Channeling

At today’s Board Meeting, the Board adopted amendments to their policies relating to flood control to explicitly call for “the physical stability/dynamic equilibrium of streams,” “thriving populations of key species indicative of watershed health” and improved stormwater management. These were recommendations that the Environmental Advisory Committee had been working on for a long time, and it was great to see them passed. The Board stressed that stormwater management is something that the District can usually do little about, since cities are responsible for the development decisions that send runnoff into storm drains instead of spreading it out over ground where it can soak in. But natural flood protection is the best kind; we must manage our creeks in ways that work with natural processes instead of turning them into drainage ditches.

In my non-stop reading, I got to the most recent Grand Jury report on the District, from which I quote:

Voters fail to participate actively in SCVWD director elections. Many directors
run unopposed and many serve multiple consecutive terms. The elected
directors may not represent a broad cross-section of the population.
Independent voter advocacy organizations and news media should
encourage, educate, and energize the public about the importance of
participating in the electoral process. This may also provide a forum for
explaining and vetting SCVWD programs for a broader set of stakeholders.

The District’s response is that “the pattern of contested and uncontested elections is very similar when comparing the [Santa Clara County] Board of Supervisors to the District Board.” The important difference to me, though, is that the Board of Supervisors receives much more public scrutiny than does the District Board. Uncontested elections are sometimes a sign that the voters are happy with the job that an elected official is doing.

But not always. And the supervisors operate under term limits.