiring a district manager with a limited salary, not having the board run day-to-day operations. Abraham said all decisions should be made in public, not behind closed doors, and he plans to explain his actions to the public. To pay for operations and maintenance in the district, he said he would control costs while looking at water rates.
Sean Wharton
Sean Wharton is a one-time board member who has been part of the budget committee at the district. He acknowledges the problems the district has had with staff and its accounting practices and said he urged the district to turn its books over to the county auditor-controller, which it did. He wants to make the financial books available online for anyone to read.
Wharton said he thinks SLV Water does a good job, and he’d like to have an unofficial vote by every Lompico household to determine whether the districts should merge.
He said, for now, the district should continue working without a full-time general manager because of the cost-saving benefits.
Wharton said his priorities include fixing Lower Lake Boulevard by making it a loop system and putting dampers in the water tanks to prevent sloshing in the event of an earthquake. He also thinks the district should pass a bond to pay for maintenance, because, he said, the costs are too great to simply raise water rates.
