Leadership and financial oversight failures plague SLV Water District
Our San Lorenzo Valley Water District faces shortfalls of leadership and financial oversight, and it is the customers who end up on the losing end.
Earlier this year at rate hearings among customer challenges, even district employees stood up to testify the proposed increase was unnecessarily too high. Of the four board members who voted for it anyway, two resigned and moved away within months, leaving it to the rest of us to pay these higher bills.
The interim district manager is not delivering to expectations of professional conduct, and now key senior employees are again testifying at public meetings that under his management the district is wasting money, refusing to follow their recommendations for efficiency and savings.
There is a lack of transparency to the board and public on major costs and plans, and a surplus of disrespect for people and policies. A new board member refused to serve his committee appointment; public insults and F-bombs hurled from the interim manager have become commonplace. Some employees have left, the remaining predict others will follow.
Former board members and fellow critics infer in articles and on social media that we customers are the enemy, or are like ignorant children, yet it is our board that blindly rubber stamps bad management decisions.
I believe it is a mirror held, and their own reflection they criticize. Our SLV customer community deserves better than this broken political machine, and I think it starts at the top, with non-renewal of this contract, and a new district manager.
Debra Loewen
Lompico Canyon
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